THIRD WARD RESIDENTS PROTEST HISD PROPOSAL TO CLOSE HISTORIC SCHOOL 
The steps in front of Ryan Middle School were the site of a rally yesterday in protest of an HISD proposal to close and consolidate the historic Third Ward school. HISD says the proposal calls to move students to Cullen Middle School on Scott St. because of low enrollment at Ryan, shown at right, which opened on Elgin St. when Yates High School moved to a new location in 1958. But teevee reporter Demond Fernandez says that the protestors see it “as a pattern of closing schools in predominately African-American communities. . . . And they say if HISD trustees move to pass a decision like that tonight, they may be prepared to go to court.” [abc13] Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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Tag: Openings and Closings
THE SPORTS BAR THAT’S REPLACING THE SAXOPHONE ON RICHMOND 
Will we soon see a 70-foot red pitchfork here? Now that the Orange Show has moved that big blue horn out of the way, the former Billy Blues club at 6025 Richmond near Fountain View is getting a new sign and a renovation, a Swamplot reader notes, for the sports bar Diablo Loco Wings y Mas. Last week, Bob Wade’s 70-foot “Smokesax,” made out of Beetle parts, was trucked across town to the Orange Show’s Munger St. warehouse. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
LOW-CAL RESTAURANT TO OPEN INSIDE WESTHEIMER’S HIGH STREET REDEVELOPMENT 
The shell shown here was about as high as High Street got before the ambitious mixed-use development was scrapped in 2008. In 2011, the property was sold and the project downsized by Dinerstein and given a timeless, compensatory new name: Millennium High Street. Yesterday, reports the Houston Business Journal, the redevelopment at 4410 Westheimer announced a new tenant: Season 52, a low-calorie restaurant with 2 other Texas locations, will open sometime this April. Besides the restaurant, reports Olivia Pulsinelli, Millennium High Street is expected to include 15,000 square feet of retail and 336 apartments. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
MACY’S DOWNTOWN: WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! 
A Macy’s spokesperson tells Nancy Sarnoff that after 66 years on Main St. the department store will be locking up for good “probably Saturday.” As Kenneth Franzheim’s former Foley’s awaits an expected demolition, Sarnoff reports a rather unglamorous retail experience inside: “Only two floors in the 10-story building were open Monday. The first housed the store’s remaining merchandise. It included everything from dishes to fur coats, but the pickings were slim. . . . The second level had furniture and fixtures. Everything was for sale, including lighted display cabinets, mannequins and cardboard boxes for holding small pieces of jewelry.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jim Parsons
This corner at Mandell and West Main near Richmond and the Menil Collection has lost another tenant; Sophia bowed out of the freestanding brick building at the end of February. It was back in 2008 when Sophia’s predecessor Café Artiste kept this “closed today” sign posted in the window for an entire month, receiving your questions and comments without betraying a word; Sophia’s sand-bagged sign, spotted by a Swamplot reader at the end of last week, doesn’t appear to have inspired the same level of community feedback just yet.
- Casual Dining in the Neighborhood [Sophia Houston]
- Guerrero Moving Alma to Montrose; Sophia Shuttered [Eater Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: “Dude, What Gives?â€: Cafe Artiste’s Disappearing Act
Photos: Jack McBride (Sophia); Flickr user DrPantzo [license]
Former star of The Bachelor and Austin bar mogul Brad Womack is ready to open Dogwood Houston: The renovations — including a second-story patio to give the drinkers a view of the skyline — to the former Post Edge Mailing Services building at 2403 Bagby are nearing completion, according to the bar’s Facebook page; Dogwood will be the first foray into Houston by the man who once dumped Emily Maynard over the phone; he’s part of Austin’s Carmack Concepts, which runs Sixth St. bars Chuggin’ Monkey, Dizzy Rooster, Molotov, and, of course, Dogwood.
It was abrupt, Thursday’s closing of Rice Village’s Juliet and Romeo Couture on the corner of Kirby Dr. and Times Blvd., an employee at a nearby shop tells Swamplot: No signs were posted anywhere before early Thursday morning, when the merchandise inside was gone. The store’s phone number, as of this morning, is “non-working.” Juliet and Romeo had a spot on Westheimer before it moved to the 9,650-sq.-ft. building at 6117 Kirby that dates to 1940, according to city records, shared by an alterations shop, Ovations night club, and the Main Street Theater offices around the corner, all facing Times Blvd.
- Previously on Swamplot: Up Next on the Westheimer Retail Turntable: School for DJs
Photo: Swamplot inbox
HEIGHTS LOSING CAJUN RESTAURANT 
The Big Mamou is closing tomorrow at the end of the day, reports the Leader, leaving behind the yellow bungalow at 903 Studewood where it’s been for 4 years: “Rufus and Brenda Estis . . . will host one last blast for customers from 5-9 p.m. March 5, offering its signature red beans and rice and gumbo at no charge.” [The Leader] Photo: Big Mamou
A few doors down from the Main Street Theater at 2516 Times, Naked Body and Bath is closing on February 28, an employee tells Swamplot. Opening here not quite 7 years ago, the shop is looking to get out from under that blue awning in Rice Village and move its bath bombs and body butters to a smaller storefront sometime next year.
- Yes, we’re Naked . . . but it’s okay to look! [Naked Body and Bath]
Photo: Allyn West
TELEPHONE ROAD SMOKEHOUSE REPLACES TELEPHONE ROAD SMOKEHOUSE 
The low-slung building that used to be Pete’s BBQ has re-opened as a barbecue, reports Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler. Run by husband and wife Brian Lewis and Lisa Kuhfeldt, Oak Leaf Smokehouse had a “soft opening” at 1000 Telephone late last week — and was “slammed,” selling out of meat by 1 p.m., says a February 21 post on Facebook. “Once the restaurant gets things dialed in,” reports Sandler,” they’ll expand the menu beyond the five meats and four sides currently on offer.” For now, the smokehouse is open during lunch hours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. [Eater Houston] Photo: Allyn West
A source close to Blanco’s ownership tells Swamplot that by November the West Alabama bar and grill will close. Meanwhile, Blanco’s will be scouting for a new location, the source says, “somewhere in the area.” Swamplot reported in January that St. John’s School was buying 13 acres of property in River Oaks that include 3406 West Alabama St., where the incongruous honky-tonk and its dusty parking lot — owned for decades by Barry E. DeBakey, the heart surgeon’s son who died in 2007 of liver failure — have been for 30 years.
A native Houstonian has set up a one-man bicycle-messenger service, reports Culturemap’s Whitney Radley: Within an hour, Clutch Delivery’s Liam Musgrave will pedal to your place almost anything — except dry cleaning, pets, and “illicit substances.” This map shows his service area, extending west out to the Loop and east to Lockwood.
Sharing a wall with Chinatown Printing, The Green Bone threw a grand opening last Saturday, debuting its hemp doggie treats and recycled-wood doggie daycare digs in the East Downtown Art Deco building shown here. Located at 2104 Leeland St. near the corner of St. Emanuel, the shop also has a lounge for masters with wireless Internet and an espresso bar. It’s not up and pouring yet, but a store employee tells Swamplot that it’ll sell homemade snacks meant to be eaten by either species.
Chef David Grossman is closing Branch Water Tavern and selling the menu and recipes to Bistro des Amis owner Matt Brice, who says he will open The Federal Grill in the Magnolia Grove spot shown above at 510 South Shepherd Dr. sometime this spring. Grossman opened Branch Water Tavern here 3 years ago behind that wood-and-rusted-steel facade in the building that used to house Cue & Cushion. Grossman tells Eater Houston that he is taking the Branch Water name with him — maybe somewhere outside the Loop, where he will plan a less expensive menu; Grossman means as well to help his fiancee Julia Sharaby get her Fusion Taco truck into a freestanding spot and off the streets.
Four, apparently: That’s how many construction workers it takes to hang the new Torchy’s Tacos sign out front of the former Gugliani’s Italian Grill building in Rice Village. A Swamplot reader reports that the suite at 2400 Times Blvd. has been getting a gutting since Tuesday; much of it has been junked in the Dumpster pictured above. The Austin chain has two other locations inside the Loop — one on South Shepherd Dr. near Fairview and one under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights store at the corner of Ashland and 19th St. There has been no announcement yet when the Rice Village location will open.
- Previously on Swamplot: Torchy’s Tacos Taking Harold’s Old Corner Spot in the Heights
Photo: Allyn West
