HANS’ BIER HAUS ON THE ROCKS 
Restraining orders may have put a little damper on the back-and-forth between Hans’ Bier Haus and some of the fun-loving residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo building that towers over it next door, but Miya Shay reports things are back to uh, normal now. Bar owner Bill Cave tells her he “believes a big chunk of ice crashed through his roof and into the bar” in the wee hours of this past holiday weekend. But gosh, where’s the evidence? (Note: Video posted with the story is out of date; Hans’ Bier Haus already renewed its license.) [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jack H.
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Tag: Nightlife
A reader who’s been tracking the progress of a new drinking establishment opening in the building that used to house the Houston Ave Bar on the corner of Spring St. in the First Ward sent Swamplot these photos just before the holiday. And over the weekend, the place opened — in “soft launch mode.” The name: Re:HAB. Get it? There’s a big grassy parking lot next door, and the new hike and bike trail goes by just across the street. Which means if you fall off your bike or wagon you can always stumble in here to recuperate.
THE NEXT NEIGHBOR IN LINE FOR 2520 ROBINHOOD WON’T MIND GETTING WET 
Hudson Lounge owner Adam Kleibert is hoping his new bar directly to the east of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo tower will get better treatment from his neighbors than the drenching and projectile greetings Hans’ Bier Haus directly to the west received last year. And he tells the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam that he and his brothers have some plans for the rest of the property they own directly adjacent to the tower. Once the lending market turns around, he says, they’d like to build a 33-room boutique hotel with a rooftop pool on the site. Kleibert says the Hudson Lounge is already planning a reception expressly for condo residents. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
Residents of the east-facing condos in the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby tower jealous of all the fun their neighbors in the west-facing units have been having with late night partiers at Hans’ Bier Haus next door now have their very own partly open-air next-door bar to mess with: Hudson Lounge opened earlier this week, at 2506 Robinhood. And hey: on this side of the tower, there’s no pesky parking garage to get in the way of any nightclub-condo interaction.
Brothers Adam, Alexander, and Andre Klieber carved the new straight-Mod space out of the former office HQ of Adam and Alexander’s other business, Southampton Homes — after business there slowed down. New swiveling steel doors on the front and back of the 1950 building open to a patio and separate bar pavilion in back.
“It was an unfortunate leasing issue and nothing else,” say the owners of the Gallant Knight. And so the bar will be closing December 31st “at least for now.” Will there be an everyone-out-before-midnight New Year’s Eve party? The landlord of the bar’s new location at 2511 Bissonnet just east of Kirby didn’t renew the lease, an email from the bar explains: “We have just 60 days to empty our liquor cabinet.” An investor group led by Cushman & Wakefield director Stephen Schneidau bought the name and contents of the 34-year-old neighborhood bar at the corner of Holcombe and Morningside shortly after it closed in 2006, then reopened on Bissonnet almost a year and a half ago. Now sitting on the site of the bar’s original location at 2337 W. Holcombe: a branch of Comerica Bank.
- The Gallant Knight [Facebook]
- The Gallant Knight returns in retro fashion [Houston Business Journal]
Photo: Eating Our Words
Swamplot’s Candace Garcia sends in these pix of the scene on the north side of Westheimer between Park St. and Dunlavy, the morning after a Halloween inferno destroyed an antique store and the Agora cafe next door. There’s not much left to shop for at Gordon Greenleaf’s Antique Warehaus at 1714 Westheimer, a woodframe residence pressed into used-furniture service more than 50 years ago. That’s where the fire started shortly after midnight Sunday morning. Agora’s brick structure appears to have fared better, and may be rebuilt. Everyone in the 2-story cafe was able to get out safely, but 2 firefighters were later treated for heat exhaustion. “Thanks to the Halloween holiday it was one of the most well-documented fires in recent Houston history,” writes the Houston Press’s Craig Hlavaty, who watched the flames from across the street, dressed in drag, along with a small crowd of participants in the Montrose Costume Crawl — none of them dressed as firefighters.
The tiny urban island clustered around Midtown’s Ensemble/HCC Metro station has grown. Three new businesses on Main St. just north of Winbern will celebrate official grand openings this weekend, expanding the little block of happenin’ north of the Continental Club. Carved out of the rehabbed single-story building at 3622 Main St.: New retail outlets My Flaming Heart and Shop-o-Rama, plus Natachee’s Supper ’n Punch, a food, bar, and concert venue that features a large vacant side yard currently occupied by the owner’s horse, Lacy, and a kiddie sandbox. (Eventual plans for the yard call for a patio and awning, picnic tables, an outdoor bar, and a small stage for live music.) Also moving into the Winbern side of the building, from the block to the south: music and tiki exotica outlet Sig’s Lagoon. (The old Sig’s Lagoon location is being converted to a “Mexican wares” store.) A coffee shop and a rockabilly-themed combo barber shop, beauty and tattoo parlor are planned for the 2 remaining spaces in the 100-ft.-by-100-ft. building, though currently they’re being used for construction storage. The mix is modeled after stores on South Congress around property owner Bob Schultz’s original Continental Club in Austin.
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:
Answers — of a sort — to your questions-about-town:
- Southwest Freeway: More than a week after our source noted the problem, that dangling loop of fiber-optic lighting gone dim is still taped to a cable (see photos above) on the Dunlavy St. bridge. TxDOT, the agency in charge of the lights, has swooped in to fix problems with the lights sporadically since at least 2004. But the situation has apparently accelerated to the late-drooping stage. What’s next? Are they just gonna leave us hanging?
- North Montrose: Pat Wente finds the source of the Regent-Square area jackhammering: demolition of a slab leftover from the Allen House demo on West Dallas (see photo below). And hears Bernard’s somewhat blunt though unofficial assessment of the prognosis for construction on the giant mixed-use project:
WHO WANTS NUMBERS NOW? 
The Press‘s Katharine Shilcutt passes on the latest: “And in perhaps the strangest news this year, rumblings are coming from reliable sources that Numbers (314 Westheimer) — recently put up for lease — is being eyed by the Pappas family. Yes, that Pappas family. But wait — it gets weirder. The rumors also indicate that they plan to open either a chicken and rice or shrimp and rice joint in the spot where so many … unsavory … activities have taken place over the years. If the rumors prove to be true, would you eat at Numbers’ Chicken & Rice?” [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot]
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]
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
This 1960-vintage warehouse on the corner of Nett and Parker, a couple blocks north of Washington Ave, is the latest project of Augustine Bui and Jornell Aveledo, 2 of the original creators and operators of Midtown’s Bond Lounge. Still under construction, it’s scheduled to open October 6th as Fox Hollow, a gastro lounge featuring cocktails in vintage stemware, “locally-sourced, organic dishes” on antique plates, second-hand outfits for the waitstaff and bartenders, plus a buildout that makes use of sheet metal and other materials the owners found in the space during construction. What second-hand goods they couldn’t find on-site they imported: door frames from Paris, stained-glass windows. That “used” theme sounds appropriate for a place directly across the street from Nox Bar.
Heading into the former dealership back office at 2600 Travis near McGowen, one door down from the old Pontiac and Oldsmobile showroom that’s now home to Reef: a second installation of Barcadia, a bar-arcade-restaurant amalgamation begun in Dallas. The original location, just a few hours’ drive up I-45, offers an entire wall of eighties arcade games, brunch, a couple-dozen beers on tap, and a vaguely retro-carnival interior. A company website declares the Houston branch will be opening this summer, but a quick glance at the progress of construction in the 3,000-plus-sq.-ft. interior makes it easy to imagine a debut later than that.
SWEPT AWAY 
John Nova Lomax, on his just-published guide to Houston dive bars: “I am sad that some of the book is already obsolete. I have heard that the Spot and the Red Hog have already eaten it. Ernie’s on Banks is now in Brad Moore’s able hands. Even the things that never seem to change in Houston change the minute you try to pin them down or preserve them in amber. But hollering about Houston changing reminds me of when my toddler son yelled at the ocean to stop wrecking the sand castle he was trying to build in the surf: it’s futility and hubris defined.” [Eating Our Words]
