COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHHHHH! MONTROSE IS CHEAPER NEXT TO THE CLUBS “Economics? You get the benefits of the Montrose in general at a pretty big discount relative to a few blocks in almost any direction. For us the annoyances just aren’t that big a deal. (Obviously they are for lots of people…thus the discount.)” [jt, commenting on Swamplot Street Sleuths: The Dunlavy Dangle]
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Tag: Bars and Clubs
Got an answer to one 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.
- Southwest Freeway: Driving over the Dunlavy Bridge, a reader spots a loop of fiber-optic lighting cable hanging off the southern end of the structure. Later the same afternoon, the reader snaps these photos, showing that someone had taped the loose strand to one of the bridge cables: “When the bridges over this part of 59 opened a few years back, the lighting was pretty cool, but I don’t think it has worked for a while. Friends and I have wondered who is supposed to be responsible for keeping this up — think one of your readers might know?”
- North Montrose: Jackhammers have been thrumming for the last couple mornings on West Dallas, reader Pat Wente reports. And she wonders if it might have something to do with Regent Square: “Anybody know of any official new start dates or plans on this long-delayed project?”
And then there’s this little item:
“Montrosians are freaking out,” writes SL, one of several readers lighting up Swamplot’s tip line with reports that the building housing Numbers has been listed for lease. A flyer making the rounds from Davis Commercial, identifying the property at 314 Westheimer as the “Former ‘Numbers’ Nightclub,” says the 9,000-sq.-ft. building, which comes with its very own 23,088-sq.-ft. “parking field,” is available at a rate of $18 per gross sq. ft. The flyer shows photos of the DJ booth and main dance floor, but doesn’t mention any allowance for buildout.
But uh . . . Numbers hasn’t announced it’s shutting down. Even the ever-polite Nancy Sarnoff is unable to parse the apparent paradox:
the operator of the 32-year-old iconic music venue says it’s not closing. And the property owner says Numbers isn’t being kicked out. . . .
Davis Commercial’s Mark Davis, the broker hired to market the space, says the owner would like to “retenant” the building if he can find the right operator.
SL notes: “They have a several upcoming shows and events still on the calendar so it might be a case of staying open til the very last minute.”
- 314 Westheimer Former “NUMBERS” Night Club (PDF) [Davis Commercial]
- Iconic Montrose club building for lease [Prime Property]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:
Some odds and ends to tie up from last week:
- Montrose: “Let’s just say business has not been getting stronger,” Chances Bar co-owner Anne Vastakis tells Houston Press reporter Richard Connelly, who followed up on Swamplot’s hot tip from last week. Vastakis continues:
With the economy the way it is — these mega-lesbian bars — there are four bars there, and in the `90s they were thriving. Now, I don’t know, maybe there’s too much competition.
So yes, the bar and the entire block it’s on are for sale, though the owners hope to sell the 27,341-sq.-ft. property at 1100 Westheimer at Waughcrest to “someone who won’t change things too much.” The owners plan to keep the place open in the meantime.
- Washington Corridor: That warehouse at 1120 Knox St., across the street from Benjy’s on Washington, will become Washington Wine Storage, according to a state license uncovered by commenter Guy Incognito. The building’s owner is the Urban Meridian Group. Expected opening date: around the end of August.
We’ll post more reader questions tomorrow. Send us what you’ve got before then!
- Swamplot Street Sleuths: Chances Are [Swamplot]
Photo: Commercial Gateway
GALVESTON’S NEW RINSE-OFF NIGHTSPOT 
A lawsuit will determine whether Scott Arnold can collect the remainder of the insurance money he expects for the loss of the famed Balinese Room to Hurricane Ike. In the meantime, the former owner of the waterside bar wanted to make sure his next nightspot would survive another big Galveston flood. So . . . is his new Granite Room, which opened on July 4th as part of the Voodoo Lounge complex at 26th and Mechanic streets, on an upper floor or something? Naaah. It’s mop-down friendly: “This building got nine feet of water during Ike,†he tells HBJ reporter Allison Wollam. “So I designed the club with granite and marble so that if it floods again, we can just hose everything down and be open again within a week or two.†[Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Granite Room
THE SOCIAL, NOT WORKING? 
Live, from the Twitternet rumor mill! The Social Lounge and Patio Bar at 3730 Washington Ave. at Yale — just a couple blocks from the proposed site of the West End Walmart — “has closed its doors to the public,” reads an entirely unverified message from a liquor distributor. “Sources tell me the Comptroller was there yesterday to change the locks,” the tweet continues. Uh . . . whose comptroller? [Twitter] Photo: Katharine Shilcutt (license)
ERNIE’S ON BANKS CLOSES, WILL REOPEN SOON WITHOUT APOSTROPHES 
Big Star Bar owner Brad Moore, former Beaver’s bartender Ryan Rouse, and a crew of bartending partners have bought Ernie’s on Banks in the Museum District and shut it down. But they plan on reopening the bar at 1010 Banks St. across from Bell Park later this month as “a little two-story neighborhood bar…and then some,” Moore tells the Houston Press‘s Katharine Shilcutt. Moore says he wants to “[keep] the vibe as casual as possible.” One new feature: a large grill on the back patio, tended by a “rotating roster of guest cooks.” But the Ernie’s name is gone: “We actually don’t have a name yet. Nothing with an apostrophe-s. We’re not into those names.” [Eating Our Words] Photo: Citysearch
WHY SCOTT GERTNER’S SKYBAR IS LEAVING THE MONTROSE SKY Gertner says he’s now interested in opening up a new club somewhere near the Galleria. A company out of Waco called FH Properties bought the 10-story office building at 3400 Montrose that serves as a podium for the Skybar in February. After that, the bar owner and Grammy nominee tells the Chronicle‘s Joey Guerra, everything went downhill: “About five months ago, the building was purchased in auction. We tried over the past months to work out a new lease, but they kept putting me off saying they didn’t know what they were going to do. I started to see that the building was being neglected — even to the point that my staff would walk the entire four-story parking garage and lobby to clean it ourselves after the nightclub was closed — wipe the windows, clean the elevators, everything that my prior lease included that was the responsibility of the landlord. Big, orange, neon City of Houston stickers started to appear on all doors listing the permits were outdated. We had several visits from the fire marshal about the building and even thought they were going to shut it down two weeks ago. Nothing like closing us down on the second biggest holiday of the year. Skybar was always one of the best venues to view fireworks on the fourth of July.” [Peep; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU SEE A WORN-OUT FOURPLEX, I SEE A WEST GRAY BAR WAITING TO HAPPEN “Looks like a great place to relocate the long dead but sorely missed Aquarium [Lounge]. Connect two. Demolish two for for parking. Win. Take a look behind the front room addition at Kenneally’s and you’ll find a building nearly identical to these: obsolete for housing, but many other uses.” [Bernard, commenting on Lovebird Hideaways: 3 Out of 4 Fourplexes on West Gray]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: READING THE WASHINGTON AVE CRYSTAL BALL “Eventually people will get sick of having no place to park and the hot spot will move on. Prediction is for Brixx to go out of business within six months, Eight will turn into a restaurant within a year and Taps will probably stay as it is. Not sure about Roosevelt – could become a restaurant as it does have a parking lot of its own.” [MC, commenting on What It’s Like to Live on Center St.]
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LIVE ON CENTER ST. From the Houston Press‘s magnum opus on the Washington Avenue scene: “Drunk people walk through the yard, pee on the house, sit on the porch swing and bark at the dogs. They scream and yell and fight until all hours every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, and now during the day on Sunday. The music from District can be clearly heard from the driveway. ‘Right now you could go sit in my bedroom and feel how the house just thuds. The windows rattle,’ [longtime Center St. resident and property owner Helen] Espinoza said. There are constant accidents at the nearby intersection. With police focused on Washington, late-night drag racers take to Center Street. Espinoza says she has a hard time getting cops to come at all. [Neighbor Marie] Martinez, meanwhile, spends much of her time fighting new liquor licenses in court. She can’t hold them off forever, though, and while she’s fighting one bar, others pop up. Five liquor licenses are pending in the area right now. As more nightspots open, more people flood into the neighborhood to park. They block driveways or sometimes just use them, tear up the grass and get stuck in the drainage ditches. Marlene Gafrick, the director of city planning, says her department began working on the parking problems in March and has tried to bring each of the 35 to 40 bars and restaurants up to code. She too must hustle to keep pace with the development. Soon after one bar finally agreed to rent a nearby lot, for instance, the lot went under construction. . . . After a long fight, Espinoza finally won ‘No Parking’ signs on her side of the street. The factory across the way put up its own, with chicken wire, along its long and tall chain-link fence. People just cut them down.” [Houston Press]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SOUND OF LIQUOR SALES “There’s been much incidental info over 50 yrs or so (and specific studies since the 80’s) showing that increasing noise in drinking establishments predicts higher rates of consumption. I’m sure that’s in every every bar-owner’s bag of tricks now. In fact, there’s a point in the evening when the lights are perceptably dimmed and the background music gets louder.” [movocelot, commenting on How Does a Nice Meal at Discovery Green Sound?]
The Corkscrew wine bar at 1919 Washington Ave. will be closing for good on February 9th. Appearing in its place by March will be a new “organic bar” from the same owners. Bee Love will serve infused cocktails and other drinks with fresh, local, organic ingredients and no syrups or mixes, reports the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam. And the bar will grow its own limes, oranges, and lemons.
[Corkscrew co-owner] Andrew Adams, who also owns The Washington Avenue Drinkery at 4115 Washington Ave., says it may take a little longer to get a drink at Bee Love than at other rowdy bars along the Washington Avenue corridor because the drinks will be made for “experiencing,†not just drinking.
Adams also says that by the end of March he plans to open a new over-30 nightclub right next door to Bee Love. It’ll be called Trixie’s and feature eighties music.
- Closures pop cork on wine bar sector consolidation [Houston Business Journal]
- Washington Ave. Latest: Wrestler-Themed Tacos To Calm the Nightly Grind [Swamplot]
Photo: Heights Blog
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AND THE NEXT NEW HOT SPOT WILL BE UNCLE JOE’S CLUB ON HILLCROFT “. . . My problem is that it is getting harder and harder to find places that are ‘unbeautiful.’ I want a bar, not a drinking experience. It’s not a hard formula: old building + inexpensive spirits – interior design planning = bar. I guess I’ll just have to stick to Uncle Joe’s and stay away from downtown altogether from now on.” [Brad, commenting on Leon’s Lounge Takes a Turnover Break]
Leon’s Lounge owner Scarlett Yarborough “has made it clear to everyone involved that no major changes will be made” when she sells turns over operation of the 57-year-old Midtown bar on McGowen near Main St. to Under the Volcano owner Pete Mitchell, the Houston Press‘s Craig Hlavaty reports. But Hlavaty also writes that Mitchell will be shutting Leon’s down “at least for a few months while [he] overhauls and renovates the establishment.”
Photo: Michelle Calabretta [license]
