EATSIE BOYS TAKING OVER KRAFTSMEN CAFE SPACE IN MONTROSE 
The end of the month will mark the end of a 10-year run for the cafe run by Kraftsmen Bakery in the small enclave of eateries carved out of the former Church of Christ building at 4100 Montrose, just north of Richmond. But Eater Houston reports Scott Tycer’s bakery operation plans to keep its Heights cafe and open an additional location within the next few months. Meanwhile, moving into the space next to the Black Lab, beginning in June: the first non-mobile location for the Eatsie Boys. Ryan Soroka and Matt Marcus say they’ll keep their original food truck available for private events, but otherwise will keep it parked outside Agora on Westheimer or their not-yet-opened 8th Wonder Brewery in East Downtown. Their new Montrose cafe will add pastries and coffee to the food truck’s sandwiches-and-ice-cream mix. [Eater Houston] Photo: Emily Duff
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Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
This is your last chance Texaco.
- Lobbying Duel Sparked Between United, Southwest over Hobby International Flights [Houston Chronicle]
- Memorial City Lawsuit To Charge TIRZ 17 with Illegally ‘Seizing Homes with Floodwater’ [Memorial Examiner]
- Property Value Notices To Start Hitting Houston Mailboxes [abc13]
- City Tears Down Dilapidated Former Sports Bar on Jensen Dr. [abc13]
- Buffalo Speedway Construction Project To Wrap Up by End of Month [InstantNewsWestU.com]
- Old World-Style 15-Foot Clock Tower Installed in Bellaire’s Paseo Park [Bellaire Examiner]
- Wittenberg Oberholzer-Designed Mason St. House Has Museum-Worthy Art Collection [Houston Chronicle]
- League City Councilwoman Recycles ‘Gray Water’ in Backyard Rain Garden [Galveston County Daily News]
- Longview Man Recreated Oval Office in Own Home for $250K [Texas on the Potomac]
- A Meter So Expensive, It Creates Parking Spots [New York Times]
Photo of E. Richey and Imperial Valley Dr. area: Candace Garcia
- 2010 Hewitt Dr. [HAR]
Repair work on the exterior of the 2125 Yale apartments in the Heights, built 4 years ago on the site of Kaplan’s Ben Hur, has been taking place all week. Gone already: the aluminum panels on the building’s northwest corner, facing 22nd St. But: Couldn’t find any explanation of what’s going on in the complex’s newsletter for residents, a neighbor reports.
Photographer Karen Dressel documents the dramatic final moments of the former Shepherd Drive Methodist Church on the corner of Blossom St. in Magnolia Grove, which hit the dirt earlier this week after 57 years of relative motionlessness:
Well, it was all going to fall down anyway. Eventually.
- Memorial Woods Townhomes ‘One More Rain’ Away from Falling in Banks-Eroded Bayou [KHOU]
- 2 Bronze Deer Statues Stolen from Woodlands Entrances [Courier of Montgomery County]
- Houston No Longer In Drought, Just ‘Abnormally Dry’ [Hair Balls]
- Highway Graffiti Cleanup Costs TxDOT $50K a Year [abc13]
- Dilapidated Former Sports Bar on Jensen Dr. Poses Danger, Say Neighbors [KHOU]
- Resumed Foreclosure Filings in Houston Up Only Mildly Over Last Year [Houston Agent Magazine]
- Lungs Found on Jamaica Beach Probably Belonged to a Dolphin [Galveston County Daily News]
- Read the Agreement that Ended the City’s Ashby Highrise Lawsuit [Prime Property]
- Eastbound Highway 225 Lanes Closing for Road Work This Weekend [Bay Area Citizen]
- Highland Village Apple Store, new iPad Debut [TechBlog; previously on Swamplot]
- After Almost $30M in State and City Incentives, Proposed Austin Apple Campus May Still Go to Phoenix [9to5Mac]
Photo of Highland Village Apple Store opening: Candace Garcia
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST TO DRAG A SHUTTLE MOCKUP INTO HOUSTON “. . . I contacted the JSC’s PAO Office and found out that it was originally due here on March 10th but an area from the channel to JSC’s dock would have to be dredged in order to accommodate the tug pushing the barge. Current estimates have pushed the delivery time to some time in July. . . . I feel that the mock-up coming to JSC is a ray of hope on an otherwise bleak future. . . .” [Neal_K, commenting on Space Center Houston Getting KSC Space Shuttle Mockup Hand-Me-Down, Compartment Trainer, New Building]
Live from the corner of Westheimer and Drexel, photographer Karen Dressel sends Swamplot this first view of the Highland Village Apple Store, which opens Friday at 8 am. The black paper covering the panels on the company’s first-ever glass-roofed, double-sided store was just removed this evening, in front of a dozen or so new-iPad camper-outers lined up in back.
- Drawings Reveal Highland Village Apple Store’s Secret Spaces Above Paper, Cupcake Stores
- Highland Village Apple Store coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Karen Dressel
In honor of “nearly” reaching what it describes as the halfway point in constructing the new East End light-rail line, Metro is releasing this rendering showing what it’ll look like when riders reach the track’s end. It’s a view of the station at the Magnolia Park Transit Center on Harrisburg at 70th St., the line’s easternmost reach. For the most part, the basic structure of each station will be identical steel constructions with glass canopies — much as they are on the existing Main St. line.
- 11 Lakefield Trail [HAR]
- Partying Teens Inflict $100,000 in Damages to Nearly Completed Cypress-Fairbanks Home [Covering Katy]
- Dallas-Based Spire Realty Buys 18-Story Galleria-Area Office Building [Houston Business Journal]
- Meyerland Sends Out Warning as Community Hit with Break-Ins, Stolen Pets, Cell Phone Snatchings [Bellaire Examiner]
- Window-Smashing Thieves Target Tanglewood Homes [Click2Houston]
- Spring Breaker Finds Lungs on Jamaica Beach [Galveston County Daily News]
- Santa Fe Attempts To Lure Houston Tourists with New Tabloid Promotion [Santa Fe New Mexican]
- ‘Building Modern Houston’ Reading, Tour on March 21 at Houston Public Library [Design Houston]
Photo of shopping center at 2540 Broadway St., Pearland: Stephen J. Alexander via Swamplot Flickr Pool
The first-of-its-kind Apple Store scheduled to open to long lines of new iPad buyers 2 days from now in the Highland Village Shopping Center is much bigger than it appears from the outside. That’s because more than a third of the space in the 9,000-sq.-ft.-plus seemingly single story store is disguised from street view above 2 adjacent shops. A 3,510-sq.-ft. you-wouldn’t-know-it’s-there second floor extends above both the Sprinkles Cupcakes shop (shown at right) and the Paper Source to its west. Some of this secreted space may be open to customers at various times. Included in the hidden second story are a briefing room with a capacity of 46 people, as well as offices, work spaces, a break room, employee restrooms, and storage space.
