- 5809 Darling St. B [HAR]
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The son of Sugar Land Skeeters ace and former Astros hurler Roger Clemens is renovating a tapas bar into a house of “sports and spirits” that’ll be called Katch 22. That’s Katch with a K — for strikeout, if you’re scoring at home. Renovations are already underway at the former Convivio space here at 700 Durham in Rice Military. Kody Kory Clemens, reports Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler, will be Katch 22’s executive chef; he studied at Le Cordon Bleu and met co-proprietor Luke Mandola while working at Ragin’ Cajun. Sandler adds that though there will be 11 screens here showing ball games, the owners stress that Katch 22 is not a sports bar. Either way, it’s expected to open in May.
- Mandola and Clemens Bringing Katch 22 to Durham [Eater Houston]
Photo: Allyn West
PEARL BAR LOCKED OUT ON WASHINGTON AVE. 
Landlord Eva Hughes has changed the locks on her building, reports Chris Gray, for Pearl Bar’s non-payment of rent: According to Hughes’s attorney, adds Gray, eviction “proceedings” are underway. This isn’t the first time the tenants at 4216 Washington Ave. have had a visit paid by such sober guests: “[I]n January agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and state comptroller’s office visited the bar and confiscated cash to count against a back-tax bill a comptroller’s spokesman estimated at more than $40,000.” [Hair Balls] Photo: Pearl Bar
Update, 4:48 p.m.: The map and drawing are not part of UCR Houston’s active plans, a representative from the retail advisor tells Swamplot; UCR is not marketing this property and does not represent and has never represented the property’s current owner. Read more here.
Is this where even more retail development will be coming to the Heights? UCR MoodyRambin Page is marketing A reader alerts Swamplot to a flyer representing a possible plan for this 4-acre site on Yale St. north of the Washington Heights Walmart and the recently sold San Jacinto Stone property — that’s that big empty green square right next to I-10 — for a bank and fast-food restaurants.
You can see a more detailed site plan after the jump:
Chef David Grossman is closing Branch Water Tavern and selling the menu and recipes to Bistro des Amis owner Matt Brice, who says he will open The Federal Grill in the Magnolia Grove spot shown above at 510 South Shepherd Dr. sometime this spring. Grossman opened Branch Water Tavern here 3 years ago behind that wood-and-rusted-steel facade in the building that used to house Cue & Cushion. Grossman tells Eater Houston that he is taking the Branch Water name with him — maybe somewhere outside the Loop, where he will plan a less expensive menu; Grossman means as well to help his fiancee Julia Sharaby get her Fusion Taco truck into a freestanding spot and off the streets.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE FATE OF THE NEON SIGN AT HUSTON’S DRUGS “The Soda fountain stays. I want to fully restore it to working condition, along with reupholstering the stools, and getting the chrome redone to make it all shine again. The sign out front is a different story. I would very much like to keep the old ‘Huston’s Drugs’ sign but the original owners’ family still owns it and unfortunately might be keeping it.” [Chris, commenting on Artist Renovating, Moving Into Washington Ave.’s Old Huston’s Drugs]
The lights are coming back on inside the old Huston’s Drugs at 2119 Washington Ave.: Long for sale, the stout mid-century building was purchased at the end of December by Houston-based artist Chris Bramel, who tells Swamplot he is renovating the interior that’s still partially stocked with apothecary bottles and swivel-stools lined up in front of an old soda fountain into an art gallery, shared studio space, and apartment for himself.
More room for groceries? The building immediately north of the Studemont Kroger that used to house HVAC company Johnson Supply is being torn down. The top photo shows the building from Studemont; the bottom photo shows the progress — or regress? — of the demo as of noon today.
A tipster tells Swamplot that a parcel of the Memorial Club Apartments property at 904 Westcott  is “confirmed” as the future site of Houston’s fourth Trader Joe’s. Organized around the Rice Military roundabout near Memorial Park, the apartments are split down the middle by Westcott; the photo above shows a view from the roundabout looking east toward Washington.
The headquarters of Houston natives and siblings Scott and Nicole Vogel’s Houstonia magazine will be here, the new monthly glossy tweets, at this repainted Victorian at 477 Heights Blvd. The 4,200-sq.-ft. house was purchased in October, city records show. Unveiled earlier this week, Houstonia is expected to debut this March; the masthead will include writers like Robb Walsh and inveterate streetwalker John Nova Lomax, formerly of the Houston Press.
- Houstonia Magazine launches for Houston [mikemcguff.com]
- A prelaunch oops? New Houston city magazine changes its name after a major hotel complains [CultureMap]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Meanest Strip Mall in Houston
Photo: Houstonia
This is how Maggie Rita’s co-owner Santiago Moreno explains his Modern Mex entrepreneurial approach to Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler: “We’ve found out consumer decisions are made by women. When we track what makes a woman decide where to eat Mexican food, it has to do with margaritas. It has nothing to do with food.â€Â Earlier this week, Houston Business Journal reports, Moreno and co-owner stand-up comedian Carlos Mencia shut down their Shepherd restaurant (shown above), the last of 3 Houston-area Maggie Rita’s, following the closings near the end of 2012 of their Kirby and Post Oak locations.
There’s another Maggie Rita’s in Houston, though you’ll have to go underground to get there: Tony Shannard, who’s ponied up the dough to use the brand name, runs his in the tunnel below Chase Tower at 600 Travis. He tells Houston Business Journal he plans to open another location soon.
- Three Ninfa’s Locations Replaced by Maggie Rita’s [Eater Houston]
- Maggie Rita’s closes Galleria, Shepherd locations [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Bringing That Lady Home from Maggie Rita’s, Out with Mama Ninfa’s, in with Maggie Rita’s
Photos: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
Office building or home? It depends on which listing you read. One on LoopNet appears to have marketed the property for a while at $599,000 — as an office building. But it popped up as a single family item this week on HAR, asking $535,000. Built in 2001 and updated in 2010, the corner-lot custom live-work structure is 2 blocks south of the Katy Fwy. in the Brunner subdivision in Cottage Grove.
The general landscaping public hasn’t been able to shop at San Jacinto Stone since January 19, when the 68-year-old Heights rockyard began the process of closing for good. (Contractors, at least, have until the end of February.) Back in August, San Jacinto Stone agreed to sell its 8 acres on Yale to a retail developer; yesterday, the deal was closed by Ponderosa Land Development, who says it has plans to build a shopping center on the property just south of I-10 and just north of the Washington Heights Walmart.
- Heights-area stoneyard to become shopping center [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart
Photo:Â Swamplot inbox
A few doors down from Wabash Antiques & Feed Store and El Tiempo Cantina on Washington Ave., this building at 111 T.C. Jester had been home for many years to Fisk, one of the largest electrical contractors in the U.S. But a Swamplot reader has noticed that the building seems to be vacated. Fisk, acquired in 2011 by California-based general contractor Tutor Perini, wouldn’t tell Swamplot when or why or where it moved, though its website indicates that headquarters have been relocated out near Beltway 8 at 10855 Westview.
- News and Current Events [Fisk Corp.]
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Hasn’t this city always struggled to set appropriate boundaries? That’s at least what this photo, snapped on Silver St. near Washington by a Swamplot reader, suggests.
Photo: matt Curtis, via Swamplot inbox
