Sharing a wall with Chinatown Printing, The Green Bone threw a grand opening last Saturday, debuting its hemp doggie treats and recycled-wood doggie daycare digs in the East Downtown Art Deco building shown here. Located at 2104 Leeland St. near the corner of St. Emanuel, the shop also has a lounge for masters with wireless Internet and an espresso bar. It’s not up and pouring yet, but a store employee tells Swamplot that it’ll sell homemade snacks meant to be eaten by either species.
Chef David Grossman is closing Branch Water Tavern and selling the menu and recipes to Bistro des Amis owner Matt Brice, who says he will open The Federal Grill in the Magnolia Grove spot shown above at 510 South Shepherd Dr. sometime this spring. Grossman opened Branch Water Tavern here 3 years ago behind that wood-and-rusted-steel facade in the building that used to house Cue & Cushion. Grossman tells Eater Houston that he is taking the Branch Water name with him — maybe somewhere outside the Loop, where he will plan a less expensive menu; Grossman means as well to help his fiancee Julia Sharaby get her Fusion Taco truck into a freestanding spot and off the streets.
Four, apparently: That’s how many construction workers it takes to hang the new Torchy’s Tacos sign out front of the former Gugliani’s Italian Grill building in Rice Village. A Swamplot reader reports that the suite at 2400 Times Blvd. has been getting a gutting since Tuesday; much of it has been junked in the Dumpster pictured above. The Austin chain has two other locations inside the Loop — one on South Shepherd Dr. near Fairview and one under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights store at the corner of Ashland and 19th St. There has been no announcement yet when the Rice Village location will open.
Photo: Allyn West
RIVER OAKS DISTRICT TO SEE ACTION, ADVENTURE 
The last we heard the River Oaks District was providing “move out concierges” to help Westcreek Apartment residents get off the property west of Highland Village where the upscale mixed-use cluster is going; now it appears that something’s moving in, the Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports: Florida-based iPic has signed a lease to build a 560-seat octoplex. It might not end up looking like the rendering shown here, but it will be called “Escape,” reports Sarnoff, and it will allow moviegoers to pick — get it? — among escalators, self-serve ticket kiosks, beers on tap, recliners, and pillows and blankets. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Oliver McMillan
More room for groceries? The building immediately north of the Studemont Kroger that used to house HVAC company Johnson Supply is being torn down. The top photo shows the building from Studemont; the bottom photo shows the progress — or regress? — of the demo as of noon today.
Facing Kelvin St., this franchise of Alabama-based Zoës Kitchen is shaping up to open soon in Hanover at Rice Village, the mixed-use apartments bound by Kelvin, Dunstan, and Morningside (shown at left). The fast-casual restaurant is now hiring, says the vinyl sign hanging from the street-level patio railing. Besides this one at 5215 Kelvin, Zoës Kitchen has 7 other locations in Houston. (Swamplot reported in January that Chris Leung’s dessert shop, Cloud 10, is expected to go in on Kelvin St. as well sometime this spring.)
Photos: Allyn West;Â Chris Litherland (Hanover)
Sharing Benignus Plaza with Jason’s Deli, Texas State Optical, and a salon, this 2,500-sq.-ft. suite at 10321 Katy Freeway will be the first Club Champion store in Texas. The Chicago-based company sells custom golf clubs built to fit, and it provides a demo space for practice. Sitting just east of Town & Country Village, the Benignus Plaza store will be almost directly across I-10 from Hicks Ventures’ proposed Block 10 West Office Park.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
WHERE WILL THE RAMEN BE? 
You can order ramen at dozens of places in Houston, but The Modular food truck’s Joshua Martinez’s Goro & Gun, declares Houston Press‘s Katharine Shilcutt, is going to be the first dedicated to the squiggly noodle: Doubling as a bar, Goro & Gun is set to open in about a month somewhere Downtown; CultureMap’s Tyler Rudick hazards a guess that 306 Main St. will be the new spot, but Martinez calls that story’s reporting “very inaccurate.” So where, then? Martinez and his fellow gaijin Brad Moore and Ryan Rouse aren’t ready to say, but Shilcutt does slip in a few clues: “The downtown restaurant which will house Goro & Gun hasn’t been home to anything successful in years. Its last resident was a sandwich shop, which closed almost as quickly as it opened.” And it’ll be in a “shotgun-style space.” [CultureMap; Eating Our Words] Photo: First We Feast
The headquarters of Houston natives and siblings Scott and Nicole Vogel’s Houstonia magazine will be here, the new monthly glossy tweets, at this repainted Victorian at 477 Heights Blvd. The 4,200-sq.-ft. house was purchased in October, city records show. Unveiled earlier this week, Houstonia is expected to debut this March; the masthead will include writers like Robb Walsh and inveterate streetwalker John Nova Lomax, formerly of the Houston Press.
Photo: Houstonia
No more le breakfast, no more le lunch: Catching workers moving equipment out of Le Peep in Shepherd Plaza, a Swamplot reader sends in this photo. That’s a U-HAUL — er, le trailer — backed up to the doors. “Closed without notice!” cries le tipster. “I asked a worker and he said this location is closed for good.” Le Peep has 6 other restaurants in Houston.
Photo: loves swamplot
COUNTING DOWN TO 11:11 
Chef Kevin Bryant is renovating the former Bibas Diner at 607 West Gray for a new “casual fine dining restaurant” called 11:11 that’s expected to open in March; Greg Morago reports that the building (shown at left) is being updated to include a 100-seat patio and an 80-90 seat private dining section upstairs with a private terrace. The former Capitol at St. Germain and L’Olivier chef, reports Morago, is devising a menu “he describes as ‘Southern coastal.’ There will be an oyster bar, a raw bar program (sourcing East Coast bivalves), sashimi, lobsters, and a ceviche of the day. The restaurant will use Gulf seafood where appropriate, but source from all over.” [29-95] Photo: Allyn West
This is how Maggie Rita’s co-owner Santiago Moreno explains his Modern Mex entrepreneurial approach to Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler: “We’ve found out consumer decisions are made by women. When we track what makes a woman decide where to eat Mexican food, it has to do with margaritas. It has nothing to do with food.â€Â Earlier this week, Houston Business Journal reports, Moreno and co-owner stand-up comedian Carlos Mencia shut down their Shepherd restaurant (shown above), the last of 3 Houston-area Maggie Rita’s, following the closings near the end of 2012 of their Kirby and Post Oak locations.
There’s another Maggie Rita’s in Houston, though you’ll have to go underground to get there: Tony Shannard, who’s ponied up the dough to use the brand name, runs his in the tunnel below Chase Tower at 600 Travis. He tells Houston Business Journal he plans to open another location soon.
Photos: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
The general landscaping public hasn’t been able to shop at San Jacinto Stone since January 19, when the 68-year-old Heights rockyard began the process of closing for good. (Contractors, at least, have until the end of February.) Back in August, San Jacinto Stone agreed to sell its 8 acres on Yale to a retail developer; yesterday, the deal was closed by Ponderosa Land Development, who says it has plans to build a shopping center on the property just south of I-10 and just north of the Washington Heights Walmart.
Photo:Â Swamplot inbox
Whoever owns this warehouse in the East End — he wants to remain anonymous — has donated it for the time being to Historic Houston to house its collection of materials rescued from historic Houston buildings before demolitions turned everything into splinters and twisted metal.
The warehouse is located between Eastwood and Milby at 4300 Harrisburg, right next to the monolithic Maximus Coffee Group plant. This Sunday the mural-covered doors will be rolled up for a few hours while the nonprofit rolls out an inventory including windows, light fixtures, flooring, and siding. Founder and executive director Lynn Edmundson tells Swamplot that the group has been looking for a permanent home since early December; it had leased a warehouse and yard at 1307 W. Clay until closing in June 2011.
Photo: Historic Houston
A few doors down from Wabash Antiques & Feed Store and El Tiempo Cantina on Washington Ave., this building at 111 T.C. Jester had been home for many years to Fisk, one of the largest electrical contractors in the U.S. But a Swamplot reader has noticed that the building seems to be vacated. Fisk, acquired in 2011 by California-based general contractor Tutor Perini, wouldn’t tell Swamplot when or why or where it moved, though its website indicates that headquarters have been relocated out near Beltway 8 at 10855 Westview.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
