Restaurants

Restaurants, Shopping Centers

Jungle Cafe and Patisserie, Diho Square, Chinatown, Houston

Tasty Bits blogger Misha catches up with Diho Square on Bellaire:

Where else do you find Sichuan duck tongues, sushi, babh mi, bubble tea, vegetarian pork kidneys and French pastries within steps of each other?

On this (extended) visit: Sichuan Cuisine, Shanghai Restaurant, and the Pine Forest Garden Vegetarian Restaurant. But the Jungle CafÃ© & PÃ¢tisserie warrants his closest attention:

I must have passed it a dozen times, but never thought to look inside. If I had, I would have found French-style pastries inflected with pokemon graphics, the likes of which I have never seen in Chinatown before or anywhere else in Houston for that matter.

After the jump: a few more photos from the scene.

77036, Cafes, Chinatown, Restaurants, Shopping Centers

Koreatown

06/11/08 11:09am

Super H Mart: So Good It Hurts

Long Point, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

Super H Mart Korean Supermarket, 1302 Blalock Rd., Houston Some rather positive reviews for the 53,000-sq.-ft. Super H Mart now open in the former Randall’s on Blalock at Westview, a few blocks north of I-10. Yelp user Therese S. calls the big Korean chain‘s Houston store an

Awesome, awesome Asian grocery store. They have pretty much almost everything. . . . I saw wansuy (cilantro), (Philippine–the best) mango juice, calamansi juice, halo-halo ingredients, even fish sauce, oyster sauce (albeit in HUGE bottles), sinigang mix, prawn crackers, mochi(!), kimchi (a whole chiller section), chopsticks, Yan Yan, Pocky, Koala, and on and on.

And this from the Food in Houston blog:

If you walk inside and don’t look too closely, you might think that you are in a state-of-the-art Whole Foods. Super H Mart has that same bright, cheery, contemporary feel. But instead of a cheese counter, Super H has a whole wall devoted to kimchi. . . .

The produce section includes fruits and vegetables that are rarely seen in Houston — even at Hong Kong market. The quality of the produce looks as good as Central Market or Whole Foods.

The seafood section may have the broadest, and most interesting, selection of seafood in Houston.

After the jump: A look at that wall of kimchi! Plus: a food-court surprise!

77055, Koreatown, Long-Point, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Supermarkets

Commercial Real Estate

05/29/08 1:06pm

Highland Village: Work Above Waterworks, Filling the Gap Gap

Highland Village, Hotels, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

Construction on Top of Waterworks, Highland Village Shopping Center, Houston

A reader who lives near the Highland Village Shopping Center reports that work on “the structure being built (so slowly) on top of Waterworks” at the corner of Drexel and Westheimer appears to have started up again, after a long period of nothing-going-on. Plus: he hears it’s going to be a French restaurant. Wasn’t last year’s rumor that it was going to be a wine bar?

And speaking of rumors, the same reader wants to know what’s going to happen on the opposite corner of the same intersection, where the Gap used to be:

I have hear that it will be either a 5 story boutique hotel or 2 story retail, and, as of a few weeks ago, that they would be deciding between retail vs hotel by mid May.

77027, Commercial Real Estate, Highland Village, Highland Village Shopping Center, Hotels, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

Historic Preservation

05/23/08 12:41pm

No White Tablecloths: Kraftsmen and Textile in the Heights

Houston Heights, Houston History, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants

Oriental Textile Mill, Houston Heights, Houston

On June 1st, Scott Tycer will be opening a new wholesale and retail location of his Kraftsmen Bakery in 10,000 long-vacant square feet of the old Oriental Textile Mill on 22nd St. and Lawrence in the Heights. Also opening in the space two months later: a 1,200-square-foot restaurant with a garden patio and bar area, designed by Ferenc Dreef.

Tycer, who was the chef at Aries and then Pic on Montrose, and who runs Gravitas on Taft (which Dreef also designed), will be cooking at the restaurant, which will be called Textile. Tycer described Textile to blogger Cleverley Stone:

We’re going to build out the dining room with textiles, lots of hanging fabrics and different tablecloths on each table. This will not be your typical white-tablecloth restaurant.

Tycer is right: White tablecloths would probably not be appropriate for the space. A history of the Heights written by Sister M. Agatha of the Incarnate Word Academy and published in 1956 describes the operations of the textile mill, which was originally built in 1892 as a mattress factory:

B. J. Platt for years was superintendent of the plant that turned out a product which looked like long rolls of carpeting and which was used for pressing cotton seed oil. The plant’s capacity was about 50 rolls a day, varying in price from $200 to $400 a roll.

The textile was woven from hair. Old residents of the Heights have handed down the story that in the beginning much of the hair was obtained from China when pigtails were being discarded. But certain it is that camel’s hair in time came to be the staple used in production.

Old Heights textile mill perfect spot for bread wholesaler [Houston Chronicle]
Scott Tycer Weaves Together Past, Present & Future with New Restaurant [Cleverley’s Blog]
Chapter I: The Development of a Suburban Addition [The History of Houston Heights, 1891-1918]
more details on textile [Tasty Bits]

Photo of Oriental Textile Mill: Tasty Bits

77008, Historic Preservation, Houston Heights, Houston History, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants

Lancaster Place

05/09/08 9:27am

“Dude, What Gives?”: Cafe Artiste’s Disappearing Act

Leasing, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

11 Comments

Cafe Artiste, Houston, April 18, 2008

“CafÃ© Artiste’s closing is fraught with mystery,” declares the River Oaks Examiner. A sign posted on the front door of the cafe at 1601 W. Main St. near the Menil reads “CafÃ© Artiste will be closed today — sorry for any inconvenience.” The sign has been posted for about a month.

People are pining for their favorite hangout and its ownersâ€™ whereabouts, but no one seems to have an answer. Messages scrawled onto the â€œclosedâ€ sign reveal the sudden nature of the cafeâ€™s closing as well as peopleâ€™s curiosity and, in some cases, their disappointment.

â€œDude, what gives?â€ read one handwritten message, while the question â€œForever?â€ had been scribbled right under the words â€œclosed todayâ€ along with a sad face drawn next to it. . . .

A separate sign in the window, put there by Keller Williams Realty, said the property is up for lease, but calls to the company were not immediately returned.

After the jump: those signs!

77006, Lancaster Place, Leasing, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

Chinatown

04/30/08 10:28am

New Home for Vietnamese Food in the West End

Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants, West End

4705 Inker St., Houston

Discussing Vietnamese restaurants in Houston, Food in Houston’s Anonymouseater notes the upcoming launch of Pagoda Vietnamese Bistro and Bar — the latest addition to the agglomeration of restaurants off Shepherd and Durham, just south of I-10. But Pagoda appears to be struggling to gain its bearings. The restaurant’s website and menu claim:

We are the first authentic Vietnamese eatery west of downtown with a full menu comparative in traditional quality that can be found in Southeast Houston better known as Chinatown.

There’s more Houston neighborhood-related entertainment in Pagoda’s description of itself on its website:

Up and coming restaurant surely to be a neighborhood favorite to the Heights hippies, Midtown young professionals, Montrose eclectic crowd, Museum District artisans, River Oakies, and the Downtown/Allen Parkway industry professionals.

Anonymouseater provides a helpful summary — and preliminary verdict:

Translation: bringing Vietnamese food from Bellaire to a non-Asian audience with nice decor and high prices. Sounds like Vietopia? Those goals are not necessarily bad. But the food has to be compelling for it to work.

Vietopia – Vaguely Vietnamese [Food in Houston]
Pagoda Bistro & Bar, 4705 Inker St.

Photo of 4705 Inker St. (from 2006): HAR

77007, Chinatown, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants, West End

Chinatown

04/24/08 1:12pm

Exploring Chinatown: Noodles in Paradise

Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers

Paradise Cafe, 9889 Bellaire Blvd No. 1128, Houston

A shopping center tucked off Bellaire Blvd. just inside Beltway 8 hosts a particularly intriguing restaurant row:

Within feet of Fu Fu Cafe are something like 7 or 8 eateries offering a bewildering range of options in just a single shopping strip. The gelato shop is right next to a bakery that sells French desserts, Chinese pastries and rice cakes that look like guerilla hand grenades. A restaurant a few doors down serves Braised Lion Head, a Shanghai pork meatball specialty cooked with Napa cabbage I have never come across and have yet to sample (no, itâ€™s not made with real lion meat, I checked). Noodle House 88, which Robb Walsh swears serves some of the best Indonesian food in the country, is in the very same strip. If Indonesian food doesnâ€™t suit you, you can order sushi from the same menu. A new dim sum place opened just days ago and already looks packed.

But some of these food establishments aren’t so accessible for newcomers, warns the author of the Tasty Bits blog:

Tucked in at the end of the strip Paradise Cafe looks almost impenetrable to a non-Chinese American. Other than the name and descriptive signs such as “noodles” and “soups”, the only real clue as to what is inside is a magazine article pasted in the window showing a chef pulling noodles by hand. I got a blank stare when I asked for a to go menu, making me even more curious. For all I know the article could have been about the importance of keeping a tidy kitchen, but the promise of hand made noodles was too much to ignore, so I made it my mission to figure out what was behind the iron curtain.

Keep reading for Tasty Bits’ lowdown on Paradise Cafe noodles!

77036, Bellaire-Blvd, Chinatown, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers

Brookesmith

04/23/08 8:17am

Reader Report: Woodland Heights McDonald’s 2.0

Restaurants, Woodland Heights

2 Comments

New McDonaldâ€™s at I-45 and N. Main, Woodland Heights

A reader writes in with this report on the newly reopened McDonald’s at I-45 and N. Main, at the entrance of Woodland Heights:

It’s no “McStarbucks,” but it is different from most McDonald’s I’ve seen. The colors are rich coffee browns. There’s some fake zebrawood-looking formica on some walls, and a strange wallpaper-like tile in the bathroom. Right in the middle of the main eating area there’s a round structure that looks vaguely like a DJ booth. A bar-height counter juts out from it, where people waiting for their orders can rub elbows. The indoor playground in front is in a separate room. Sorry, no comfy couches.

How were the hamburgers?!!!?

Reader Answers: Woodland Heights McStarbucks [Swamplot]

77009, Brookesmith, Fast Food, Woodland Heights

Institutional Buildings

04/22/08 2:44pm

Glass Is Now in Session: New Rice Coffee Plaza and Pavilion

New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Rice University

Institutional Buildings, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Rice-University

Rendering of New Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University, Designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners

More buildings brewing on campus at Rice: The new Brochstein Pavilion, behind Fondren Library, opens later this week!

Designed by architect Thomas Phifer, the 6,000-square-foot building features natural lighting from light scoops, plasma screens, couches and chairs, all surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on a 10,700-square-foot wraparound plaza. This exterior seating area is covered by a trellis designed to filter light, as live oaks do along Rice walkways, and is encompassed by an elm grove, fountains, live oaks, new sidewalks and a freshly sodded Central Quad.

A new freestanding structure dedicated to the increasingly popular liberal-arts discipline of . . . Caffeine Studies?

Does Swamplot have any readers at Rice? Send us your reports! Uhh . . . how’s that coffee?

Brochstein Pavilion opens April 26 [Rice News]
Brochstein Pavilion [Rice University Housing & Dining]
Serendipitous Musings: Pavilion success rides on student support [Rice Thresher]

Drawing: Pavilion architects Thomas Phifer & Partners

Malls

04/18/08 9:18am

Where To Order a Relief Pitcher: Rocket Goes Off at Memorial City

Memorial City, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Opening in two weeks: A 15,000-square-foot generic sports bar in Memorial City Mall. Hey, wasn’t that supposed to be the Rocket Sports Grill?

Allison Wollam reports in the Houston Business Journal that Roger Clemens’s plans for a burger empire appear to have been scuttled:

. . . all traces of the seven-time Cy-Young award winner have been erased from the would-be restaurant site.

Just one month ago, construction workers were busy erecting a large red “Rocket” sign at the entrance of the restaurant, while Clemens’ baseball jerseys from the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and The University of Texas Longhorns hung in the entry.

As of this week, the Clemens memorabilia had been removed. The restaurant — which is still under construction — now houses wide-screen televisions, NASCAR video games and a variety of non-Clemens’ related baseball memorabilia.

Rocket Sports Grill strikes out after several swings and misses [Houston Business Journal]

77024, Malls, Memorial City, Memorial City Mall, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Highland Village

04/11/08 9:49am

State Grille Closing Down; 27-Story Tower Going Up?

Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants

The State Grille, the restaurant at the corner of Weslayan and W. Alabama, will be shutting down a little earlier than expected. Cleverley’s Blog and Jennifer Dawson of the Houston Business Journal report that the restaurant will serve its last meal on May 31st.

Restaurant owners Frankie Mandola and Joe Butera sold the property to Giorgio Borlenghi’s Interfin Cos. in October 2006. The HBJ reported at the time that the restaurant had a lease agreement lasting until the end of 2008. Whatever happened to those last 6 months, Mandola doesn’t sound too happy about it now:

Mandola says he asked “a bunch of times,” but Interfin would not extend the State Grille lease scheduled to expire in July.

Interfin won’t say what the company’s plans for the property are, but . . .

According to Mandola, Interfin plans to tear down the building as soon as the restaurant clears out and construct a 27-story building of an undetermined type.

After the jump: There’s more to the property!

77027, Highland Village, Highrises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants

Montrose

04/09/08 12:41pm

Feast: Going Whole Hog on Lower Westheimer

Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants

Interior of Feast, 219 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston

Anonymouseater, writing in the Food in Houston blog, begins discussion of a brand-new restaurant on Lower Westheimer with this caution:

Warning: This post contains material for an adult audience. Children, sensitive readers, and vegetarians should read no further. They also should not go to one of my new favorite Houston restaurants called “Feast.”

Anonymouseater is wrong about the vegetarian part. The proprietors of Feast claim to serve “great vegetarian food.” For example, in today’s lunch menu, “Roasted Vegetable Salad with Chickpeas and Homemade Yoghurt Cheese” is listed next to . . . “Tongue and Testicles in Green Sauce.”

And just above the “Lambâ€™s Tongues, Bacon, Rutabaga and Swiss Chard” is “Thyme Braised Lentils with Balsamic Tomato Salad.” So you see, Feast offers fine dining for every taste!

But really, why all the strange animal parts?

Real carnivores eat meat from the whole animal.

Oh. Feast’s home at 219 Westheimer is the former location of Chez George. Notes another reviewer, at Tasty Bits:

A few months ago it was a charming old house with creaky floors and ancient diners in suits eating continental food. Walk into Feast today you might think youâ€™re in a neighborhood diner on Notting Hill. The space looks more open and full of light. Where a place like Ristorante Cavour feels like a facsimile created by an interior designer, Feast with itâ€™s dark woods, family photos and subtle touches throughout the restaurant make it feel as if someone actually lives there. Itâ€™s a great place to eat.

After the jump: More cowball!

Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants

Apartments

04/08/08 12:17pm

West Ave Food and Drink Details: Imported Beers and Restaurants

Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby

View of West Ave, Kirby and Westheimer, Houston, by Looney Ricks Kiss, Architects

Houston restaurant reporter Cleverley Stone has names and details of four new restaurants and a bar slated to open at West Ave, the multistory mixed-use development now under construction on the corner of Westheimer and Kirby. All are culinary imports from Dallas, San Antonio, or California, though one has already moved nearby:

Cru, a wine bar with food, was founded in Dallas but already has a location open in The Woodlands.

With the ambience of a European cafÃ©, indoor and alfresco options will be available with dining areas separated by a wall of French doors. The dÃ©cor will incorporate custom built wine racks and handpainted fresco wine labels on canvas. The menu will offer a contemporary collection of French-Continental, Asian Fusion and Wine Country
The Social House, a gastropub that will actually call itself a gastropub. Presumably this will be much like the Syn Group’s Social House in Dallas, although here it will be in West Ave, not in West Village.
Pie Bar, a 1,500-square-foot gourmet pizza place — also from the Syn Group — that’s also a bar and will stay open until 2 a.m. On the second floor.
Swig, a cigar-and-martini bar with locations in San Antonio and Memphis.
Wildfish Seafood Grille, an upscale seafood and steak house, already has locations in San Antonio and Scottsdale but was founded in Newport Beach by the owners of Eddie V’s and the Roaring Fork.

Though a number of the 390 luxury apartments upstairs are scheduled to become available this August, the restaurants and stores below them in West Ave’s first phase won’t open until August 2009.

After the jump, two more newish images of West Ave from the architect’s website.

77098, Apartments, Bars, Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby, West Ave

Galleria

04/02/08 8:17am

Rove Through Houston, Appreciating Europe

Hotels, Restaurants

Karl Rove(?) in the Lobby of the Hotel Granduca, Houston

So a lot of Houstonians don’t really get the Hotel Granduca. Who does? During a recent visit, the proprietor of Houston restaurant blog Tasty Bits came up with one answer:

I was always curious about the people who pay $1,300 a night for a hotel suite in Houston. Who are they? What do they eat? I got my answer as soon as I arrived and saw Karl Rove waiting to get picked up in the lobby (sulfur, smoke, instant drop in temperature, and all). For a split second I thought about inviting him to join us for lunch. Itâ€™s not often you are in the presence of one of the more diabolical political minds of our generation.

Tasty Bits has more juicy commentary on the hotel:

Entering Hotel Granduca is a little like following the rabbit hole – just beyond the iron gates and right past the horse mounted statue of Adalberto Malatesta Granduca of Monfallito (?) is a different world than one might find in otherwise sensible Houston.

After the jump: What’s down that rabbit hole! Plus: tasteful commentary on lunch at the hotel’s Ristorante Cavour.