Tag: Openings and Closings

Houston Heights
05/08/13 3:15pm

The New Old Heights Ice House

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Openings and Closings, Renovations
6 Comments

A new version of the D&T Drive Inn opened up late last week, Eater Houston reports. Tucked away in Brooke Smith between bungalows brandishing Houston Texans paraphernalia at 1307 Enid St. just south of W. Cavalcade, the long-time ice house was spruced up and expanded by Down House owner Chris Cusack. Though this photo makes parking appear — well, tight, even if that Dumpster’s eventually moved, a map on D&T’s website shows that there will be a lot available along W. Cavalcade between Enid and Cordell.

Photo: Allyn West

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Barker Cypress
05/08/13 1:05pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Houston’s Shrinking Blast! Zone

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Comments, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: HOUSTON’S SHRINKING BLAST! ZONE “I have had enough with Blast! Things went downhill fast at the Memorial City location with the ownership change. No soap in the showers, dirty sauna and steam rooms, weight equipment not being properly maintained, etc., etc. I said I would maintain my membership due to its location. Then in February 2013, Blast announces that the Memorial City location would be closing in a few weeks. I was VERY UPSET! I received a letter in the mail stating that my membership would be transferred to the Sharpstown location. That gym is out of the way for me so I started working out at the Barker Cypress location. On Monday, May 6 I go to work out and the landlord has locked Blast! out of the building due to non-payment of rent! Blast! closed the Galleria, Sugar Land, and Memorial City locations, and it seems as if the Barker Cypress location is shut down indefinitely. It’s time to find another gym!” [Floyd Worsley, Sr., commenting on Blast Begins Total Houston Takeover of Bally Total Fitness] Note: The Memorial City location of Blast! Fitness has closed, but the Barker Cypress location at 17750 Katy Fwy. is still open.

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Quicklink
05/08/13 11:00am

New Planned Parenthood Incites Protests in Spring

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Shopping Centers, Spring
62 Comments

NEW PLANNED PARENTHOOD INCITES PROTESTS IN SPRING This 7th Houston-area Planned Parenthood, which signed a 5-year lease and opened last week here at 4747 Louetta Rd. in a Spring shopping center shared by a Chase branch, party supply store, and daycare, doesn’t seem to have received the warmest welcome: Cool Kat Party Supply owner Glenn Mehterian says he moved his main entrance around the corner: “We’ll have more comfort entering our store from the Kroger side,” he tells abc13. And others have been moved to protest the clinic in their own way: Conroe man and Right to Life volunteer Joe Wiegan has come here to pray: “It was a lonesome feeling,” he tells the Montgomery County Courier’s Kimberly Sutton, “but after about half an hour, a man and his young son walked out of the Chase Bank next door and asked if they could join me . . . . He led a beautiful prayer for the unborn and they left with tears in their eyes. . . . .” Then Wiegan was joined by another: “He said he passed by earlier and asked God to please keep me here until he got back by so he could stop and pray with me . . . He was an awesome bear of a man, with a spirit as gentle as a lamb’s.” [abc13; Montgomery County Courier; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Montgomery County Courier

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Uncategorized
05/07/13 3:45pm

The Ice House by the Second Ward Switchyard

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5 Comments

This new build on the corner of Navigation Blvd. and Terminal Rd. has aroused the curiosity of a Magnolia Park resident: Though its utilitarian appearance and ballast-sharing trackside location suggest a storage facility — or maybe a roll-by gift shop for forgetful conductors — a neighbor on Terminal Rd. says he heard it’s going to be the new location of Players Ice House.

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Apartments
05/07/13 12:05pm

Liberty Kitchen To Open on San Felipe

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Briar Hollow, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
8 Comments

Looks like there’s a replacement for the former Vida Sexy Tex-Mex: A reader sends in this photo showing the new vinyl sign from Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette at 4224 San Felipe St. That’s the St. Regis Hotel in the background — and a photo taken here a few months from now might also show in the background that 317-unit apartment complex and parking garage that Mill Creek Residential is building nearby on E. Briar Hollow Ln., where another Swamplot reader heard that the restaurant would be located. A Facebook post in late April from Liberty Kitchen says it hopes to open in “early [s]ummer.”

Photo: Lisa Garvin via Swamplot inbox

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Apartments
05/06/13 2:30pm

Westheimer Rd. Cafe Adobe Closing on Mother’s Day

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Upper Kirby
9 Comments

WESTHEIMER RD. CAFE ADOBE CLOSING ON MOTHER’S DAY At the palm-obscured corner of South Shepherd Dr. and Westheimer since 1981, Cafe Adobe announced that it will be closing this Mother’s Day, May 12, reports the Houston Business Journal. The property at 2111 Westheimer Rd. was purchased last year by Hines, which has said it plans to tear down the restaurant to build a 215-unit apartment complex. An up-to-date rendering of the complex-to-be hasn’t been made available. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

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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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Openings and Closings
04/25/13 2:30pm

Now Open: Torchy’s in Rice Village

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Renovations, Restaurants, Rice Village, Shopping Centers
23 Comments

As of late last week, Torchy’s Tacos is open, having built out and taken up this corner suite formerly occupied by Gugliani’s at 2400 Times Blvd. in Rice Village. This is the Austin chain’s 3rd location inside the Loop: There’s one on South Shepherd Dr. half a block from the Arby’s that’s becoming a Dunkin’ Donuts and another under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights building at the corner of Ashland and 19th St.

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Montrose
04/24/13 11:10am

Adios, Bocados

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Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants
4 Comments

ADIOS, BOCADOS Culturemap’s reporting that Bocados on West Alabama is closing after a party on Cinco de Mayo. Bocados owners and friends from their days at across-the-street University of St. Thomas Terry Flores and Lily Hernandez tell Culturemap that though they’ll be leaving the restaurant at 1312 West Alabama where they’ve been for 15 years, they’re considering buying a Heights property where they might bring Bocados back. Moreover, reports Whitney Radley, the pair says they plan to open this summer “in a yet-undisclosed location” downtown a restaurant they’re calling The Red Ox Grill. And what’s up next for the Bocados building? Radley writes that it’ll be The Brick and Spoon, a restaurant coming to Montrose by way of Lafayette, Louisiana, on June 1. [Culturemap] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

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Houston Heights
04/16/13 10:00am

The Rerugglefication of 11th St. Cafe

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants
21 Comments

THE RERUGGLEFICATION OF 11TH ST. CAFE “[A]ll that was left at one point,” writes The Heights Life blogger Viula of the 11th St. Cafe, was “basically 3 brick walls.” She popped in to preview this most recent rugglefication of the twice-ruggled restaurant in advance of its April 25 reopening. Chief Ruggle Federico Marques tells Viula that the city thought the old Heights building at 11th and Studewood ought to be torn down. But a Ruggle, it seems, is made of sterner stuff: “When a lot of other companies would have cut their losses and walked away,” writes Viula, “[Ruggles Green] seized the opportunity. . . . Even the floor/foundation had to come out due to years of neglect and spotty patch work by previous owners. They salvaged the front and side walls and everything else is new.” [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life

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Openings and Closings
04/15/13 11:00am

Third Ward’s Ryan Middle School To Become Medicine Magnet

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Quicklink, Schools, Third Ward
2 Comments

THIRD WARD’S RYAN MIDDLE SCHOOL TO BECOME MEDICINE MAGNET HISD voted on Thursday night to reopen the closing Ryan Middle School next year as a magnet for students interested in the medical field. Though community protests have tried to move HISD to keep the Third Ward school open, a vote a month ago decided that the 263 Ryan students — the fewest at any HISD middle school, reports the Houston Chronicle’s Ericka Mellon — would be consolidated at Cullen Middle School, about 4 miles away on Scott St. The 1926 Elgin St. building that was the original Yates Colored High School, reports abc13, will be reopened as the Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan to “allow more students to compete for admission into the highly selective DeBakey High School for the Health Professions.” Also approved in Thursday’s vote is a second magnet, the Energy Institute High School, though HISD has not yet chosen where that will be. [Houston Chronicle; abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Briar Forest
04/15/13 10:00am

Look What’s Sprouting on Westheimer and Kirkwood

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Kirkwood, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
2 Comments

Note: Story updated with new photos.

An update comes in from reader Nicole Sherman, who saw this bare facade-to-be and fruity Sprouts Farmers Market sign at the end of last week and snapped these photos: Filling in for the former Sports Authority in the Kirkwood Shopping Center at 11940 Westheimer, this will be the 4th Sprouts in Houston and the farthest in, only 2 miles beyond the Beltway. In October, the green grocer revealed the first 3 locations it would open in Houston this year:

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Avondale
04/10/13 4:10pm

A Change Afoot at Old Tejas Boots Home on Westheimer

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Demolitions, Land Development, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
2 Comments

Why did Tejas Boots leave 208 Westheimer? Owner Mike Kuykendahl says that the family that owns the li’l strip center (above) that Tejas Boots shared with Hollywood Food & Cigars asked them to: The family gave the tenants 2 months to move, explaining that they’re considering upgrading the 4,100-sq.-ft. building, says Kuykendahl, or tearing it down and redeveloping that corner of Helen and Westheimer. Tejas Boots had been here since 1984; they’ve relocated just a few blocks west into the browner, newer retail strip stack shown at right at 415 Westheimer. It’s not much as signs go, but that faint horizontal smudge beneath the Green Park Pilates logo marks the spot where the bootmakers can now be found.

Photos: Allyn West

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Openings and Closings
04/09/13 11:00am

New Shepherd Dr. Little Woodrow’s To Serve Pub Fare, Too

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Quicklink, Restaurants, Rice Military, Washington Corridor
23 Comments

NEW SHEPHERD DR. LITTLE WOODROW’S TO SERVE PUB FARE, TOO Beer after wine: Closed back in November, Block 7 at 720 South Shepherd Dr. is being replaced by Little Woodrow’s, reports Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler. Just south of the Washington Corridor in Rice Military Magnolia Grove and a block east from the about-to-open Katch 22 from Roger Clemens’s kid Kory, the new Shepherd spot, rep Nick Menage tells Sandler, will house no ordinary Woodrow’s: “In a twist, this location will have a full kitchen that will serve an updated mix of bar foods including burgers, nachos and pizzas from the old Block 7 oven. Menage assures fans of the bar’s popular steak nights that there are plans to maintain that tradition, too.” [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Block 7: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

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Avondale
04/05/13 11:30am

Westheimer Bootmakers To Reopen Shop a Few Blocks West on Westheimer

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Commercial Real Estate, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail, Strip Centers
3 Comments

This photo of the strip center just west of the Lower Westheimer restaurant row shows the recently closed Tejas Custom Boots and Hollywood Food & Cigars. A Swamplot reader says that a sign posted in the window here at Helen and 208 Westheimer says that the alligator- and ostrich-unfriendly bootmakers will be moving the stretching and stitching operations farther west to the 400 block of Westheimer. As of Friday morning, calls to Tejas Custom Boots for comment about the relocation and reopening haven’t been returned. City records show that the 4,100-sq.-ft. 1960 building and 11,322-sq.-ft. property are owned by a single family.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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