ADIOS, BOCADOS 
Culturemap’s reporting that Bocados on West Alabama is closing after a party on Cinco de Mayo. Bocados owners and friends from their days at across-the-street University of St. Thomas Terry Flores and Lily Hernandez tell Culturemap that though they’ll be leaving the restaurant at 1312 West Alabama where they’ve been for 15 years, they’re considering buying a Heights property where they might bring Bocados back. Moreover, reports Whitney Radley, the pair says they plan to open this summer “in a yet-undisclosed location” downtown a restaurant they’re calling The Red Ox Grill. And what’s up next for the Bocados building? Radley writes that it’ll be The Brick and Spoon, a restaurant coming to Montrose by way of Lafayette, Louisiana, on June 1. [Culturemap] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
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This rendering of the apartment building that Hines is replacing Cafe Adobe with isn’t current, says a company rep. And details about the building are few — though the rep says that the midrise Hines is planning for the soon-to-be-former restaurant and parking lot at Westheimer and South Shepherd will contain 215 units and no retail space.
LUNCH-ONLY TELEPHONE ROAD SMOKEHOUSE NOW OPEN FOR DINNER 
A Facebook post on Sunday from Oak Leaf Smokehouse says that the Eastwood restaurant — which opened serving lunch only in late February in the old Pete’s BBQ location just southeast of Tlaquepaque Market at 1000 Telephone Rd. — is now serving dinner, too, expanding its hours from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. [Oak Leaf Smokehouse via Facebook; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
THE RERUGGLEFICATION OF 11TH ST. CAFE 
“[A]ll that was left at one point,” writes The Heights Life blogger Viula of the 11th St. Cafe, was “basically 3 brick walls.” She popped in to preview this most recent rugglefication of the twice-ruggled restaurant in advance of its April 25 reopening. Chief Ruggle Federico Marques tells Viula that the city thought the old Heights building at 11th and Studewood ought to be torn down. But a Ruggle, it seems, is made of sterner stuff: “When a lot of other companies would have cut their losses and walked away,” writes Viula, “[Ruggles Green] seized the opportunity. . . . Even the floor/foundation had to come out due to years of neglect and spotty patch work by previous owners. They salvaged the front and side walls and everything else is new.” [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life
HOTEL GALVEZ BAR AND GRILL TO BE RENOVATED, RENAMED 
A new look, new menu, and new name are coming to Bernardo’s at Hotel Galvez on Seawall Blvd., says hotel owner Mitchell Historic Properties: To be adventurously rechristened Galvez Bar & Grill, the space will become twice as big after the renovations. The hotel’s lobby will also be redone: Though the wicker furniture isn’t going away, a new floor made out of a tile mosaic will be installed where sandy-footed guests enter. Though Bernardo’s will be shuttered for 2 months for the upgrades, hotel owners are hoping the space will be ready for Memorial Day, when the island’s tourist season begins. [Mitchell Historic Properties] Photo: Flickr user Equina27
NEW SHEPHERD DR. LITTLE WOODROW’S TO SERVE PUB FARE, TOO 
Beer after wine: Closed back in November, Block 7 at 720 South Shepherd Dr. is being replaced by Little Woodrow’s, reports Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler. Just south of the Washington Corridor in Rice Military Magnolia Grove and a block east from the about-to-open Katch 22 from Roger Clemens’s kid Kory, the new Shepherd spot, rep Nick Menage tells Sandler, will house no ordinary Woodrow’s: “In a twist, this location will have a full kitchen that will serve an updated mix of bar foods including burgers, nachos and pizzas from the old Block 7 oven. Menage assures fans of the bar’s popular steak nights that there are plans to maintain that tradition, too.” [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Block 7: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
First things first: A sign off Hwy. 6 welcoming you to Imperial Sugar Land is so far the only part of the 716-acre master-planned community that’s under construction, touts a press release from the end of March. Up next? Starting this summer, adds the press release, something like the spout-centered roundabout shown here and a 254-unit apartment complex will begin going up around the minor-league Skeeters’ Constellation Field in the so-called Ball Park District. Plans show that that district will be flanked by a mix of uses:
A reader sends this photo of what went down today at 6000 Richmond and Fountain View: The Magnolia Bar & Grill, cleared for demo last month, has been reduced to rubble and that sideways sign. And what’s in store for this Briargrove corner southwest of the Galleria? Kenneth Lewis, a rep from the partnership that owns the property, says you’ll soon see a McDonald’s.
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Lucky Strike
Photo: Pat McCarley
WHY YOU CAN’T EAT AT MR. PEEPLES YET 
A lawsuit from Landry’s is trying to keep the self-described “sexy,” “chic,” and “unique” Mr. Peeples Seafood + Steaks from opening at 1911 Bagby St. in Midtown. Culturemap’s Whitney Radley reports that Tim Kohler, who managed Vic & Anthony’s near Minute Maid Park, is named in the suit alleging that he violated nondisclosure and noncompetition clauses for “solicit[ing] former Vic & Anthony’s sales manager Stacy Chambers to work for the up-and-coming seafood and steakhouse.” But Landmark Houston, which owns several other Houston bars and restaurants besides Mr. Peeples, doesn’t appear to think there’s much competition there — or so it tells the Houston Chronicle: “Mr. Peeples is a stylish, high energy, and vibrant alternative to the traditional steakhouse concept . . . We believe there is room and a need for both concepts in the growing Houston market.” [Culturemap; Houston Chronicle] Image: Mr. Peeples Seafood + Steaks, via Facebook
WHY THE CAPITOL AT ST. GERMAIN MIGHT BE CLOSED A LITTLE LONGER THAN IT SAYS 
Culturemap’s Whitney Radley reports that a rep from the jazzy Main St. spot says it had to close temporarily because of water damage to the kitchen, but the Houston Press’s Katharine Shilcutt claims she has reason to believe otherwise, since the bar and restaurant — paying, she reports, “a monthly rent close to $17,000” — seems to have sprung another kind of leak: “When a restaurant is faltering and owes its landlord rent, one of two things usually happens: 1) The restaurant closes shop and washes its hands of the entire affair, leaving behind everything from kitchen equipment to barstools, which then become property of the landlord or 2) the restaurant wants to close but also needs to recoup some of its losses and stalls by telling the landlord that it’s ‘renovating’ for a few days. Those days are spent clearing the place out and selling everything that’s not nailed down.” And what makes Shilcutt so sure? “I spotted some activity going on outside . . . that suggested furniture was being moved out of the space.” And: “Calls to the restaurant weren’t returned, and on my last attempt, the phone line seemed to have been disconnected.” Update, 1:47 p.m.: Shilcutt reports that the Capitol at St. Germain has told her it’s not closing and does plan to reopen once the water damage — which, says the bar’s rep, knocked out the phone lines — is repaired. [Culturemap; Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Cvent
And it looks like the Alamo is standing on its own again: Previously demolished, Alamo Tamales re-appeared last summer as nothing but leaning walls and steel rods, but it re-opened with a stalwart uprightness on Berry Rd. on Friday. Architect Tim Cisneros of Cisneros Design Studio sends the photo of the restaurant’s finished facade sandwiched between a dessert bar and cantina in the 21,000-sq.-ft. Northside strip center west of Irvington Blvd.
- Bienvenidos! [Alamo Tamale]
- Previously on Swamplot: First Stand-Up at the Alamo Tamale, Remember the Alamo Spinach and Cheese: New Tamale Central Coming to the Northside
Photos: Cisneros Design Studio
If you can’t wait until June or July for Dunkin’ Donuts to open inside the Loop at the former Arby’s at South Shepherd and Fairview, you might plan to come here, the former SmashBurger at 10705 Westheimer, where a company rep says that the donut makers will open in May the first of 16 planned Houston stores. Sharing the Westchase strip center with a Cricket store and Brookstreet Bar-B-Que, the coffee-colored endcap has undergone at least one other renovation: A drive-thru lane now cuts through what had been SmashBurger’s treeside patio.
HERE, NOW, A FEW MORE IDEAS FOR THE ASTRODOME 
Making the rounds this week are a couple more long shots for the Astrodome from people who don’t seem very keen on the 2,500 parking spaces the Texans and Rodeo proposed last week. First, you’ve got Ed Seale and his wife of “Keep the Astrodome,” who say they want to see the ol’ thing renovated into an global bazaar, reports KUHF’s Jack Williams, “a space filled with international, ethnic, cultural and business organizations . . . and ethnic restaurants.” And then there’s the UH graduate student Ryan Slattery, whose friend leaked online parts of his architecture master’s thesis that calls for the big baby to be stripped to a skeleton and used as greenspace: “If you don’t need it,” Slattery tells KHOU’s Jeremy Desel, “it does not need to be there. It is never going to be a stadium again. So you don’t need the seats. You need to take those seats out. Concrete on the facade? You don’t need that.” Adds Slattery: “If and when the Astrodome does come down you will see a grown man cry.” [KUHF; KHOU; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
As though mandated by some surgeon general recommendation for commercial development, the new neighbors in the Tlaquepaque Market at Telephone and Lockwood are an ice cream shop and a fitness studio. Scoops, the sign for which recently appeared above those window bars, is replacing a nail salon at 724 Telephone; it will share a wall with a Zumba studio, a former dollar store that doesn’t have a sign yet — but it does appear to have been renovated to provide rump-shakers inside the comfort and convenience of opaque window screens. These new interests are just a few blocks from the new Oak Leaf Smokehouse that opened for lunch in late February at 1000 Telephone Rd., and just a few suites from the new-ish Blue Line Bike Lab.
- Previously on Swamplot: Telephone Road Smokehouse Replaces Telephone Road Smokehouse, Heights Bike Lab Expands, Opens Shop Near UH in East End
Photos: Allyn West
Could it be . . . time? A reader claims to have spotted the first inside-the-Loop Dunkin’ Donuts — or at least the future home of it. Last spring, franchise group 521 Interests announced plans to open 16 new Dunkin’ Donuts in Houston; this photo taken this morning in Montrose at the corner of South Shepherd and Fairview shows what might be the first of those, now that the former Arby’s is festooned with the donut makers’ orange and pink signage. Claiming, among other achievements in food and beverage, to be the nation’s top bagel retailer, Dunkin’ Donuts will be just a block and a half away from the Hot Bagel Shop.
- Previously on Swamplot: Dunkin’ Donuts’ Big Texas Push, Dunkin’ Donuts Coming Back to Bellaire
Photo: Swamplot inbox
