Tag: Montrose

Montrose
06/13/13 10:30am

Feasting on the Leftovers at Feast

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
1 Comment

Now that it’s all said and done, and Feast is closing Friday, the restaurant seems to be taking its culinary whole-hog approach to a logical conclusion: It’s throwing a yard sale and silent auction this weekend to get rid of itself. Opening in 2008 at 219 Westheimer — despite John Nova Lomax adding that address to his list of cursed locations — Feast has been dishing up tongues and testicles and everything between ever since. And this Saturday it’ll keep right on going, selling off appliances, silverware, tables and chairs, paintings, and auctioning the real choice bits — like that old-timey black-and-white sign out front. (If you’re squeamish about witnessing this kind of butchering in person, Eater Houston reports that you can bid by email.)

Photo: Keith Plocek

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Fires
06/07/13 3:00pm

Fire Takes Out Westheimer Resale Shop

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Montrose, Quicklink, Retail
8 Comments

FIRE TAKES OUT WESTHEIMER RESALE SHOP Early this morning, a 1-alarm fire at Vintage Oasis in Montrose rendered much of the inventory destroyed and the 2-story cottage at 1512 Westheimer blackened. Culturemap reports that it’s not clear yet what caused the fire, and arson investigators have been called in. Sadly, writes Whitney Radley, the casualties include more than the boxes of used LPs and racks of other people’s trousers: “At least two tenants lived in an upstairs apartment, but no injuries were reported. However, two store cats, Puddin and Wolfie, and three cats belonging to the upstairs tenant reportedly perished in the fire.” [Culturemap] Photo: Flickr user leafy tenement

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Alief
06/06/13 1:30pm

Comment of the Day: Neighborhood Names Stick

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Comments, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Quicklink
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: NEIGHBORHOOD NAMES STICK “Alief didn’t start getting rebranded as the International District till about 3 years ago; as a matter of fact, no one that lived there knew anyone was calling it something other than Alief. It wasn’t until they put those idiotic balls in the medians that anyone local knew someone was calling it something other than Alief. The Super Neighborhood is still called Alief. Hong Kong City Mall was transformed from a pasture to a Mall over a decade ago, that huge strip center at Wilcrest and Bellaire is almost as old. Maybe in 40 or 50 years people may latch onto the name International District in favor of Alief, but then they’re going to wonder why the Library is still called Alief Regional Library, and the school district is still Alief Independent School District, or why the community center is called Alief Community Center. Or why there’s a animal hospital called Alief Animal Hospital. I have a strong suspicion Alief will always be called Alief, no matter how many weird balls they put in the medians. And I’d also rather just call it Montrose and have people ask me if I’m gay than call it Lower Westheimer and have the 15 minute discussion about where it is, and the end result being that I tell them it’s the new name for Montrose and I’ll still be asked if I’m gay.” [toasty, commenting on Headlines: Eating Steak at CityCentre; Watching SkyHouse Rise]

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Franchises and Chain Stores
06/04/13 10:30am

Il Palazzo del Donuts in Humble, and Other Dunkin’ Domains

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Humble, IAH, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Pasadena, Restaurants, Retail, Westchase
3 Comments

Dunkin’ Donuts announced yesterday where it’ll be sprinkling 4 new stores across Houston. This rendering shows the standalone planned for 18315 W. Lake Houston Pkwy. in Humble. There’ll also be a location inside IAH’s Terminal E, one at 4130 Fairmont Pkwy. in Pasadena, and another, as suspected, at the renovated former Arby’s at 2330 S. Shepherd and Fairview. Last month, the chain opened the first of a reported 24 stores planned for the Houston area at 10705 Westheimer in Westchase.

Rendering: Rogue Architects via Houston Business Journal

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Land Development
05/31/13 3:00pm

There Will Be Wickets: Empty W. Dallas Lot in Play for Youth Sports Facility

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Montrose, North Montrose
26 Comments

It doesn’t seem that this grassy, fenced-in lot along Montrose between W. Dallas and Allen Pkwy. is going to change very much: All that scraping and dragging a few weeks ago was to level the ground for a cricket field, according to a contractor at the firm responsible for doing the dirt work. The Aga Khan Youth and Sports Facility, the contractor says, will comprise that cricket field, a pair of soccer fields, and a concession stand. In 2006, the Aga Khan Foundation purchased and demolished the Robinson Warehouse on this frequently flooded 11-acre property and said it was planning to build an Ismaili Center here.

Photo: Allyn West

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Montrose
05/23/13 10:15am

Moules-Frites to Macaroni in Montrose

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
14 Comments

The next tenant in the former Jeannine’s Bistro space will be Jus’ Mac, the restaurant announced on its Facebook page last week. It would appear that this new location will be open by July. Jeannine’s closed here at 106 Westheimer just west of Midtown at the beginning of May. Jus’ Mac has other locations on Yale St. in the Heights and at First Colony Mall in Sugar Land — and a comment posted beneath the original Facebook announcement indicates that a 4th Jus’ Mac is in the works: “We have inside track,” it says, “on a location in heart of memorial.”

Photo of Jeannine’s: Allyn West

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Proposed Developments
05/22/13 11:15am

Rudyard’s Owner Building Bigger Bar in Shady Acres

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Quicklink, Restaurants, Shady Acres
13 Comments

RUDYARD’S OWNER BUILDING BIGGER BAR IN SHADY ACRES The owner of Rudyard’s British Pub in Montrose has announced that she’ll be building TikTok, a bar, restaurant, and venue for live music in Shady Acres — and, apparently, this new one will be a lot more building than what you get at Rudyard’s. Owner Leila Rodgers tells the Houston Business Journal that TikTok “is expected to have a capacity of 750 to 800 people. She said she expects to be able to host 450 to 500 people in the performance area and 250 to 300 in the restaurant area.” Rudyard’s is at 2010 Waugh Dr. When it opens next summer, TikTok will be at 1412 W. 20th St., near the intersection of W. 20th and T.C. Jester Blvd. — that’s just around the corner from the Hubcap Grill. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Panoramio user hermieb

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Apartments
05/15/13 2:45pm

Comment of the Day: Neighborhood Upgrades

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Comments, Montrose, Public Safety, Quicklink
27 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: NEIGHBORHOOD UPGRADES “. . . right now we have policies that are actively working to get rid of our affordable housing in Montrose (and other places as you point out). They’re just disguised as ‘registration’ and ‘certification’ to make sure places are ‘safe.’ That whole process should be scrapped. If someone has a run-down property people will either 1) not live in it, or 2) decide to live in it because the rent is conducive to the building quality. A ‘smart’ property owner might decide to upgrade the place to raise up the rents, whereas another owner may want to keep his place basic and get lower rents. Renters will decide where they want to go. It’s not the government’s right to force someone to pay more rent because they don’t feel something is at a given level. I’ve said it here before: Almost every building we’ve upgraded and raised the rent on gave us new tenants simply because the previous tenants couldn’t afford it. So who really benefited by our upgrades? Most of our upgrades were done by us outside of government interference (we don’t need to be told to fix things that are obviously not right about the property, our renters, banks, insurance company, etc. do a good job at that) but there have been plenty of times where we’ve done things per city demand that have raised rents and driven current tenants out. I’m sure they’re really stoked that our hand rails in Montrose are now 36″ high vs. 32″ while they now are living in 5th ward rather than the neighborhood they loved and were priced out of . . .” [Cody, commenting on Comment of the Day: Saving Houston for the Next Generation of Newcomers]

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Land Development
05/10/13 12:05pm

What’s Going On at Montrose and Allen Pkwy.?

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Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose
27 Comments

A reader sends this photo of the site prep going on at the fenced-in empty lot that made a recent cameo in that Montrose Dancing Rollerblader featurette. Owned since 2006 by the Aga Khan Foundation, which has said it planned to build an Ismaili Center here on the flood-prone makeshift dog park on Montrose between W. Dallas and Allen Pkwy., the property hasn’t seen much activity — other than the dancing, of course — for awhile.

Until this week, that is. And now the reader wants to know what the deal might be: “Looks like a lot of development is happening in this block. I read . . . about the development on the AIG side [of Montrose], but now the other side, next to those Amli apartments, seems to be breaking ground on something large. Any idea what’s gonna be placed there?”

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Art
05/08/13 10:00am

Houston Demo Artists Sue Honda for Copying Their Vortex-Sucking House Plan

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Construction Materials, Lawsuits, Montrose, Montrose, Public Art
9 Comments

That there’s some pretty bad Feng Shui going down in this commercial for Honda, which was filmed in Vancouver and shown on teevee and the web beginning last October. The man behind the wheel of the CR-V sure is driving some bad chi into the gullet of the far-from-the-prairie home at the end of the T-intersection, to the encouraging narration of Garrison Keillor. But isn’t the house kinda asking for it anyway, what with all that glimmering vortex-popping and all?

And gee, doesn’t the hole stabbing through the house look a heck of a lot like . . . that temporary sculpture that stood on Montrose Blvd. in Houston a few years back? Portal to another dimension? Naah — from here it looks more like a shortcut to Grant St.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Montrose
05/02/13 11:25am

Updated: Jeannine’s Closing Is Only, Umm, Permanent, Says Jeannine’s

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
13 Comments

UPDATED: JEANNINE’S CLOSING IS ONLY, UMM, PERMANENT, SAYS JEANNINE’S Why has the Belgium-by-way-of-Montrose Jeannine’s Bistro stopped serving those moules-frites? Culturemap, it appears, has been following the Westheimer Rd. restaurant’s self-demotion on Facebook: “Earlier posts,” reports Whitney Radley, giving a breathless blow-by-blow, “indicate gradually waning hours — the restaurant temporarily dropped lunch service on April 10 — and chronic staffing issues — it issued a call for ‘good waiters and kitchen helpers’ several days after — before warning . . . that the bistro’s kitchen would temporarily close altogether to ‘make some decisions.'” Update, 12:50 p.m.: Another Facebook post from Jeannine’s says that the restaurant has decided to close for good. [Culturemap] Photo: Allyn West

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Commercial Real Estate
04/30/13 3:45pm

The Montrose Bar Where Souls Will Be Exchanged for Cocktails?

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Montrose
12 Comments

Last week, this sign showed up in the window at the old Sophia restaurant on W. Main and Mandell, indicating that something or someone called Faustian Bargain intends to serve Montrose some devil juice — er, liquor. Sophia closed here at the end of February, you’ll remember, and Café Artiste mysteriously disappeared several years before that. Some sleuthing by a Swamplot reader — later echoed by Eater Houston and Culturemap — turned up that 2 of the likely new owners of the 2,400-sq.-ft. standalone near the Menil Collection are Omar Afra and Jagatjit Katial of Free Press Houston and Fitzgerald’s fame. Inquiries for more information haven’t been returned.

Photos: Allyn West

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