The Alamo reinforcements have arrived! Okay, they’re just temporary steel props, but they’re now holding the tilt-up concrete facade out of the mud around the tamale-themed strip center Warwick Construction is putting up on Houston’s Northside. The 23,000-sq.-ft. Alamo Tamale Company development at 809 Berry Rd. just west of Irvington will include a bakery, a reception hall, a restaurant and cantina, a dessert bar, and — yes — an on-site tamale-construction facility. Plus: a drive-thru meant to accommodate about 20 tamale-pickup vehicles.
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Architect Tim Cisneros tells Swamplot the center is on track to be completed by the end of October.
- Previously on Swamplot: Remember the Alamo Spinach and Cheese: New Tamale Central Coming to the Northside
Images: Cisneros Design Studio
Suddenly this tilt-wall in the dirt reminds me of the Wm. Travis’ (attributed) ‘line in the sand’ exhortation:
(to cross over, choosing to defend the Alamo, even though it meant certain death by the Mexican forces.)
Certain death by trans-fats?
While the developer of this project may have some assistance from the City on
It sewer and water connections, they are not getting any 380 assistance. Kroger, Walmart, InTown Homes and the new Arts collective in Midtown get tons of cash to build in areas of town that are seeing rapid and upscale redevelopment. The developer of this project is building in an area of town that is sorely in need of development, yet the big city development deals go where they are not needed.
The city development deals should go to where there is lower risk and a better chance for ROI.
This Tamale-land project looks like another Mercado del Sol.
There used to be a bar on Harrisburg (IIRC) that had a facade of the Alamo much like the one pictured here. It was used in a soon forgotten movie sometime back in the 80s.
I never made it inside but often wondered about the bar’s story.
If the movie you’re referring to is Last Night at the Alamo directed by Eagle Pennell, it is not forgotten by everyone. On the contrary, it is a revered example of shoestring independent film-making, a lovely little film about blue-collar Houstonian barflies in their natural habitat.
@ #5,
Oh OK, but what’s the story on the bar itself?
I think the Alamo front was put on especially for the movie, right? Do you know the address? I was trying to spot the location about a month or so ago and could not find it.