The plastic hasn’t even been peeled away from the awning, but Blacksmith is open as of yesterday morning. Headed up by Greenway Coffee & Tea’s David Buehrer, the coffee shop is operating out of the popular leather bar Mary’s old building at 1022 Westheimer. A block west of Montrose Blvd., Blacksmith is Lower Westheimer’s second coffee shop to open in the last few months — Southside Espresso went in next to Uchi at the end of October.
A fire to one of the pits at Central Texas Style has forced the Pearland barbecue joint to shut down — but only for a few days. The older of their two pits, reports the Houston Chronicle, got a little carried away late Tuesday night, though Pearland Fire Marshal’s spokesperson Sparkle Anderson says the damage appears to be minimal. Since the fire, updates to Central Texas Style’s Facebook page suggest they hope to be back up and smoking at 4110 W. Broadway by Thursday or Friday.
Photos: Central Texas Style BBQ (storefront); Facebook (fire)
A FAKE STREET FOR REAL ESTATE SHOPPERS IN SPRING 
Opening in February, reports CultureMap, is a 10,000-sq.-ft. real estate “park” where a dozen lavishly turned-out showcase homes, ranging in styles from “The Midtown” to “The Calais” to “The Ashby Manor,” are presented for your perusal on a private cul-de-sac near I-45. Think of the immersive, don’t-mind-if-I-do shopping at IKEA blown up to the scale of Disney World — except at MainStreet America there will be fireworks and Christmases and tailgating parties and almost everything will be for sale: “Do you like the paint color, the metallic faux technique on the ceiling or the graphic wallpaper accent in the bedroom? The details are available and so are the prices. In fact, you can make the purchase on site. If that couch, occasional table or rug is what you are looking for, swap that credit card and have them delivered. Floral arrangements? Yes, those are for sale as well. Mirrors? Check. Artwork? In stock. Window treatments? You bet.” Admission for adults is only $10; children aged 5-17 can get in for half that. [CultureMap] Photo: MainStreet America
A NEW MOON TOWER PHASE 
It just takes awhile to remake a potty-mouthed wild-game hot-dog shack, but East Downtown’s Moon Tower Inn has finally reopened after 15 months — with some historical upgrades to the decor at 3004 Canal: “The new tap wall, kitchen and brewhouse are made from shipping containers and reclaimed building materials. For example, [Co-owner Brandon] Young says that the metal siding used to be a barn on the Stephen F Austin University campus, and there are wooden planks from a Louisiana slaves’ quarters.” [Eater Houston] Photo: Marty E.
A January newsletter from The Southampton Civic Club informs members that Hanover, building the mixed-use midrise pictured above, has purchased additional property on Morningside in Rice Village “just north” of the current construction site. The newsletter states that Hanover is planning to begin Phase II: a 12-story, 200-unit residential building with no retail. The newsletter’s language suggests that the property is bound by Morningside, Tangley, Dunstan, and Kelvin; that’s where the Village Commons, the Tangley Building, the Village Apartments, and Garden Gate are — at least for now.
Did you know Macy’s had a store Downtown? Well, not for much longer. Macy’s announced this morning that its 1110 Main St. location will be shuttered this spring. Clearance sales will start January 7 and continue for up to 11 weeks. The store debuted in 1947 as the Foley’s flagship (at right) in a 791,000-sq.-ft. Kenneth Franzheim building. The company will close 5 Macy’s and one Bloomingdale’s in other cities as well.
Photos: jaraylee182004 (Macy’s), Jim Parsons (Foley’s)
Christmas Eve was the last day of business for Houston’s only Books-A-Million location, in the Houston Pavilions sorta-mall. Workers at the 1201 Main St. store are now packing the bookstore’s remaining inventory onto pallets (at left), which will be shipped off to the national chain’s warehouses or other locations. (That means there’ll be no goodbye sale.) Books-A-Million had threatened to leave the space back in January of 2011; a quickly arranged sweetened rent deal from its landlord allowed it to stay. But that agreement has now expired, and Pavilions has new owners: A group headlined by former LA Lakers point guard Magic Johnson bought the 3-block complex — out of bankruptcy — this past August.
Photos: Downtown Houston Management District (store); Swamplot inbox (pallets)
Former Houston Rocket Hakeem Olajuwon quietly opened the doors this past week of a brand-new flagship store for his new clothing line, DR34M. It’s conveniently located just off NASA Pkwy., inside a mansion built during the Depression by a Texas oilman — used later for more than 20 years by NASA for its Lunar and Planetary Institute.
The 17,000-sq.-ft. Italianate mansion by the Clear Lake shore was completed in 1930 by Houston city hall architect Joseph Finger for Jim West, whose family sold it to Humble Oil when he died in 1941. Since then, it has been owned by the Pappas restaurant family and Rice University. And in 1969, during the Apollo missions, the nearby Johnson Space Center moved its moon unit here; it stayed until 1991.
Olajuwon, who has made a lot of investments in Houston-area real estate since his 2002 retirement from the NBA, bought the West Mansion in 2006. He had plans to subdivide the sprawling 41-acre estate to sell off to developers, according to news reports. Later reports indicated the mansion would be razed, or that a retirement village would be built around it. But since early this year, workers have been making extensive renovations to the building, inside and out:
A sudsy education center for the “beer curious,” Premium Draught tore the butcher paper from its windows and started pouring this week at 733 Studewood, the former Kaboom Books spot. The store shares a Heights strip center with the high-usage Antidote — and also shares the intersection of Studewood and East 7th 1/2 8th with the recently opened Sonoma Wine Bar. Premium Draught owner Johnny Orr realized he might have to rethink his plans to build the usual sit-and-stay-awhile bar. “After taking a look at the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood,” he tells Swamplot, “we opted to pursue this beer for carry-out business model instead. Parking in this town and in the immediate neighborhood around the store is minimal. As the White Oak corridor continues to develop we wanted to try and avoid the type of mess that has occurred on Washington. . . . The Heights did not need late night bar traffic clogging the streets.”
Photo: Allyn West
WHY THE AISLES WERE EMPTY AT RICE EPICUREAN 
Would warehouse facilities have worked as well? Katherine Shilcutt explains: “A long-running joke with many Houstonians is that no one quite knew how Rice Epicurean Markets stayed in business. . . . While all kinds of wild rumors flew about how Rice Epicurean stores stayed open despite a lack of traffic, the truth is that most of its customers — which tend to be both older and wealthier — opted for grocery delivery service at home. And while this sustained Rice Epicurean for many years, it appears that this model wasn’t quite enough to keep its stores in business.” The chain’s lone surviving store, at 2020 Fountain View between San Felipe and Inwood, will continue home deliveries. [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Rice Epicurean, 3745 Westheimer at Weslayan: Wikimedia Commons
Rice Epicurean Markets is finally giving up on 4 of its 5 remaining locations, the company announced today. The lone holdout is the company’s store on Fountain View at Inwood, which will remain open for the foreseeable future. Its Holcombe, Weslayan, Tanglewood, and Memorial locations will be leased to The Fresh Market, a chain based in North Carolina.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AUDIO VIDEO PLUS CAROL “I’ve had a membership there for almost 30 years. As some have mentioned, many products of the obscure variety have NEVER come out on DVD, and may not for a while for legal reasons. These fine folks never got rid of ANYTHING!! They carry more foreign language and silent movies than most places (when places like this existed everywhere) carry titles. Another blow to the artsy side of Houston, is losing this Mecca for Movies. My last purchase there was a Carol Burnett barbie doll, dressed like her role in “Went With the Wind.†I got it for mom for Christmas.” [Rich, commenting on Audio Video Plus on Waugh is Clearing It Out]
LITTLE HOUSE OF COFFEE AND DRINKS OPENS BEHIND UCHI 
Friday was a grand grand opening day in the Inner Loop. The big bear-hug welcomes may have been for the long-awaited Washington Heights Walmart and the Studemont Kroger — but also making its debut on that day was tiny Southside Espresso, the little up-Grant-St.-behind-Uchi coffee place Fusion Beans proprietor Sean Marshall has been working on since signing a lease for the 714-sq.-ft. space labeled 904-C Westheimer 15 months ago. The tiny coffee house will be open until midnight every night — in part to flex its newly acquired beer-and-wine license. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: David Buehrer
A steady stream of movie-minded customers — many bearing their lengthy wish lists of titles to snag — hit today’s preview of Audio Video Plus’s closeout sale. And learned that storefront operations at the shop at 1225 Waugh will be pretty much ceasing. But not entirely: Sales will continue from the location via the internet and randomly occurring open house days TBD, a store manager declared on Friday. Meanwhile, the rarely full parking lot is getting a bit more of a workout, as are the film collectors racing through the still-stocked aisles and vying for remaining packaged and rental copies of the “Movies and More” touted on a banner above the entry. The preview continues 11 to 7 Saturday.
Photos: CALwords
STUDEMONT KROGER MATCHES WALMART’S OPENING DATE 
October 26th is gonna be a busy day for the once-industrial zone south of I-10 just west of Downtown. Sure, it’s Halloween candy-hoarding time. And you’ll have 2 large new venues for it. It’ll be opening day not only for the Walmart SuperCenter at 111 Yale St., but for the new 79,000-sq.-ft. Kroger less than a mile away at 1440 Studemont. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of Kroger under construction: Swamplot inbox
