What happened to that Fortress French development of enormous $2.2-million-plus townhomes (pictured at top) planned for the former site of Urban Retreat across the street from River Oaks on the corner of San Felipe and Revere St.? Builder Rohe & Wright has scrapped plans for the 10-unit Saint Honoré at 1900 Revere St. — in favor of a reconfigured development that will lack its predecessor’s continental pretensions:
THE RANSACKING OF IDYLWOOD’S LITTLE FREE LIBRARY 4918 
When Little Free Library 4918 owner Sally Harris returned home “from an incredibly productive morning and midday” Sunday afternoon, she found the door to her festive Mardi Gras-themed Idylwood book repository hanging wide open and more than half of the books “plundered.” (See photo at bottom.)  Her belief that the security precautions she had taken on Halloween night had seen it through pranking season proved sadly mistaken; and oddly, religious tracts and pictures of Jesus were found in the rifled-through library.  Vented Harris on Facebook Sunday afternoon: “When I set out to create a neighborhood library, I always said you can’t steal ‘free’ but this is vandalism and it has me shaking and angry.” Harris posted that she recently had been considering a remodel anyway, and some of her friends have already pledged to help her restock via book donations. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of Little Free Library 4918, 6644 Lindy Ln.: Sally Harris
Photo of Hermann Park Centennial Gardens: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
THE BARNABY’S IS IN THE HEIGHTS 
Pssst! The Barnaby’s Cafe location taking over the City Oven (and before that, D’Amico’s Italian Cafe) spot at 2802 White Oak Dr. opened late last week. Same menu, same signature sitting-height-level check-em-out wall mirrors as the 5 other locations. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S REAL ESTATE BOOM IS OVER 
“I’d like to see newer articles start noting that the jobs boom is already over and at this point it’s just the construction industry finishing off contractual commitments before we wrap it up and call the show over. past this it’s only retail & service sectors jobs growing which have a negligible impact on the overall economy anyhow due to the large supply of non-workers in the population and readily available labor. i’m not calling a downturn or anything here, but with drilling activity in the gulf starting to ease up (see hercules note [yesterday] morning about cutting personnel) and falling oil prices barring new onshore fields from starting up i’m not seeing any way for current growth trends to continue. fed pulling out of buying bonds will start hitting mortgage rates and drying up the cash closings that have helped stoked the fire as well so will be interesting to see if any slack appears in the market in the coming year.” [joel, commenting on AmREIT Takeover Approved; Bringing Gino’s East to Houston] Illustration: Lulu
Swamplot culled through the best of the many media previews of the Whole Foods Market Houston-area flagship on Post Oak Blvd. — so you don’t have to! Yes, the much-hyped supermarket is finally throwing open its doors to the public Thursday. (Free reusable shopping bag to the first 500 customers!) So here is a quick round-up of the wonders within the 8-years-in-the-making anchor development in BLVD Place:
WHEN TILMAN FERTITTA CAME TO THE SHILOH CLUB 
A reader reports a rare sighting of Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta in the Heights over the weekend. Was it part of some sort of kinda-undercover reconnaissance mission? “. . . you’ll NEVER guess where he stopped . . . SHILOH’s! Yes, the old dive bar where you watch your grandparents drink themselves under the table next to a heavily tattooed bicyclist. Tilman came in, ordered a drink and began asking about the neighborhood. I don’t think anybody there recognized him except for myself, the bartender, and my table of friends who were all industry veterans. Not sure what he’s got planned but don’t be surprised if you hear about a new Landry’s property opening in the Heights within a few months.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Shiloh Club, 1321 Studewood St.: Heights Blog
Photo of 2111 Washington Ave: Molly Block via Swamplot Flickr Pool
So how was the Halloween party at the “haunted” murder mansion at 3015 Fuqua St. off Almeda-Genoa in the south part of town last Friday night?
The Twitter reviews — and party photos — are in!
A passerby stopping for an iced tea today at the McDonald’s across Kirby Dr. from the recently deforested Wendy’s restaurant at the corner of Kirby and North Blvd. reports that the once-bustling construction site has gone quiet: “Nothing going on at the site, looked closed, stopped, locked up.” But one bright marker affixed to a window of the mid-redo building at 5003 Kirby did catch our tipster’s eye: “I noticed the largest ‘red tag’ I have ever seen. 4 times the size of a normal one.” Unfortunately, the site is fully fenced, so there”s no way to read it without a good pair of binoculars.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
TXDOT LIKELY TO CUT FUNDING FOR WEST LOOP BUS LANES, SHIP MONEY SOUTH 
In a move that could spell doom for the Post Oak Bus Rapid Transit project, TxDOT’s planning director said Thursday that his agency is now recommending it ax a $25 million commitment to expanding connecting bus service along the West Loop. The plan called for elevated bus lanes  running along 610 from Post Oak Blvd. to the Northwest Transit Center near the Katy Fwy. and 610. The agency now claims that the $25 million would be better spent on an improved Texas 288–Beltway 8 interchange. [The Highwayman, previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Uptown HoustonÂ
