08/12/14 8:30am

Lightning over Montrose, Houston

Photo of lightning over Montrose: Jackson Myers, via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
08/11/14 5:15pm

Kirby Court Apartments, 2612 Steel St., Upper Kirby, HoustonThe apartment tower the Hanover Company is planning to replace the northeastern chunk of the Kirby Court Apartments on Steel St. and a few surrounding properties will defer to a range of cuisines. Sure it’ll be directly across the street from the Whole Foods Market on Kirby Dr. But it’s also leaving alone the property on the corner of Kirby and Kipling St., where Becks Prime will continue to pump out burgers to customers passing through its drive-thru. If that bit of culinary contrast doesn’t impress, wait for the building to be finished: According to documents submitted to the city for the variance the developer is seeking, the ground floor of the 370-unit Hanover River Oaks apartment complex will have lease space for restaurants.

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Stand Back from Steel
08/11/14 4:30pm

Macondo Latin Bistro, 208 Travis St., Downtown Houston

We’ve got a couple of possibly linked downtown restaurant shutdowns to report: Macondo Latin Bistro, at 208 Travis St. just off Market Square, closed at the beginning of last week. “I look forward to serving you again at a new location,” owner Delaila Ocasio writes on the restaurant’s Facebook page. Meanwhile, around the corner at 917 Franklin St., chef Mark Latigue’s 4-month-old triple-threat Creole, Cuban, and Caribbean venture has also closed, but no announcements about the future of El Gallo Rojo have appeared on Facebook so far. A Swamplot reader was alerted to the missing red rooster after spotting a chafing dish sitting on the sidewalk in front of the property last Saturday evening. The Red Lantern Vietnamese restaurant closed in the same location last year.

Beyond the finishing of fusion cuisines, what’s the connection between the endings of these 2 restaurants?

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Fusion Cuisine Restaurant Spot Fusion?
08/11/14 1:45pm

913 Franklin St., Downtown Houston

The space at 913 Franklin St. downtown (pictured to the left of the red awning in the photo above), which has been vacant since the Franklin Street Coffee House shut down there in the late aughts, is due to open again later this year as a bar named the Drawing Room. The 2-story “saloon-style” space between Travis and Main St. will have seating areas on the second floor that overlook the bar and the first floor. The lobby of the Bayou Lofts is next door; before its incarnation as a coffee shop, the space was used as a jewelry store.

Photo: The Drawing Room

The Drawing Room
08/11/14 12:00pm

kirby-court-and-sign

Variance Sign at Kirby Court Apartments, 2700 Block of Steel St., Upper Kirby, HoustonApartment developer the Hanover Company appears to be the purchaser of the Kirby Court Apartments — or at least a portion of it. A chunk of the 1949 garden apartment complex, which faces Steel St. west of Kirby, directly across from Whole Foods Market, is outlined in a variance application submitted to the city by Hanover for what the company is calling the Hanover River Oaks. The property earmarked for the development extends halfway (or 350 ft.) into the block between Kipling St. and Steel St. from Kirby Dr., but leaves out the Beck’s Prime drive-thru on the northeast corner.

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Just South of West Ave
08/11/14 8:30am

BBVA Compass Stadium, East Downtown, Houston

Photo of BBVA Compass Stadium: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

08/08/14 2:46pm

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When renovated by a previous owner in 2007, a 1936 Craftsman-like home in Eastwood modernized but also played up period details. A subtle color wash in pastel shades (above) adds to the pastoral mojo, though house and driveway sit behind an iron fence at the front lot line. Earlier this week, the property popped up on the market with a $345,000 asking price. Its location is 3 lots north of S. Lockwood Dr. and 3 blocks from the Eastwood/Lockwood stop on Metro’s coming East End line.

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Done Over
08/08/14 1:30pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE GALLERIA’S BEST-KEPT SECRET Secret Parking Space“It’s true; the secret to making a visit to the Galleria tolerable (even *gasp* enjoyable) is to have a secret parking spot that’s always available. Like many commenters here, I hated going there. But when I finally found my spot, I no longer dread going there even on weekends! (Forget about the holidays though . . . ain’t nobody got time for that). And no, I’m not telling any of you where it is.” [crono_clone, commenting on A Longtime Houstonian’s Guide To Surviving the Recent Onslaught of New Developments and Residents] Illustration: Lulu

08/08/14 12:15pm

THE STARVING ARTIST GALLERY IS GONE, BUT ITS PARTIES WILL LIVE ON ONLINE 2037 W. Alabama St., Montrose, HoustonWhat kind of revelry has Montrose been missing since the end of April, when the Starving Artist Gallery at 2037 West Alabama St. closed up shop? No need to try to imagine, because owner William Loyd and his now legally recognized wife, Nikki Araguz Loyd, documented the mayhem at last year’s blow-out Christmas party at their gallery in the just-released final 2 pretty-much-NSFW episodes of the first season of their web video series, Nikki’s American Dream. They’re called “Bad Santa” (episode 7) and “It’s Only Wednesday” (episode 8). (The gallery maintains an online presence too.) [YouTube] Photo of former Starving Artist Gallery: Swamplot inbox

08/08/14 8:30am

Bridges Over Buffalo Bayou at I-10, Houston

Photo of Buffalo Bayou at I-10: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
08/07/14 3:45pm

IS HOUSTON A MELTING POT, A SALAD BOWL, OR A BBQ KOLACHE? Peña's Donut Heaven and Grill, 11601 Shadow Creek Pkwy., Shadow Creek Ranch, Pearland,  TexasChron food critic Alison Cook frames the new Killen’s barbecue brisket-filled kolache from Peña’s Donut Heaven & Grill in Pearland (pictured above at 11601 Shadow Creek Pkwy.) as a mere restaging onto a dinner plate — or in a to-go bag at least — of the larger metropolis’s cultural blend: “Mixing and matching has become our culinary birthright. In the nation that is Texas, Houston — with its port and its flourishing economy and its early influx of international immigrants — has been the leading edge of this trend. Whereas 20 years ago, the advent of a huevos ranchero kolache at the Kolache Factory attracted a bit of delighted surprise, now the reaction to Peña’s idea of stuffing the Tex­Czech bun with Killen’s sanctified brisket is more along the lines of ‘What took you so long?‘ Indeed, just hours after the brisket kolache was announced to the world, kolache baker extraordinaire Victoria Rittinger was already riffing further on the idea.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Peña’s Donut Heaven & Grill