HERE’S YOUR RICE VILLAGE GROUND-FLOOR RETAIL 
The first tenant to open on the Morningside side of Hanover Rice Village will be Coppa Osteria, reports Eater Houston’s Darla Guillen, who pins the date in September. Coppa will be run by the folks who bring you Ibiza, Brasserie 19, and Coppa Ristorante Italiano, a fact that strikes Guillen as emblematic of a pattern in Houston’s culinary scene: “It seems like many upscale restaurants feel compelled to open the cool little brother to their high-end establishments.” At any rate, Coppa appears to have a cool walk-thru pizza window and cool neon signage. At 5210 Morningside and Dunstan, it’s right across the street from the site of the old Garden Gate, where Hanover is planning to build that 12-story tower with no ground-floor retail. Also coming soon to the Morningside side? Chef Chris Leung’s Cloud 10 Creamery, the signage for which has been strung up right next door. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
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Great to see ground floor retail somewhere. The next big mental revolution for Houston will be outdoor seating.
Clearly this property will be in receivership within a year as Houstonians are completely incapable of patronizing a retail establishment that is not in a strip mall.
@Mike – I like the idea of outdoor seating. It keeps us safe from being bothered by certain Other Commenters, who in another string maintained that there are no more than three hours per year when Houston weather accommodates outdoor activity of any sort.
haha. I love me some first floor retail as much as anyone, buttttt. Maybe these luxury apartments with first floor retail would think to have a small convenience store/deli in them, instead of just restaurants and bars. Sell Cigs, beer, wine, movie rental, lotto, cold foods, something like a nyc deli. I’m suprised there isn’t one at West Ave.
No doubt the hordes of people who absolutely crowd this part of Morningside to the rafters will appreciate this ground floor retail. Surely this is a money maker.
mollusk – it’s funny they think that, considering our average annual temperature is 68, and our average annual high is 79.
benny: I agree, boggles my mind that a concept like Royal Blue Grocery in Austin hasn’t been introduced in Houston yet
#4:
Given how expensive the rents are at West Ave, it may be hard for such a place to work. In NYC, most folks are car-less, and any place in reasonable walking distance will face similar rents. All the residents at West Ave have cars, and therefore options, so such a place wouldn’t be able to charge prices commensurate with the rent.
I thought everyone at West Ave just called the valet and drove across the street to the Whole Foods…
Average temperature is meaningless when it’s 90 degrees by 8AM and 108 degrees by 3PM with 90% to 100% humidity. Don’t ask what the average mathematical temperature is, ask what is the common temperature is when one might want to venture outside.
@benny: You’re dead on! I hate that I have to DRIVE from my West Ave apt. to the closest PayDay Advance and 24hr “Newstand”. AHK! When will these developers learn…
So do you park inside the restaurant? I confused?
DNAguy….you’re confused, that is correct. You park in the garage adjacent to the restaurant, or you park on the street in the metered stalls, or you park in the garage across the street, or you ride your bike, or maybe you take a cab….the possibilities are endless.
Do you need directions on how to get here too? That’s going to take a few more brain cells, sounds more like an activity we shouldn’t tackle so close to the weekend.
It sounds like someone is still mourning the loss of his/her relative or friend, the statistician who drowned while trying to wade across a river with an average depth of three feet.
There’s a CVS located fifty steps from this Hanover Bldg. It would be an AWFUL place to try and make a convenience store work. However, the twin Mosaic/Montage towers have a small market at street level and I am pretty sure no building in Austin has something so nifty as a Phoenicia in their building. For as much as you nay-sayers comment, you really should get out and explore what this city truly has to offer.
Please stop complaining about the weather here. You cant change it, you cant control it. Just deal with it already.
Ah, good to see commonsense still crying about our weather. Even better, he is now exaggerating to obscene levels. For starters, it has never hit 90 degrees at 8 am, with the morning temps during our hottest month running between 79 and 82. Second, it has only reached 108 in Houston 3 times in its entire history, for a couple of hours on September 4, 2000, for an hour the next day, and for an hour August 27, 2011. Coincidentally, the humidity all 3 days was 20%, not 90 to 100%. You probably don’t know this, but high humidity keeps the temperature down. 90% humidity usually means temps in the 70s to low 80s.
Of course, if you ever ventured outside, you’d know this. I enjoyed my bike ride today in the cool 95 degree sun. :)
drove by the new building this weekend. saw that zoe’s already looks open on Kelvin. i think this has to be the top project completed in the last 3 or 4 years within the loop if we’re judging on positively adding to a walkable area (Post III could be up there, but it still has no tentants). this i a great addition to the village
Now open and the food is great. Free parking in the garage.