Here’s another of the occasional photos a reader sends of the construction progress of the Whole Foods at the mixed-use BLVD Place just north of the Galleria. Thanks to the photos that span almost a year now, you can watch the development develop here at the intersection of San Felipe and Post Oak Blvd.: Witness the preliminary site work beginning last August to the installation of piers and rebar in October and the rising of the parking structure in February. So what else is new? That parking structure appears just about ready, and even more dirt has been moved around — where those cars are parked in the foreground — for the proposed Hanover apartment tower.
- BLVD Place coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Will we soon see a 70-foot red pitchfork here? Now that the Orange Show has moved that 
UH restaurant management student Catherine Martin is already eyeing the decor of the Maggie Rita’s at 1650 Post Oak Blvd. — doomed, she imagines, for lack of parking at least — for when the Carlos Mencia property follows the Kirby location on its path from former Ninfa’s to shutter-dom: “I even liked the soup, I thought it tasted good. There was this really pretty painting of the Mona Lisa, it was just her face and it was all done in blues and greens. . . . Maybe when this location goes out of business I’ll buy that painting for real cheap on the side of the road. Do restaurants have garage sales? Like in their front yard, in their garage? . . . It’s not too far from my apartment I wonder if I’ll see the signs posted at the corner of my block. I just really liked that painting, you know? The thing is I don’t know where I’d put it in my apartment, I have several blank walls in my apartment, but it’s kind of a long painting, you know, real tall, the only thing is on those blank spots, like I have a book shelf underneath, or my desk or my dresser or something. It’s just not enough space all at once. 
“When we first opened and the bar was so crazy, there were girls giving men their cards trying to take them to the restroom. It was so out of control that I had to close the restaurant early. I had to ask them to leave. I didn’t know there were all friends. This older woman, about my age, came up to me and said ‘you don’t know who you’re dealing with. You can’t ask us to leave.’ I said, who are you? She said, ‘I take care of these girls.’ I said, you have to leave. I thought, oh my gosh. This is a big business. I didn’t know all these random girls all knew each other. . . . They all work together. I still have customers on Thursday nights that are mad at me for getting rid of The Show. That’s what they call it. They said ‘Mimi, we had a fun time on Thursdays. We were fishing.’ I said, ‘what do you mean fishing?’ He said, ‘It’s called catch and release.’ I said, I don’t know with some of these girls if you could release them, because they looked very serious. It was wild. 
“The Richard’s Liquors off Richmond Avenue and Chimney Rock turned into a Spec’s almost overnight,” begins a reader report on recent happenings in the area. More turnovers in the commercial landscape, from our tipster: “It seems like Richmond Avenue is going through redevelopment since the Taco Cabana and Jack in the Box closed, and they too were by the Chimney Rock intersection. Also the new apartments going up called Avenue R off Barrington have started to build the wooden frames and a large parking garage. The Jack in the Box actually turned into a ‘TitleMax’ title loans shop and it’s painted blue. The old Taco Cabana building is just sitting there and empty but a gas station would be nice there.” The Galleria-area Richard’s rebranding took place last week; other locations of the Spec’s-owned local liquor chain appear to be holding onto the Richard’s name — for now. [Swamplot inbox] Photo: 
