Tag: Openings and Closings

Downtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

6 Comments

Next month, real estate brokers Randy Fertitta and John Nguyen plan to reopen the former Zula Restaurant spot at 705B Main St. Downtown as a 250-600-seat concert venue. The Capitol at St. Germain will include a bar, a restaurant, and jazz, R&B, and “old-school” country performers. Coming to the Main St. streetfront at Capitol St. (next door to the Flying Saucer): a sidewalk cafe and a new neon marquee, subsidized in part by a $20,000 grant from the Downtown Management District. The 8,400-sq.-ft. space will include an elevated reserved seating area called the Vintage Lounge and a “floating” VIP booth next to the 320-sq.-ft. stage.

Downtown gaining upscale restaurant/music venue [Houston Business Journal]
Capitol at St. Germain

Photo: Capitol at St. Germain

77002, Attractions, Bars and Clubs, Concert Venues, Downtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Dacoma

09/27/11 2:28pm

Karbach Brews Houston’s Newest Beer Can Warehouse

Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Warehouse Space

7 Comments

This metal-sheathed warehouse at 2032 Karbach St. in the industrial area off Dacoma St. near Dyer Stadium used to be home to craft and imported beer distributor C.R. Goodman. Now a bunch of former Goodman employees have transformed it into the Karbach Brewing Company brewery — which held its inaugural tour over the weekend. Among the commitments of Karbach and its brewer, former Flying Dog CEO Eric Warner: Keeping their 5 craft brews in metal. Karbach beers are available only at area bars and restaurants so far (delivered in kegs by the company’s single delivery truck); starting in January 3 of them should be available for purchase in aluminum cans, too.

77092, Breweries, Dacoma, Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Warehouses

Downtown

09/23/11 9:47am

Peeking in on Georgia’s Downtown

Franchises and Chain Stores

Nightlife, Restaurants, Retail

3 Comments

Twitter correspondent Emily Hurst sends this from-the-train-window view of the shuttered Byrd’s Market space at 420 Main St., at the corner of Prairie, as seen this morning. The owners of Georgia’s Farm to Market — the outsize buffet venue and natural-foods grocery store in that former Kmart space on the I-10 feeder near Dairy Ashford, formerly known as Sandy’s Market — are planning to open a second location here in November. Georgia’s Downtown will include a restaurant, a small grocery store (featuring many of the same products Georgia and Rick Bost pull from their farm and ranch in Waller, their own meat-processing plant in Bellville, and other local sources), and a beer and wine bar in the building’s basement, called “The Cellar.” They’ll also be renting out the basement for events. Behind the craft paper and signs on the windows, the interior is ready for its remodel — designed by Ziegler Cooper Architects.

From farm to downtown [Prime Property]
Georgia’s Farm to Market has downtown on its mind with Main Street location [Culturemap]
Georgia’s Farm to Market and Georgia’s Downtown

Photo: Emily J. Hurst

77002, Bars, Downtown, Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

09/16/11 9:34am

Pinkberry Houston Campaign: Webster and The Woodlands First

Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, The Woodlands, Webster

10 Comments

PINKBERRY HOUSTON CAMPAIGN: WEBSTER AND THE WOODLANDS FIRST Beachhead for the inevitable local invasion of second-wave frozen-yogurt pioneer Pinkberry: across I-45 from Baybrook Mall in the Baybrook Passage Shopping Center. The location, at 19325 Gulf Fwy., is scheduled to open on September 30th. The second of the dozen spots planned for the greater Houston area by the regional franchisee will be somewhere in The Woodlands, but won’t open until next year. [Houston Business Journal] Update, 11:30 am: That Woodlands location will be in The Woodlands Mall.

77598, Franchises, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, The Woodlands, Webster

Cypress

09/14/11 11:48am

Now Popping out Burritos

Franchises and Chain Stores, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

1 Comment

NOW POPPING OUT BURRITOS Jack-in-the-Box-owned Chipotle competitor Qdoba Mexican Grill has opened its first Houston-area location (in a little while, at least) — in a former Hollywood Video location near Home Depot at the end of a strip center at 17400 Spring Cypress Rd. in Cypress, just northwest of Hwy. 290. Last year Brij Agrawal, the owner of 75 local Subway franchises, signed an agreement with the fast-casual chain to open 15 new Houston Qdobas within 7 years. [QSR] Photo: Qdoba Mexican Grill Houston

77429, Cypress, Fast Food, Franchises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

09/14/11 10:22am

Former Shamrock Hotel Ballroom Out of Coma, Reopens as Conference Center

Texas Medical Center

1 Comment

After almost 3 years on the “closed on account of its gonna-be-torn-down” list, the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center at 2151 W. Holcombe Blvd. — the last remaining vestige of the famed Shamrock Hotel complex that once stood at the corner of Holcombe and South Main — reopened yesterday under new management. The 13,000 sq.-ft. ballroom facility is still owned by the Texas Medical Center, but it’ll now be run by Trevisio Restaurant and will be open to non-TMC events. In 2008, the TMC announced plans to tear down the conference center and build 3 floors of office space on top of an adjacent parking garage.

Good news for the gala crowd: Hornberger Center reopens for all [West University Examiner]
Previously on Swamplot: Just When You Thought It Was Already Long Gone: A Second Demolition for the Shamrock Hotel

Photo: Trevisio Restaurant and Conference Center

77030, Event Spaces, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Texas Medical Center

09/01/11 10:42am

Sugar Land Officially Released from Prison

Public Buildings, Sugar Land

9 Comments

Good morning, Sugar Land! As of today, the once-5,400-acre state prison in your midst is no longer. Down for the last decade to a 326-acre core of former Imperial Sugar-owned land near Hwy. 6 and Rte. 90A, the 112-year-old Central Unit shipped out its last prisoners earlier this month; the property was handed over to the state’s General Land Office yesterday. Sugar Land officials are interested in buying the property, but the decision to sell will be up to the 3-member School Land Board, which runs the investments of state’s Permanent University Fund.

Sugar Land Prison Officially Closes [MyFoxHouston]
State officials may sell Sugar Land prison site [Houston Chronicle]
As prison closes, could others be next? [Statesman.com]
Day 19: Sugar Land’s Prison a Casualty of Budget Cuts [Texas Tribune]

Photo: Justin Dehn/Texas Tribune

77498, Openings and Closings, Prisons, Sugar-Land

Langwood

08/31/11 11:29pm

Groceries out of the Box: H-E-B Has a Hands-Off Policy at Joe V’s Smart Shop

Openings and Closings, Retail

34 Comments

Today was opening day for the third-ever Joe V’s Smart Shop, H-E-B’s growing chain of low-cost supermarkets. How low-cost are we talking? Well, put it this way: Checkers at the store won’t even touch your money. That’s right: You’ll be sliding it into a Wincor Nixdorf iCash register yourself — it sucks up your bills and coins and spits back change. And for a good number of the groceries you buy, you’ll be unpacking the items yourself too, directly from the boxes they were shipped in — just like you would at a big-box warehouse store. In the 51,000-sq.-ft. space carved out of a former Kmart at 12009 Northwest Fwy., on the west side of Hwy. 290 at 43rd St., the boxes and pallets are the displays:

77092, Grocery Stores, Langwood, Openings and Closings, Retail

Houston History

08/30/11 1:38pm

Mapping the Growth of Lower Westheimer’s Restaurant Row

Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

10 Comments

Over at the Houston Press, food critic Katharine Shilcutt and chief mapmaker Monica Fuentes have traced the history of locally owned restaurants on the stretch of Lower Westheimer from east of Taft all the way to Dunlavy way, way back — to the long-ago days of 1997. Sure, the sequence of maps (see below for the latest) leaves out bars, coffee shops, and fast-food joints, but culinary additions are color-coded (after the start date) by year of appearance. Featured appearances between now and next year: Underbelly, the Hay Merchant, Uchi, and L’Olivier. Your guide to eating the strip and curve:

77006, Houston History, Lower Westheimer, Maps, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

08/29/11 2:17pm

Checking Out the New North Woodlands H-E-B Before ItÂ Opens

Retail, The Woodlands

8 Comments

Posted on HAIF: images from earlier this month of the empty but almost ready-to-open H-E-B at 3601 FM 1488 in The Woodlands. At 104,000 sq. ft., the North Woodlands Market will register as the biggest of the 4 H-E-Bs in the area. Inside, reports Chris, the cameraphone photographer, everything will be bigger than usual. Alas, no closeups of the guacamole bar. A similar layout and format is expected at the Sugar Land store scheduled to open in September.

77354, Grocery Stores, Magnolia, Openings and Closings, Retail, The Woodlands

08/29/11 12:49pm

Out with the Imported Po’ Boys, in with the Local Bologna

Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village

14 Comments

OUT WITH THE IMPORTED PO’ BOYS, IN WITH THE LOCAL BOLOGNA The owners of Benjy’s Restaurant next door plan to open a local-foods market in the recently vacated Antone’s Import Co. space at 2424 Dunstan St. Benjy Levitt describes the market, which he’s calling Local Foods in Rice Village, as a local version of its predecessor. There’ll be sandwiches and salads, as well as prepared foods from next door, including Benjy’s beer nuts and cheese crackers. Levitt tells Sarah Rufca the store, expected to open in October, will get its food supplies from 15 to 20 local vendors: “We’re going to be using artisan bread; if there’s bologna in a sandwich, it’ll be house-cured.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: West U Examiner

77005, Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Rice-Village

08/23/11 2:55pm

Tracking Sugar Land’s Sugar and Cheese

Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers, Sugar Land

6 Comments

TRACKING SUGAR LAND’S SUGAR AND CHEESE Where Sugar Land’s Cupcake Cafe couldn’t hold on, macaroni and cheese is going in. The owners of the Jus’ Mac mac-and-cheese-is-all restaurant on Yale St. in Sunset Heights have announced they’re ready to expand to a second location: 16525 Lexington Ave., in a strip center at the corner of Austin Pkwy., behind the First Colony Mall. Expected completion date for the cupcakes-to-pasta makeover: November. [HAIF; previously on Swamplot]

77479, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers, Sugar-Land

Art

08/19/11 12:53pm

Explosive Fifth Ward Bungalow Bandshell Just About Ready for Its Breakout Jam Session

Construction Materials, Fifth Ward, Openings and Closings, Parks, Public Art

10 Comments

Sculptor Dan Havel sends in photos of the construction he and fellow demo artist Dean Ruck have been working on for months in a new pocket park at 3705 Lyons Ave. More than a month before its debut as the backdrop for a community concert (yes, that’s a stage poking out from the front), Havel says their project is “substantially complete,” though there are still a few more details to fill in, including stairs for the stage and some landscaping. Working from a ready-to-be-knocked-down house from a couple miles northeast at 3012 Erastus St., Havel and Ruck added, ahem, a whole lot of support to the interior, as these photos taken earlier in the summer show:

77020, Art, Bungalows, Construction Materials, Fifth Ward, Openings and Closings, Parks, Public Art, Recycled Materials

Comments

08/12/11 11:24pm

Comment of the Day: The Lost Scent