Once an orphanage, a gated 1913 Italianate property near downtown and north of Montrose found new life in 2003 as a 15-unit condo re-dubbed Villa Serena. Its historic pedigree encompasses city, state, and national recognition. A corner unit on the ground level quietly made its market debut on Monday, with a $299,000 price tag. The 1-bedroom home last sold in 2010 for $210,000 — down from an asking price of $245,000 at that time.
THE NEW MONTROSE BAR SPORTING HOUSTON SPORTS WALLPAPER 
Looks like the name of the bar and restaurant that will be taking over the old Sophia and Café Artiste spot in Montrose just around the corner from the Menil Collection will be Lowbrow — and not, as the TABC sign that was hung in the window in April suggested, Faustian Bargain. Developed by Omar Afra, who heads up Fitzgerald’s and the Free Press Summer Fest, Lowbrow will be stocked with local craft beers and local insignia too, reports Culturemap: “[Artists] Blake Jones and Dual have partnered to create a wallpaper that incorporates iconic Houston images such as the Astrodome and the Houston Oilers derrick logo.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
The wraparound porch of this updated 1928 bungalow in Lancaster Place lands on the side of the home on the far side of the former Fiesta Mart site 3 lots to the west, where the announced 8-story Finger apartment project (The Susanne) is about to go up. The recessed porch’s overhang shades the bedrooms that line up along the driveway, but the living and dining side of the property appears to get plenty of light — for now at least –Â from the west and apartment-free south. The home appeared on the market Wednesday; it has a $520,000 asking price.
LA FENDEE TRYING TO FEND OFF ENDING 
Reports of La Fendee’s demise — and Tacos A Go-Go’s emergence — here at 1402 Westheimer might have been hasty: A tweet from freelance writer Amber N. Ambrose suggests that the owners aren’t going gentle into that goodbye: “Man on the phone says they’re ‘fighting it.'” And a manager tells Swamplot this morning that the stories about the restaurant’s closing “aren’t right,” though declined to elaborate. [Twitter; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Trip Advisor
TACOS A GO-GO GOING IN NOW THAT LA FENDEE’S ENDING Culturemap reports that La Fendee, the Mediterranean restaurant at 1402 Westheimer in Montrose, will be closing by the end of the month and will be replaced soon thereafter by another Tacos A Go-Go. This new spot — right across Westheimer from the former Wendy’s that’s being renovated into Doc’s, the Austin sports bar — would be the 3rd location in Houston. Elsewhere, the Tacos a Go-Go owners have said they plan to open Retrospect Coffee at that artfully abandoned gas station near HCC in Midtown. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Trip Advisor
As many as 8 new bike-sharing stations could open inside the Loop in the next 2 weeks. Will Rub, director of Houston B-Cycle, tells Swamplot that permits are in hand and the bikes forthcoming for these 5 stations: Spotts Park, at 401 S. Heights Blvd; the intersection of Taft and Fairview, at 2401 Taft St.; the Menil Collection, at 1529 W. Alabama St.; Leonel Castillo Community Center, which is undergoing a restoration at 2109 South St.; and the intersection of Milam and Webster, at 2215 Milam St.
And Rub adds that 3 other locations are just waiting for their permits: Stude Park, at 1031 Stude St., and 2 others east, for the first time, of the Southwest Fwy.: Settegast Park at Garrow and Palmer in the Second Ward, and Project Row Houses at Holman and Live Oak in the Third Ward. Rub expects those to be ready to roll September 19th or 20th.
Photo of station at Lamar and Milam: Reddit user txsupernova
This wobbly 108-year-old house in Midtown, remodeled in 1999, might be fixed up one more time and converted into a bar. Or it might be demolished to make room for something new, says the reader who sends this photo and word of a recently secured TABC license for the so-called Sterling House here at 3015 Bagby St., just 1 block north of Elgin. The 1905 2,850-sq.-ft. house, sitting on a 4,918-sq.-ft. lot at the corner of Bagby and Rosalie, changed hands back in 2009, but it appears to have been waiting around for something to happen since then.
This 1920 house at 4210 Roseland is being renovated into a Greek restaurant. The reader who sends this photo estimates that it could be open next year. County records show that the house was last sold in 2010; it’s about 2,154 sq. ft. and sits on a 4,500-sq.-ft. lot just south of Colquitt and east of Montrose Blvd.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
The old Westheimer Wendy’s has been reduced to a shell of itself, this photo shows, as Doc’s Bar and Grill has come all the way from Austin to build itself up. Located at 1303 Westheimer and Graustark — right beside the overflow parking lot for Royal Oak Bar and Grill, which is right across the street — Doc’s says in a Facebook post that this 3rd location could open in November.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
On Friday the volunteer-painted strips of donated scrap wood were weaved through the previously installed steel frame, completing Patrick Renner’s “Funnel Tunnel.” Funded in part by $10,000 from the Houston Arts Alliance, the 6,700-pound, 180-ft. long — umm, thing, wriggles through the live oaks on the Montrose Blvd. median between Bomar and Willard, right in front of Inversion and Art League Houston. The Houston Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer reports: “The wood came from a turn-of-the-century cotton gin that was being dismantled near Interstate 10 East just inside the 610 Loop.”
A few more pics of the thing:
COMMON BOND COMING TOGETHER IN MONTROSE 
Culturemap reports a few more details about Chef Roy Shvartzapel’s new pastry cafe, dubbed Common Bond, that’s moving into that 2-suite retail center (with plenty of parking in the back) that’s been going up on the corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy — including the co-aspirants Shvartzapel has persuaded to join him in his lofty quest “to make the best croissants you’ve ever had:” “[The team will] include executive pastry sous chef Jillian Bartolome (Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, Cyrus), chef de cuisine David Morgan (August Restaurant, Cyrus), head bread baker Drew Gimma (Bouchon, Per Se), assistant bread baker Tony Stein (Bouchon Beverly Hills) and assistant bread baker Alec Bartee (Cyrus).” And when is this place gonna open? “Although he says the bakery ‘will not open before we’re ready,’ Shvartzapel hopes to welcome customers in November to demonstrate Common Bond’s ideas about Thanksgiving pies.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Introducing the Susanne, what appears to be that “Mediterrenean” and “really beautiful” apartment complex that developer Marvy Finger has been saying he was going to build on the site of the recently demolished Montrose Fiesta and the rest of that low-slung strip center at the corner of Dunlavy and W. Alabama. A reader sends a photo of the sign now posted on the construction fence advertising the new complex and its website, on which the rendering above appears; the website provides few details about floor plans and amenities, but it appears that there will be a swimming pool and that the parking garage will provide direct access to each of these 8 stories.
Swamplot commenter drlan34 reports (and that Dumpster in the photo above would appear to confirm) that a good gutting is going on to renovate the old dive bar Brazos River Bottom into a new restaurant, identified on that yellow permit window dressing as Docks on Brazos. The building here at 2400 Brazos and McIlhenny in Midtown shares a parking lot with the also-being-renovated Bremond Street Grill and backs up against the opened-just-a-few-months-ago Dogwood Houston, a bar paid for by a team from Austin that includes one-time reality teevee hunk Brad Womack and his identical twin brother.
Photo: Allyn West
