What’s this sandbox right beside the Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro in Rice Village going to be? A Hungry’s. An employee at the not-that-old one next door at 2356 Rice Blvd. says it will be demolished and turned into a parking lot for what a rendering on a sign at this construction site shows is a 2-story new one.
Hungry’s, you’ll remember, is owned by an entity controlled by Fred Sharifi, who earlier this year purchased and now appears to have plans to redevelop the Gramercy Place Apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. — just a few miles away on the east side of Montrose Blvd. — into townhomes.
A rendering of the new Hungry’s wasn’t made immediately available; what follows after the jump is a photo of what’s on that sign at the construction site:
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Dates for the closing and demo and more details about the relocation also weren’t made available.
- Real Estate Services [SFT Investments]
- Find + Times [Hungry’s Cafe]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Confusing Continuing Story of the Gramercy Place Apartments, No Plans to Redevelop Gramercy Place Apartments, Says New Owner, Tenant: Gramercy Place Apartments To Remain Rental Units, A Pair of Backups To Fill In Behind the Museum Tower?
Photos: Allyn West
Incredible. I used to work there and have never understood this place’s popularity. It’s not bad. It’s just wildly mediocre. It was a fun place to work and the owners are really nice people, so there is that.
The original building is a former Dairy Queen. No joke. Stand at the front door — the layout is the same.
At one time you stood a good chance of getting a place to park and a reasonably priced simple meal in a fairly short time, and the patio was nice. And there were a bajillion brands of beer. I don’t know if any of those things are still true; given the commercialization of the Village I wouldn’t be surprised if they are less true. Old timers like me remember that Hungry’s used to be called Hungry International and was over by the Alabama Theatre and Cactus Records; that structure on Rice Blvd. was a Dairy Queen.
I actually ate there a few times when it was a Dairy Queen. Owned by an old couple as I recall.
I remember the Hungry’s on lower Westheimer back in the day. It was about the only place open late back then. Good times!
What I wouldn’t do for an in-town DQ. I can be pretty good about eating well, but if I had easy access to Blizards it’d be over.
On the subject of replacing like with like, why not replace the round Astrodome with the same footprint round Astrohotel to house all the superbowl visitors. Round courtyard could have a slightly domed roof park similar to the Discovery green to keep the cooling bills low. Proximity to 610 would keep occupancy up during off-conference and off-game seasons.
I haven’t passed it in awhile, but there used to be a DQ on South Post Oak, not too far from the Loop. On the left hand side.
I liked Hungry’s when it was the old funky place before they remodelled and upscaled. The upscaling doesn’t match the level of the food.
According to the store locator on dq.com, the closest DQs to the inner loop are just outside the loop, on the northwest side just north of I-10 at 6707 Westview just west of Silber, and on the east side just south of I-10 at 1226 Mercury at Market, and on the southeast side off of I-45 at 8306 Winkler just northwest of Howard.
The website doesn’t show any DQs on South Post Oak.
If you’re a really big fan, there’s a DQ Locator App for the iPhone.
Try the Dairy Queen on mercury drive. I eat there weekly and it is well managed and run by an old couple.