THE END OF THE 11TH ST. CAFE 
Next step for the 11th St. Cafe after covering over the “Ruggles” on its sign: shutting itself down entirely. A sign on the door from owner Archie Patterson Jr. noted today by the Heights Life blog indicates the restaurant closed at the end of the year — after 35 years of operation. What’s next for the building at the corner of 11th St. and Studewood? “The new tenant will have a press release in late January,” the notice says. [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life
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Openings and Closings
HIGHLAND VILLAGE APPLE STOREÂ REBOOT 
Did you know the shiny new Apple Store with the glass roof and front and back walls in Highland Village was scheduled to open very soon? Well, not any more, says Nancy Sarnoff. A source tells her the opening of the first Houston-area non-mall store has been pushed back until March. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Drawing: Jeffrey Djayasaputra
DHARMA CAFE TO RAY’S FRANKS TO LATIN BITES TO OXHEART 
That’s only the recent lineage of the tiny corner space at 1302 Nance St. in the old warehouse district at the northern stretches of Downtown, where former *17 chef Justin Yu, his pastry-baking wife Karen Man, and Central Market wine guy Justin Vann plan to open their new Gulf Coast-flavored restaurant. (Latin Bites will be escaping to the former Rockwood Room location at Chimney Rock and Woodway.) The trio promises not to take up any of the mere 26 seats in the former Erie City Ironworks space themselves. Oxheart — yes, named after the central organ of an ox (as well as a kind of carrot, a type of tomato, and a certain cabbage) — will be open for dinner 5 nights a week, including Mondays, beginning next March. [29-95; more from Eater Houston] Photo: Almost Veggie Houston
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY I WON’T MISS THE SANDBOX AT LUPE TORTILLA “It was always a hassle with the kids running around while I was trying to sunbathe.” [Chad, commenting on Lupe Tortilla Axes Kiddie Sandbox]
Over the weekend, Lance Fegen and Lee Ellis’s long-awaited Liberty Kitchen & Oyster Bar finally opened in the former Stop-N-Go on the last remaining corner of 11th St. and Studewood without some sort of restaurant on it. The new neighbor to Someburger, Ruggles 11th St. Cafe, and Dacapo’s Pastry Cafe is now open to the public for dinner.
Excepting, of course, Chronicle food critic Alison Cook: A carefully designed custom decal on the restaurant’s door appears to be the restaurant’s attempt to bar Cook from entry, perhaps to prevent her from penning a Liberty Kitchen review anything like her epic slam of Fegen’s BRC Gastropub last year. Sample sentence from that review: “What to say — besides no, thank you — of BRC’s putative pimento cheese dip that’s a runny splodge of lumpy pinkness on a white plate, with its advertised Vermont cheddar utterly defeated by great gouts of mayonnaise?” Cook’s plea that Liberty Kitchen’s sister restaurant serve the gloppy dip in a ramekin instead is apparently the inspiration for the reference to white plates in this witty comeback only 15 months in the making.
But surely the Liberty Kitchen crew will allow Cook a cup of lukewarm tea in that coffeehouse they’re planning to open next door?
INDIANS ON SCOTLAND 
After a ceremony yesterday, this 1984 office building across from the Cleveland Park at 4300 Scotland St. in Magnolia Grove is the new official home of the Consulate General of India. The Indian government bought the building in August. Next door: the Gables Memorial Hills apartments. [Voice of Asia] Photo: LoopNet
After a couple years of threats, live-music straggler Walter’s on Washington finally closed its doors at 4215 Washington Ave. this summer. Almost exactly 6 months later, it’ll open for a Christmas show in a new location: This former classic-car showroom, video-production studio, car-parts distribution center, and cabinet shop at 1120 Naylor St. just north of Downtown, behind DiverseWorks and the UH-Downtown parking garage. Owner Pam Robinson had hoped to open the 190-person-capacity venue much earlier. She told the Houston Press‘s Chris Gray in June that she had run into problems meeting city parking requirements for the location.
- Walter’s Finally Has New Digs: Roky Moon Christmas Gig Announced and Walter’s No Longer On Washington, But Not Gone Either [Rocks Off]
- Previously on Swamplot: Guess Where Walter’s on Washington Is Moving!, Walter’s Was the Only One Left: The Death of Live Music on Washington Ave
Photo: LoopNet
What’s the difference between the new H-E-B Montrose Market on the site of the former Wilshire Village Apartments at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama and the Buffalo Market — designed by the same San Antonio architects — the company opened last year? Well, at 75,000 sq. ft., the new store is a bit bigger and has wider aisles, and the site it sits on is a bit more storied. Plus, photographer Candace Garcia notes from her preview tour, the doors on the milk coolers seem more sleek and contemporary. And the new store carries Philosophy skin-care products. Clearly, the Menil influence shows.
In front, below a couple of preserved trees, are several outdoor-eating and gathering options:
HOUSTON, THE PROTOTYPICAL CITY 
With its new “more interactive” 1,600-sq.-ft. prototype store now open in The Woodlands Mall, high-end beanbag and furniture retailer LoveSac “can add its name to the long list of retailers and restaurants that have chosen Houston as the market in which to debut a new store design or concept,” writes Allison Wollam. Her recent tally: “Last month, Pollo Campero unveiled its new prototype restaurant and expanded menu in Houston, and in September, Beef O Brady’s sports bar and restaurant debuted its new store design in nearby Lake Jackson. In May, popular sandwich shop Spicy Pickle Sandwich Co. also chose Houston as the first location for its new prototype, featuring a revamped menu, upscale decor and open kitchen.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Pollo Campero
The original greenhouse in Memorial Park — birthplace of thousands of plants sent regularly to city properties around town — lasted from 1946 until 3 years ago, though it was in bad shape even before Hurricane Ike blew away the makeshift plastic put in place of some missing windows. The new greenhouse — designed by local landscape architecture firm Clark Condon Associates, opened officially late last week, and paid for in part with federal hurricane-recovery funds — measures 8,600 sq. ft. and includes a cistern and automated watering and shading systems. A separate headhouse was also renovated as part of the project, and a brand-new prefab restroom set up nearby.
- Houston gets a new greenhouse, 3 years after Ike destroyed original [Memorial Examiner]
- New City Greenhouse Bigger and Better Than Old One [KUHF News]
Photo: KUHF News
Here’s what you’ll want to know about the new Sundance Cinemas taking the place of the shuttered Angelika Film Center in Bayou Place downtown: First, you’ll still get 3 hours of free parking underground. Seating is by single-seat reservation only, but you’ll be able to pick your preferred movie-watching spot (and print out your tickets) from the comfort of your own computer if you want to avoid lines. Adult tix for evening shows are $10.50 ($3 less for matinees), but there’s a tacked-on “amenity fee” that varies from nothing to $3 depending on the time of day and day of the week of your showing. What amenities will you be receiving in return for that little upcharge? Well, there’s the parking, the seat-reservation system, and the facility’s cost of maintaining “as green a facility as possible.” Plus, the 8-screen theater promises no TV-style advertisements before movies start.
And how’s the place looking so far?
Just 6 months after a companywide audit of worker IDs resulted in the loss of 269 of its 489 employees, Champion Window has decided to shut down its entire manufacturing division — axing an additional 135 workers. The largest manufacturer of vinyl and aluminum windows in the South Central U.S. was served with a grand jury subpoena last November over its hiring practices; a subsequent investigation by federal agents revealed that a large number of the company’s employees had no legal authorization to work in the U.S. Champion will shift its manufacturing operation from its Houston plant at 12427 Duncan Rd. near the Willowbrook Mall to its parent company, Dallas-based Atrium Windows and Doors, in December. Recently, Champion filed suit against 2 former top executives, alleging their “negligent disregard” for whether job applicants had authorization to work in the country “nearly crippled” the company’s operations.
- Champion Window to close Houston plant, cut 135 jobs [Houston Business Journal]
- Houston firm on track after losing 269 undocumented workers [Houston Business Journal]
- Champion Window sues former CEO and CFO over hiring practices [Ultimate Woodlands]
- Background [Champion Window]
Photo: Champion Window
The next contender for the endcap of the Modern strip center at the corner of North Shepherd Dr. and 34th St. refashioned last year from the longtime home of Garden Oaks’ Binswanger Glass Co. is almost in. Taking over from the stalled out Octane Coffee and Wine Lounge will be the Shepherd Park Draught House — a pub featuring a full menu and an interior festooned with punk, pop, and rock memorabilia. Its owner: Ken Bridge of Delicious Concepts, the same company behind Heights restaurants Lola, Dragon Bowl, and (most notably) Pink’s Pizza, which has a convenient location next door. Expected opening date: “very soon.”
Guatemalan fast-food chain Pollo Campero‘s new-prototype restaurant (pictured above) will soon become the fourth standalone drive-thru in a row along a section of the south side of Washington Ave. Driving east from the corner of Durham, you’ll find the W Grill (at left, featuring 2 drive-thru windows), then a Jack in the Box on the corner of Shepherd. After El Rey Taqueria comes the future Pollo Campero site at 4701 Washington Ave., slated to be the company’s next-in-line location — a new one is about to open at 702 W. Bay Area Blvd. in Webster, and another is planned for Missouri City. Any room for this burgeoning Washington Ave drive-thru scene to grow? That small building wedged between the W Grill and the Jack-in-the-Box could start to look hungry.
- Pollo Campero chain expands reach [Houston Business Journal]
Images: Pollo Campero and W Grill
Independent grocery store Klein’s Super Market closed down in April, after doing business in Tomball for 89 years — almost half of them at the corner of West Main St. and Buvinghausen. Next up for the 31,628-sq.-ft. vacant space at 1200 West Main: New life as a “community-based outpatient clinic” for the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. The Veterans Administration has signed a 20-year lease for the property, Congressman Michael McCaul announced today. Renovations are expected to be completed next summer; the clinic should open to patients next fall. Also announced: a similar clinic at 750 Westgreen Blvd. in Katy, in an existing medical building.
- Locations for Katy, Tomball VA clinics announced [Katy Times]
- The end of an era: Klein’s Super Market to close doors at end of April [Tomball Potpourri
Photo: Jesse Smith
