GALVESTON’S NEW RINSE-OFF NIGHTSPOT 
A lawsuit will determine whether Scott Arnold can collect the remainder of the insurance money he expects for the loss of the famed Balinese Room to Hurricane Ike. In the meantime, the former owner of the waterside bar wanted to make sure his next nightspot would survive another big Galveston flood. So . . . is his new Granite Room, which opened on July 4th as part of the Voodoo Lounge complex at 26th and Mechanic streets, on an upper floor or something? Naaah. It’s mop-down friendly: “This building got nine feet of water during Ike,†he tells HBJ reporter Allison Wollam. “So I designed the club with granite and marble so that if it floods again, we can just hose everything down and be open again within a week or two.†[Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Granite Room
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Tag: Nightlife
THE SOCIAL, NOT WORKING? 
Live, from the Twitternet rumor mill! The Social Lounge and Patio Bar at 3730 Washington Ave. at Yale — just a couple blocks from the proposed site of the West End Walmart — “has closed its doors to the public,” reads an entirely unverified message from a liquor distributor. “Sources tell me the Comptroller was there yesterday to change the locks,” the tweet continues. Uh . . . whose comptroller? [Twitter] Photo: Katharine Shilcutt (license)
WHO GOT THE POLICE TICKET FOR THE HANS’ BIER HAUS MEAT BOMB? In an update to its previous story about the 20 or 40 pounds of rotting meat that was unceremoniously dumped in the private alley between Hans’ Bier Haus on Quenby and the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condominiums over the weekend, abc13 is now reporting that police following up on the incident have issued a citation to “one person” for “causing a nuisance” with the festering stink bomb. Another fun fact from the latest teevee report: “According to the city health department, the property where the meat sits belongs to neither the bar nor the condo, but a third party with [groan] no stake in the case.” Update, 7/9: abc13 has updated its story again, this time removing the name of the person previously identified as having received the citation. We’ve followed suit. [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
Did someone really dump 20 pounds of rotting meat in the private alley between the side wall of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby Condos and the bar patio of Hans’ Bier Haus? Or was it actually 40 pounds? A commenter first alerted Swamplot readers to the smelly situation on Monday, just a few days after a TABC judge — over the live and videotaped objections of several condo residents who live next door — renewed the bar’s alcohol license. But an abc13 report from yesterday gives the latest episode in the ongoing feud a marvelous twist: The alley where the maggot-infested meat is resting is in the Rice Village bar war’s DMZ:
Bar employees can’t enter the area because of a restraining order, and no one from the condo has removed the meat. The bar says the stench is hurting business.
- Rotting meat left outside bar in middle of battle with condo [abc13]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Party Will Go on at Hans’ Bier Haus, 2520 Robinhood Alerts Its Residents: Watch Out for the Owners of That Bar We’ve Been Attacking, Spilling It to the Judge: 2520 Robinhood and Hans’ Bier Haus Get Their Day in Court, 2520 Robinhood Vs. the Merry Men of Hans’ Bier Haus: It’s Come to This, 2520 Robinhood Torments the Beer Drinkers Next Door
Photos: Sandra Gunn (top) and abc13
THE PARTY WILL GO ON AT HANS’ BIER HAUS The little bar in the long shadow of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby Condominiums can keep its alcohol license, a TABC hearing judge ruled today. Residents of the Rice Village condo building contested the license renewal of Hans’ Bier Haus after earlier efforts to silence nosy patrons — with beer cans, lasers, water hoses, and video surveillance — failed. “In his decision, Donovan noted that although police had been called to the bar more than 20 times for noise, they never were cited. . . . The feud continues to be litigated in civil court.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
ERNIE’S ON BANKS CLOSES, WILL REOPEN SOON WITHOUT APOSTROPHES 
Big Star Bar owner Brad Moore, former Beaver’s bartender Ryan Rouse, and a crew of bartending partners have bought Ernie’s on Banks in the Museum District and shut it down. But they plan on reopening the bar at 1010 Banks St. across from Bell Park later this month as “a little two-story neighborhood bar…and then some,” Moore tells the Houston Press‘s Katharine Shilcutt. Moore says he wants to “[keep] the vibe as casual as possible.” One new feature: a large grill on the back patio, tended by a “rotating roster of guest cooks.” But the Ernie’s name is gone: “We actually don’t have a name yet. Nothing with an apostrophe-s. We’re not into those names.” [Eating Our Words] Photo: Citysearch
WHY SCOTT GERTNER’S SKYBAR IS LEAVING THE MONTROSE SKY Gertner says he’s now interested in opening up a new club somewhere near the Galleria. A company out of Waco called FH Properties bought the 10-story office building at 3400 Montrose that serves as a podium for the Skybar in February. After that, the bar owner and Grammy nominee tells the Chronicle‘s Joey Guerra, everything went downhill: “About five months ago, the building was purchased in auction. We tried over the past months to work out a new lease, but they kept putting me off saying they didn’t know what they were going to do. I started to see that the building was being neglected — even to the point that my staff would walk the entire four-story parking garage and lobby to clean it ourselves after the nightclub was closed — wipe the windows, clean the elevators, everything that my prior lease included that was the responsibility of the landlord. Big, orange, neon City of Houston stickers started to appear on all doors listing the permits were outdated. We had several visits from the fire marshal about the building and even thought they were going to shut it down two weeks ago. Nothing like closing us down on the second biggest holiday of the year. Skybar was always one of the best venues to view fireworks on the fourth of July.” [Peep; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SPENDING AN ETERNITY BEHIND MARY’S LOUNGE “. . . there is a garden in the back which holds the ashes of men who passed in the early AIDS epidemic. I am shocked no one in the Houston Community has brought this to anyone’s attention. . . .” [j, commenting on Swamplot Street Sleuths: Gotta Fight for Your Right]
Thought Judge Hancock’s January restraining order had quieted the ongoing feud between residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo tower and the little Rice Village bar next door, Hans’ Bier Haus? Well, maybe a little. But both sides pulled out their best complaints for yesterday’s hearing at commissioners’ court, where Robinhood residents are protesting the renewal of the partly open-air bar’s beer and wine license. While January’s court order appears to have quelled the beer-can throwing, the band-dousing, and the collar-grabbing, lawyers for the bar claim that condo residents have been intimidating bar patrons by putting them under surveillance: “They installed high tech videotape and audiotape recording and surveillance microphones and cameras and filmed virtually everything that occurred on the premises of Hans Bier Haus,” bar piano player and attorney Ken Ward complained to the court. Sure, but how else are they gonna have highlights to show in court? The hearing will continue on Thursday.
- Liquor license hearing turns into brouhaha [abc13]
- Feud between bar, condos in Rice Village area goes to court [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: 2520 Robinhood Alerts Its Residents: Watch Out for the Owners of That Bar We’ve Been Attacking, Spilling It to the Judge: 2520 Robinhood and Hans’ Bier Haus Get Their Day in Court, 2520 Robinhood Vs. the Merry Men of Hans’ Bier Haus: It’s Come to This, 2520 Robinhood Torments the Beer Drinkers Next Door
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:
- Montrose: Alas, none of our readers were able to identify concrete plans for the uh, seminal Montrose nightclub at the corner of Westheimer and Yoakum, which closed last year. But some of you were happy to pass on rumors about Mary’s: “Last I heard it was being purchased/leased again and will become a new Montrose hangout paying homage to the original, but that was about two months after it closed,” reports kjb434. LandGuy points out that the next-door parking lot between Mary’s and Burger King is owned by someone else; however HCAD records indicate the owners of Mary’s still also own the lot directly behind the former club, facing California St.
- Riverside Terrace and beyond: Can anyone snap photos of your home? “If you are in a public space, you can photograph anything you like. There may be restrictions around military installations or FBI buildings, though,” declares roving pic-snapper RWB. But watch out for overzealous security guards and cops, he warns. RWB has some experience in that department; but not so much as Downtown electric shuttle entrepreneur Erik Ibarra — who, sadly, did not weigh in to this discussion. (Ibarra founded REV Eco-Shuttle in 2008, shortly after he and his brother received a $1.7 million lawsuit settlement from the city. Six years earlier, sheriff’s deputies had entered their home near Park Place, seized their film, and arrested them after Ibarra’s brother took photos — from his own and public property — of a drug search being conducted at their next-door neighbor’s home.)
Lauren
offered a link to this handy guide to photographers’ rights. But a couple readers were certain the would-be design stalker was casing, not admiring: Says montrose: “They were just seeing if anyone was home before they robbed the joint. Nobody wants to take a picture of your house.”
We’ll post the next set of reader questions next Tuesday. Send us what you’ve got before then!
Photo of 1022 Westheimer Rd.: Swamplot inbox
Got an answer to either 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.
- Montrose: A reader wants to know if anyone has heard of any plans for the site of Mary’s Lounge at the corner of Westheimer and Yoakum — as well as the parking lot between it and Burger King. The famous Montrose club shut down last year.
- Riverside Terrace and beyond: When strangers just love your style!
My partner and I are renovating our house in Riverside Terrace, and the other day a well-mannered gentleman rang our doorbell requesting our permission to photograph our house. While we’d like to presume that his request was a compliment that our hard work is paying off, we didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of a stranger snapping photos of our house. Not knowing his true intentions, we politely declined.
Otherwise who knows where your stuff would show up?! So . . . what’s the question?
However, I know that applications such as Google Street View capture images from the public domain and make them readily available via the internet. Are there any restrictions to what we can or cannot photograph in Houston?
Photo of 1022 Westheimer Rd.: Swamplot inbox
D&W Lounge owner Keith Weyel told the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax last year he was “somewhat disappointed that the kids in the nearby new condos” hadn’t quite found their way yet to his bar just past the train tracks on Milby St., at the western edge of Eastwood. But Lomax doesn’t mind:
. . . to cater to the third shift at the coffee plant, the D&W Lounge opens at 7 AM. The interior is done up with pictures of Marilyn Monroe, statues of the Buddha, and a super-cool tin man hand-fashioned out of school cafeteria cans.
More evidence of the bar’s rough-and-tumble street cred: last month’s on-site fatal shooting.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT I LEARNED EARLY IN THE HOUSTON REAL ESTATE BIZ “In 1993, I was with a firm that looked at buying many of the run down apartment complexes in Greenspoint. Our intent was to renovate them, thinking that the many class A office buildings contained many potential residents. Greenspoint was an enigma: awful multi-family and beautiful office development. You don’t often see the two side by side like this. When we got into town and started touring the area, we immediately saw the two critical falacies of our plan: 1. we needed to own and renovate all of the multi-family to turn the neighborhood. One holdout property would serve as a sanctuary for all that was bad about Greenspoint. Unfortunately, not every property was available for purchase. 2. Some of the properties, in particular those developed by Fred Rizk, were functionally obsolete. For example, sliding glass doors opening directly into parking lots–no way to easily dress this up. We never spent much time on the deals after that. On a more positive note, my boss at the time corrupted my by taking me to the St. James Club, and since that time I have considered it the best strip club ever.” [LandMan, commenting on Waiting for the Renaissance: What Could $32 Million Buy at Greenspoint Mall?]
THE 3 PEOPLE YOU MEET IN PARKING MEETINGS, PLUS A LITTLE NIGHTTIME ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EADO How’d that first public meeting about changing the city’s off-street parking requirements go? Andrew Burleson reports: “The crowd at the meeting was overwhelmingly comprised of three types of people.
- 1. People who were mad that strangers were parking on the street in front of their homes and then walking to nearby businesses.
- 2. People who were upset that strangers were parking on the street in front of their homes and then walking to other homes or townhomes on the street.
- 3. People who were worried that the METRO light-rail on Richmond Ave. was going to create a parking shortage.
Remember that fun feud between a few residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condominiums and the tiny bar directly to its west? Well, now it looks like there’s a brand new bar getting ready to open directly to the tower’s east!
When last we left the 16-story Rice Village condo tower, residents had been placed under a court order prohibiting them from “running or pouring water or any other liquid” and “throwing any object whatsoever” onto Hans’ Bier Haus — after the bar’s owners complained to district court judge Patricia Hancock about an ongoing liquid and projectile campaign mounted against their partly open-air establishment by its eastern neighbors. (For good measure, the judge similarly prohibited the proprietors of the courtyard bar from trespassing on or “interfering with [residents’] peaceable use and enjoyment” of the condo building next door.)
But just as the legal and dousing action on the tower’s west side appears to have subsided comes the prospect for more neighborly interaction on the tower’s east: From Swamplot’s tip line we find these photos of another small building directly adjacent to the tower. What’s that new sign posted on the front window?
