Tag: Openings and Closings

Downtown
06/09/14 11:00am

The Bars of Live! at Bayou Place Are Now Dead! at Bayou Place

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Nightlife, Openings and Closings
14 Comments

Live at Bayou Place, 534 Texas Ave., Downtown Houston

The 4-bar complex upstairs in downtown’s Bayou Place known collectively as Live! at Bayou Place shut down at the end of last month. “Cowboy bar” PBR, Lucie’s Liquors, Shark Bar, and Chapel Spirits had replaced Slick Willie’s Pool Hall and Rocbar in 2011, around the same time the Sundance Cinemas took over the Angelika Film Center spot downstairs in the same building. (Previous upstairs nightspots had included BAR Houston and Whiskey Creek.) The 4 bars took up 18,000 sq. ft. of space, and required a single admission for entry.

A reader notes that Sundance, The Blue Fish, the Bayou Music Center, the Wine Cellar, Hard Rock Cafe, and Italian restaurant Little Napoli are still open in the same building, a 130,000-sq.-ft. entertainment complex carved out of the former Albert Thomas Convention Center almost 17 years ago.

Photo: Shea Serrano

Downtown Shutdowns
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Bars and Clubs
06/05/14 1:00pm

The Rice Hotel’s Storied State Bar, a Favorite Among Lawyers, Will Soon Turn into a Lawless Kitchen

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Downtown, Proposed Developments
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State Bar at Rice Lofts, 909 Texas Ave., Downtown Houston

State Bar at Rice Lofts, 909 Texas Ave., Downtown HoustonThe State Bar and Lounge, which shut down this past weekend after more than 15 years in a storied space that was formerly home to the Capitol Club in the Rice Hotel, is about to undergo a “massive remodel,” a source tells Swamplot.

The members-only Capitol Club was once the haunt of a number of powerful and well-known attorneys, politicians and other powerful men in the city; according to KHOU’s Doug Miller, it was also the site of President Kennedy’s last drink (unless, of course, he polished off a few more daiquiris in his hotel room after his late-November 1963 visit). In its quasi-reconstruction and rebirth as a public establishment after the renovation of the Rice Hotel into the Rice Lofts in 1998, the spot maintained popularity among lawyers — especially the newly minted ones: Many would head to the State Bar to celebrate passing the state bar.

To judge it by its name, however, the new second-story venue now being planned there may have a slightly different set of guiding principles. A bar named Lawless Kitchen and Spirits will open in the space after renovations are complete, the source tells Swamplot.

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Is This Still Legal?
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Featured Posts
06/03/14 12:45pm

Becks Prime Called Out at Memorial City Mall Hamburger Joint Where Roger Clemens Was Named as a Starter but Never Pitched

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Memorial City, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
9 Comments

Becks Prime Sportatorium, 303 Memorial City Mall (Sears Wing) Suite 514, Memorial City, HoustonThe 10,000-sq.-ft. Becks Prime location in the Sears wing of the Memorial City Mall — dubbed the Sportatorium on account of its 30 big-screen teevees showing major league sporting events, video game room, and conference room — shut down for good on Saturday. The location had been open since 2008, when the local hamburger chain was substituted late in the game for a venture originally planned to feature Roger Clemens, back in the days when the former Astros, Yankees, and Red Sox player was best known for his standout pitching.

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Burgers Are Out!
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Featured Posts
06/02/14 3:30pm

Brio Tuscan Grille on Kirby Is Packing It Up Already

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby
14 Comments

Brio Tuscan Grille, 3029 Kirby Dr., Centre at River Oaks Shopping Center, Upper Kirby, Houston

The sign is down and workers are moving equipment out of the Brio Tuscan Grille at the corner of Kirby and West Alabama. The restaurant shut down yesterday, a reader informs Swamplot. “They had a bunch of stuff all over the floor and about 3 rental moving trucks with guys hanging out,” writes the informant, who adds that one of the unnamed workers said the restaurant had been “not that busy” and wasn’t making enough money. Brio took over the space formerly occupied by Pesce at the 3029 Kirby Dr. spot in the Centre at River Oaks Shopping Center 2 years ago, around the same time the former Borders Books in the same building was being carved up into separate spaces for a pediatric clinic and Ulta Beauty. The Brio CityCentre location remains open.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Moving Out Senza Brio
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Downtown
05/29/14 12:00pm

That Bar on the Rice Hotel Balcony Is Closing

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Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
19 Comments

THAT BAR ON THE RICE HOTEL BALCONY IS CLOSING Patio, State Bar & Lounge, 909 Texas Ave., Rice Lofts, Downtown HoustonAnother change coming to the Rice Lofts, now that an entity connected to the Trammell Crow family has purchased the building from Post Properties, and apartment-management duties are being turned over to Greystar: The State Bar and Lounge, which spilled out onto the Travis St. side of the former Rice Hotel’s second-floor deck facing Texas Ave., is shutting down, sources tell Swamplot. Last call will be late Saturday night. Photo: The State Bar

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Montrose
05/28/14 12:30pm

What Happens After Lucky Burger Closes

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail
9 Comments

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER LUCKY BURGER CLOSES Lucky Burger, 1601 Richmond Ave. at Mandell St., Montrose, HoustonA few more details to add to our ground-beef-breaking report yesterday on the demise of Lucky Burger: The business’s current owners, who’ve operated the 40-year-old fast-food joint at the corner of Richmond Ave. and Mandell for 15 years, plan to retire. An employee tells Culturemap’s Eric Sandler that the owners couldn’t afford the landlord’s pricing for a lease renewal, and that “prospects in Montrose for a space that’s sufficiently inexpensive to support a $5 cheeseburger are simply too dim.” Meanwhile, Braun Enterprises’ Dan Braun, who heads the partnership that bought the building and the adjacent strip center in 2011, tells the Chronicle‘s Erin Mulvaney that they hope to lease the structure with the barrel-shaped roof penetration to another business once Lucky Burger is out. (Entrepreneurs salivating over the marketing power of a well-known burger stop in the shape of a beer keg might want to note that craft beer bar Revelry on Richmond is set to open soon next door, with hamburgers on the menu.) Lucky Burger plans to wrap up its business — and its last burger — before this Saturday. [Culturemap; Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Houston. It’s Worth It.

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Featured Posts
05/27/14 11:00am

Luck, Lease Run Out for Lucky Burger; Montrose Fast Food Joint Closing Soon

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Leasing, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
44 Comments

Lucky Burger, 1601 Richmond Ave. at Mandell St., Montrose, Houston

A sign on the door of Lucky Burger at 1601 Richmond Ave indicates the longtime barrel-signed drive-up is shutting down for good. No more burgers and no more shakes from the distinctive corner property — but equipment, tables, chairs, cookware, and more will soon be available in a final sale:

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Unlucky in Meat
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Featured Posts
05/22/14 3:45pm

Cafe Express on Kirby Is Closing at the End of May

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Upper Kirby
5 Comments

CAFE EXPRESS ON KIRBY IS CLOSING AT THE END OF MAY Cafe Express Closing Flyer, Kirby Dr., HoustonWhat’s this little flyer employees at the Café Express at 3200 Kirby Dr. have begun stuffing into to-go bags? Just a little announcement that the location, which has been open since 1987, will be shutting down before the month is out. And sending customers to one of the 13 other spots in the chain, with a coupon. Thanks, but might cost a bit more to eat at some of the restaurants in the site’s replacement when it opens. Thor Equities has been showing whizzy images of the Kirby Collection, a mixed-use grouping of 3 structures planned for the entire block of Kirby between Colquitt and West Main St., on its website. The site is being redeveloped, the flyer says. [Previously on Swamplot] Image: Loves Swamplot

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Featured Posts
05/19/14 5:00pm

Tarkett Shutting Down Its Manufacturing Facility Behind Sawyer Heights Target

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Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Sixth Ward
17 Comments

Aerial View of Katyville, Showing Location of Texas Tile Manufacturing Plant at 1705 Oliver St., Houston

A filing with the Texas Workforce Commission indicates that Tarkett, which operates one of the last industrial installations in the stretch of parking-lot-heavy retail south of I-10 that’s come to be known as Katyville, has decided to shut down its Texas Tile Manufacturing plant at 1705 Oliver St. and eliminate 109 jobs. The Tarkett facility is located between the Studemont Kroger and the Sawyer Heights Target, both of which were built on former industrial properties surrounding it. According to HCAD data, Texas Tile Manufacturing owns 21 acres at the Oliver St. facility — with frontage on Summer St., Oliver St., and the eastbound I-10 feeder road.

Photo: HFF

21 Acres in Katyville
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Historic Preservation
05/16/14 2:15pm

Protestors at Demolished Site of Historic Houston Protests Ensure Replacement Structure Won’t Be Demolished

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Houston History, Public Buildings, Quicklink
12 Comments

PROTESTORS AT DEMOLISHED SITE OF HISTORIC HOUSTON PROTESTS ENSURE REPLACEMENT STRUCTURE WON’T BE DEMOLISHED Southmore Station Post Office, 4110 Almeda Rd., Southmore, HoustonResponding to months of community pressure and protests, postal service officials today reversed course from an earlier announcement and said they will neither close nor move the Southmore Station Post Office. In March of 1960, 13 college students marched from the campus of Texas Southern University to the Weingarten’s Grocery at 4110 Almeda St. to conduct the city’s first sit-in, at the store’s whites-only lunch counter. The nonviolent protests, which lasted for weeks, led to the desegregation of all city lunch counters just a few months later, and steady movement toward the desegregation of all city facilities. The Weingarten’s building was quietly demolished sometime between 1995 and 2002 (judging from aerial photos of the site); the post office was built in its place. A plaque commemorating the sit-in, erected in 2009, stands on the sidewalk in front of the replacement building’s parking lot. The city still has plans to close or relocate the University, Greenbriar, Julius Melcher, Memorial Park, and Medical Center Station facilities, but no final decisions on them have been announced. [The Houston Advocate] Photo: Defender Network

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Leasing
05/12/14 10:15am

Losing Hope Stone Studio

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North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
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LOSING HOPE STONE STUDIO View from Van Buren St. of Hope Stone Studio, 1210 West Clay, Suite 26, North Montrose, HoustonThe end of this week will mark the end of all classes at North Montrose’s Hope Stone Studio. Director Jane Weiner will be shutting down the warehouse-y slot fronting 1111 Van Buren St. in the Tribeca Lofts building (pictured at left) by the end of the month, after 10 years of hosting dance, movement, exercise, and other creative classes for kids and adults and rehearsal space for dance groups on its sprung floor. MATCH director Emily Todd explains the simple reason: Rounding up funding year after year for the 17-year-old nonprofit had become “too difficult.” The trigger, Weiner explained in an email announcing the decision last month: The organization’s lease is up. Though the studio and its classes are shutting down, her Hope Stone Dance Company will continue to perform; the organization hopes to find ways to continue some of its programs. [Houston Chronicle; more info] Photo of Hope Stone Studio, 1210 West Clay, Suite 26: Hope Stone Inc.

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Openings and Closings
05/06/14 10:30am

20 Percent Off All OfficeMax and Office Depot Locations

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Quicklink, Retail
9 Comments

20 PERCENT OFF ALL OFFICEMAX AND OFFICE DEPOT LOCATIONS Office Depot, 3443 Kirby Dr. at Richmond, Upper Kirby, HoustonA total 400 OfficeMax and Office Depot stores will shut down nationwide — 150 of them by the end of the year, the combined company announced today. Office Depot bought OfficeMax last year, resulting in a dual-named office-products giant with 1,900 locations. No specific closings have been announced yet for this round; the Houston area still has 28 Office Depots and 10 OfficeMaxes, according to website store locators. Earlier this year, Staples announced it would close 225 stores; it’s now down from 11 to 9 Houston-area spots. [AP; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 3443 Kirby Dr. location: Douglas W.

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Buying and Selling
05/02/14 5:00pm

Maybe We Should Round Up the Usual Suspects

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Cottage Grove, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
2 Comments

MAYBE WE SHOULD ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS Former Home of the Usual, 5519 Allen St. at T.C. Jester Blvd., Cottage Grove, HoustonWhat’s happened to the bar building by the Cottage Grove railroad tracks at 5519 Allen St. at the corner of T.C. Jester since lesbian bar The Usual shut down there in February? Perhaps a sale of the property and something new going in — but what? “Looks like someone bought the former home of The Usual,” reports a reader who drove by the site Friday and sent in this photo. “For sale sign is gone and there were workers in there today.” [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Featured Posts
04/16/14 4:45pm

Employees Are Moving into ExxonMobil’s New North Houston Campus Now

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Office Space, Springwoods Village
14 Comments

ExxonMobil North Houston Campus Under Construction, Springwoods Village, HoustonExxonmobil began moving the first workers into its new campus south of The Woodlands last Friday, a source tells Swamplot. Among the first to make the trek to the former pine forest (pictured at left, with workers in formation, during construction last year) near the intersections of I-45, the Hardy Toll Road, and the latest segment of the Grand Parkway: employees of the ExxonMobil Development Company, who’ve been working in Greenspoint for more than a dozen years.

Photo: ExxonMobil

It’s Moving Month!
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Featured Posts
04/16/14 10:00am

Former Country Kitchen Spot Near Timbergrove Almost Ready for New Gig as Warehouse Bar & Chill

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Lazybrook, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Timbergrove Manor
4 Comments

Warehouse Bar & Chill, 3333 W. 11th St., Timbergrove Manor, Houston

From reader Jody Henry comes this pic of the newly transformed facade of the former Country Kitchen location on the western reaches of 11th St. near Seamist. The front patio is built out; burgers, salads, beers, and wings are waiting in the wings. Warehouse Bar & Chill is a week and a half away from opening at 3333 W. 11th St., according to the new establishment’s Facebook page.

Photo: Jody Henry

Just Add Patio
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