Openings and Closings

Demolitions
05/23/13 3:00pm

Rice Village Hungry’s To Replace Rice Village Hungry’s

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New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Rice Village, Shopping Centers
10 Comments

What’s this sandbox right beside the Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro in Rice Village going to be? A Hungry’s. An employee at the not-that-old one next door at 2356 Rice Blvd. says it will be demolished and turned into a parking lot for what a rendering on a sign at this construction site shows is a 2-story new one.

Hungry’s, you’ll remember, is owned by an entity controlled by Fred Sharifi, who earlier this year purchased and now appears to have plans to redevelop the Gramercy Place Apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. — just a few miles away on the east side of Montrose Blvd. — into townhomes.

A rendering of the new Hungry’s wasn’t made immediately available; what follows after the jump is a photo of what’s on that sign at the construction site:

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Montrose
05/23/13 10:15am

Moules-Frites to Macaroni in Montrose

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
14 Comments

The next tenant in the former Jeannine’s Bistro space will be Jus’ Mac, the restaurant announced on its Facebook page last week. It would appear that this new location will be open by July. Jeannine’s closed here at 106 Westheimer just west of Midtown at the beginning of May. Jus’ Mac has other locations on Yale St. in the Heights and at First Colony Mall in Sugar Land — and a comment posted beneath the original Facebook announcement indicates that a 4th Jus’ Mac is in the works: “We have inside track,” it says, “on a location in heart of memorial.”

Photo of Jeannine’s: Allyn West

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Openings and Closings
05/22/13 3:30pm

A Downer for Taco Milagro in Upper Kirby

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Quicklink, Restaurants, Upper Kirby
18 Comments

A DOWNER FOR TACO MILAGRO IN UPPER KIRBY A post on the Taco Milagro Facebook suggests that the restaurant will be leaving the corner of Westheimer and Kirby Dr. where it’s been — almost miraculously, you could say — since 1998. Culturemap, pinning the relocation on rising rents there across from West Ave, reports that the restaurant group Schiller Del Grande that owns Taco Milagro (and Cafe Express, The Grove, and a few others) is looking for a new place for it “somewhere a bit further out.” Attempts to contact Schiller Del Grande for more details haven’t been returned. [Facebook; Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

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Openings and Closings
05/17/13 11:00am

Richmond Ruth’s Chris Moving to Westheimer Bank Building

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Restaurants, Uptown
3 Comments

So the days are numbered for Ruth’s Chris on Richmond — that much is obvious. And a reader sends us this photo showing the steakhouse’s next location, in that Uptown pad site where Prosperity Bank used to be at 5433 Westheimer. (And you can see the aloft Hotel in the background.) A rep from Ruth’s Chris says it should be open by July. And marketing materials from building owner AmREIT seem to position the steakhouse as an anchor for a redevelopment project on this triangular slice of property bound by Westheimer, W. Alabama, and Yorktown: A flyer on the company’s website mentions “a renovated office building” that doesn’t seem to have had a named tenant since Prosperity moved out and took its logo away almost 3 years ago. There’s also a second, 3,000-sq.-ft. retail space that AmREIT’s advertising as available on that building’s first floor. Attempts to contact AmREIT for details about the project haven’t been returned.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

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Demolitions
05/15/13 10:00am

Houston Club Tunnel Tenants Making Their Escape

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Downtown, Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail
3 Comments

HOUSTON CLUB TUNNEL TENANTS MAKING THEIR ESCAPE The last 2 restaurants in the tunnels underneath the 18-story former Houston Club Building on Rusk St. are preparing to get up and out of there, reports Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff: The below-ground Skyline Deli and KoKoro Sushi will have sold their last lunches by the end of May, in advance of what a rep from new building owner Skanska says will be “selective interior demolition and abatement.” And that demolition is about to become much less selective, adds Sarnoff, since Skanska says it’s designing an office tower for this Downtown lot bound by Rusk, Capitol, Travis, and Milam. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Silberman Properties

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Commercial Real Estate
05/13/13 2:00pm

Yes, the Voss Rd. Randall’s Is Closing

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Memorial, Openings and Closings, Shopping Centers
28 Comments

Update, 3:30 p.m.: Randall’s president Paul McTavish confirms that this store will be closing. No date was mentioned.

A few readers are reporting that they’ve heard from Randall’s employees here that the store near San Felipe and Voss will shut its doors by the end of the month. One reader even has a date: May 23. County records show that the 56,511-sq.-ft. building sits on 157,149 sq. ft. of pricey Memorial property across Voss from the new Trader Joe’s — the parking lot of which appeared a bit less barren than the Randall’s lot in this photo taken this morning. Attempts to contact Safeway haven’t been returned.

Photo: Allyn West

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Houston Heights
05/08/13 3:15pm

The New Old Heights Ice House

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Openings and Closings, Renovations
6 Comments

A new version of the D&T Drive Inn opened up late last week, Eater Houston reports. Tucked away in Brooke Smith between bungalows brandishing Houston Texans paraphernalia at 1307 Enid St. just south of W. Cavalcade, the long-time ice house was spruced up and expanded by Down House owner Chris Cusack. Though this photo makes parking appear — well, tight, even if that Dumpster’s eventually moved, a map on D&T’s website shows that there will be a lot available along W. Cavalcade between Enid and Cordell.

Photo: Allyn West

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Barker Cypress
05/08/13 1:05pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Houston’s Shrinking Blast! Zone

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Comments, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: HOUSTON’S SHRINKING BLAST! ZONE “I have had enough with Blast! Things went downhill fast at the Memorial City location with the ownership change. No soap in the showers, dirty sauna and steam rooms, weight equipment not being properly maintained, etc., etc. I said I would maintain my membership due to its location. Then in February 2013, Blast announces that the Memorial City location would be closing in a few weeks. I was VERY UPSET! I received a letter in the mail stating that my membership would be transferred to the Sharpstown location. That gym is out of the way for me so I started working out at the Barker Cypress location. On Monday, May 6 I go to work out and the landlord has locked Blast! out of the building due to non-payment of rent! Blast! closed the Galleria, Sugar Land, and Memorial City locations, and it seems as if the Barker Cypress location is shut down indefinitely. It’s time to find another gym!” [Floyd Worsley, Sr., commenting on Blast Begins Total Houston Takeover of Bally Total Fitness] Note: The Memorial City location of Blast! Fitness has closed, but the Barker Cypress location at 17750 Katy Fwy. is still open.

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Apartments
05/07/13 12:05pm

Liberty Kitchen To Open on San Felipe

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Briar Hollow, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
8 Comments

Looks like there’s a replacement for the former Vida Sexy Tex-Mex: A reader sends in this photo showing the new vinyl sign from Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette at 4224 San Felipe St. That’s the St. Regis Hotel in the background — and a photo taken here a few months from now might also show in the background that 317-unit apartment complex and parking garage that Mill Creek Residential is building nearby on E. Briar Hollow Ln., where another Swamplot reader heard that the restaurant would be located. A Facebook post in late April from Liberty Kitchen says it hopes to open in “early [s]ummer.”

Photo: Lisa Garvin via Swamplot inbox

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Apartments
05/06/13 2:30pm

Westheimer Rd. Cafe Adobe Closing on Mother’s Day

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Upper Kirby
9 Comments

WESTHEIMER RD. CAFE ADOBE CLOSING ON MOTHER’S DAY At the palm-obscured corner of South Shepherd Dr. and Westheimer since 1981, Cafe Adobe announced that it will be closing this Mother’s Day, May 12, reports the Houston Business Journal. The property at 2111 Westheimer Rd. was purchased last year by Hines, which has said it plans to tear down the restaurant to build a 215-unit apartment complex. An up-to-date rendering of the complex-to-be hasn’t been made available. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

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Montrose
05/02/13 11:25am

Updated: Jeannine’s Closing Is Only, Umm, Permanent, Says Jeannine’s

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
13 Comments

UPDATED: JEANNINE’S CLOSING IS ONLY, UMM, PERMANENT, SAYS JEANNINE’S Why has the Belgium-by-way-of-Montrose Jeannine’s Bistro stopped serving those moules-frites? Culturemap, it appears, has been following the Westheimer Rd. restaurant’s self-demotion on Facebook: “Earlier posts,” reports Whitney Radley, giving a breathless blow-by-blow, “indicate gradually waning hours — the restaurant temporarily dropped lunch service on April 10 — and chronic staffing issues — it issued a call for ‘good waiters and kitchen helpers’ several days after — before warning . . . that the bistro’s kitchen would temporarily close altogether to ‘make some decisions.'” Update, 12:50 p.m.: Another Facebook post from Jeannine’s says that the restaurant has decided to close for good. [Culturemap] Photo: Allyn West

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Openings and Closings
04/25/13 2:30pm

Now Open: Torchy’s in Rice Village

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Renovations, Restaurants, Rice Village, Shopping Centers
23 Comments

As of late last week, Torchy’s Tacos is open, having built out and taken up this corner suite formerly occupied by Gugliani’s at 2400 Times Blvd. in Rice Village. This is the Austin chain’s 3rd location inside the Loop: There’s one on South Shepherd Dr. half a block from the Arby’s that’s becoming a Dunkin’ Donuts and another under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights building at the corner of Ashland and 19th St.

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Montrose
04/24/13 11:10am

Adios, Bocados

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Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants
4 Comments

ADIOS, BOCADOS Culturemap’s reporting that Bocados on West Alabama is closing after a party on Cinco de Mayo. Bocados owners and friends from their days at across-the-street University of St. Thomas Terry Flores and Lily Hernandez tell Culturemap that though they’ll be leaving the restaurant at 1312 West Alabama where they’ve been for 15 years, they’re considering buying a Heights property where they might bring Bocados back. Moreover, reports Whitney Radley, the pair says they plan to open this summer “in a yet-undisclosed location” downtown a restaurant they’re calling The Red Ox Grill. And what’s up next for the Bocados building? Radley writes that it’ll be The Brick and Spoon, a restaurant coming to Montrose by way of Lafayette, Louisiana, on June 1. [Culturemap] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

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Houston Heights
04/16/13 10:00am

The Rerugglefication of 11th St. Cafe

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants
21 Comments

THE RERUGGLEFICATION OF 11TH ST. CAFE “[A]ll that was left at one point,” writes The Heights Life blogger Viula of the 11th St. Cafe, was “basically 3 brick walls.” She popped in to preview this most recent rugglefication of the twice-ruggled restaurant in advance of its April 25 reopening. Chief Ruggle Federico Marques tells Viula that the city thought the old Heights building at 11th and Studewood ought to be torn down. But a Ruggle, it seems, is made of sterner stuff: “When a lot of other companies would have cut their losses and walked away,” writes Viula, “[Ruggles Green] seized the opportunity. . . . Even the floor/foundation had to come out due to years of neglect and spotty patch work by previous owners. They salvaged the front and side walls and everything else is new.” [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life

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Openings and Closings
04/15/13 11:00am

Third Ward’s Ryan Middle School To Become Medicine Magnet

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Quicklink, Schools, Third Ward
2 Comments

THIRD WARD’S RYAN MIDDLE SCHOOL TO BECOME MEDICINE MAGNET HISD voted on Thursday night to reopen the closing Ryan Middle School next year as a magnet for students interested in the medical field. Though community protests have tried to move HISD to keep the Third Ward school open, a vote a month ago decided that the 263 Ryan students — the fewest at any HISD middle school, reports the Houston Chronicle’s Ericka Mellon — would be consolidated at Cullen Middle School, about 4 miles away on Scott St. The 1926 Elgin St. building that was the original Yates Colored High School, reports abc13, will be reopened as the Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan to “allow more students to compete for admission into the highly selective DeBakey High School for the Health Professions.” Also approved in Thursday’s vote is a second magnet, the Energy Institute High School, though HISD has not yet chosen where that will be. [Houston Chronicle; abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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