CHICKEN OUT TONIGHT ON MEMORIAL DR. 
Hybrid Peruvian-Mexican restaurant Pollo Bravo will be flying the coop at 5 PM — the Memorial Dr. and Reinicke St. location will close permanently this evening. The chain’s remaining 2 locations on Hillcroft and Richmond will remain open, and the owner is currently looking for a new space to roost. The locale, which previously housed Hartz Chicken Buffet, converted to a Pollo Bravo by the end of 2012. An LLC connected to developer Amir Taghdisi purchased the property in May, adding to his existing holdings a few blocks west across the street; his strip center at 5801 Memorial Dr. currently houses a Dunkin’ Donuts and Piada Italian Street Food. Photo: Google Places
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Tag: Restaurants
Nationally ranked Cypress parking-lot barbecue trailer Brooks’ Place will offer a 25 percent discount on New Year’s Day to anyone celebrating Texas’s new open carry law with a properly holstered firearm. Owner and master of smoked beef Trent Brooks will also offer a permanent 10 percent discount those who show up armed after January 1st. (A sign posted on the premises notes that “judicious marksmanship is appreciated” if the need to draw does arise.) Things you shouldn’t show up with, according to other noticed posted to the shed (tucked next to the Ace Hardware in the shopping center at FM 529 at Barker Cypress Rd.): short-shorts and saggy pants.
- Restaurant owners split on Open Carry law [ABC13]
- The 50 Best Barbecue Joints in the World: Brook’s Place [Texas Monthly]
Photos: Cletus O. (trailer) Angela S. (sign)
With Open Arms
Yet another fast-casual semi-gourmet upstate taco chain appears to be spreading saucy tendrils into the 610 Loop — Austin-based Tacodeli, which announced intent to expand to Houston and Dallas last year, is now appearing in renderings and marketing plans of Lovett Commercial’s site at 1902 Washington Ave, across the street from upscale cocktail bar Julep and just west of cow-to-table butcher shop and steakhouse B&B Butchers. Tacodeli will be jostling against other taco invaders such as Torchy’s Tacos (also an Austin export), Fuzzy’s Taco’s (a Dallas chain currently working its way down through the north Houston ‘burbs to West Gray and Post Oak), and Velvet Taco (another Dallas chain) in the rush to claim territory in the local tacoscape, already thick with native Hous-Tex-Mex options.
A Lovett site plan for the property also shows a few other developments nestling in around Tacodeli, including a ramen shop, a brewpub, and a high-end barber:
Washington Ave Taco Strategery
COMMENT OF THE DAY: PRICING OUT TAKEOUT OPTIONS FOR THE HOUSE-SLASH-TAQUERIA ON CAROLINE ST. “I think ‘less is more’,
in that I’d pay more for the house WITHOUT the attached taco stand. Don’t get me wrong — I love me some tacos — but I don’t need a stand attached to my house. That’s taking convenience too far.” [Major Market, commenting on 2-Story Single Family Home with Built-In Taco Stand Now Available in the Museum District] Photo of 4504 Caroline St.: HAR
Too close, too far for tacos
Do you have an untapped entrepreneurial side and flautas worth flaunting? This 3-bedroom, 2-bath 1930’s home comes equipped with its own taco stand, ready to serve your culinary ambitions. Located on 7,500 sq.ft. directly behind the Mexican Consulate, the 2,882 sq.-ft. building and attachment are yours for $420,000. (In related news, Happy Jalapeno is now closed.)
Very Hot on the Market
Vegan-friendly dance landmark Te House of Tea, at the corner of Fairview and Woodhead, will officially close its doors tomorrow at 7 PM — then briefly reopen them for an after-Christmas sale of equipment and interior furnishings the following Saturday. According to the restaurant’s December 1st closing announcement, owner Connie Lacobie attempted to sell the nearly 10-year-old business citing health issues, but a buyer couldn’t be found before the landlord made other plans for the space. Te opened in March 2006 with a lion dance for good luck (above); the final weekly swing-blues-fusion dance was held this past Saturday, and Monday was the last Open Mic. Photos: Te House of Tea
Down to the Dregs
Deep beneath First City Tower, something is lightly frying — Indian fast-casual joint DGN Factory, previously known by its less-coy former moniker The Dosa Factory, is now serving the no-longer-titular stuffed crepes and other South Indian vegetarian staples at its newly opened counter in the tunnel below 1001 Fannin St., 4 blocks west of Discovery Green.
The landscape of adorably-named taco shops grows ever denser — Baja fast-casual restaurant Fuzzy’s Tacos will continue its spread south from Cypress, creeping into the space at 2015 W. Gray St., in the parking lot behind the River Oaks Theater. The Fort Worth export will move into the freestanding building on Peden St. at the back of the shopping center, following the 8-month tapas act of Pesca World Seafood (which shuttered in 2013 after replacing Tinto’s that same year).
The space itself is not quite taco-ready:
Very, Very Soft Tacos
Here’s a photo of the new construction underway on the now-barrel-bereft lot at 1601 Richmond, future home of drive-thru Vietnamese sandwich shop Oui Banh Mi. The new structure, shown above from Mandell, is currently shrouded in housewrap. (The historical photo of Lucky Burger is taken from the Richmond side.)
The Lucky Burger barrel, which stood on the corner for more than 40 years, was demolished on Halloween under the cover of citywide flood warnings.
Oui Banh Mi, No Barrel
Urban cowboys, hold your horses: A Gilley’s rebirth is in the works near the Ship Channel, but it will be neither as rootin’ nor as tootin’ as its world-famous Pasadena ancestor. Last month La Porte’s city council approved a proposed general plan for the La Porte Town Center, a $55-million mixed-residential-and-retail-and-sports-and-entertainment district anchored by a Mickey Gilley’s Family Entertainment Center.
Modern-day Wes Hightowers would best look elsewhere to shoot mezcal and brawl — a floorplan for the dancehall shows that the 50,000-sq.-ft. facility is geared towards more wholesome pastimes, offering “Branston-type stage performances”, roller skating, laser tag, billiards, video games, boutique bowling, bumper cars, a Western duds shop and a cafe. The inevitable mechanical bull is located by the entrance to the restrooms:
East Side Town Center
SIMON SAYS: SHAKE SHACK IS DEFINITELY COMING TO THE GALLERIA 
It’s confirmed: A Shake Shack will be coming to the Galleria’s west end (currently undergoing extensive cosmetic procedures that will relocate Saks 5th Avenue and open up new retail space). A description of the project included in a marketing document from mall owner Simon Property Group mentions Shake Shack as one of 35 “luxury retailers and feature restaurants” coming to the reconfigured space. Speculation that the burger chain would make its Houston debut at the Galleria intensified last month following Simon’s publication of a rendering showing the restaurant in place among the mall’s updates. [Simon Property Group] Image: Simon Property Group
What’s Cooking in Uptown?
A reader sends this photo of an excavator at work yesterday on a house behind the former Teala’s Mexican Restaurant at 3210 W. Dallas in North Montrose. Teala’s — not to be confused with nearby Tila’s Restaurante and Bar on the Shepherd curve — changed hands in mid-September. Teala’s closed around the same time.
The new owner of the 20,000 sq. ft. parcel underneath the restaurant is an entity connected to NewQuest Properties, which specializes in retail development.
Making Way
From the street, a Swamplot reader notes, the roll-on vehicle pictured here looks just like your typical construction trailer. But come around the side you can see the banner pinned to it, announcing a new Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. The latest link in the growing fast-food chain is about to arrive on the former site of the Lucky Village Chinese Buffet that was torn down at 1111 N. Dairy Ashford last year. The new Freddy’s between St. Mary’s Ln. and Barryknoll will join a parade of beef purveyors (Sam’s Burgers, Lynn’s Steakhouse, Hebert’s Specialty Meats) and fast-food joints (Jack-in-the-Box, Sonic, and the Raising Cane’s right next door) lining the west side of Dairy Ashford, roughly opposite Spring Branch ISD’s AstroTurf-lined Darrell Tully Stadium.
Photo: Brian Walz
Steakburgers
Here’s the sign that went up at the southwest corner of Anita and Milam in Midtown late last month — at the northern end of the block where the empty hull of Van Loc still sits, reminding you of bún gone by. It’s advertising a 16-story office tower on the full block, with 3 separate retail spaces on the ground floor and a 6-level parking garage above. Senterra Real Estate Group’s website for 3003 Louisiana first appeared online last October — just as the Midtown Vietnamese restaurant was closing up shop. The view shown in the rendering is taken from Anita St., to show off the north-facing Downtown views available from the structure’s 9 office floors.
- 3003 Louisiana [Senterra Real Estate Group]
- 3003 Louisiana: Midtown Office Mixed-Use [HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: Van Loc Has Run Out of Food Forever; Midtown’s Van Loc Will Lock Up for Good This Friday; Midtown Vietnamese Restaurant Van Loc Says It’s Closing Up Shop
Photo: Marco Hernandez
3003 Louisiana
MONEY, GUNS, AND WHATABURGER 
“We’ve had many customers and employees tell us they’re uncomfortable being around someone with a visible firearm who is not a member of law enforcement, and as a business, we have to listen and value that feedback in the same way we value yours. We have a responsibility to make sure everyone who walks into our restaurants feels comfortable. For that reason, we don’t restrict licensed concealed carry but do ask customers not to open carry in our restaurants.” [Whataburger, via Houston Chronicle] Photo of Whataburger at 5436 Hwy. 6 North: Jessica T.
