Tag: Bars and Restaurants

Featured Posts
01/26/18 1:30pm

Day-Drinker Chain from Arizona Nearly Ready for Its Debut in Heights Mercantile

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New Construction, Restaurants
6 Comments

DRINKING WINE AT LUNCH IS NOT A CRIME, pleads signage outside of Postino, a chain of 7 restaurants in Arizona — and one in Colorado — now on its way to the west side of the Heights Mercantile development on W. 7th St. The photo at top shows construction underway on Postino’s patio, which will sit outside the restaurant on the corner of Yale and 7th St.

Clothing stores Rye 51 and The Gypsy Wagon opened adjacent to Postino’s planed spot last year inside the structure labeled “Bldg. 1” in the Heights Mercantile site plan below:

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7th at Yale
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Featured Posts
01/25/18 4:45pm

Weekend Oak Removal Leaves Slowpokes Backyard Transformed

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Oak Forest, Trees
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Pictured above during its final stand on Slowpokes cafe’s patio last Saturday as workers took it down limb by limb: one of a pair of oak trees the landlord had long threatened to remove. The 2 trees — now fully chopped — stood on a lawn where Slowpokes patrons hung out between the strip mall that houses the cafe and Gardendale Dr., which runs to its south. The leafier photo shows the same tree alive in the coffee shop’s backyard last year.

A view from the corner of Alba St. and Gardendale looks west to show that tree about to be chopped and the other one already stumped:

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Shade Away
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Featured Posts
01/19/18 2:30pm

How a Heights Salon and Cleaners Building Might Look Once It’s Been Burgerized

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Houston Heights, Proposed Developments
20 Comments

Davis Commercial is showing images of a renovated building on the corner of 11th St. and Rutland in hopes of enticing a burger-flipping collective or something similar to take over the space. Q St. Salon & Boutique shared the 2,712-sq.-ft. building behind the parking-lot gazebo with Heights Discount Dry Cleaners until the latter closed down last year. A bungalow that now sits adjacent to Q St.’s spot to the west (hidden behind the building in the photo at top) is excised from the renderings.

The rendering above shows the building’s windows wiped clean of advertisements for laundry deals and extended to the ground. New awnings are shown in place of the blue vinyl ones now covering the storefronts at 402 W. 11th.

An 800-sq.-ft. patio is also planned for the building’s frontage along 11th St.:

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Wash Cycle
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Featured Posts
01/10/18 4:45pm

Signs of the New Ethiopian Restaurant Rising in Upper Kirby a Few Days Ahead of Its Opening

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Upper Kirby
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The pile of signage lying on the grass in the photo above is on its way up over the front door of Ethiopian restaurant Blue Nile ahead of its planned opening on Saturday at 3030 Audley St., just off Westheimer. Blue Nile is expanding to Upper Kirby from its original location on Richmond between Gessner and Fondren, which opened in 1994. Luigi’s Cucina Italiana closed down in the gabled building last year after moving into it from Galveston in 2014.

The new restaurant’s signs are replacing Luigi’s old ones — now fully unlit and unmounted:

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Cherry-Picked
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Avondale
01/08/18 1:30pm

New Owner of Baba Yega Buys Neighboring Montrose Mining Company Building

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Bars and Clubs, Buying and Selling, Montrose
21 Comments

Is the site of shuttered gay bar Montrose Mining Company destined to become a parking lot for nearby restaurant Baba Yega Cafe? The new owner of Baba Yega, developer Fred Sharifi, bought the 39-year-old bar on the corner of Pacific and Grant streets from longtime proprietor Charles Armstrong last month. When the bar closed in 2016, Armstrong said he was working on plans to bring a new restaurant to the building within 18 months. A sign posted on the door of 805 Pacific St. now directs would-be patrons to one of Armstrong’s other hangouts across Pacific — JR’s Bar & Grill. Above that flyer, a notice from the city dated December 14 — 2 days after the 2,809-sq.-ft. building was sold — tells its owners to stop all unpermitted plumbing and structural work on the site.

Sharifi has now purchased at least 5 Montrose properties within the last 2 years, including Baba Yega, Montrose Mining Company, and 3 sites slated to be part of a project he’s developing on Fairview Ave. — one of which was home to Armstrong’s nightclub Meteor. In addition to his projects in Montrose, Sharifi also owns Hungry’s Cafe in Rice Village.

Armstrong still appears to own a vacant, 6,648-sq.-ft. property that wraps around the east side of Montrose Mining Company:

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Old Gay Bars of Avondale
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Featured Posts
01/02/18 4:30pm

Where Flower Child Restaurant Will Sprout in Uptown Park

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Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Strip Centers, Uptown
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Flower Child — the health-minded restaurant that announced it was coming to Houston back in October — will take over the space that houses women’s clothing boutique BB1 Classic in the Cafe Express building at Uptown Park. Bidding is already underway for construction that will turn the 2-story, corner-side store into the new restaurant, whose owners already run North Italia and True Food Kitchen, both located in the same shopping center just south of Uptown Park on Post Oak Blvd. at the corner of San Felipe St.

Ads for a moving sale were posted on the high-fashion retailer’s Facebook page last Thursday. BB1 Classic’s current location opened in 2003. Before that, the store had spots in Memorial City, south of Uptown Park on Post Oak, in River Oaks, and in the Galleria.

Photo: BB1 Classic

Dining in Style
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Downtown
12/21/17 3:15pm

The Clearest Views Yet of Lyric Market’s Plaza-Front Food Hall on Louisiana

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Proposed Developments
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Renderings now up on Lyric Market’s new website reveal more of what’s planned for the parking-garage food hall. The image at top shows David Adickes’s self-playing cello sculpture ascended atop a new pedestal at the corner of Smith and Preston streets. Behind the artwork, outdoor seating and what the website describes as a private terrace back up to the food hall’s main entrance. The new structure, currently under construction, is shown on the left of that rendering — adjacent to the existing Lyric Centre office tower.

Here’s a full view of the completed parking garage from across the intersection of Preston and Louisiana:

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Downtown Food Hall No. 4
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Castle Court
12/19/17 10:15am

Yes, The Harp on Richmond Ave Is Closing Down

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink
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YES, THE HARP ON RICHMOND AVE IS CLOSING DOWN There’s a reason why Braun Enterprises has been trying to find a new tenant to replace the Harp at 1625 Richmond: it turns out that the bar’s founder, Declan Plunkett, is retiring, Craig Hlavaty reports. The Ireland transplant plans to close the 18-year-old bar when the lease expires at the end of February, meaning there won’t be a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the Harp next year: “Plunkett is planning a weeklong bash to see the bar off. ‘We might sell some of the stuff off the walls for people who have been such dedicated patrons,’ Plunkett says.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Braun Enterprises

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Featured Posts
12/15/17 4:00pm

Goode Co. Doubles Down on the Katy Fwy. Feeder

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Hedwig Village, Openings and Closings
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Keeping with its tradition of opening restaurants in clusters, Goode Co. Kitchen and Cantina will open Monday just west of an existing Goode Co. Barbeque. Just Clifford Rd. and 3 structures — a 3-story office, Saltgrass Steak House, and Carter’s Country gun store — separate the new Goode Co. location from the existing one at 8911 Katy Fwy. The new restaurant will open in the former Mason Jar Restaurant & Cafe pictured above at 9005 Katy Fwy., a 6,500-sq.-ft. building that’s been closed since the lease ran out last year.

Goode Co. opened its first Kitchen and Cantina restaurant 3 months ago in the same building as an existing Goode Co. Barbeque in Shenandoah. In Upper Kirby, the 40-year-old chain’s original barbecue spot sits within 2 blocks of 3 other Goode Co. restaurants.

The 9005 Katy Fwy. restaurant will be the brand’s 9th store total.

Photos: Barry B. (Mason Jar), Goode Co. (Kitchen and Cantina)

Kitchen and Cantina
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Buildings for Lease
12/15/17 11:30am

The Harp Is Now Strung Up for Lease on Richmond

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Castle Court, Montrose
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A flyer put out by Braun Enterprises indicates that the Harp Irish Pub’s spot at 1625 Richmond Ave is available for lease. A partnership controlled by Braun bought the decked-out bar along with its 3 eastern neighbors (at that time Orange Bar, Maria Selma Mexican Restaurant, and Lucky Burger) in 2011. Since then, Lucky Burger was replaced by Oui Banh Mi on the corner of Richmond and Mandel St., Orange Bar ceded its space to Revelry on Richmond, and Maria Selma reopened — then closed — as Texas Shrimp Shack.

Texas Shrimp Shack’s vacant lot at 1617 Richmond, right next to the Harp, is also up for lease.

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Castle Court
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Adaptive Reuse
12/01/17 1:30pm

Alterations Begin on McGowen Cleaners, Soon To Be Vibrant

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Hyde Park, Renovations
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Work has begun outside the former McGowen Cleaners — closed since 2015 — on the corner of Fairview and Morse streets, the site of the planned Vibrant restaurant. Last May, Vibrant’s owners bought the 3,909-sq.-ft. brick building, along with 2 adjacent neighbors to the south; they plan to open their Lake Flato-designed restaurant inside the corner building in March. The above rendering shows a patio that would be cut into its corner — and a garden lining the street, where chunks of chopped-up pavement now lie.

The rendering also shows tall windows being created where clerestory windows currently face Fairview. The clerestories are visible in the center of this photo of the 1931 Fairview St. building from last year, when the property was up for sale:

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Lake Flato in Hyde Park
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Featured Posts
11/29/17 12:45pm

Where House of Pies Will Land in The Woodlands, Just Across the Street from The Woodlands Mall

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Openings and Closings, The Woodlands
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The fourth branch of 50-year-old diner House of Pies is on its way to the shopping center just north of The Woodlands Mall. Like its predecessors, the location will operate in a free-standing building — this one the former home of a Black-eyed Pea restaurant (pictured above), which closed late last year.

House of Pies will join a Chili’s, a Jason’s Deli, Jack-in-the-Box, a Guadalajara Hacienda, a Starbucks, a Smoothie King, an AT&T store, and 2 gas stations lining the perimeter of the Target shopping center:

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The Upper Crust
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Featured Posts
11/28/17 5:00pm

Saint Arnold’s Fifth Ward Beer Cathedral Now Taking Shape on I-10

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Fifth Ward, New Construction
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The steel is up for the cathedral-like beer-entertainment complex that Saint Arnold is building across Semmes St. from its Lyons Ave. brewery. The view at top shows what you’ll see now if you look southeast from the corner of Semmes and Lyons. Bocce courts and a multi-purpose lawn will sprout in the foreground. An extended cupola will have lettering that spells out the brewery’s name.

The complex’s restaurant, shown in the recent rendering above, will include stained-glass images of holy figures and murals featuring brewing iconography:

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Beer Gardening
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Bars and Clubs
11/22/17 11:00am

The New Old Drinking Spot at 15th and Prince

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings
4 Comments

The vacant former-ice-house-turned-furniture-store at the corner of W. 15th St. and Prince St. appears ready to serve drinks again: Gregg Goldstein and Katz Coffee owner Avi Katz, the proprietors of the almost-ready-to-open Golden Bagels and Coffee on White Oak and Oxford, bought the former El Viejo Mexico Custom Furniture spot at 1701 W. 15th spot over the summer. (The furniture shop has since decamped outside the South Loop, at 4114 Belk St. near Cullinan Park.)

More has changed in this corner of the Heights near Shady Acres since the building’s ice-house days: “Nearly every home in a block radius has been torn down and 3 put in its place since the time that bar was there,” a neighbor tells Swamplot. Now posted to the façade of the 1,344-sq.-ft. structure: a TABC license application for mixed-beverage permits at this location — under the name of Birdocks 50 Fifty.

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Birdocks 50/Fifty
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Featured Posts
11/21/17 4:15pm

First Sign of the New Restaurant Headed for El Taquito Rico’s Spot on North Main

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Openings and Closings, Woodland Heights
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Coming soon to the 1,500-sq.-ft. building on the corner of N. Main and Pecore St. where El Taquito Rico dealt tacos until its closure in May: a new restaurant serving drinks. The building sits on a narrow triangular property at 3701 N. Main, just west of I-45. Puro Mente LLC is listed as the applicant for a variety of TABC permits, including one for late-night service, on the notice taped to the building’s front window, shown in the photo below:

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Rico Puro
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