STRIPPED 
Has the Strip House — the Shops at Houston Center stripper-themed steak house — closed its doors for good? Or is it just, you know, trying to renegotiate its lease with a landlord’s lockout notice for non-payment of rent taped to its McKinney St. front door? Reported outages of the Strip House’s Facebook page and Twitter feed may turn out to be mere negotiating tactics. “Our goal is to resolve this matter as soon as possible,” a release sent out this morning quotes owner Penny Glazier as saying. Her company, the Glazier Group, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2010. The chain owns Strip Houses in 3 other cities. [Eater Houston] Photo: Flickr user jerry1540
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Restaurants
ARE THERE 2 STARBUCKS NEARBY? California chef Bradley Ogden spent 2 days investigating 16 different restaurant locations in Houston recently. And he now has signed letters of intent for leases on 3 of them: One near the future site of ExxonMobil’s corporate campus south of The Woodlands, and the other 2 “across the street from each other five minutes from River Oaks.” Ogden says they’ll be “branded, quick, casual, farm-to-table restaurants. The Bradley Ogden restaurant inside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas is shutting down next month. [Eater Vegas]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LOWDOWN ON THE ELEVATION BURGER LEASE 
“Update on this corner: Elevation Burger is set to open up in the near future. Jonathan Kagan Properties bought the property and did a fairly extensive update to the structure, then turned it over to Elevation Burger for their build out, which is currently well under way.
Trust me, Mai Thai’s closing was a good thing. I own the property next door and saw a steady parade of roaches, rats, and various other vermin going in and out of that building over the past few years. Anytime you see a blue tarp on the roof of a building for months and months on end, it’s a pretty sure sign that they are in decline. If you don’t have the funds to fix your leaky roof in Houston, the end can’t be far off.” [Jared M, commenting on Bye Bye, Mai Thai? Feeding Another Kirby High-Rise Rumor]
The Alamo reinforcements have arrived! Okay, they’re just temporary steel props, but they’re now holding the tilt-up concrete facade out of the mud around the tamale-themed strip center Warwick Construction is putting up on Houston’s Northside. The 23,000-sq.-ft. Alamo Tamale Company development at 809 Berry Rd. just west of Irvington will include a bakery, a reception hall, a restaurant and cantina, a dessert bar, and — yes — an on-site tamale-construction facility. Plus: a drive-thru meant to accommodate about 20 tamale-pickup vehicles.
CHUY’S ENCHILADAS TO DEVOUR, SHARE 
For $10.49 plus tax and tip, you could order the Elvis Presley Memorial Combo at one of the 7 Houston-area Chuy’s. Or for $11 to $13, you could buy a share of the restaurant’s stock at its impending IPO (if you can get in, of course). The regional Mexican-restaurant chain, which was bought in 2006 by a New York private-equity firm, grew from 8 locations in 2007 to 32 this year. The company plans to use the $75 million it hopes to raise in the offering to pay off debts, terminate an agreement with an advisory group, and open more than 50 additional locations over the next 4 years. [TM Daily Post] Photo of Chuy’s at 9350 Westheimer: Happy Family Travels
PUSHING BEYOND “PAWS ON THE PATIO” 
Heights, Midtown, and Washington Ave burger joint Christian’s Tailgate serves dogs too! Pictured at right is a meal of hamburger, fries, a donut, and “doggie beer” from the local chain’s “Mutt Menu” of “gourmet dog treats.” [Christian’s Tailgate Bar & Grill, via b4-u-eat; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Christian’s Tailgate
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HURRICANE RITAS “I know there are people who ‘go out for Margaritas’ . . . that is, they are looking for a good ’Rita and don’t care that much about the food. However, I don’t think that means a place can succeed if that’s all they’ve got. No shortage in this town of good ’Ritas or good Mexican food or places that can do both, like Hugo’s or Sylvia’s. On the other hand, I have a fond memory of the Ninfa’s on Kirby because they were open right after Ike when most of the city was still without power. Under those circumstances, I thought the food was awesome.” [toadfroggy, commenting on Out with Mama Ninfa’s, in with Maggie Rita’s]
OUT WITH MAMA NINFA’S, IN WITH MAGGIE RITA’S 
What’s behind the rebranding of the 3 non-Navigation Ninfa’s Mexican Food restaurants — on Kirby at Richmond, Post Oak north of San Felipe, and the Gulf Fwy. feeder Rd. at Winkler — into Maggie Rita’s Grill & Bar locations, and the attendant replacement of the well-known Houston restaurant’s Tex-Mex classics with . . . tapas? Besides freeing himself and co-owner Carlos Mencia from licensing payments for using the Ninfa’s name, Suave Restaurants’ Santiago Moreno explains, switching to the Maggie Rita’s chain means a lighter menu that customers might be able to eat from as often as 3 times a week. But by his calculation the food switch may not make much of a difference anyway: “We’ve found out consumer decisions are made by women,” Moreno tells Eric Sandler. “When we track what makes a woman decide where to eat Mexican food, it has to do with margaritas. It has nothing to do with food.” The changes won’t effect Ninfa’s on Navigation, which has been owned since 2007 by Legacy Restaurants. [Eater Houston] Photo of Ninfa’s at 1650 Post Oak Blvd.: AmREIT
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A DEDICATED FAN’S SPRING BURGER REPORT 
“Carl’s Jr is about to open another factory of deliciousness in Spring, TX, corner of hwy 249 and Louetta Rd. built from the ground up, it started about two months ago, and just last week they hung the signs, no word on when it opens. I’ve submitted pictures to Swamplot, they might publish them soon.” [Sweetmocha, commenting on Burger Chains Ready Attack on Houston: Carl’s Jr., Smashburger, Five Guys] Photo: Sweetmocha
NEW HILTON AMERICAS SIDEWALK CAFE SEATING WILL FEATURE ELECTRIFYING VIEWS 
Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops inside the Hilton Americas Hotel downtown will soon feature sidewalk seating and an outdoor lounge area — but not on the hotel’s busy side facing Discovery Green.The improvements are going instead on the west side of the structure, facing Crawford St. (shown above under construction) — and Centerpoint Energy’s showcase full-block electrical transformer farm next door. Crawford St., which is blocked by the Toyota Center one block to the south, will be reduced to 2 traffic lanes, while the sidewalk is widened by 25 ft. Plans for the sidewalk scene by landscape firm Clark Condon Associates show the lounge area surrounded by a low wall closer to Dallas St., a dining area further south, and a double row of sycamore trees that should help shield sidewalk sitters from any sparks across the street. Separately, sidewalks are also being widened along 3 blocks of Dallas St. between Houston Pavilions and the George R. Brown Convention Center. The Spencer’s eating area should be complete by October; drawings of the design are currently on display in the restaurant. Photo: Swamplot inbox
Austin’s Torchy’s Tacos chain will be opening a restaurant in the former Harold’s in the Heights retail space at the southeast corner of 19th St. and Ashland, according to a flyer advertising a new development planned for the former clothing store and connected space. Harold’s closed last year after operating for 61 years at 350 W. 19th St. The flyer says Braun Enterprises — which bought the fifties-mod property from the family of Harold Wiesenthal last September — has already executed the lease with Torchy’s, which is shown taking up 3,340 sq. ft. in the corner spot. The development includes an additional unleased 7,260 sq. ft. of ground-floor space imagined as a cafe and 3,000 more sq. ft. upstairs shown as a dental office in the flyer.
HOUSTON PINKBERRY NO. 3: ACROSS FROM CENTRAL MARKET 
On the occasion of the opening of the Houston area’s second Pinkberry (in the Woodlands Mall, tomorrow), the frozen-yogurt franchisor is announcing its first inside-the-loop location: next to Walgreens, across the street from Central Market in the retail building formerly occupied by Village Kids and Janie and Jack — at 3838 Westheimer. The first area Pinkberry (pictured at right) opened last year off the Gulf Fwy. in Webster. Photo: Tone N.
MAKING A KILLEN OUT OF THE OLD STELLA SOLA SPOT 
A whole bunch more tables will be added to the restaurant Ronnie Killen is opening up at 1001 Studewood St. in the Heights, last known as the location of Stella Sola. Also, the name hasn’t quite been decided yet: either Killen’s Steakhouse in the Heights or KS2. Other details in Patrice Shuttlesworth’s report from the ready-to-demo interior: There will be outdoor dining on a new rooftop garden, accessible by elevator; and the floorplan will be mixed up a bit, with the front door and meat locker both relocated. Killen hopes to have the place open by the middle of next month. [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Stella Sola
WEST END REALITY FISH TV When Mexican TV celebrity Aquiles Chávez opened a seafood restaurant in Houston’s West End earlier this year, local English-language media may not have given it the attention a culinary star might expect. But his efforts to open La Fisheria were all the while being filmed by a crew from Colombia. Now Fox-owned Utilisima is planning to air Chávez’s northern saga as a 13-episode reality TV series, Aquiles en Houston, beginning June 10th. (The slower paced video above isn’t from the series, but contains more footage of the restaurant at 4705 Inker than the series trailer put out by the network.) [29-95; Utilisima] Video: FUHA
The all-day buffet line for Filipino dishes and Mongolian stir fry just west of the Med Center could be winding down. This standalone building at 2416 W. Holcombe, home to Gold Ribbon Bake Shop and Restaurant since the mid-nineties, has been listed for lease by Pipeline Realty. Located in the shadows of a recently completed storage facility, the property shares a back parking lot with an adjacent medical office. There are 48 parking spaces by day and another 40 after office hours. Interestingly, a sign on the door says the place is hiring, seeking new hires who speak English and Tagalog.
- Restaurant Property for Lease [LoopNet]
Photo: Pipeline Realty
