COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RESTAURANT RUSH IN SHADY ACRES “Given the success of hugely popular Cedar Creek just down the street…and the new Hubcap Grille opening about a block away on 19th…and Gatlin’s BBQ…and the new spot opening soon on 23rd…I’d say this part of town has a hungry (and thirsty!) population who will ensure that this new Corkscrew location does well. Welcome to the neighborhood – very happy to have you here!” [LaLa, commenting on The Corkscrew Pops Open in Shady Acres]
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This building at 3951 San Felipe, just west of Willowick, may have started out as a gas station, but it’s also spent time as a cleaners and most recently was a bank. Since its soft opening last week, it’s been Relish Fine Foods, a small new market for the River Oaks crowd, specializing in natural and seasonal gourmet food, with shout-outs to local vendors. There’s still plenty of room to fill the wide-open 2,300-sq.-ft. interior with more merchandise, reports photographer Candace Garcia. (More than the current deli and olive bars may show up before the official opening next week.) But where better to start a little Houston grocery that supports the slow food movement than in this drive-up-friendly grab-and-go location? Parking-lot-facing sandwich munchers, there’s even a marble bar set up along the west front of the building set up just for you:
The long-rumored fifth Hong Kong Market will soon take over this former flea-market building (on the right in the photo) just southwest of the intersection of Airport Blvd. and the Gulf Freeway, a reader reports. Work is already going on inside the building, which was originally a Sam’s Club. The 2 pagoda-themed strip buildings flanking the building’s parking lot that were put up a few years ago are still mostly empty — only a pho restaurant and a nail salon have moved in. The Pulgita con Aire, aka the National Marketplace flea market, now has its own building with an attached parking garage directly south of its former home (barely visible in the background between the 2 buildings), along Mosley Rd. at 9820 Gulf Fwy. D. Back in February, the owners of the Hong Kong Market agreed to pay $1.8 million in back wages and a $200,000 fine for underpaying the Houston grocery chain’s workers and misleading investigators about its labor practices.
- National Market Place (Flea Market #1) [Google]
- Hong Kong Market chain to pay $1.8 million in back wages [Houston Chronicle]
- Great Day Weekend: Shopping at Hong Kong Market [KHOU.com]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
LIKE PULLING TEETH: SCREWED UP RECORDS WON’T BE EVICTED EASILY 
Houston hip-hop landmark Screwed Up Records & Tapes is facing eviction from its longtime South Park storefront, says the Houston Press. The building’s owner, Dr. Zeb F. Poindexter III, reportedly has plans to expand his dental business into the store’s space at 7717 Cullen Blvd. From early 1998 until his death in late 2000, the CD and tape shop served as the musical headquarters for Robert Earl Davis Jr., also known as DJ Screw, who pioneered Screwston’s “chopped and screwed” sound. The store has been run by family and friends ever since. Blog reporter Rizoh says an eviction judge has ruled in Poindexter’s favor, but that Screwed Up Records & Tapes has filed an appeal and is waiting for a new court date. [Rocks Off; store info and samples]
Coming next April to this Studewood corner just across 8th St. from Antidote Coffee, according to My Table: a second, more food-focused location of the Sonoma Retail Wine Bar and Restaurant on Richmond that backs up to the art galleries on Colquitt. Venture Commercial’s leasing package for the property shows the existing 2,160-sq.-ft. building at 803 Studewood spiffed up, with this adjacent apartment building knocked down to make room for 24 parking spaces:
As of Friday evening, new we’re-gonna-tow-you-if-you-park-here signs have been installed along D’Amico St. just north of the new Waugh Dr. Whole Foods Market, reports the Swamplot correspondent who’s been monitoring the parking situation there — and taking in the scene at the new store: “I think the traffic and mass crowds might be worth it,” was the first conclusion, even before the clampdown. These photos, showing the new signs and an American General security detail along D’Amico just west of the office complex parking garage, were taken on a later visit Saturday morning after a follow-up shopping expedition — where our correspondent happily scored 50 bucks’ worth of soda and candy.
- Previously on Swamplot: Later on Opening Day: Whole Foods Montrose Afternoon Parking Report
Photos: Swamplot inbox
“I don’t know about the Whole Foods parking lot,” writes a Swamplot reader, “but it’s certainly getting real on D’Amico!” Here’s a photo sent in with that report, taken just past the American General Center garage north of the new store on D’Amico St., shortly after 4 pm. But there was plenty of neighborhood-street spillover earlier, too: “Around lunch time, if there was a curb there was a car . . . on both sides along D’Amico, bumper to bumper from the light to just under the garage.” How long will this sort of thing keep up? Our tipster imagines AIG American General will soon put out no-parking signs “along any parts of the street that is their property, such as along the entrance to a parking lot across from whole foods and by the garage. Other areas on the campus have no parking signs where people tend to stop. I know you can’t park within a certain distance to a stop sign, does the same apply to stop lights? If so, some people risked a ticket just to get some groceries! It would be cheaper to pay for parking in the AIG lot or the garage visitor parking.” And no rush, folks. Those free chicken breast coupons are good until next Tuesday.
- Previously on Swamplot: Opening Day: It’s Getting Real Crowded at the Montrose Whole Foods Parking Lot, Beer, Wine, Art, and BBQ on Tap: Here’s Your New Whole Foods Market, Montrose, This Kind of Whole Foods Thing, Getting Real on Waugh at West Dallas This Weekend,
Photo: Swamplot inbox
I’ve been waiting here like 10 minutes, man! No, no no . . . this is my parking space man. Just like the video already? “Despite all that concrete, there is not a single space available as I look out the window,” reports a reader who’s been monitoring today’s grand opening of the new Whole Foods Market on West Dallas and Waugh from an office window high above — and has already started grumbling about the potential evening traffic: “The parking lot has been full all morning.” This photo was snapped around 10:15.
- Previously on Swamplot: Beer, Wine, Art, and BBQ on Tap: Here’s Your New Whole Foods Market, Montrose, This Kind of Whole Foods Thing, Getting Real on Waugh at West Dallas This Weekend, North Montrose Whole Foods’ Rendezvous with Groceries, Austin Powers the New North Montrose Whole Foods, The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh, Whole Foods Galleria and North Montrose: Still on Track, In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods, A Few Signs the Montrose Whole Foods Market Is On Its Way
Photo: Swamplot inbox
The Montrose Whole Foods media frenzy has begun! Did the company’s Walmart-alum store-development manager really tell the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff that Whole Foods decided not to build the store at Waugh and West Dallas on top of 2 levels of structured parking because “the amount of concrete required . . . would have created a ‘huge heat island’”? Meanwhile, bullet-pointed fact sheets announce the 45,000-sq.-ft. store’s smaller-scale innovations: Like LED lighting, 2 electric-vehicle chargers out front, a bike station with tools and an air pump, and much more parking lot than you’ll find in front of the Kirby store. Plus: fascinating facts, like the number of linear feet devoted to prepared items in the chef case (18), bulk foods (44), a beer cooler (32), and smoked seafood (8)! Take a look for yourself:
Okay, okay! It ain’t exactly here, but y’all want to see this, so here ya go. North Montrose’s little bit in this game doesn’t open until . . . this weekend.
- Previously on Swamplot: North Montrose Whole Foods’ Rendezvous with Groceries, Austin Powers the New North Montrose Whole Foods, The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh, Whole Foods Galleria and North Montrose: Still on Track, In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods, A Few Signs the Montrose Whole Foods Market Is On Its Way
Video: Fog and Smog Films
This photo, sent straight from the street by a Kirby-cruising reader, shows the brief sign-free interregnum between the rule of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and its replacement, Internum, at 3303 Kirby. There’s been no change of ownership at the home furnishings store, and Internum will continue to sell MG+BW lines — at least for a little while. But luxury-goods company European Designs, operator of MG+BW stores in Houston, Miami, and Mexico City, is renaming and revamping its locations, adding in additional furniture brands like Poltrona Frau, Kenzo Maison, Baxter, Cappelini, and Flexform. European Designs also operates the Roche-Bobois stores in Houston and several other U.S. and Mexican cities.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
The steel frame of the new Montrose H-E-B is going up along West Alabama St. at Dunlavy, Candace Garcia’s latest photos show. The new supermarket on the site of the former Wilshire Village apartments is scheduled to open this fall.
Your latest retail edition:
- Closing and Expanding: New Orleans import Kaboom Books has shut down its Studewood location in the Heights strip center next to Antidote Coffee. Open now: more space for books and readers in the 3116 Houston Ave. storefront at the end of Bayland in Woodland Heights. The expanded store incorporates the north end of the streetfront building, and includes a back yard and reading area.
- Moving: The storefront division of PH Design Shop, from its Shepherd Dr. hangout next to Sugarbaby’s Cupcake Boutique, to a larger 1,440-sq.-ft. space at 2414 Rice Blvd. in the head-in-parking paradise of Rice Village, later this month. The new store will allow the addition of gifts and tabletop items to the store’s mix of custom mix of funky paper goods and custom design services.
One more:
JUST DROPPING IN AGAIN TO SAY HELLO Business is booming at Sprinkles, next door to the site of the future Apple Store in Highland Village, David Kaplan reports. During the demolition of the vacant retail building on the site, pieces of structural steel crashed into the cupcake shop on 3 separate occasions. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Epicurean Express, that long-awaited little bodega-style grocery store in East Downtown, opened quietly early this week in this strip shopping center at 2018 Rusk St., at the corner of St. Emanuel — about 10 months after its originally scheduled opening date. Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia reports a bit more work will be needed inside before the 3,500-sq.-ft. store just down the street from Warehouse Live — which includes a small area for cafe seating inside — is fully stocked. You’ll want to wait a few more weeks before sandwiches are ready at the deli, too.
- Previously on Swamplot: Coming to the Street That Warehouse Live Built: An EaDo Corner Grocery
Photos: Candace Garcia
