Openings and Closings

East Downtown
03/04/09 11:16am

Openings and Closings: Super Happy Baking Brothers

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Linkwood, Museum District, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
1 Comment

As the retail churns . . .

  • Reopening Soon: The original Three Brothers Bakery next to Brays Bayou in Linkwood, closed since Hurricane Ike, has a permit in hand to rebuild. Cynthia Lescalleet reports in the River Oaks Examiner:

    While the exterior of the building, 4036 South Braeswood Blvd., will retain the colors, 60s-vintage architectural elements and windows of its past, the inside has been reconfigured a bit to be “cozy,” with a more efficient layout.

    Among the tweaking are the addition of a small room for wedding consultations and staff offices that look out over the interior so they can see and connect with the customers they’ve missed since Hurricane Ike damaged the business, [co-owner Janice] Jucker said.

    “We’re almost like therapists over the bakery counter,” she said.

    But: no plans to return to the River Oaks Shopping Center or Sugar Land.

    Any future expansion would likely be into properties the bakery would own and build itself, she said: “We want control over our destiny.”

    Near the end of the 10- to 12-week building project, the building’s crooked sign will be re-set. If you see a straight sign, that’ll mean the bagels are almost ready.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Neighborhood Disputes
02/27/09 3:21pm

Washington Ave. Latest: Wrestler-Themed Tacos To Calm the Nightly Grind

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Nightlife, Old Sixth Ward, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Washington Corridor
5 Comments

Here’s a concept perfect for the former home of the Daily Grind coffee shop at 4115 Washington Ave.: A new bar!

But the Washington Ave. Drinkery will be very different from all those nightclubs Sixth Ward residents love to stand outside and videotape, owners Andrew and Doyle Adams explain to Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal:

“It will be a place where people will want to come to have a good time instead of wanting to be seen having a good time,” Andrew Adams says.

Unlike other high-end bars in the area, Adams says The Washington Ave. Drinkery is designed as an unpretentious, laid-back bar.

Sure, but what will all those down-to-earth customers do in the wee hours after the new bar closes?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Bankruptcies
02/26/09 11:30am

Wolf Sheepish About Closings

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
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WOLF SHEEPISH ABOUT CLOSINGS No word yet from Ritz Camera on whether any of the company’s 14 Houston-area Wolf Camera locations will be closed. The company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday. It owes more than $40 million to Nikon and Canon alone. Ritz is the nation’s largest camera chain, with more than 1000 stores. It also owns Boater’s World, which has a store in Webster. [Washington Post]

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Comments
02/24/09 4:11pm

Comments of the Day: Las Alamedas Packs Up

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Commercial Real Estate, Leasing, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
No Comments

COMMENTS OF THE DAY: LAS ALAMEDAS PACKS UP “I drove by yesterday and there were two large U-Haul trucks backed up to the back door. I think Las Alamedas is toast. What a shame; I’ve had many good times there.” And later: “Well, I drove by a couple of hours ago and the sign out front says something like ‘Thank you for 28 great years. We will relocate.’” [Clive, commenting on Las Alamedas: Landlord Wants More]

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Lake Jackson
02/20/09 9:56am

Brazos Mall Closure Rumors Denied, Store by Store

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Malls, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
1 Comment

BRAZOS MALL CLOSURE RUMORS DENIED, STORE BY STORE Sure, The Limited and Waldenbooks in Lake Jackson are shutting down. But more important: All other stores at the Brazos Mall are staying open! “El Chico, a Mexican restaurant located in the mall, has had many people asking them if they are closing, said Dorian Farciert, marketing director for El Chico. The constant questions have become frustrating and a little demoralizing, especially considering the restaurant is not closing, she said. ‘We are doing really well,’ she said. ‘We have no intentions of closing.’ Farciert said she and the El Chico staff are getting tired of the rumors that the restaurant is planning to close. ‘We know we’re not closing,’ she said. . . . Rumors also have been spread that JC Penney is closing. Though a few JC Penney stores in other states might be closing, the JC Penney in Lake Jackson plans to remain open, Supervisor Chanel Nelson said. In fact, the store was just remodeled, she said. . . . Mall officials confirmed Dillard’s does not plan to close, either. Julie Bull, a spokeswoman for Dillard’s, said the corporate office has not announced any closings for Lake Jackson. . . . Sears is doing well and has no plans to close, [a Sears employee] said.” [The Facts]

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Art
02/19/09 11:47am

Openings and Closings: Galleria Gallery, Paulie’s Retreat, Not Mulch More

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Furniture, Long Point, Museum District, Openings and Closings, Parking, Restaurants, Retail, Southgate
7 Comments

So what’s new?

  • Opening: There’s a big new Gallery Furniture taking over the old Pier One space in the Post Oak Shopping Center, across from the Galleria. Isiah Carey notes that there’s a (much smaller) “coming soon” sign out front. Also coming to the strip from Mattress Mack: a new and more upscale Kreiss Furniture store, where Pier One Kids used to be.
  • Closed: Paulie’s restaurant reports receiving an undisclosed “offer we couldn’t refuse” to close its Holcombe at Kirby location, and dutifully complied on Monday. The original Paulie’s, on Westheimer at Driscoll, will remain open.
  • Hoping to Spread: And Katharine Shilcutt reports that Otilia’s Mexican restaurant, the longtime Long Point standout, now “a bastion of the upper class yuppies who reside quietly in the nearby Memorial Villages and wash down their rice and beans with bottles of Merlot,” isn’t closing, despite rumors she had heard. But:

    it turns out instead that Otilia’s is actively seeking to franchise their restaurant. A bright sign by the register blinked this advertisement every five seconds as we ate, while the waitresses sullenly confirmed this fact.

Then there’s that Main St. mulch . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Hazards
02/17/09 5:23pm

Seen on the Street: Armature Armchair

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Houston Heights, Industrial Properties, Katy, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Parking, Restaurants, Strip Centers
6 Comments

Ready to see some fun pix from around town? Here’s the guardhouse for the loading dock at the Igloo plant in Katy, as captured a while back by blogger Donna B.

A few more:

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Hazards
02/17/09 10:26am

Regrets, More Than a Few: Cole’s Did It Their Way

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Openings and Closings, Pearland, Retail
13 Comments

On the City of Pearland website, the fire marshal has posted a photo presentation highlighting a few of the more than 2,800 safety violations found this past weekend at Cole’s Antique Village & Flea Market. And on the Cole’s Antique Village website, the owners have put up an MP3 recording of Elvis Presley singing “My Way,” which plays automatically for visitors.

Cole’s had more than 900 permanent vendors on its extensive campus at 1014 N. Main St., at the southwest corner of Beltway 8 and Telephone Road. But the flea market’s likely regrets are clearly not too few to mention: The fire marshal’s photos show personal padlocks on emergency access gates, mounds of stacked tires and mattresses, insufficient and improperly marked exits, bypassed circuit breakers, Gordian tangles of extension cords, propane tanks stored indoors next to generators, and a broad range of other problems.

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Furniture
02/16/09 11:41am

Musical Chaises: Ligne Roset Moves the Furniture Around

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Leasing, Openings and Closings, Retail, River Oaks, West University
4 Comments

Annie Sitton documents Ligne Roset’s surprise weekend move from that fancy strip mall on Kirby to . . . the River Oaks Shopping Center? Uh . . . wasn’t the mod French furniture store supposed to be moving this April . . . to West Ave?

And what does this move mean for Design Source, West Ave’s prize showroom of showrooms, that Ligne Roset was supposed to headline?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Downtown
02/13/09 4:20pm

Houston Pavilions: Lucky Strike Out, Hats Off, Shoes Back in Boxes

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Malls, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
4 Comments

Last week Lucky Strike Lanes announced that the stalled buildout of the company’s new upscale bowling alley and lounge in Houston Pavilions would be “put on hold” — indefinitely. This time the company isn’t complaining about delayed equipment deliveries, though. It’s delayed money deliveries:

“At the moment we are seeking financing to complete the project and are having meaningful conversations with potential Houston-based partners as well as investors from elsewhere in the country,” Lucky Strike President Dolf Berle said. “We are still dedicated and committed to opening in Houston.”

Meanwhile, this past Wednesday night HAIF poster houstonartstudent reported the quiet withdrawal of two minor — and seemingly out-of-place — retail tenants:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Commercial Real Estate
02/13/09 10:30am

Las Alamedas: Landlord Wants More

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Leasing, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
8 Comments

Last week the Houston Business Journal reported that the owner of Las Alamedas had reached agreement on a new lease with its landlord and would reopen on February 6th. But the upscale Mexican restaurant on the Katy Freeway at Voss is still closed.

What happened to that agreement?

“The landlord came back and wanted at least 50 percent more rent and other things that we didn’t originally agree on,” says [restaurant owner Jorge] Sneider.

Sneider had previously told reporter Allison Wollam that the original landlord died in a plane crash, and various surviving family members had been fighting over ownership of the property for the last year and a half. “He now hopes he can work out another lease in a couple of weeks,” Wollam reports today.

Photo: Rachel Dvoretzky

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Openings and Closings
02/11/09 10:45am

Village Chocolate Bar: Now Serving Cake and Ice Cream in Plus Sizes

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Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village
9 Comments

Just opened in this . . . uh, extra-wide storefront at 2521 University in the Rice Village, just a few doors down from Candylicious: a second — and considerably larger — location for the Chocolate Bar. A reader sends in this night-time photo, providing evidence that the retail space was formerly the home of . . . yes, a Lane Bryant.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Hempstead
02/05/09 11:46am

Lawrence Marshall: Clobbered

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
1 Comment

LAWRENCE MARSHALL: CLOBBERED The Lawrence Marshall auto empire, owned and operated by former football star Ray Childress, abruptly shut down all its operations yesterday afternoon. The 7 car dealerships took up 40 acres way out in Hempstead, but were perhaps a more notable presence in Houston’s larger media landscape, where commercials featuring the former Oiler’s emphatic monotone regularly consumed huge lots of available ad space. [Houston Chronicle]

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East Downtown
02/05/09 10:42am

Thelma’s Bar B Que: Smoked Out

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Hazards, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
3 Comments

Thelma’s Bar B Que — on the corner of Live Oak and Lamar in . . . oh, all right: EaDo — is closed, after the restaurant was singed by a fire last Friday. Robb Walsh from Eating . . . Our Words reports from the scene:

The front of the business appeared as ramshackle as always, but a sign on the door announced the bad news. The rear of the building where the barbecue pit used to be was badly damaged as was the kitchen area. The old-fashioned cinderblock barbecue pit used at Thelma’s had a small metal door on the outside where the wood was loaded and a grate with a steel door inside the building where the meats were cooked. The fire appears to have originated in the fire box or chimney as that part of the building has been torn away.

Photo: Flickr user Jennifer Lynn

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Openings and Closings
02/02/09 5:01pm

Chico’s and Demand: Any Stores Wrapping Up Here?

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Retail
No Comments

No official announcements of closures yet, but the Houston Business Journal hints a few may come soon. Chico’s announced plans late last week to close as many as 25 of its 1,076 women’s clothing stores nationwide.

There are 14 Chico’s in the Houston area. The company also owns 5 Soma Intimates stores and 9 White House/Black Market locations.

Photo of Chico’s and Soma on Amherst St. in the Rice Village: Swamplot inbox

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