Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- Montrose: What are the odds, really? A reader is chasing down a rumor that the owners of Chances Bar at 1100 Westheimer (next to Waugh) “have it on the market for sale or for lease.” Our correspondent would “hate to see it go after all these years but would love to see what would go there as long as it wasn’t another highrise. Anybody have the skinny on this?”
- Washington Corridor: A new concrete parking lot has appeared one block east of Benjy’s on Washington (above), on the corner of Knox St., directly in front of “an abandoned concrete building,” a reader informs us:
I drove by the other day and asked one of the workers what the construction was for and he said “Wine store” his English was a bit rusty so I really could not get much more out of him.. Maybe a new Specs ?
A couple more pix from the scene:
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Photos: Swamplot inbox
I think we should all take a minute and pray to Gentrifying Jesus, that he may lead us not into temptation when developing a concept for these two sites, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
For he hath removed the old amish furniture warehouse and bequeathed us with parking for douchington set. Please Ed Hardy wearing BMW driving troglodytes park here I say, for it is good at only $5-7..
And may the blessings of St. Arnold be placed upon you…
Sorry to disappoint, but it looks like it will just be wine storage.
http://www.license.state.tx.us/ABDataSearch/SearchResultDetail.asp?1=EABPRJA9816135
Let the heavenly site of ‘Los Lonely Boys opening for Raoul Malo’ be resurrected. Amen.
It’s a miracle! Gentrifying Jesus has changed furniture to wine!
Entertaining comments!
I’m wondering where the lesbians will start fights now? The other popular lesbo places are much tamer than Chances can get.
I’m submitting this post & photo to Jay Leno.
“For Information Call 713-457-1930”
: )
“For he hath removed the old amish furniture warehouse and bequeathed us with parking for douchington set. Please Ed Hardy wearing BMW driving troglodytes park here I say, for it is good at only $5-7..”
Perhaps you do not know that the real douches are those who cannot abide anything that they themselves do not have. Grow up!
I think Melanie is really Linda Lay…
The rumors about Chances appear to be true. From the commercial RE listings (with picture clearly identifying it as Chances):
“Entire block in busy Midtown commercial area with frontage on Westheimer and street access on Waugh, Waughcrest and California streets. Prime retail/ restaurant/ redevelopment space with already existing building, currently in use as a nightclub.”
Maybe Westheimer has gotten too chi-chi for Chances? Or maybe Chances isn’t chi-chi enough for Westheimer?
First Skybar. Now Chances. Sounds like a conspiracy to me…
Thanks for the licensing site… in my search for Wal-Mart to see if anything is going on at Yale, I found that a license is out for Wally at I-10 and Silber behind the Marq-E. $9 mil, starting 04/10 and finishing 1/11. Wally wants to be at every I-10 exit, I suppose. That seems more than gossip, right, if there’s a license and review completed? Who knew all of Wally’s 2010/2011 new stores would be in a ten mile radius in Houston, TX? Awesome growth plan, guys!
brandyc,
Projects are typically only registered with TDLR when construction documents are complete and they are seeking a permit, so yes, if a review has been completed, it’s definitely more than gossip.
Surely Walmart isn’t going to put two stores that close together. Could one of them be a Sam’s Club?
Brandy, it is no gossip that a Wally Martinez is in fact planned to be built on the site behind the Marq E. The lender for the loan holding the land recently extended their option due to the credibility of the owner and inherit plans to begin building. The Wally Martinez was supposed to be built 3 years ago but looks like construction should start soon.
Sorry you enjoy your pearl bar and half wit dated fashion. Certainly hope conspicuous consumption makes you feel like a whole person. I’ve done quite well for myself, and don’t feel the need to be tacky and gauche about it..
Your Ed Hardy wear would look much better on a homeless person anyway, Goodwill is just down Washington. But that would be mighty philanthropic?!?! Gentrifying Jesus forbid!
I live over by the MarqE – Silber site that has been vacant. I thought Lovett Homes was holding out still on that property. Brandy – where did you find the website?
FreshPrince – What’s the latest news?
A little off topic, but I was a little bummed out when specs closed/next to Candelari’s and Memorial Dental, seems awfully shady of the city to issue them a permit and then renig on it because of their proximity to Memorial Elementary, I lived near the W.o.W for years and I have a sneaking suspicion that property will be vacant for some time. I’d be happy if they did build a new one albeit 500+ yards from a school, though I’ve moved and mid town is far closer to me. Lord knows grade school kids were stopping in daily for tequila samples, or something else suitably unscrupulous at the old now closed Specs.
Ed Hardy = so 2008. No. No. No.
BMW = finest auto brand on the planet.
Ed Hardy wearing troglodykes = Should be pulled physically from any BMW…soiling the finest auto brand on the planet is not OK.
In fact, if you see ANY troglodykes (except in Troglo-appropriate Subarus)please direct them to cm, who can help them understand that, in order to avoid derision, they have another option: Follow the dictates of (acceptable) taste-maker – cm. They wouldn’t to foolishly look affluent (or drive an auto brand they’ve wanted for ten years). Nay, look to cm: tastemaker, and go clubbing confidently with “cm-style”!
Honest, this is a true story. I was driving down Washington to Wabash Feed Store on Sunday afternoon and saw a drunk guy in an Acura (note, not a BMW) nearly take out the front patio of the Pearl Bar. He, thankfully, only took out the parked cars out front.
The drunk was dressed in Ed Hardy-tight shirt fashion.
I’m still shocked by the whole stereotype and irony of the situation. Called 911 and I got the feeling this was just your average day on Washington for them.
Yes agreed, I am German and this I will attest to. I love them (BMW’s), but oft loathe their “my **** doesn’t stink” drivers, especially the ones with the broken arms (my assumption) since they NEVER use their turn signal. Honestly though my folks preferred Mercedes or Volvos, kind of my miss my old 850.. On the suject of trogs: I just generally point the trogs in the direction of Wally world on West Road; where their 4-10 children can run freely down the aisles, while the elders shop for moderately priced offal, and pickled food products. Ok I’m off on a tangent, my apologies…
I’ll send you the bill, for infinging on my patented style (obviously won’t be much though — haha). If anything though my style is roundly inconspicuous; though I’ve always been a little label phobic, I don’t desire to inadvertantly advertise someone’s wears/clothing brands/etc. I lived in Rice Military for years, I’ve seen it go from nothing to douche central, and if you think I’m alone in this opinion then you definitely don’t read the HP, also know the owners of both Candelaris and the Pearl, and they’re almost ashamed of the clientele they’re getting these days, aside from their bottom lines.
This thread is taking a hateful turn.
In regards to putting them that close together, I just moved from Denver and they had a Super Wally world and a normal one 1.5 miles from each other.
word on the street is all the memorial elem. kids are smoking meth this summer since specs shut down and stopped serving them alcohol. liquor is the gateway drug folks.
anyone started posting odds on when lola’s will kick the bucket?
Then stop taking it seriously. At worst it’s just a misguided attempt at fashion, just some suburban dudes trying too hard to be cool. If you think about it you can’t really *hate* them, they’re just stuck on the comic/tattoo artist art of 2008, and likely don’t realize how uber tacky it is. You’ll likely see the same schlock at the airport, I always do..
In San Diego there is a TWO story WalMart INSIDE a mall.
Not next to the mall, but inside. There was not an outside entrance that I could see.
You go through the expansive bank of glass outer doors and the entrance to WalMart is to the right.
Different look and totally different feel to that store.
Joel you do mean the original Lola’s and not the restaurant, right? Haven’t been there in a while, but man, Lola’s closing would be like losing a family member. Or Willie Nelson. Totally devastating to me.
I need to go visit and have a Lone Star.
Somehow I the South Park episode where the lesbians fight back to keep their bar come to life…..
Not to mention led by a transsexual lesbian (aka: a man who is a woman but loves women).
Haha…
Matt Mystery: First Skybar. Now Chances. Sounds like a conspiracy to me…
Yes, and did you forget Mary’s too (right across street from Chances…)
Hey maybe conspiracy is ” Bill Floyd and Bryan Caswell of Reef and former Houston Press restaurant critic Robb Walsh” who were reported to be re-doing the Hollywood Video across the street as a TexMex restaurant (about a month ago on Swamplot)
Though the crosswalk would’ve been good for business– I thought lesbos loved fish tacos (oh god i’m sorry i couldn’t resist–my best friend is lesbo sorry sorry)
I may be a hetero married chick, but I love a good fish taco as much as the next girl ;-)
I know, I know, just awful… ok moving on now…
Heights Weirdo–LMAO
I am hetero married chick too, 40-something, but ever since I tried my first fish taco in college from then on just can’t resist them now and then…
OK really gonna stop now…
HA!
Hateful or hairfull now? Oops…;-)
Thanks EMME, see where you steered it now?
;)
From JRo:
Matt Mystery: First Skybar. Now Chances. Sounds like a conspiracy to me…
Yes, and did you forget Mary’s too (right across street from Chances…)
________________________
I didn’t really forget it – as far as I know it just went out of business as opposed to not having the lease renewed.
As for the taco jokes, well, I remember when Bette Midler nearly got tossed in jail over her “If god didn’t want you to eat it, why did he make it look like a taco?” joke in Cincinnatti.
Ah, liberation. Ain’t it grand?
If reality television and Girls Gone Wild are any indication, casual lesbianism is no longer in need of its own, dedicated bar, but can be found thriving at any club on Washington. Along with ogling douchebags. Which, now that I think of it, is probably why the lesbians liked Chances.
Makes me want to get out the mermaid tail and wheelchair and roll around the new Walmart parking lot.
Cap’n McBarnacle has probably hit the lesbian nail on the head.
The bar going lesbians seem to now go to the Usual on TC Jester at the railroad tracks (south of I-10).
Others (real lesbians, not weekend ones) hang out at generally straight hangouts not on Washington.
A good lesbian friend of mine avoids lesbo bars completely. She always figured you would be digging at the bottom of the barrel when going there.
Hieghts Weirdo: Yep, go Delores!
Cap’n McBarnacle: Have you been to Chances? Nothing ogle-able there. And definately no male douchebags (though maybe the female versions). Wouldn’t describe it as a “casual” lesbian bar…
Is a casual lesbian bar a bar with a casual atmosphere for lesbians or a place for casual lesbians?
That begs the question:what is a casual lesbian? A cool unstressed lesbian or one that dresses casually?
Or maybe a woman who has sex casually with other women? Or causal sex?
Melanie is really Linda Lay
______________________________
Matt Mystery is really Charles Nelson Reilly.
From Heights Weirdo:
Makes me want to get out the mermaid tail and wheelchair and roll around the new Walmart parking lot.
_____________________________
Bette at her best…
From Melanie:
Matt Mystery is really Charles Nelson Reilly.
**************
ROFL!!!!
I was at RA Sushi at City Centre a few months back with a friend who came out of the ladies’ room snickering over some women applying everything-proof lipstick to one another’s nipples to make them more visible under clothing. No GGW cameras, though.
From Melanie:
Melanie is really Linda Lay
______________________________
Matt Mystery is really Charles Nelson Reilly.
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You’ve been cooped up in your prison, oops, penthouse too long.
Not all men who walk in Montrose are gay and hustlers. And not all are Charles Nelson Reilly.
You need to get out more. Maybe walk around Montrose. Maybe have some fish tacos.
Hellsing gets my vote for the oddest swamplot comment ever.
First time I have seen the term “Douchington”. LOL! Thanks Melanie. Enjoyed the other comments as well.
You’ve been cooped up in your prison, oops, penthouse too long.
Not all men who walk in Montrose are gay and hustlers. And not all are Charles Nelson Reilly.
You need to get out more. Maybe walk around Montrose. Maybe have some fish tacos
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Boy you have fallen a long way since your days on Match Game ’74 Chuckie Poo/Matt Mystery. Maybe your ascot is cutting off your blood supply causing an arterial flow problem.
From Melanie:
Boy you have fallen a long way since your days on Match Game ‘74 Chuckie Poo/Matt Mystery. Maybe your ascot is cutting off your blood supply causing an arterial flow problem.
______________________
Kiss, kiss…
word on the street for more than a few months has been that Chances was not long for the world. Sad to see it go, it was a chill place to hang out.
God I loved Match Game.
“When Matt and Melanie ate their first fish tacos, they covered them in (blank)”
God I loved Match Game.
“When Matt and Melanie ate their first fish tacos, they covered them in (blank)â€
_____________________________________________
Dental Dams
LOL!
And the correct answer is “tartar sauce.”
This thread has taken a decidedly hilarious turn.