09/30/08 11:16am

Vietnam Restaurant, 605 W. 19th St., Houston HeightsPhase 2 of Scott Tycer’s Heights food empire launches tonight, as his new upscale restaurant, Textile, opens — next to his newish bakery in the former mattress factory turned textile mill at 22nd St. and Lawrence:

“The rent is a lot lower here – a third of what I paid at Aries,” he said. “I didn’t take out huge loans to do this restaurant. So really, the only pressure is to be 100 percent as good as we can be.”

Textile is housed in the 114-year-old Oriental Textile Mill, 611 W. 22nd. The restaurant occupies a small corner of the historical structure with a clock tower and smokestack. Most of the 10,000-square-foot space is devoted to Tycer’s Krafts’men, a wholesale bakery that supplies restaurants, including Cafe Annie, Da Marco, Benjy’s and Mark’s. He plans to open a Krafts’men retail outlet in the textile mill, he said.

The Chronicle‘s Dai Huynh also reports a new Kraftsmen retail store — at Kirby and Westheimer.

Just a few blocks south on 19th St., Vietnam Restaurant is expanding into the retail space next door. Bunny Bungalower Annie Sitton reports the new space is scheduled to open in November.

A few of Sitton’s early photos of the Vietnam build-out:

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09/29/08 1:03pm

Last week Hair Balls blogger Dusti Rhodes reported that most Houston-area haunted-house attractions were faring pretty well after Hurricane Ike — and managed to elicit this gem from the owner of haunted-house chain Phobia:

Our customer base is still screwed over. We bet they’ll be happy to hear that the fake houses in the area have their power back.

Now from Crosby comes a different kind of Hurricane Ike haunted house horror story: A warehouse attached to auto accessories shop B&M Accessories received so much damage from the storm that the owners decided to scrap their plans to expand their store into it. Instead, they’re turning the entire building into . . . yes, a haunted house:

“When we first came and walked through, my son said it looked like a haunted house in here,” [co-owner Billy] Maness said.

Though the power was out around much of the community, two light bulbs flicked on at the mention of Halloween.

After some discussion it was decided: the eerie warehouse was to become Crosby’s House of Terror, a 9,000-square foot maze of Halloween fun and fear.

While others are mourning the loss of their homes and businesses, the duo turned their misfortune around, giving the entire community something to scream about. Since Sunday, they’ve been hard at work, not cleaning up, but ramping up the Halloween spirit unleashed by Hurricane Ike.

The Halloween attraction will open to the public on October 3. Less than a year ago, the building at 117 Ulrich Ln., off FM 2100 in Crosby, was Shooters Bar. Before that, it was called the Chicken Coop.

After the jump: design touches from Hurricane Ike!

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09/29/08 11:31am

MIDSUMMER BOOKS: 8 FEET IS ENOUGH This fall was the final season for Midsummer Books, near the Strand in Galveston: “‘All those shops and restaurants on Strand, Mechanic and Postoffice were hit bad, and Midsummer Books got 8 ft of muddy water which soaked and ruined everything, books, furniture, computer equipment, etc.,’ owner Tim Thompson says by e-mail. ‘Luckily I have flood insurance so I will most likely get compensated for the loss. However, this is one of those times in life where tough decisions have to be made and for a variety of reasons I have decided not to ressurect Midsummer Books,’ he says.” [Hair Balls]

09/29/08 11:13am

Wachovia Sign after Hurricane Ike, Kirby Dr., Houston

No need to remake this hurricane-battered sign after all! Wachovia Bank‘s retail operations are being bought by Citigroup, ahead of any FDIC action. Which means all 30 or so Houston-area Wachovia retail locations will become Citibanks before the year is out.

Photo of Wachovia Bank branch on Kirby Dr.: Swamplot Inbox

09/25/08 7:37pm

Washington Mutual Bank Branch in Pasadena, Texas

Whoo hoo! Some bank-breaking news:

The exact structure of J.P. Morgan’s acquisition of WaMu’s deposits wasn’t immediately known, except that the New York bank, which has long coveted WaMu as a way to secure a footprint on the West Coast, will assume most of the thrift’s deposits and branches, as well as some other operations. Unlike many of the 12 bank failures that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has overseen this year, the J.P. Morgan-WaMu transaction isn’t expected to impact the agency’s national deposit-insurance fund.

Photo: Flickr user mlsnp

09/25/08 6:49pm

Bill Heard Chevrolet, Sugar Land, Texas

Car-shark favorites Landmark Chevrolet — on I-45 North near Gulf Bank — and Bill Heard Chevrolet — on the Southwest Freeway at 90 in Sugar Land — are both closing as part of a nationwide 13-dealership shutdown orchestrated by the pair’s parent company, Bill Heard Enterprises, which is based in Georgia. The move should make a lot of former customers very happy.

Available soon: A few more of those 9.9-acre stormwater-special feeder-road concrete lots?

Photo: Bill Heard Chevrolet

09/03/08 2:12pm

Drawing of Allegro Builders Building at 1003 Studewood, Houston Heights

This too-cute-for-Disneyland drawing depicts Allegro Builders’ new Wild Wild West-y development at the northwest corner of Studewood and 10th in the Heights. It’s going up just north of Allegro’s headquarters building, which is home also to the Glass Wall restaurant, and is known for its vaguely-historicist facade of valet-parked SUVs.

A few vans may front the new building at 1001 and 1003 Studewood, but it’ll only be in 2 spots of handicapped parking: The main lot is in back. That’ll likely be a relief for local filmmakers, who are no doubt eager to film Universal Studios-authentic spaghetti-western-style gunfights off those front balconies.

All of which makes this new retail-with-office-above confection an ideal location for Robert Gadsby’s new restaurant, Bedford, named after the chef’s birthplace in . . . uh, England.

After the jump: The interior is gonna be . . . modern!

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08/27/08 10:34am

Tropioca Tea and Coffee Bar, 2808 Milam St. Suite G, Midtown, HoustonA correspondent sends in this bit of over-the-counter intelligence about Midtown geek-gathering favorite Tropioca:

Tropioca on Milam at Drew is in the process of looking for a new home. They are looking around the midtown area but also at a location near U of H at Cullen and Leeland.

I overheard someone behind the counter saying that their rent has gone up almost 80% and not gradually over a few years, but all at once.

I will be sad to see them go if they leave midtown because they make the BEST frozen cappucino coffee drink inside the loop.

Photo: Yelp user Jill N.

08/26/08 9:16am

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmGp3rfOXNc 400 330]

After a summer-long silence, SexyATTACK is back, with this unbridled celebration of . . . uh, retail!

The IKEA on I-10 is a big store. Someone’s got to dance in it.

Sexy does salad bar, after the jump!

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08/25/08 5:47pm

A TOUR OF WASHINGTON AVE. EATERIES Wabash Antiques & Feed, the Daily Grind, El Rey Taqueria, that big new Benjy’s, and more: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave’s hungry person’s guide to Washington Ave., illustrated: “. . . the first thing you’ll notice is the abundance of new construction. Not only homes, but restaurants, banks, strip malls — a mad jumble of conflicting styles and materials that assaults the eyes. But if you look past the ubiquitous boxes of townhomes and the spaghetti-like telephone wires that crazily line the street, you’ll catch glimpses of old Houston in the tiny row houses, old brick storefronts and 1930s-era tile street signs along the curbs: Houston in a nutshell.” [Houstonist]

08/21/08 8:02am

Circuit City, 4500 San Felipe St., Uptown, Houston

Walking from their car to the front door of the Circuit City on San Felipe, Bunny Bungalow resident Annie Sitton and her husband notice a crack in the stucco covering a pilaster at the front of the building. Looking closer, they notice that . . .

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08/18/08 11:47am

Plaza on Former Bolsover St., Sonoma, Rice Village, Houston

“Sonoma is mystery,” proclaims Randall Davis near the end of an excruciatingly long promotional video posted at the project’s recently updated website. Part of the mystery, of course, has been when — or whether — construction might actually begin on the 7-story condos-shops-and-parking Rice Village layer cake. Since the buildings on the site were demolished and the block of Bolsover between Kelvin and Morningside was fenced in last fall, not much has happened.

Nancy Sarnoff has some details on the delay:

Sonoma, an upscale condo and retail project planned in Rice Village, was supposed to break ground in April.

The land has been cleared to start building, but the developers have a loan commitment for just half of what it will take to build it.

“We’re ready to put a shovel in the ground,” said Julie Tysor, president of Lamesa Corp., owner of the project. “The speed of the changing lending markets wasn’t really anticipated by any of the people involved.”

Rendering of Sonoma: Ziegler Cooper Architects

08/11/08 3:04pm

Bookstop at Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center, the Former Alabama Theater, Houston

A reader notes that a sign offering “13,000 sq feet of restaurant/retail for lease” is up at the Alabama Bookstop, and asks if plans for the location have been announced. Bookstop owner Barnes & Noble is building a new store on West Gray, on the former site of the River Oaks Shopping Center’s north curve.

That 13,000 sq. ft. figure makes it clear the sign isn’t referring to a different space in the Alabama Theater Shopping Center. According to leasing info on the Weingarten website, that’s the approximate size of the Bookstop’s space.

Photo of Bookstop at Alabama Theater Shopping Center: Debra Jane Seltzer