Restaurants

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.

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Comments
03/03/09 3:51pm

Comment of the Day: Superior Locations

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Quicklink, Restaurants
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SUPERIOR LOCATIONS “On one hand, it is ironic that these kids consider one bunch of chain restaurants superior to an identical bunch in another location. But it is also a demonstration of how even in an environment of repetitive conformity, persons especially sensitive to barely visible (and possibly pheromonic) indicators of superiority will seek such places out. It suggests that even if we lived in a Stalinist city of identical concrete apartment blocks, where everyone wore identical Mao suits, there’d still be a cool part of town.” [RWB, commenting on Hey, Hey, Stay Outta Our Chick-fil-A]

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Memorial
03/03/09 3:36pm

Brennan’s Restaurant: 80 Percent Back Soon

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Midtown, Restaurants
3 Comments

The Brennan’s Restaurant building at 3300 Smith St. in Midtown — designed in 1930 by Houston architect John Staub — was originally the home of Houston’s Junior League. A fire during Hurricane Ike left it a brick shell. But now the owners say they’ll rebuild.

Alex Brennan-Martin — and the Brennan’s website — have said as much a number of times before. But today he announced it at a press conference with the mayor. An unspecified “80 percent” of the building will be restored. The new Brennan’s is expected to open in October, its old courtyard oak replaced with a free-range model imported from Hermann Park.

Also snuck into the press conference: the 2 new restaurants Brennan-Martin be opening with partners in the aptly named CityCentre, the Town & Country Mall replacement parked at the crotch of I-10 and the Beltway. Café Rosé and Bistro Alex should open inside the new Hotel Sorella there in July.

Photo of Brennan’s after Hurricane Ike: Flickr users hannu & hannele

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Cinco Ranch
03/02/09 12:13pm

Hey, Hey, Stay Outta Our Chick-fil-A

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Master-Planned Communities, Quicklink, Restaurants
3 Comments

HEY, HEY, STAY OUTTA OUR CHICK-FIL-A A brief excerpt from that satirical article in the Cinco Ranch High School newspaper that sparked protests from students of neighboring schools at the LaCenterra Shopping Center last Friday: “You can’t help but be a little bit angry when you’re stuck in the Whataburger drive-thru behind an unimaginably large caravan of Katy cars, each sporting at least 12 stickers reminding you of their accomplishments. If they’re so great why can’t they go to their own Whataburger? There’s this feeling in our little corner of the world that just says: This is Cinco. Some believe there is a sense of ownership to the neighboring businesses and restaurants… Cinco’s Mission Burrito. Cinco’s Target. Cinco’s Taco Bell, Whataburger, Sonic. Seeing anything but maroon clad students and parents roaming the aisles seems odd to some. Don’t they have their own places to go? ” [Fort Bend Now]

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Attractions
02/27/09 4:17pm

Comment of the Day: Home of the 150-Ft. Buddha

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Comments, Public Art, Quicklink, Religious Facilities, Restaurants
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOME OF THE 150-FT. BUDDHA “I don’t think there would be outrage over a Buddha. Everybody would think it was ‘cute’ and look for the adjacent Chinese restaurant.” [EMME, commenting on Sagemont Cross: New Higher Power Lines Beltway 8]

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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?

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Attractions
02/27/09 9:00am

Avoiding Illegal Food Movements: Sliders in Hermann Park

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Hermann Park, Parks, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail
5 Comments

Alison Cook previews the promised second location for Little Big’s — set to open “probably late spring” in Hermann Park. The home of tiny burgers will slide into a shack overlooking a new bridge on a portion of McGovern Lake, just north of the Zoo.

But chef Bryan Caswell’s attempt to operate food carts in the park have forced him to face a Houston food legend that dates from long before the age of the taco truck:

The promised Little Big’s cart service inside the park is turning out to be complicated, however. Houston health ordinances forbid the actual cooking of sliders on the carts, which means Caswell & company must come up with some new “park-themed” menu ideas. “The whole restricted versus non-restricted cart thing is amazing,” says Caswell.

The chef notes that during the research phase of the project, “we found some very interesting info on why Houston doesn’t have street food cart vendors like New York City or New Orleans. If I recall correctly, in the early 1900s, the original Market Square was littered with tamale carts. One busy hot summer day, a large group of people got sick and I think even a few died. The carts were all blamed and chased out of town. Ever since, the food cart has been a heavily restricted H-Town deal.”

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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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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:

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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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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Leasing
01/30/09 1:01pm

Las Alamedas Lease Lapsed?

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Memorial, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
18 Comments

Note: Updated below.

Las Alamedas Restaurant — the hacienda on the Katy Freeway — is on hiatus pending renegotiation of its 28-year-old lease.

According to a message on the restaurant’s voice mail, the storied location of countless wedding, birthday and anniversary fiestas is “temporarily closed” while negotiations continue.

When Las Alamedas opened in 1980 it was the first grand, high-end Mexican restaurant in town. The Memorial location — 8615 Katy Freeway at Voss — attracted diners who sought genuine Mexican cuisine in a large elegant setting. Colonial-style architecture, bayou views, banquet facilities and highly professional service pleased customers for whom Ninfa’s on Navigation was terra incognita.

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