Tag: Restaurants

Houston Heights
11/01/10 2:13pm

Tacos a-Go-Going to the Heights; Hubcap Grill Expanding to Shady Acres

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shady Acres
19 Comments

Is there an Onion Creek magnet effect? Reader Mary Ellen Arbuckle notes a second location of stylized Midtown Mexican-food joint Tacos A Go-Go will be shimmying into this strip-center spot at 2912 White Oak, just a few doors down from the Onion Creek Coffee House. The location is the former home of the International Ballet of Houston; there’s a TABC application notice up in one of the windows. Also scheduled to move in nearby, closer to the Onion Creek vortex: Christian’s Tailgate.

Meanwhile, half a mile west of the Heights’ western border, owner Ricky Craig has leased the former home of Mi Cocina Victor’s Cafe at 1133 W. 19th St., where he plans to open a second non-mobile location of tiny Downtown burger joint Hubcap Grill:

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New Construction
10/26/10 1:53pm

Tony Mandola Plants His Own Restaurant on Waugh

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North Montrose, Restaurants
3 Comments

A roving reader-photographer sends in pix of the action on the corner of Waugh and West Dallas, planned site of the new Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen. Mandola told CultureMap last year his new restaurant will be larger than its current space in the River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray and will be “very French Quarter, with lots of brick, wrought iron, and courtyards.” His GC for the project is a noted builder of fast-food restaurants. Whatever the building ends up looking like will likely mix up this little stretch of Waugh, which includes a brick CVS and Pei Wei in a strip center across the street, the modern Houston Area Women’s Center building directly to the north, and — across West Dallas, the eternal faceoff between Jack-in-the-Box and the brand new Whole Foods Market. The earth-shaking — or . . . well, at least earth-moving — news from the scene: “Ground is being re-graded slightly, sticks with colored ribbons have been planted and there’s quite a bit of construction equipment on the lot.”

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Avondale
10/21/10 3:14pm

Comment of the Day: Funny, That’s Not How Doctor Gale’s Meatloaf at Barnaby’s Usually Smells

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Comments, Montrose, Quicklink, Restaurants
1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: FUNNY, THAT’S NOT HOW DOCTOR GALE’S MEATLOAF AT BARNABY’S USUALLY SMELLS “I was around there last weekend and ate outside. I smelled the odd waft from time to time but couldn’t place it. This is so much more disturbing now that I know what it was.” [eiioi, commenting on Oh, That’s Just Mom]

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Cottage Grove
10/18/10 11:24pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Downtown Flag Lot

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Downtown, First Ward, Franchises and Chain Stores, New Construction, Renovations, Restaurants
3 Comments

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Answers to your questions:

  • Downtown: Flagspotters pinpointed the not-so-wavy Lone Star banner pictured above on the parking-lot side of the small office building at 1515 Rusk St. between La Branch and Crawford, directly behind the new Hess Tower parking garage. Yes, it’s even visible on Google Street View, reader Brian points out.
  • Cottage Grove: What’s that freshly built structure at 1500 Shepherd Dr. on the corner of Maxie, right across from the shuttered Shuck Daddy’s (which is slated to become another Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurant)? According to marketing director Heather McKeon, Bullritos Management is “finalizing the details with the franchisee” to bring the 12th area (and first freestanding) version of that burrito-and-margarita chain to that location. The 2,500 sq.-ft. Bullritos is expected to open in February or March of next year. Here’s a view:

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Midtown
10/15/10 11:51pm

Midtown Retail Ensemble: The Continental Club Crew Expands North

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
13 Comments

The tiny urban island clustered around Midtown’s Ensemble/HCC Metro station has grown. Three new businesses on Main St. just north of Winbern will celebrate official grand openings this weekend, expanding the little block of happenin’ north of the Continental Club. Carved out of the rehabbed single-story building at 3622 Main St.: New retail outlets My Flaming Heart and Shop-o-Rama, plus Natachee’s Supper ’n Punch, a food, bar, and concert venue that features a large vacant side yard currently occupied by the owner’s horse, Lacy, and a kiddie sandbox. (Eventual plans for the yard call for a patio and awning, picnic tables, an outdoor bar, and a small stage for live music.) Also moving into the Winbern side of the building, from the block to the south: music and tiki exotica outlet Sig’s Lagoon. (The old Sig’s Lagoon location is being converted to a “Mexican wares” store.) A coffee shop and a rockabilly-themed combo barber shop, beauty and tattoo parlor are planned for the 2 remaining spaces in the 100-ft.-by-100-ft. building, though currently they’re being used for construction storage. The mix is modeled after stores on South Congress around property owner Bob Schultz’s original Continental Club in Austin.

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Cinco Ranch
10/14/10 4:46pm

Seen on the Street: Restaurant Bites

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Lower Westheimer, Public Art, Restaurants
3 Comments

A few pix from around town, in our occasional photo feature: First, a reader sends in this view of the curious paint job now in progress on the original Ruggles Grill on Lower Westheimer.

Next, we discover the just-opened new home of I-10 refugee Las Alamedas, on the simulated Main Street of Katy’s LaCenterra shopping center in Cinco Ranch:

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Houston Heights
10/13/10 3:59pm

Christian’s Tailgate Opening on White Oak

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
12 Comments

Here’s a tailgater’s-eye-view of the former Heights Camphouse BBQ at 2820 White Oak, about to be reborn as the third location of Christian’s Tailgate Bar and Grill. The Heights Life blog posted a closeup view of the TABC notice posted on the front door earlier this week. Onion Creek Coffee House is less than 100 yards to the west.

Photo: Aaron Carpenter

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Cottage Grove
10/13/10 2:28pm

Dick Head’s, Mak Chin’s, Shuck Daddy’s, and Now Lupe Tortilla’s To Try

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
26 Comments



Next establishment moving into the restaurant testing ground known as 1511 Shepherd, according to a tipster: pidgin-Spanish promoters Lupe Tortilla. Shuck Daddy’s, which replaced Mak Chin’s just last year in the Cottage Grove location between Maxie and Eigel, closed up its oysters last month. Before that, yes, the building was home to fine-dining-establishment Richard Head’s.

Photo: Fred Eats Houston

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Attractions
10/06/10 2:12pm

Haiku of the Day: Amusement Park Weather

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Comments, Demolitions, Galveston, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants
3 Comments

HAIKU OF THE DAY: AMUSEMENT PARK WEATHER Landry’s not on land, sell gale storm rides with dinner. OK, Fertitta? [houku, commenting on Landry’s Kicking Galveston’s Flagship Hotel Off the Pier, for Amusement]

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Cottage Grove
09/20/10 10:23am

Aw, Shucks

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
18 Comments

AW, SHUCKS No official confirmation yet, unless you count one corroborating report on Yelp — but reader Jack McBride reports that Shuck Daddy’s seafood restaurant at 1511 Shepherd in Cottage Grove appears to have closed. Writes McBride: “I drive by here everyday on my way home from work, and it was just in the last week that I saw it super packed.” [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Jack McBride

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Lower Westheimer
09/17/10 1:56pm

Who Wants Numbers Now?

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Montrose, Nightlife, Quicklink, Restaurants
21 Comments

WHO WANTS NUMBERS NOW? The Press‘s Katharine Shilcutt passes on the latest: “And in perhaps the strangest news this year, rumblings are coming from reliable sources that Numbers (314 Westheimer) — recently put up for lease — is being eyed by the Pappas family. Yes, that Pappas family. But wait — it gets weirder. The rumors also indicate that they plan to open either a chicken and rice or shrimp and rice joint in the spot where so many … unsavory … activities have taken place over the years. If the rumors prove to be true, would you eat at Numbers’ Chicken & Rice?” [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot]

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Construction Materials
09/17/10 1:20pm

What They’re Doing to Mai’s Restaurant in Midtown

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Houston Architects, Midtown, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail
16 Comments

Mai, oh Mai: The folks at Dang La Architecture, perhaps best known for slathering Styrofoam, a tan stucco-like surface, and a low thin beard of fakish-looking stone over the facades of several formerly distinctive-looking Midtown restaurants, have done it again. This time the firm’s chicken-fried-steak-inspired vision has completely transformed the exterior of Mai’s Vietnamese restaurant on Milam St. at Francis. Mai’s was famously singed by a fire in February, which destroyed the building’s interior and collapsed the roof, leaving only a 2-story brick shell. That made the perfect canvas for Dang La’s Second Life-like design concept: sort of an urban palazzo — minus those superfluous middle floors.

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Comments
09/14/10 5:09pm

Comment of the Day: Grading Restaurants on a Curve

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Montrose, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Vermont Commons
3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GRADING RESTAURANTS ON A CURVE “There’s been a long line of restaurants there, starting with Monterey House. Some of them were pretty good. It’s too close to the the street on a scary curve. I hate driving in that part of Shepherd, regardless of how good the food is.” [marmer, commenting on Sabetta Café: In and Out on South Shepherd in Less Than 5 Months Flat]

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Montrose
09/14/10 2:47pm

Sabetta Café: In and Out on South Shepherd in Less Than 5 Months Flat

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Vermont Commons
19 Comments

That little pan-Italian cafe that former Simposio executive chef Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio and his wife Donna tried to fit into the old Café Zol space on South Shepherd just shy of Fairview is calling it quits as of today. The “criminally unpopulated” (said Chron taster Alison Cook) Sabetta Café and Wine Bar opened just this past May, following a quaint astroturfing publicity experiment. “The reviews we received were incredible,” the Palazzo-Giorgios wrote to their fans in a non-judgmental kind of way today, “and we are thankful for the opportunity to have been able to share our passion for Italian food with Houston, however short that time may have been.”

Photo (from last April): Swamplot inbox

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Houston Heights
09/13/10 3:23pm

Heights Restaurant Mill

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
6 Comments

HEIGHTS RESTAURANT MILL Scott Tycer tells Cleverley Stone he’s planning to turn his unused restaurant space in the Heights’ former Oriental Textile Mill on 22nd St. at Lawrence into a “casual dining concept” called Kraftsmen Café. Tycer shuttered his Textile restaurant at that location in June, but kept the Kraftsmen Bakery operating. The cafe will feature pastries, breakfast tacos, beer, and wine, and will open in November, Tycer says. Meanwhile, former Textile executive chef Ryan Hildebrand is leaving to open his own new place, to be called Triniti — in a so-far-undisclosed location. [Cleverley’s Houston Restaurant Blog; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Heights Blog

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