Legacy Community Health Services’ Montrose Clinic building opened last month at 1415 California St., consolidating in its new site the operations of 3 previous locations. The 40,000-sq.-ft. facility provides primary health care services, as well as a dental clinic, pediatric care, optometrists, adult behavior health services, HIV and AIDS treatment facilities, a gym, and — yes — a ground-floor Walgreens pharmacy, all under one flat roof.
Silicon Valley automotive startup Tesla Motors plans to open a Houston dealership for the company’s all-electric cars within the next 60 days — in the Nordstrom wing of the Galleria. The company-operated store, inspired by Apple Stores, Starbucks, and airport frequent-flier clubs, will include samples of the company’s Model S and Roadster models that visitors will be encouraged to climb into, as well as a Design Studio for assembling and pricing an EV to your own specifications.
Photos: Tesla Motors (store in Lone Tree, Colorado); Purva Patel (Galleria)
Next month, real estate brokers Randy Fertitta and John Nguyen plan to reopen the former Zula Restaurant spot at 705B Main St. Downtown as a 250-600-seat concert venue. The Capitol at St. Germain will include a bar, a restaurant, and jazz, R&B, and “old-school” country performers. Coming to the Main St. streetfront at Capitol St. (next door to the Flying Saucer): a sidewalk cafe and a new neon marquee, subsidized in part by a $20,000 grant from the Downtown Management District. The 8,400-sq.-ft. space will include an elevated reserved seating area called the Vintage Lounge and a “floating” VIP booth next to the 320-sq.-ft. stage.
Photo: Capitol at St. Germain
This metal-sheathed warehouse at 2032 Karbach St. in the industrial area off Dacoma St. near Dyer Stadium used to be home to craft and imported beer distributor C.R. Goodman. Now a bunch of former Goodman employees have transformed it into the Karbach Brewing Company brewery — which held its inaugural tour over the weekend. Among the commitments of Karbach and its brewer, former Flying Dog CEO Eric Warner: Keeping their 5 craft brews in metal. Karbach beers are available only at area bars and restaurants so far (delivered in kegs by the company’s single delivery truck); starting in January 3 of them should be available for purchase in aluminum cans, too.
PINKBERRY HOUSTON CAMPAIGN: WEBSTER AND THE WOODLANDS FIRST Beachhead for the inevitable local invasion of second-wave frozen-yogurt pioneer Pinkberry: across I-45 from Baybrook Mall in the Baybrook Passage Shopping Center. The location, at 19325 Gulf Fwy., is scheduled to open on September 30th. The second of the dozen spots planned for the greater Houston area by the regional franchisee will be somewhere in The Woodlands, but won’t open until next year. [Houston Business Journal] Update, 11:30 am: That Woodlands location will be in The Woodlands Mall.
NOW POPPING OUT BURRITOS 
Jack-in-the-Box-owned Chipotle competitor Qdoba Mexican Grill has opened its first Houston-area location (in a little while, at least) — in a former Hollywood Video location near Home Depot at the end of a strip center at 17400 Spring Cypress Rd. in Cypress, just northwest of Hwy. 290. Last year Brij Agrawal, the owner of 75 local Subway franchises, signed an agreement with the fast-casual chain to open 15 new Houston Qdobas within 7 years. [QSR] Photo: Qdoba Mexican Grill Houston
After almost 3 years on the “closed on account of its gonna-be-torn-down” list, the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center at 2151 W. Holcombe Blvd. — the last remaining vestige of the famed Shamrock Hotel complex that once stood at the corner of Holcombe and South Main — reopened yesterday under new management. The 13,000 sq.-ft. ballroom facility is still owned by the Texas Medical Center, but it’ll now be run by Trevisio Restaurant and will be open to non-TMC events. In 2008, the TMC announced plans to tear down the conference center and build 3 floors of office space on top of an adjacent parking garage.
MONTROSE HOSTEL OPENING SOON 
The former Lovett Inn at 501 Lovett St. in the heart of Montrose will officially reopen as Hostelling International USA’s Morty Rich Hostel on September 25. The 50-bed facility, which will have both shared and private rooms for travelers, is named after the late son of Houston entrepreneurs, developers, and Rice U benefactors Hershel and Hilda Rich. [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bart Vis [license]
Good morning, Sugar Land! As of today, the once-5,400-acre state prison in your midst is no longer. Down for the last decade to a 326-acre core of former Imperial Sugar-owned land near Hwy. 6 and Rte. 90A, the 112-year-old Central Unit shipped out its last prisoners earlier this month; the property was handed over to the state’s General Land Office yesterday. Sugar Land officials are interested in buying the property, but the decision to sell will be up to the 3-member School Land Board, which runs the investments of state’s Permanent University Fund.
Photo: Justin Dehn/Texas Tribune
Today was opening day for the third-ever Joe V’s Smart Shop, H-E-B’s growing chain of low-cost supermarkets. How low-cost are we talking? Well, put it this way: Checkers at the store won’t even touch your money. That’s right: You’ll be sliding it into a Wincor Nixdorf iCash register yourself — it sucks up your bills and coins and spits back change. And for a good number of the groceries you buy, you’ll be unpacking the items yourself too, directly from the boxes they were shipped in — just like you would at a big-box warehouse store. In the 51,000-sq.-ft. space carved out of a former Kmart at 12009 Northwest Fwy., on the west side of Hwy. 290 at 43rd St., the boxes and pallets are the displays:
Over at the Houston Press, food critic Katharine Shilcutt and chief mapmaker Monica Fuentes have traced the history of locally owned restaurants on the stretch of Lower Westheimer from east of Taft all the way to Dunlavy way, way back — to the long-ago days of 1997. Sure, the sequence of maps (see below for the latest) leaves out bars, coffee shops, and fast-food joints, but culinary additions are color-coded (after the start date) by year of appearance. Featured appearances between now and next year: Underbelly, the Hay Merchant, Uchi, and L’Olivier. Your guide to eating the strip and curve:
Posted on HAIF: images from earlier this month of the empty but almost ready-to-open H-E-B at 3601 FM 1488 in The Woodlands. At 104,000 sq. ft., the North Woodlands Market will register as the biggest of the 4 H-E-Bs in the area. Inside, reports Chris, the cameraphone photographer, everything will be bigger than usual. Alas, no closeups of the guacamole bar. A similar layout and format is expected at the Sugar Land store scheduled to open in September.
OUT WITH THE IMPORTED PO’ BOYS, IN WITH THE LOCAL BOLOGNA 
The owners of Benjy’s Restaurant next door plan to open a local-foods market in the recently vacated Antone’s Import Co. space at 2424 Dunstan St. Benjy Levitt describes the market, which he’s calling Local Foods in Rice Village, as a local version of its predecessor. There’ll be sandwiches and salads, as well as prepared foods from next door, including Benjy’s beer nuts and cheese crackers. Levitt tells Sarah Rufca the store, expected to open in October, will get its food supplies from 15 to 20 local vendors: “We’re going to be using artisan bread; if there’s bologna in a sandwich, it’ll be house-cured.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: West U Examiner
TRACKING SUGAR LAND’S SUGAR AND CHEESE 
Where Sugar Land’s Cupcake Cafe couldn’t hold on, macaroni and cheese is going in. The owners of the Jus’ Mac mac-and-cheese-is-all restaurant on Yale St. in Sunset Heights have announced they’re ready to expand to a second location: 16525 Lexington Ave., in a strip center at the corner of Austin Pkwy., behind the First Colony Mall. Expected completion date for the cupcakes-to-pasta makeover: November. [HAIF; previously on Swamplot]
Sculptor Dan Havel sends in photos of the construction he and fellow demo artist Dean Ruck have been working on for months in a new pocket park at 3705 Lyons Ave. More than a month before its debut as the backdrop for a community concert (yes, that’s a stage poking out from the front), Havel says their project is “substantially complete,” though there are still a few more details to fill in, including stairs for the stage and some landscaping. Working from a ready-to-be-knocked-down house from a couple miles northeast at 3012 Erastus St., Havel and Ruck added, ahem, a whole lot of support to the interior, as these photos taken earlier in the summer show:
