TELEPHONE ROAD SMOKEHOUSE REPLACES TELEPHONE ROAD SMOKEHOUSE 
The low-slung building that used to be Pete’s BBQ has re-opened as a barbecue, reports Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler. Run by husband and wife Brian Lewis and Lisa Kuhfeldt, Oak Leaf Smokehouse had a “soft opening” at 1000 Telephone late last week — and was “slammed,” selling out of meat by 1 p.m., says a February 21 post on Facebook. “Once the restaurant gets things dialed in,” reports Sandler,” they’ll expand the menu beyond the five meats and four sides currently on offer.” For now, the smokehouse is open during lunch hours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. [Eater Houston] Photo: Allyn West
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- 616 Hawthorne St. [HAR]
A source close to Blanco’s ownership tells Swamplot that by November the West Alabama bar and grill will close. Meanwhile, Blanco’s will be scouting for a new location, the source says, “somewhere in the area.” Swamplot reported in January that St. John’s School was buying 13 acres of property in River Oaks that include 3406 West Alabama St., where the incongruous honky-tonk and its dusty parking lot — owned for decades by Barry E. DeBakey, the heart surgeon’s son who died in 2007 of liver failure — have been for 30 years.
Let’s hit these locations with a few smashers, then scoop up the rubble.
- Texas Instruments Breaks Ground on $35M Sugar Land Facility [Houston Business Journal]
- Pointe West Development in Galveston Listed for Foreclosure Sale Again [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- KB Home Now Building Models With Dual-Sided Fireplaces, Large Island Kitchens, 3-Story Garages [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Metro Rail Expansion About 70 Percent Complete as Main Street Bridge Reopens [KUHF]
- SRO Sports Bar Near Northwest Mall Closing After 27 Years; Owner Points to Highway 290 Widening Project as Catalyst [29-95.com]
- Houston Quality of Life in Jeopardy Unless Current City Planning, Sustainable Growth Addressed, Says Rice Report [Rice News]
- Houston Makes Case for Highest Standard of Living in the World [Opportunity Urbanist]
Photo: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SCRAMBLING THROUGH TRAFFIC “There is a chicken and the egg problem with bike transit in Houston. People do not think that it is worth it to support anything to make the city more bike friendly because it seems like there is too much traffic in the city for any sane person to try to ride their bike inside the loop. Yet, the best way to make riding inside the loop safer is to get more bike traffic out there. More bike traffic contributes to greater driver awareness and pushes the municipality to make big changes to improve bike mobility like providing real bike lanes, adding bike racks, etc.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: Push for Bike Parking; Buc-ee’s Bathrooms]
Most of this East Downtown property, according to city records, was purchased in November 2012 by CitySide Homes; signs recently posted here suggest that the contemporary townhome’s eastward expansion will continue to continue — this site is just 5 blocks from where Urban Living says it’s building around that leaning Leeland St. live oak — on these 2 purchased parcels between Polk, Clay, Nagle, and Delano that add up to a little more than an acre.
DRIVING IN HOUSTON? SO DéCLASSé 
Artists Carrie Schneider and Alex Tu — that’s Tu in the homemade Hazmat at right — recently walked the first leg of their revamp of Art Guy Michael Galbreth’s “The Human Tour,” a 40-mile hike through Houston in the shape of a body that he devised as a UH student in 1987; OffCite’s Edward S. Garza meets Schneider and Tu in a Midtown restaurant and looks to a higher source to understand what the artists “hope to accomplish,” he writes: “The televisions in Natachee’s are tuned to an episode of The Brady Bunch. Peter Brady is twirling a baton and doing a little jig in the living room. I think of how the Brady family would fit in well in Houston. They would certainly live outside the 610 Loop or, more likely, outside Beltway 8. Mr. and Mrs. Brady would seek somewhere ‘nice’ — that is, suburban, homogenous, and car-centric — to raise their children, and they would relish the array of choices: Pearland, Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Friendswood, Kingwood, Tomball, Spring, Clear Lake, Cypress, Katy. Anyone who has lived in this city for a considerable time will say it: in Houston, to be middle class is to spend a lot of time in a vehicle.” [OffCite; previously on Swamplot] Photo: OffCite
- 9827 Moorberry Ln. [HAR]
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ’EM . . . 
Two single-family houses in Midtown, 1505 Rosalie and 1917 Ruth (pictured here), have been home since 2010 to an assortment of yoga instructors, police sergeants, and college students, all of whom share the cooking and cleaning in a cooperative housing project, reports the Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff. Part of Houston Access to Urban Sustainability, the houses require all tenants to sign a “sustainability pledge” before they move in, but that doesn’t mean it’s all rainbows and rain barrels: “Each person is responsible for contributing five hours of labor to the house per week. Those who shirk their domestic duties are fined $10 for every hour missed.” Sarnoff adds: “There are regular parties and events, though the housemates are quick to stamp out comparisons to hippie communes or college frat houses. Such misconceptions frustrate Rabea Benhalim, a corporate finance attorney who says some think the residents can’t be professional and they all do drugs and sleep together.” [Houston Chronicle ($)] Photo of 1917 Ruth St.: HAUS
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Well, then. Plenty of wreckage to go around. And about that Parnell . . .
- Luxury Movie Theater ‘Seriously Looking At’ Old Books-A-Million Spot at Houston Pavilions [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Has Fastest-Growing Economy in the US, According to Federal Numbers [abc13]
- State-Maintained Highways Are in Better Shape Than They Were 10 Years Ago, Finds Study [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Texas Lawmakers Have Put No Money into Budget for Developing New State Parks for a Decade [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Gilchrist Seeking Eminent Domain to Shut Down Popular
RollingRollover Pass Fishing Spot [Galveston County Daily News ($)] - Port Considering Higher Cruise Access Fees [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Heights Church’s Music, Construction Sparks Noise Complaints from Neighbors [Houston Chronicle]
- Volunteer Works To Clean Up Olivewood, Houston’s First African-American Cemetery [Houston Chronicle]
- Experts Urge Drivers To Consider Safety When Pulling Over To Snap Bluebonnet Photos [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Hermann Park: Bill Barfield via Swamplot
A native Houstonian has set up a one-man bicycle-messenger service, reports Culturemap’s Whitney Radley: Within an hour, Clutch Delivery’s Liam Musgrave will pedal to your place almost anything — except dry cleaning, pets, and “illicit substances.” This map shows his service area, extending west out to the Loop and east to Lockwood.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LONG INTO THE NIGHT MAY IT WAVE “ . . . Leaving the flag out in the rain and up at night unlit is also considered desecration. Are you going to arrest all the car dealers in Houston?” [sjh, commenting on Houston’s President Obama Muralist Strikes Again]
- 8852 Cavell St. [HAR]
