Tag: Fast Food

Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

01/25/18 11:30am

Burger King Has Stepped Down from the Corner of Montrose and Lincoln

by Dan Singer

21 Comments

A Swamplot reader sends photos of the now see-through drive-thruÂ signage on the north side of Burger King’s former building at 1002 Westheimer, across the street from the Westmont Shopping Center home to Spec’s, Half Price Books, and a Mattress Firm. The restaurant abdicated earlier this week. Yesterday morning, surveyors showed up to look around the property, leaving behind the wooden marker shown at the bottom of the image at top.

Another shot from the fast food lane adjacent to Blacksmith looks toward the restaurant’s parking lot on California St.:

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Whopper

Fast Food, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

09/15/17 4:45pm

Pollo Tropical Sunset

Franchises and Chain Stores, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants

Fast Food, Franchises and Chain Stores, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

POLLO TROPICAL SUNSET Citing “limited awareness” of the brand, the corporate parent of Pollo Tropical has decided not to reopen the last 2 remaining Houston-area locations of the Caribbean chicken fast-food chain after they were both damaged by floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey. Gone for good: the Pollo Tropical on Westheimer Rd. just west of Eldridge and the other at 11400 Broadway just east of Kirby Dr. in Pearland (pictured here). Three other Houston-area Pollo Tropicals closed in April. Fiesta Restaurant Group, which also owns the Taco Cabana chain, said in a release that it was also closing all 4 locations in San Antonio but might reopen as many as 2 of the shuttered restaurants in the region as Taco Cabanas. [BusinessWire; Houston Press] Photo: Fernando C.

Disaster Aftermath

08/31/17 11:15am

Submerged Kingwood Whataburger, the Shortest-Lived Whataburger in Kingwood History

Flooding, Franchises and Chain Stores, Kingwood, Restaurants

How’s this image for establishing flood cred? The photo above — of the submerged Whataburger at 4545 Kingwood Dr. in Kingwood — accompanied the fast-food chain’s announcement yesterday of plans to spend a million bucks helping its own employees recover from Hurricane Harvey and donate half a million to local food banks and $150K to the Red Cross. If the water-waisted burger joint located near the intersection of the appropriately named W. Lake Houston Pkwy. otherwise looks kinda shiny and new in the pic (you can see more of its flooding experience here, here, and here), it’s because it is. Whataburger Unit 1125 at this location opened for the first time on July 31.

Whataburger Pledges Nearly $2M for Harvey Recovery Efforts [Whataburger]

Photo: Whataburger

In and Out

77345, Disaster Aftermath, Fast Food, Flooding, Franchises and Chain Stores, Hurricane Harvey, Kingwood, Restaurants

08/14/17 4:30pm

Where All the Chick-fil-As Are Lining Up, from Pearland to Webster

Franchises and Chain Stores, Friendswood, Pearland, Proposed Developments, Restaurants

6 Comments

With the newest location coming to the Pearland Pkwy. pad site shown at the center of the image above in the Centre at Pearland Parkway shopping center just behind the H-E-B fronting Broadway, the density of Chick-fil-A restaurants in an axis stretching from FM 518 in Pearland to I-45 in Webster is fast approaching Texas Medical Center–level concentration, and may soon exceed it. (There are 4 Chick-fil-As in the TMC area, 3 of them conveniently located inside hospitalsÂ — though no drive-thrus.)

Less than 2 miles to the west along Broadway from the pictured location (expected to open in January) is the Chick-fil-A at FM 518 and Dixie Farm Rd.; further to the east are the spots in the Baybrook Mall and along the Gulf Fwy. at El Dorado Blvd. Between them, and possibly on the horizon, looms the planned Chick Fil A location atÂ the intersection of FM 518 and Leisure Ln. in Friendswood. The owners of that property withdrew a rezoning application that would have allowed restaurant uses on that site after residentsÂ complained before the Friendswood City Council in April that adding the Chick-fil-A would make the city too much like Pearland. But a new rezoning request for the same property is up for consideration with the council this week, and the owners tell theÂ Chronicle‘s Dana Guthrie that Chick-fil-A is still very interested in building a restaurant there.

East Pearland to get second Chick-fil-A, Friendswood developer still hoping for one [Houston Chronicle/Pearland Journal]
Previously on Swamplot:Â Spectre of Looming East Pearland-ification Invoked in Friendswood Chick-Fil-A Rezoning Fight

Site plan detail, Centre at Pearland Parkway: Stream Retail

FM 518, Chicken Alley

77581, Fast Food, Franchises and Chain Stores, Friendswood, Pearland, Restaurants, Webster, Zoning

08/09/17 10:45am

Texadelphia’s Triumphant Return to the Westheimer Strip

Franchises and Chain Stores, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Woodlake

12 Comments

TEXADELPHIA’S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE WESTHEIMER STRIP A little more than 2 years after retreating from its last Houston outpost — and later, having to see its former Westheimer location festooned with a giant Beaver statue — Tex-Mex cheesesteak chain Texadelphia is ready to return. Houston’s very first-in-a-while Texadelphia franchise is scheduled to open by late next month in the endcap of the Westside Plaza strip center at 8383 Westheimer Rd., on the corner of Dunvale, where it will replace the recently shuttered Potbelly sandwich shop pictured above. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Square Foot

77063, Fast Food, Franchises, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Woodlake

Downtown

07/26/17 11:15am

Downtown Houston Is Now Down to a Single Street-Level Subway

Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Streetscapes

21 Comments

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON IS NOW DOWN TO A SINGLE STREET-LEVEL SUBWAY With the shuttering last week of the Subway sandwich shop at the corner of Milam and Rusk streets — catty corner from Pennzoil Place, in the ground-floor space below the Level Office at 720 Rusk St. (pictured here) — the national sandwich chain is now down to a single Downtown location that can be accessed from a sidewalk. Another streetside Subway, in the ground floor of the Americana Building 5 blocks to the south at the corner of Milam and Dallas, exited its space before demolition began on that structure in February. A total of 8 Subways are located Downtown, but they’re all now harbored in tunnels or lobbies or food courts — except the lone fresh-air holdout at 405 Main St., at the corner of Preston. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of former Subway space at 802 Milam St.: cmoney_htx

77002, Fast Food, Restaurants, Retail, Streetscapes

Dunvale

07/19/17 11:30am

In-N-Out Appears To Be Slipping Into Houston by the Dunvale Walmart

Heads up, California-ization vigilantes:Â A diligent transaction sifter over at HAIF noted last nightÂ that In-N-Out BurgersÂ recently bought 8373 Westheimer Rd. (currently home to a branch of public employment center Workforce SolutionsÂ in the parking lot of the nearby Walmart Supercenter on Dunvale Rd.). The 1997 standalone building is right around the corner from the AMC Studio 30, and sits in something of aÂ Whataburger gap — not one of theÂ 5Â nearest Whataburger locationsÂ isÂ closerÂ than 1.7 miles by car. The space had been put on the market a few times in the last few years with no takers; the sale to In-N-Out went through in late May, per county records.

Noises have been madeÂ beforeÂ about In-N-Out possibly moving to (or near) Houston, but CBRE VP JazzÂ HamiltonÂ toldÂ the Chronicleâ€™s Katherine FeserÂ only this pastÂ FebruaryÂ that he expected the chain’s first location to open by the end of the year —Â adding that Houston willÂ “see [more locations] come in quietlyÂ . . . All of a sudden, they’ll start building all at once.”

In-N-Out Burger Coming to Houston [Houston Chronicle]
8373 Westheimer Road [LoopNet]
Previously on Swamplot:Â The Rumors In-N-Out of Sugar Land;Â In-N-Out Burger Eager To Start Packing for Houston

Photo of 8737 Westheimer Rd.: LoopNet

Out and In on Westheimer

77063, California-ization, Dunvale, Fast Food, In-N-Out, Land Sales, Westheimer

07/13/17 10:45am

5 Slim Chickens Caught Crossing Houston Border

Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants, Vintage Lakes

2 Comments

5 SLIM CHICKENS CAUGHT CROSSING HOUSTON BORDER The Slim Chicken drive-ups in Katy, Cypress, Spring, and Humble will soon be joined by 5 new locations of the restaurant franchiseÂ inside the Houston city limits. First up: wingsÂ and Texas-shaped waffles will become available atÂ 9850 Louetta Rd. in Vintage Lakes, right byÂ Aldi and just down the street from the fast-food mecca known as Vintage Marketplace. A Kingwood location atÂ 30255 LoopÂ 494 should open later this summer, though it isn’t clear if the Arkansas-based chain is counting that location as one of its 5 genuineÂ Houston spots. [Eater Houston] Photo of the Slim Chicken opened late last year atÂ 9255 FM 1960 Bypass Rd. in Humble: Edwin R.

77070, 77339, Fast Food, Franchises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Vintage Lakes

Comments

07/06/17 4:15pm

Adding Needed Fast-Food Diversity to the NRG Park—South Main Donut Nexus

Quicklink, Reliant Park, Restaurants, South Main

1 Comment

ADDING NEEDED FAST-FOOD DIVERSITY TO THE NRG PARK—SOUTH MAIN DONUT NEXUS “At least, an Arbyâ€™s will add a different fast-food chain to the area. Another donut shop would have been useless with the Shipleyâ€™s (Murworth/Main: SW corner), Dawn Donut (Murworth/Main: NW corner), and Glazed (Old Spanish Trail near Kirby) giving them a run for their money.” [Major Market, commenting on A Peek Inside the Half-Baked Krispy Kreme near NRG Stadium] Illustration: Lulu

77054, Comments, Fast Food, NRG Park, Restaurants, South-Main

Cottage Grove

04/26/17 5:15pm

Fresh Car Wash Swept Away To Raise a Raising Cane’s in Cottage Grove

Demolitions, New Construction

3 Comments

Construction at N. Shepherd at I-10, Cottage Grove, Houston, 77007

For now, this is the new order of thingsÂ on the block between Shepherd and Durham drives along the northernÂ I-10 feeder road. The former Fresh Car Wash, whose owners appear to be the ones behind that combo car wash and hookah barÂ at the corner ofÂ Dallas and Taft now going by the same name, was knocked down some time after it showed up on the demo roster last month (paired with the nextdoor branch of Big 10 Tires).Â In their places will go whatÂ could well be the third Inner Loop incursion of Raising Cane’s, which has now staked out more than 20 spots around Houston for its steadily creeping chicken fingers.

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Nesting on I-10

77007, Cottage Grove, Demolitions, Fast Food, New Construction

Charleston Gardens

04/11/17 11:00am

A Visit with the Ghost of Whataburger Past in Charleston Gardens

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1410 W. Mt. Houston Rd., Charleston Gardens, Houston, 77038

The current pallor of the departedÂ Whataburger #292 (on Mt. Houston Rd. between the Veterans Memorial Dr. Fiesta shopping center andÂ theÂ Templo Aposento Alto) offers a stark, ethereal contrastÂ the structure’sÂ previous traditional getup ofÂ What-a-Orange stripes. The restaurant has stood in the spot since the early eighties, surrounded byÂ a heavy salting of auto garages and related businesses;Â it appears to have been operational through at least November of last year before blanking out. Will the peaked bones of the fast food joint be reanimated to new purpose? Or is the new coat of whitewashÂ merely a shroud, applied before the building is allowed to rest in pieces at last?

Photos: Swamplot inbox

Late Fast Food on W. Mt. Houston

77038, Charleston Gardens, Fast Food, Openings and Closings, Paint, Restaurants, Whitewashing

11/01/16 10:45am

KFC Flies the Fairview Coop

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Vermont Commons

11 Comments

KFC at 2359 S. Shepherd Dr., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77019

The Colonel is still hanging around by the door, but KFCÂ is in the process ofÂ leaving the building at 2359 S. Shepherd Dr., a few readers report. The spot at the corner with Fairview Dr.Â has been sporting now closed signage, and the location has already been eradicated from the annals of KFC’s store database. The chicken shop’sÂ decommissioning follows the late-June sale of the property to an entity called 2359 S. Shepherd, which shares a Smith St. address withÂ Crosspoint Properties (responsible for the redevelopment of a number of Midtown and properties, including the building that now houses Reef and Proof).

The drive-thru sits just south of the Shepherd Place office tower (onceÂ theÂ siteÂ of those 1960s lesbian barÂ raids, in its pre-highrise days), and across Shepherd from the former Arby’s, converted to the Inner Loop’s first-ish Dunkin’ Donuts back in 2013.

S. Shepherd Retreat

77019, Fast Food, Land Sales, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Vermont Commons

08/19/16 4:15pm

Raising Cane’s Now Raising the Midtown Banner in Vermont Commons

Vermont Commons

Raising Cane's, 1902 Westheimer Rd., Vermont Commons, Houston, TX 77098

Catty-corner toÂ the middle schoolÂ both formerly and henceforth to be knownÂ as Lanier, another spatÂ of place-name confusion is brewing: A reader notesÂ that the Raising Cane’sÂ (whose Vermont Commons branch sits on the corner of Hazard St. and Westheimer Rd.Â on the lot previously vacated by Martha Turner Properties)Â has been pledgingÂ its affections to Midtown. But is the message one of tribute or defection? “Do they think they’re in Midtown?” wonders the tipster. “Is there something else I’m not getting?”

Previously on Swamplot: Raising Cane’s Is Almost Ready To Grab the Corner of Hazard and Westheimer with Its Chicken Fingers;Â Raising Caneâ€™s Putting Its Chicken Fingers on Westheimer Again, This Time at Hazard; Corner of Hazard: The Fall of Martha Turner Properties

Photo of Raising Cane’s at 1902 Westheimer Rd.: Swamplot inbox

Midtown Creep

77006, Fast Food, Midtown, Montrose, Names, Restaurants, Vermont Commons

Demolitions

08/01/16 1:00pm

Gasoline-and-Burgers Mashup at Wilcrest and I-10 To Be Replaced By Innovative Fuel-and-Fast-Food Combo