01/23/09 11:39am

Bruce Wolfe, who owns Houston’s Ligne Roset furniture showroom — and is about to open one in Austin — tells Houston Business Journal reporter Allison Wollam that business at the sleek and modern 3,500-sq.-ft. store in the strip center just north of the Rice Village at 5600 Kirby Dr. was better this holiday season than last, despite problems in the economy that have hurt other home-furnishings retailers:

“It’s not unusual for one of our clients to come in and show us their floor plan and hand us a $40,000 check to furnish their entire home,” he says. “When it comes to furniture, if you pay with peanuts, you’re going to get a monkey. And you can’t pay for a Pontiac and expect to drive away with a Mercedes.”

The Houston Ligne Roset store was one of the few in the chain to carry the entire catalog in Spanish, which Wolfe says that also helped attract new clients.

Wollam goes on to report that Ligne Roset will be expanding and moving up Kirby in April, to the new West Ave development — where the store will be 1 of 5 showrooms Wolfe will operate under the name Design Source:

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01/19/09 11:01am

Nothing new this time; Swamplot’s latest Openings and Closings report is just a list of old places going away:

  • Going: There’s nobody home at Washington Ave. coffeehouse The Daily Grind, reports Jason Bargas at Houstonist:

    A peek through a window facing the parking lot yielded a dining area devoid of tables. The cash register was no longer on the corner of the bar yet a ceiling fan twirled overhead. An industrial looking extension cord hung from the rafters perhaps indicating an intention to use power tools. But, no signs or bulletins indicated a remodel in progress nor a closing of the business.

    Signs or no, the restaurant’s most recent spate of online publicity renders a closing less than surprising. One comment on the Houstonist post notes a rumor that the coffeehouse will be reopening “next to Rudyard’s.”

  • Going: A poster on HAIF notes that the On the Border restaurant on the feeder road of the Northwest Freeway in Cypress appears to be toast: “Lights out, nobody home.”
  • Gone: And there will be no more Frock shopping: The Frock Boutique on Greenbriar near Westheimer closed late last year, but owner Marianne Mayeux says she will come to you.

Got the scoop on other retail openings or closings in your area? Send your tips to Swamplot!

Photo of The Daily Grind: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave

01/12/09 3:09pm

Speaking of abandoned residential projects, another reader wants to know if this development qualifies:

I have noticed the Bammel Lane Park Homes project appears to have ceased development. The houses are between Bammel Lane and Eastside. There are 3 or 4 very large homes that looked completed. ( I cannot figure out if they are occupado) Then, they were painted stark white? Not so good. The sign advertising the project is still up but it appears they are at a stand still. Can you ask the readers or let me know if you have any scoop?

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01/12/09 11:51am

Caught on camera: Sighting of actual male customer inside Sugarbaby’s Cupcake Boutique on S. Shepherd, recorded by a blogging customer (and apparent accomplice), who offers this advice on visits in mixed company:

Okay, so the uber-girly decor may nauseate your male companion, but you can get the cupcakes to-go!

Some of that uber-girlishness:

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12/23/08 12:00pm

Tenants have already begun moving out of the Wakeforest Apartments just north of 59, reports the Michael Reed in the River Oaks Examiner. The Upper Kirby District TIRZ board voted last week to buy the 101-unit complex, tear it down, and build a new “civic complex” on the property, which sits at the eastern edge of Eastside St.’s Levy Park.

A few farewell views sent in by a reader:

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The used-restaurant parts yard at the northeast corner of Kirby and 59 will sprout a new upscale neighborhood restaurant by late spring, reports Cleverley Stone. Rhea Wheeler and Debbie Jaramillo hope to open Haven in a brand new building at 2502 Algerian Way. No transfats will be used in its construction:

“Houston does not have a restaurant like this yet. We want to make the building as green possible. Since we are building a new structure we have the opportunity to incorporate many green concepts in the construction and design, from the building materials to the interior textiles, surfaces and lighting.”

For instance, Randy will have a garden on site that will be irrigated with rainwater collected by cisterns.

Randy is executive chef Randy Evans, formerly of Brennan’s.

Haven’s neighbors will be the shuttered Bennigan’s, Mai Thai, Lupe Tortilla, the Mucky Duck, and Taco Cabana — plus a small 6-plex apartment operated by would-be methadone-clinic proprietor Jared Meadors.

Photo of 2502 Algerian Way: Swamplot inbox

12/12/08 5:49pm

What will happen to the Kirby Court Apartments just west of Whole Foods? The 1949 garden apartments on oak-lined Steel St. make up the major portion of a 5.744-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Kirby and Alabama being offered for sale or ground lease, the River Oaks Examiner reports. Also included in the parcel being sold by the Dickey Estate: retail properties facing Alabama, Kirby, and Kipling.

Cushman & Wakefield’s flyer for the property brags that there’s “potential to abandon Steel Street for an additional 33,750 sq. ft.” How much abandonment could those oaks survive?

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12/05/08 12:36pm

Westheimer near Montrose is becoming late-night central. What about Westheimer near Kirby?

Allison Wollam reports in the Houston Business Journal that Cantina San Miguel will be the latest in the growing list of Mexican or Mexican-ish restaurants near that intersection, joining Chuy’s, Taco Milagro, Armandos, and Pan y Agua just down the street. The restaurant, which until last week owner Beau Theriot apparently planned to call Beau’s Hideaway, is a remake of the Theriot’s Brownstone Restaurant at 2736 Virginia, which closed in July.

. . . Cantina San Miguel will feature a large outdoor patio, a margarita bar, flat-screen televisions, a wine room and a station that churns out fresh flour tortillas.

The restaurant will also feature The Red Room Lounge, which will have its own separate entrance.

Any lineup changes coming for West Ave?

Photo of Chuy’s, 2706 Westheimer: Flickr user transposition [license]

11/25/08 12:08pm

“Brown finds itself at the epicenter of two major design styles that [have] swept the country,” declares Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb. And those would be? “The Belgian and Industrial looks.”

In Houston at least, Jill Brown appears to have cornered the market on large lantern-style lighting fixtures and European instructional charts. On separate recent visits to her last-name-only shop on the corner of Ferndale and W. Alabama, Webb and fellow design blogger Paloma Contreras documented the finds:

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11/11/08 1:03pm

A LONG HOLIDAY BREAK FOR KIRBY CONSTRUCTION Good news! The drainage work that’s turned Kirby Dr. between Westheimer and Richmond into a dusty obstacle course is almost over — for the year, at least: “Construction work will pause from Nov. 21 through Jan. 2, said Travis Younkin, capital projects coordinator for the Upper Kirby District. Work along side streets will continue, though. ‘We can’t have construction crews working on the street during the busiest shopping season of the year,’ Younkin said. The $18 million project, managed by the Upper Kirby District Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, is scheduled to be completed by next November.” [Houston Chronicle, via BlogHouston]

11/07/08 6:38pm

Not quite Southampton, not quite Shepherd Square: It’s time to venture south of 59 for this weekend’s tour — of Greenbriar and nearby Ormond Place:

2348 Bartlett St., Greenbriar, Houston

Location: 2348 Bartlett St.
Details: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths; 1,801 sq. ft.
Price: $289,000
The Scoop: Early PoMo townhouse in Greenbriar. Two bedrooms on ground floor; Loft/Study overlooking Dining Room. Vaulted ceiling in Living Room. Kitchen redone recently. On the market for a week and a half.
Open House: Sunday, 3-5 pm

Want to see more?

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09/29/08 11:13am

Wachovia Sign after Hurricane Ike, Kirby Dr., Houston

No need to remake this hurricane-battered sign after all! Wachovia Bank‘s retail operations are being bought by Citigroup, ahead of any FDIC action. Which means all 30 or so Houston-area Wachovia retail locations will become Citibanks before the year is out.

Photo of Wachovia Bank branch on Kirby Dr.: Swamplot Inbox