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
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National attention may be focused on Central Texas-style barbecue, but food writer J.C. Reid says it’s time to put Houston barbecue back on the map. Logical first step in his Houston Barbecue Project, then: this interactive map of urban BBQ joints within Beltway 8. The project’s mission: “to revisit, document and recognize the East Texas-style of barbecue as it is embodied in the urban barbecue joints of Houston, Texas.” Reid drew the Beltway boundary just to limit the project’s first phase — he’s writes that he’s interested in expanding exploration to Houston’s outskirts and beyond once he — and any fellow BBQ adventurers — are able to document more of this city’s smoky inner sanctum.
What about the argument that city of Houston health and environmental codes are incompatible with good barbecue?
Do you know this building? It’s somewhere in Northeast Houston. And by October of 2012 it’s scheduled to become a brewpub run by startup City Acre Brewing Co. Owner Daniel Glover tells Houston Press food critic Katharine Shilcutt that the undisclosed location will offer food as well. A preview Oktoberfest event is scheduled there for next month.
- City Acre Brewing Co. [Facebook]
- Openings & Closings: See Ya, Tequila [Eating Our Words]
- Teaser: City Acre Brewing [Eater Houston]
Photo: City Acre Brewing
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:
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
ROUTE 44 CHERRY LIMEADE FROM MASON RD. SONIC DRAWS OUT FBI FUGITIVE 
Why did an accused child rapist from Oklahoma come out of his hiding place of 5 days along the Brazos River in Stephen F. Austin State Park? “Because he was tired and thirsty and wanted a Route 44 cherry limeade from Sonic,” Charles Dyer apparently told authorities after he was captured near Pecan Grove carrying the drink in a cooler. As a shirtless pedestrian in a Richmond drive-in, Dyer may have aroused suspicion at the Sonic at 9835 S. Mason Rd. But it took someone spotting the former Marine blocks away to call the authorities. Over the last couple of years, Dyer has posted a series of YouTube videos (as July4Patriot) documenting his views about and problems with the government, as well as the various criminal charges filed against him. A member of the Oath Keeper militia movement, he has claimed that the rape charge was concocted as part of a government conspiracy. [KHOU 11 News; Instant News Katy] Photo: NEDSCO
Houston burger fans, In-N-Out wants to pack your meat in Fort Worth. No, the California-based burger chain hasn’t announced any Houston locations yet, but clearly they’re on the radar: Only a few months after opening its first Texas location, In-N-Out is asking the city of Fort Worth to lower city taxes by $840,000 over 10 years so it can build a regional distribution center and meatpacking facility near DFW “that would support expansion across Texas and possibly into neighboring states.”
- In-N-Out Burger seeks abatement for regional distribution center [Star-Telegram, via Eater Houston]
Photo: Mike E. Perez
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]
Who knew a little late-night tweet from a customer would spark a chain of events that would turn a new Heights restaurant into the topic of international news stories? Here’s the basic outline of what went down over the weekend at Down House: Customer, after a few beers, sends out tweet about bar staff. Off-duty bar manager doesn’t like tweet, calls up bar and asks to speak to customer. After a brief exchange, customer is asked to leave. Queue . . . the TV news! The Huffington Post! Gizmodo! Time magazine! The Daily Mail!
OUT OF THE KITCHEN, INTO THE MARKET Former Kata Robata chef Seth Siegel-Gardner, hunting for a location to lease for the as-yet-unnamed new restaurant he and fellow NYC transplant Terrence Gallivan plan to open in Houston within a year: “We were talking to a real estate agent whose number we had called off a building that we had been eyeing for weeks. So there we sat, our grand vision for the space and our impending total world culinary domination about to be laid at the feet of this person whose name was plastered on a poorly constructed sign on the side of our future culinary castle. First question out of the landlord’s mouth was, ‘Do you have the financing?’ We lie and say yes. The rest of the conversation is a blur, the amount of acronyms this person uses, you’d think they were passing codes to Russia. I make mental notes for all of them and spend many hours that night on wikipedia finding definitions that lead to an endless amount of real estate knowledge, but which will nonetheless take the majority of my adult life to truly understand. On the drive home from this meeting, Terrence and I didn’t talk much. Instead, we said what we experienced were a lot of ‘blow-outs’ — a kitchen term used to explain the feeling when words can’t describe the frustrations, disappointment or just plain exhaustion of the situation.” [Food Republic; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOOKING FORWARD TO MISSING YOU TOO “It’s weird to think that Rice Village had, at various times, a porn theater, a reggae bar, and a former gas station converted into a barbeque place called the Poor Man’s Country Club. A lot of the funkiness has gone, but that’s what the residents in the vicinity want. It’s an upscale neighborhood–and that tends to push out some of the more marginal businesses. But new funky neighborhoods are always coming into existence, so while I mourn the disappearance of great, unique neighborhood businesses, I welcome new ones elsewhere. Who knows — 20 years from now, Radical Eats might be a beloved neighborhood institution in a gentrifying neighborhood.” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Po’ Boys Priced Out of the Village]
Saves me money!!! Radical Eats owner Staci Davis has taken to Kickstarter — and this woozy video — to raise money to add a water filtration system, better air conditioning, and a beer and wine license to her new vegan Mexican restaurant location at 3903 Fulton St., just north of Moody Park. Davis, who jettisoned plans to work out of the kitchen at the Heights Ashbury Coffeehouse after only a few weeks there, took over the former Kiko’s Mexican Cafe location just before the July 4th holiday. So far, she’s raised $325 of $8,000 she hopes to net for improvements to the Radical Eats Cafe. What will you get for your contribution, besides — if the target is reached — the ability to buy and drink a meat-and-dairy-free cold one on site? For $5, a written thank-you note and a hug at each visit. For $500: a dish at the restaurant named after you or your organization, a few more goodies, and a custom-made hula hoop.
- Radical Eats Beer and Wine Garden [Kickstarter]
- A vegan Mexican restaurant with a beer garden and a killer brunch? Staci Davis gets Radical [Culturemap]
- Radical Eats Cafe – Comida Vegetariana [Radical Eats]
- Previously on Swamplot: Here Comes That 19th St. “Hippie Vibeâ€: Radical Eats Opening in Heights Ashbury Coffeehouse
Video: Kickstarter
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LOST SCENT “It broke my heart when they closed down the location near my high school on Hilcroft many years ago. [It] was a great place for ‘off campus’ dining. Don’t even get me started about the closure of the original Taft location without warning. Don’t they know it takes decades to achieve that wonderful aroma from all those imported cheeses, olives, etc.? This is a smell my children (and I) will never experience again.” [jgbiggs, commenting on Po’ Boys Priced Out of the Village]
PO’ BOYS PRICED OUT OF THE VILLAGE The Antone’s Import Co. on the corner of Dunstan and Kelvin in the Rice Village shut down last week, says the Houston Press: “Sources indicate that rent in the space — next door to Kelvin Arms and benjy’s — had increased to the point where Antone’s finally had to close down and reconcentrate on its Stella Link location.” [Eating Our Words] Photo: West University Examiner
COMMENT OF THE DAY: REMEMBERING BENNIGAN’S “It gets me thinking. I don’t remember when the original Bennigans closed. I can’t say I remember ever missing Bennigans. While I admit I ate at Bennigans a few times, I don’t remember a thing about it. It was neither good or bad–a remarkably unmemorable experience. I’m not sure about the new ones. . . .” [Will, commenting on The Texas Bennigan’s Begin Again]