Tag: Openings and Closings

Featured Posts
01/09/18 12:30pm

Starting Tomorrow, Golden Bagels Will No Longer Rank Among the Not Yet Open

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail
2 Comments

Just how many would-be customers have been pulling up to the Golden Bagels & Coffee storefront at the corner of White Oak and Oxford, yanking on the locked front door, then walking away? Enough that the proprietors have seen fit to post a handwritten sign this morning telling them they’ll SEE YOU TOMORROW. The Heights’ first-ever bagel shop has already received 3 reviews on Yelp — one a 1-star rating (since upgraded to 3 stars) knocking the establishment for not being open this past Sunday even though the hours painted on the front door suggest otherwise, and two 5-star reviews submitted with the intention to counterbalance the first, noting that the shop at 3119 White Oak Dr. has not yet opened for business.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Heights Bagel Stakeout
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Featured Posts
01/09/18 11:30am

West Elm Heading Out of Highland Village Shopping Center Before the End of the Month

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Openings and Closings, River Oaks
7 Comments

The blue dot stuck on the window of West Elm’s Highland Village furniture gallery announces the store’s plans to decamp from its spot below and next to RA Sushi, near the eastern side of the shopping center on January 21. Both West Elm and RA Sushi’s only other Houston locations are at CityCentre. That West Elm location opened in 2015, while the current spot at 3922 Westheimer has been in business for over 9 years.

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Furniture Move-Out
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Featured Posts
12/22/17 2:00pm

Old Rice Village Shops in Exile Reconvene at the Strip Center off 59

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Openings and Closings
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With the recent move of G&G Model Shop, the strip mall at the corner of Shepherd and the eastbound 59 feeder road has become a senior center for stores that spent time in Rice Village back in the day. The photo above shows the 72-year-old model shop — a popular destination for Rice and UH architecture students, as well as model train enthusiasts — 2 doors down from fellow old-timer Times Barber Shop, which opened its original location in the Village before relocating 3 times and landing in strip center just north of Boulevard Oaks in 2007. G&G sold its 2522 Times Blvd. spot — home to the shop for 63 years — on August 17 and closed down 2 days later. The new location opened on August 29 in the 2029 Southwest Fwy. storefront abandoned several years ago by ticket reseller Ticket Connection.

Nan’s Comics and Games, pictured above to the left of G&G’s new location, was also a Rice Village tenant in the mid-60s before replacing Blue and Gray Pizza at 2011 Southwest Fwy. in 1988.

A sign from Pipeline Realty now lists the former G&G site for lease:

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G&G Model Shop
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Featured Posts
12/20/17 3:00pm

Say Hello to the Newest Building on Lyons Ave.

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Fifth Ward, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Space
8 Comments

Architect and townhome builder Parra Design Group is showing off its almost-complete new headquarters building at 4619 Lyons Ave. in the Fifth Ward. The 7,815-sq.-ft. office-warehouse complex sits on the corner of Lyons and Schweikhardt St. The firm’s offices are on the 1,500-sq.-ft. second floor. (That’s Camilo Parra doing his scale-figure impression on the balcony in the photo above.)

No other tenants are in the building yet. A statement from the firm, which moved its offices from Rice Military, indicates that the building’s double-height atrium space will be made available to the new building’s neighbors for “meetings and other activities.”

A 2-story brick section fronts Lyons Ave. A view from the Schweikhardt side shows the back portion of the building, a larger single-story warehouse-style space that Parra will use as a work area and to store building materials and supplies:

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Fifth Ward
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Castle Court
12/19/17 10:15am

Yes, The Harp on Richmond Ave Is Closing Down

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink
1 Comment

YES, THE HARP ON RICHMOND AVE IS CLOSING DOWN There’s a reason why Braun Enterprises has been trying to find a new tenant to replace the Harp at 1625 Richmond: it turns out that the bar’s founder, Declan Plunkett, is retiring, Craig Hlavaty reports. The Ireland transplant plans to close the 18-year-old bar when the lease expires at the end of February, meaning there won’t be a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the Harp next year: “Plunkett is planning a weeklong bash to see the bar off. ‘We might sell some of the stuff off the walls for people who have been such dedicated patrons,’ Plunkett says.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Braun Enterprises

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Featured Posts
12/15/17 4:00pm

Goode Co. Doubles Down on the Katy Fwy. Feeder

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Hedwig Village, Openings and Closings
2 Comments

Keeping with its tradition of opening restaurants in clusters, Goode Co. Kitchen and Cantina will open Monday just west of an existing Goode Co. Barbeque. Just Clifford Rd. and 3 structures — a 3-story office, Saltgrass Steak House, and Carter’s Country gun store — separate the new Goode Co. location from the existing one at 8911 Katy Fwy. The new restaurant will open in the former Mason Jar Restaurant & Cafe pictured above at 9005 Katy Fwy., a 6,500-sq.-ft. building that’s been closed since the lease ran out last year.

Goode Co. opened its first Kitchen and Cantina restaurant 3 months ago in the same building as an existing Goode Co. Barbeque in Shenandoah. In Upper Kirby, the 40-year-old chain’s original barbecue spot sits within 2 blocks of 3 other Goode Co. restaurants.

The 9005 Katy Fwy. restaurant will be the brand’s 9th store total.

Photos: Barry B. (Mason Jar), Goode Co. (Kitchen and Cantina)

Kitchen and Cantina
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Adaptive Reuse
12/14/17 12:45pm

The First New Tenant in 7800 Washington’s Warehouse Redo Won’t Hang Around for Long

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Openings and Closings
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The former packaging warehouse at 7800 Washington — on its way to being reworked so that offices, furniture showrooms, and a restaurant can move into it, likely next year — already has a new tenant in place: The Study, a pop-up gallery and shop selling prints, greeting cards, and design-y gifts. Los Angeles-based artist Jacqueline Levine runs the store, which opened late last month in the southeast corner of the 66,000-sq.-ft. building.

Levine’s father, Larry Levine, is hoping a restaurant will take over the space once more of the building is ready for tenants. He’s the president of Levcor, the development firm that bought the building last year. The Study will be open through January, although it’ll take some holiday time off beginning on December 24.

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The Study
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Galleria
12/11/17 12:00pm

First Sign of Nazar’s Fine Jewelry’s New Spot, Now Headed for the Auction Block off the West Loop

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Openings and Closings
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A new banner just tacked to the forehead of the building on Richmond Ave., barely east of I-610 announces what’s due to move in: a second Galleria-area showroom for Nazar’s Fine Jewelry. The photo at top, sent in by an on-the-spot Swamplot reader, shows workers getting a boost to place the sign at sundown on Sunday. The northeast crotch of the 59-West Loop interchange is visible south of the building at 4901 Richmond.

Interior renovation permits for the 25,890-sq.-ft. building — formerly home to Morton Kuehnert Auctioneers & Appraisers, and, even more formerly, to Parvizian Signature Rugs — were filed in September. Before it closed down in October 2016, the auction house’s windows were covered with photos of artifacts:

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Richmond Riches
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Featured Posts
11/29/17 5:00pm

Local Office, Local Coffee Coming to Local Office Building Next to Local Bar on Bissonnet

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Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Renovations, West University
2 Comments

Work is almost complete on Pipeline Realty’s conversion of the 2-story office building at 2617 Bissonnet (seen at top in a recent photo) into a new second-story coworking space called Local Office. The 13,500-sq.-ft. building, pictured above before the 2 trees standing in front were removed and larger windows were poked into its north and west facades, previously served as the offices of Industrial Audio/Video.

Local Office, due to open sometime next month, will be joined early next year by a ground-floor coffee shop, labeled “Local Coffee” on the rendering below but more likely to be a third outlet of the growing local Cavo Coffee chain:

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Offices of West University
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East Downtown
11/27/17 3:15pm

EaDo’s EaDog Park Opens Its Dog Gates Today

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Parks
5 Comments

Yo dawg, they heard you like dog parks. So they put a dog park in EaDo and called it . . . EaDog Park.

The fenced-off big-dog, little-dog assemblage is on the Bastrop St. right-of-way at 2216 Polk St., between Hutchins and Emancipation Ave.; the official opening is this evening.

Photo: EaDo Houston

Ruff Neighborhood
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Bars and Clubs
11/22/17 11:00am

The New Old Drinking Spot at 15th and Prince

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings
4 Comments

The vacant former-ice-house-turned-furniture-store at the corner of W. 15th St. and Prince St. appears ready to serve drinks again: Gregg Goldstein and Katz Coffee owner Avi Katz, the proprietors of the almost-ready-to-open Golden Bagels and Coffee on White Oak and Oxford, bought the former El Viejo Mexico Custom Furniture spot at 1701 W. 15th spot over the summer. (The furniture shop has since decamped outside the South Loop, at 4114 Belk St. near Cullinan Park.)

More has changed in this corner of the Heights near Shady Acres since the building’s ice-house days: “Nearly every home in a block radius has been torn down and 3 put in its place since the time that bar was there,” a neighbor tells Swamplot. Now posted to the façade of the 1,344-sq.-ft. structure: a TABC license application for mixed-beverage permits at this location — under the name of Birdocks 50 Fifty.

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Birdocks 50/Fifty
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Featured Posts
11/20/17 11:00am

Liberty Kitchen Now Free from Garden Oaks

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Garden Oaks, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
11 Comments

LIBERTY KITCHEN NOW FREE FROM GARDEN OAKS 5 months after a grand reopening to celebrate the end of road construction along Alba Rd. that had been hindering access to the restaurant, Liberty Kitchen Garden Oaks has shut down. Last night was its last meal. The restaurant had opened at 3715 Alba Rd. in June 2016, taking over a renovation of the property (and demolition of an adjacent Quonset hut to make room for parking) originally intended to house a Facundo Restaurante. “We debuted a new menu, a new beer garden and a new parking lot in an effort to revitalize patronage” after the road construction ended earlier this year, write the owners of Liberty Kitchen. But that wasn’t enough, and Hurricane Harvey “served as an additional financial hurdle company-wide.” The Liberty Kitchen Heights, San Felipe, and Memorial City locations remain open; the Little Liberty in the Rice Village closed this past March. Photo: Oksana W.

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Disaster Aftermath
11/16/17 2:45pm

KHOU Won’t Drop Anchor Again at Floody Allen Pkwy. Studios, Will Seek Higher Ground

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Flooding, North Montrose, Openings and Closings
6 Comments

Teevee station KHOU is giving up on its 3.2-acre bayou-side home on Allen Pkwy. after repeated flooding and will soon be listing it for sale, according to a staff member’s Facebook post. The organization did file a permit for $594,740 worth of restoration work after Harvey between August and October, and hired 2 services to help with the clean-up — including Lewisville-based MrRestore, pictured above outside the building on August 30. Before Harvey, the studio enjoyed a 16-year dry run bookended by waters from Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001.

The 52,000-sq.-ft. studio, home to Channel 11 for 57 years, took on 5 ft. of water during the recent storm, forcing its staff to relocate broadcasting activity 3 times within the same day: first to a second floor conference room, then 2 blocks east on Allen Pkwy. to the Federal Reserve Bank, and finally to Houston Public Media’s office on Elgin St. just off I-45, where the news operation has now been headquartered for just over 2 months. That co-location wouldn’t be permanent, KHOU meteorologist Brooks Garner reported last month, although he indicated at that time that the station had not as yet decided whether to return home or seek a new venue.

Photos tweeted out by KHOU reporters of their original home showed the building at 1945 Allen Pkwy. taking on water during the storm. Here’s what the lobby looked like:

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Anchors Away
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Featured Posts
11/15/17 3:00pm

The Longest Car Wash in the World, Just Off the Katy Freeway

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Openings and Closings
8 Comments

It’s official: the 255-ft.-long drive-thru car wash at Buc-ee’s’s new Katy location off I-10 at Cane Island Pkwy. now qualifies as the longest in the world, according to Guinness World Records. Traversing the tunnel takes cars about 5 minutes, during which time in-wash light effects entertain. Don’t have a dirty car of your own in Katy? There are videos.

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Buc-ee’s World Record
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Bars and Clubs
11/03/17 4:45pm

Midtown’s First Franchise Micro-Winery Uncorks This Weekend

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Midtown, Openings and Closings
1 Comment

Sable Gate Winery, a local affiliate of the Waters Edge chain of franchised vineyard-less wineries, has its grand opening tomorrow at 2600 Travis St., just south of McGowen and behind Reef in Midtown. The new wine spot, which began serving last weekend, took over the space from GAGE Lounge. Customers who want to make, cork, and bottle their own-label varieties at Sable Gate can choose from the chain’s selection of pre-crushed grapes shipped in from more vineyard-friendly climes around the world; if you’re in a greater hurry than the 5 to 7 weeks it normally takes to ferment and blend a batch of imported grape must, you can commandeer one Sable Gate’s already got going — or just order a glass at the bar.

Photos: Sable Gate Winery

Sable Gate Winery
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