Restaurants

Featured Posts
05/16/18 10:45am

Heights Mexican Restaurant Calle Onze Rises from the Scraps of 11th St. Trailer Park

by
Houston Heights, New Construction, Restaurants
12 Comments

Multiple angles on the fully built, but not-yet-open Heights Mexican restaurant building dubbed Calle Onze show how it’s shaped up on the corner of Allston and 11th St. long home to Jozzie’s Mobile Home Park. In its new format, the 13,200-sq.-ft property relegates parking to the lot on the right in the side view above from Allston. A patio, complete with fake grass, wraps the building to front 11th St (pictured at top), where it butts up against the western boundary of Eight Row Flint‘s corner spot off Yale.

The mobile home park, home to about 9 trailers in its final days, cleared out of the lot in March of last year:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

By Eight Row Flint
, , ,
Apartments
05/08/18 2:30pm

How About a 300-Acre Marina-and-Skyscraper Complex off Kingwood’s Woodland Hills Dr.?

by
Hotels, Kingwood, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail
38 Comments

Shots of the massive waterfront development planned in Kingwood east of Woodland Hills Dr. show it situated around 2 adjacent and existing lakes that neighbor both the San Jacinto River and the Clubs of Kingwood golf course. The 300-acre project — dubbed Herons Kingwood Marina and recently stumbled upon by online architectural sleuth Urbannizer — lays out a plan to link the 2 bodies of water and transform them into marinas with docks, pedestrian paths, and outdoor amusements.

The water-level rendering above from Italian architecture firm Torrisi & Procopio shows a boat parking lot fronting a shopping center that’s planned beside the west marina. From the air in the rendering at top, you can see the eastern marina neighbored by skyscrapers, described by the architect’s website as home to hotels, restaurants, shops, and apartments. A narrow channel leads to the other, aquatic area in the distance.

Here’s where both lakes sit now, just south of Barrington Kingwood — a 200-acre, loop-shaped neighborhood:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

The Liveable Lake
, , , , , ,
Eminent Domain
05/04/18 4:15pm

Uptown Bus Lanes Will Drive Through Newly-Shuttered Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru at 610 and Richmond

by
Public Transportation, Restaurants, Uptown
5 Comments

The 2 new METRO bus lanes — linking a proposed Bellaire transit center to the new middle-of-the-road path up Post Oak Blvd. — won’t run over the actual building at Chick-fil-A’s Richmond Ave location, but they will cut through the property. Last month, the fast-food company agreed to vacate its spot at 5005 Richmond after the State of Texas initiated an eminent domain proceeding against it — and the location subsequently closed. (The 4 strip tenants in Weingarten Realty’s surrounding Richmond Square Shopping Center — BestBuy, Mattress1One, Cost Plus World Market, and Luggage & Leather — are also targeted in the proceeding.)

Adding the new transit route (shown in the map below as a vertical orange line partly covered-over with yellowish-gray) is part of a whole tangle of changes TxDOT has planned for the 610-59 interchange:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Eminent Domain
, , , , , , , , , ,
Featured Posts
03/28/18 4:00pm

Fuzzy’s River Oaks Shopping Center Taco Shop Ceases All Restaurant Activity

by
Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
6 Comments

A closeup shot of the close-up notice now posted on Fuzzy’s Taco Shop’s freestanding building — tucked behind the curved southernmost strip in the River Oaks Shopping Center — reveals that the restaurant has shut down indefinitely. The photo at top shows Fuzzy’s fronting a driveway to the shopping center’s back parking lot off Peden. The taco shop took over the space at the beginning of last year; it had been vacant since Pesca World Seafood shuttered in it 4 years prior.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

Peden St. Pad Site
, , ,
East Montrose
03/22/18 9:45am

Les Noo’dle’s Nametags Replacing Les Ba’get’s on the Montrose Blvd. Restaurant Building Near W. Gray

by
Montrose, Renovations, Restaurants
2 Comments

The building on the corner of Montrose Blvd. and Bomar St. is showing signs of rebranding as Les Ba’get’s owners prepare to open a new, more pho-friendly joint in its place — dubbed Les Noo’dle. February 2 was closing day for the original Vietnamese restaurant; it’s now getting situated in a new Oak Forest shopping center on Ella Blvd. where it will double its space.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Apostrophe Intact
, , , ,
Featured Posts
03/21/18 2:00pm

King’s Bierhaus Owners Will Hatch Egghaus Next Door

by
Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants, Shady Acres, Strip Centers
1 Comment

KING’S BIERHAUS OWNERS WILL HATCH EGGHAUS NEXT DOOR Egghaus Gourmet is what the father-and-son owners of King’s Bierhaus are planning to call the new breakfast restaurant they have planned next to their existing beer hall in the strip center on T.C Jester, just off Ella. The Chronicle’s Greg Morago reports that Hans and Philipp Sitter have already “secured the Egghaus space” on the east side of the building. Upon opening, the new restaurant will bring the tenant count of the 17,500-sq.-ft. strip to either 3 or 4, depending on the state of another neighboring business: Tea & Victory. Announced last September, the board game cafe is still in its incubation phase, but a representative now tells Swamplot it’s looking at an early April opening. [Houston Chronicle] Photo of 2042 and 2044 E. T.C. Jester: JJ J.

, , , , ,
Adaptive Reuse
03/21/18 12:00pm

Smoosh, Teapresso Setting Up Next to Snooze in Lowell Street Market off Shepherd

by
Houston Heights, Mixed Use, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants
No Comments

In the wake of Snooze, 2 more businesses with names suggesting AM activities are on their way to the new Lowell Street Market on 18th St. between Shepherd and Durham. Radom Capital began transforming the 3-building former warehouse complex in something retail- and restaurant-ready back in 2016. Since then, Snooze  has been the only restaurant to open in the development.

Building permits filed for the empty spots neighboring Snooze and Smoosh now show reveal the name of a third eatery that could be on its way to 718 W. 18th St.: Teapresso Bar. The Hawaiian tea shop chain has most of its current locations on Oahu, with a few on Maui as well. Lowell Street Market would be its first step onto the mainland.

The site plan below indicates all 3 buildings in the complex:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

The Early Risers
, , , , , ,
Downtown
03/19/18 4:30pm

Sapporo Japanese Restaurant Preparing To Rub Shoulders with Barnaby’s Across from Market Square Park

by
Openings and Closings, Restaurants
6 Comments

Update, 1 pm, March 21: The numbers of Sapporo restaurants under the same ownership but with different names have been clarified.

Now on its way to the former Fusion Taco space shown shaded by trees and orange awnings next to Barnaby’s in the photo at top: Sapporo Japanese Sushi & Bar. The restaurant’s spot in the Henry Henke Building on the corner of Congress and Milam — across from Market Square Park — will be its second location with this specific name; its first is just off the western end of Woodlands Pkwy. Two other Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse & Bar restaurants are also located in the Houston area.

Fusion Taco opened at 801 Congress in 2013. Here’s what the view east from its sidewalk seating area looked like before the place shuttered:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Fusion Taco Turnover
, , ,
Featured Posts
03/12/18 4:00pm

Midtown’s Redone Central Square Plaza Looking To Lure Tenants to Its Empty Ground Floor

by
Midtown, Office Buildings, Renovations, Restaurants
11 Comments

A building permit filed recently on the Central Square Plaza complex that takes up the block of Travis St. between Gray and Webster reveals Kraftsmen Coffee as the latest restaurant slated for the renovated tower’s empty ground floor. Work to install plumbing for the 1,768-sq.-ft. space that the owners of coffee shop plan to take over began last year.

The photo at top views the west portion of the building’s ground floor, which sits about halfway down the block on Gray St. and faces Milam. A parking garage is off-camera to the right. Around the corner — on the building’s north side — a TABC flyer for Malawi’s Pizza still hangs in the window of the empty storefront on Gray where it was originally posted back in 2016:

 

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Kraftsmen Coffee
, , , ,
Featured Posts
03/12/18 10:30am

Cedars Tapas Bar Banners Now Providing Cover for Abandoned W. Gray Ship & Shield

by
Montrose, North Montrose, Restaurants, Signage
No Comments

Banners for Cedars Tapas Bar — the new restaurant on its way to 403 W. Gray — are now covering up both the plywood board on the building’s forehead and the sign left over from Ship & Shield’s tenancy in the space. The Viking-themed restaurant abandoned the building last December, and property owner Braun Realty is now waiting on the new Lebanese bakery to move in.

Braun bought the the 2,055-sq.-ft. restaurant building in 2016, the same year Ship & Shield took it over from Byzantio’s. Since then, the developer has put up a new retail building on the once-vacant lot just east of restaurant, near Taft St. Its west side is visible beyond Cedars’ sign in the photo above.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

North Montrose Makeover
, , , ,
Demolitions
03/07/18 1:30pm

Skinny Rita’s Patio Now Being Used as a Staging Area for Crews To Gouge Out Its Insides

by
Montrose, North Montrose, Restaurants
6 Comments

Skinny Rita’s is about halfway through its last stand in Montrose this afternoon, thanks to the excavator now parked on what used to be its patio. The health-minded Mexican restaurant at 607 W. Gray St. sat vacant since its owners closed the place down last February. Nine months later, The Platform Group snatched up the former cantina along with its neighbor, the Traci Scott Hair Salon (visible beyond the wrecking arm in the photo at top), where business is proceeding as usual despite the racket next door.

A few more angles on the tear down show piles of rubble getting ready to overflow the patio fencing:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Montrose Pair Minus One
, , , ,
Featured Posts
03/05/18 4:45pm

New Montrose Restaurant Moving in Next to Coming Veterinarian, Bygone Viking Bar on W. Gray

by
Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Restaurants
1 Comment

Now that construction work on the new retail structure Braun Enterprises is developing at 311 W. Gray has headed indoors, a collection of building permits up on the window near the building’s northwest corner names one of its occupants: Me’Lange Restaurant. Last spring, the Chronicle reported that a second location of Kirby fast food spot Viet’s Express would move into the new strip alongside an office of Feather & Fur Animal Hospital. Back then, the 18,221-sq.-ft. plot just west of West Gray Cleaners on the corner of Taft St. was still just a vacant lot; construction began later in 2017.

A parking lot that runs lengthwise behind the building wraps around its west side as it heads for the curb cut on W. Gray:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Cultural Melange
, , , ,
Featured Posts
03/05/18 3:00pm

A Glance at the Sweet Paris Crepe Makeover Planned for Highland Village’s Former Kate Spade

by
Highland Village, Proposed Developments, Restaurants
1 Comment

Changes are now slated to turn the Highland Village building at 2701 Drexel Dr. that Kate Spade took off from last year into what Sweet Paris Crepes & Café is calling its flagship location. The French pastry chain with 2 locations in Houston (and one in Mexico) plans to stuff a 136-seat restaurant into the former boutique just south of Westheimer in the fashion depicted at top, although some of those chairs will sit outside on the patio that’s planned in place of current slant parking spots. The fiery neon display behind the store’s transom window — pictured above with the lights off — will be removed, as will the lifesavers grids up above the storefront’s windows. Inside, the location’s 2,364 sq. ft. will include both a regular eating area and a private dining room.

Rendering: Sweet Paris Crepes & Café. Photo: Swamplot inbox.

Refashioned
, , ,
Featured Posts
03/05/18 11:45am

New Sushi Sign Tacked Up in Place of Vietnamese Sandwich Spot at Midtown’s Mekong Center

by
Midtown, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
No Comments

A new banner is up in place of La Baguette’s lettering in the Mekong Center — on Milam St. between Drew and Tuam — announcing the coming Fukuoka Sushi Bar & Grill. The former Vietnamese sandwich shop shuttered in the space at the end of last year, leaving a void between Pho Saigon and the dentist’s office in the L-shaped retail center which includes parking on its roof. When the new raw fishery moves in at 2808 Milam, it’ll bring the Mekong Center back to full occupancy.

Photos: Chibuike O. (Mekong Center); Natalie W (Fukuoka Sushi Bar & Grill)

Below the Parking Pad
, , , ,
Featured Posts
02/28/18 1:30pm

The Heavy Metal Taco Redo Now Taking Shape on N. Main off I-45

by
Renovations, Restaurants, Woodland Heights
10 Comments

Facial adjustments to the building at 3701 N. Main have left it rustier than it was when El Taquito Rico shuttered in the same space last May. The former Woodland Heights Mexican restaurant’s yellow sign has been removed, as has the standing seam mansard roof-style awning that wrapped its frontage on N. Main. In their place, a headband of corrugated metal now hugs the top of the structure — which sits on a narrow 8,375-sq.-ft. lot at the end of Pecore St., just west of I-45 (and across the street from the O’Reilly Auto Parts building that Asia Market is moving into).

Floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the restaurant’s entryway have also been truncated:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Heights Wrap-Up
, , ,
« Previous Page Next Page »