Tag: Restaurants

Commercial Real Estate
02/13/09 10:30am

Las Alamedas: Landlord Wants More

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Leasing, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
8 Comments

Last week the Houston Business Journal reported that the owner of Las Alamedas had reached agreement on a new lease with its landlord and would reopen on February 6th. But the upscale Mexican restaurant on the Katy Freeway at Voss is still closed.

What happened to that agreement?

“The landlord came back and wanted at least 50 percent more rent and other things that we didn’t originally agree on,” says [restaurant owner Jorge] Sneider.

Sneider had previously told reporter Allison Wollam that the original landlord died in a plane crash, and various surviving family members had been fighting over ownership of the property for the last year and a half. “He now hopes he can work out another lease in a couple of weeks,” Wollam reports today.

Photo: Rachel Dvoretzky

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Openings and Closings
02/11/09 10:45am

Village Chocolate Bar: Now Serving Cake and Ice Cream in Plus Sizes

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Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village
9 Comments

Just opened in this . . . uh, extra-wide storefront at 2521 University in the Rice Village, just a few doors down from Candylicious: a second — and considerably larger — location for the Chocolate Bar. A reader sends in this night-time photo, providing evidence that the retail space was formerly the home of . . . yes, a Lane Bryant.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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East Downtown
02/05/09 10:42am

Thelma’s Bar B Que: Smoked Out

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Hazards, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
3 Comments

Thelma’s Bar B Que — on the corner of Live Oak and Lamar in . . . oh, all right: EaDo — is closed, after the restaurant was singed by a fire last Friday. Robb Walsh from Eating . . . Our Words reports from the scene:

The front of the business appeared as ramshackle as always, but a sign on the door announced the bad news. The rear of the building where the barbecue pit used to be was badly damaged as was the kitchen area. The old-fashioned cinderblock barbecue pit used at Thelma’s had a small metal door on the outside where the wood was loaded and a grate with a steel door inside the building where the meats were cooked. The fire appears to have originated in the fire box or chimney as that part of the building has been torn away.

Photo: Flickr user Jennifer Lynn

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Leasing
01/30/09 1:01pm

Las Alamedas Lease Lapsed?

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Memorial, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
18 Comments

Note: Updated below.

Las Alamedas Restaurant — the hacienda on the Katy Freeway — is on hiatus pending renegotiation of its 28-year-old lease.

According to a message on the restaurant’s voice mail, the storied location of countless wedding, birthday and anniversary fiestas is “temporarily closed” while negotiations continue.

When Las Alamedas opened in 1980 it was the first grand, high-end Mexican restaurant in town. The Memorial location — 8615 Katy Freeway at Voss — attracted diners who sought genuine Mexican cuisine in a large elegant setting. Colonial-style architecture, bayou views, banquet facilities and highly professional service pleased customers for whom Ninfa’s on Navigation was terra incognita.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Openings and Closings
01/29/09 1:54pm

Village Burrito Mission Accomplished

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Restaurants, Rice Village
7 Comments

Major wrapping operations ended last Saturday at the Mission Burrito on Morningside Dr. in the Rice Village, a Swamplot reader reports:

We went to the W. Alabama location and had our tortilla soup, but I was just really surprised that the Village location tanked so soon.

The Village Arcade location opened last May. A new Mission Burrito opened on FM 1960 in Atascocita just last month.

Photo of Mission Burrito, 5510 Morningside Dr.: Mission Burritos

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Openings and Closings
01/29/09 9:14am

Wednesday Afternoon Pad Site Massacre

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Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail
4 Comments

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON PAD SITE MASSACRE Yesterday featured separate announcements of retail closings from Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase: First, 36 out of 111 Houston-area Washington Mutual branches will be shut down by March; the remainder will be converted to Chase Bank locations. That’ll leave only 220 Chase Bank locations around town. Next, Starbucks says the company will close 300 coffee shops worldwide, including 200 in the U.S. No word on how many will be leaving the Houston area, but last year 11 stores in this region closed after a 600-store cut. For the surviving locations, there may be a longer wait for decaf after lunch: “Company officials say demand for decaf falls off significantly in the afternoon, and Starbucks will brew decaf in the afternoon only at a customer’s request. It takes about four minutes to make a fresh pot. Last year, Starbucks started brewing fresh pots of coffee every 30 minutes.” [Houston Business Journal; previously]

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Commercial Real Estate
01/28/09 10:51am

Is That Three Brothers Bakery on the Line?

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Leasing, Neighborhood Disputes, Quicklink, Restaurants, River Oaks, Shopping Centers
2 Comments

IS THAT THREE BROTHERS BAKERY ON THE LINE? A spokesperson for Weingarten Realty reports the company has “a number of good prospects” to lease the second-story space in the semi-curved replacement building that caused all that fuss over at the River Oaks Shopping Center. Earlier this week, Tony Vallone announced he’s backing out of plans to open a new Italian restaurant in the space: “. . . the recent flak between neighbors and developer Weingarten Realty on such points as the building’s setbacks and the use of the patio were not factors in pulling the plug, he said, adding the discourse was full of misinformation. Vallone said, for example, rumors were circulated that the patio would have been used, at times, as a band venue, which would not have been the case. ‘I would never do anything to jeopardize the relationship with the neighborhood,’ Vallone said.” [River Oaks Examiner; previously]

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Proposed Developments
01/23/09 9:38am

Burger Chains Ready Attack on Houston: Carl’s Jr., Smashburger, Five Guys

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Restaurants, Retail
19 Comments

A new company has signed an agreement to open 121 new Carl’s Jr. franchises in Texas — including as many as 40 in the Houston area — over the next 10 years. But it’ll take a while for them to get started here at least. The Houston Business Journal‘s Allison Wollam reports that RWJP Star Enterprises has

a franchise agreement to open locations in the eastern part of Houston, and [partner Rich] White expects the first location to open in the first quarter of next year. They are still in the process of scouting sites, the first of which will be built from the ground up.

Carl’s Jr. franchises have to agree to open at least three units, for a total initial investment of $1.3 million, according to the company’s Web site.

Will the year-long wait leave enough time for other competing newcomers to get established? Wollam reports Smashburger is planning to open a second location at Briarforest and Eldridge later this month. And:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Fresno
01/22/09 4:19pm

Openings and Closings: Little Big’s, McMansion Kroger, McCain’s

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Houston Heights, Missouri City, Montrose, Restaurants, Retail, Sienna Plantation
9 Comments

To counter the all-shutterings edition of Openings and Closings posted on Swamplot earlier this week, here’s a mostly debuts version:

  • Opening: With the opening of Bryan Caswell’s Little Big’s, Montrose’s late-night restaurant row is complete — at least on weekends, when the burger shack will be open until 3 a.m. Writes Katharine Shilcutt in Eating Our Words:

    In addition to sliders, fries and shakes, Little Big’s also offers wine and beer at extremely reasonable prices, which will all but ensure their popularity. Once the large, welcoming patio is completed, it’s a sure bet that this will be the new hot spot in Montrose.

    This Little Big’s is in the former Ming’s Cafe on Montrose just north of Westheimer; the next one will be in Hermann Park.

There’s more!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Homes for Sale
01/21/09 9:21am

Addio, Buon Appetito? Holcombe Home Cooking

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Restaurants, Texas Medical Center
6 Comments

The time-travel vehicle known as the Buon Appetito Restaurant — housed in an old duplex on Holcombe just west of the Medical Center — has been put up for sale.

What could you do with this place?

“Move out the tables and chairs,” reads the mock-Sicilian listing, “and is ready for your signle fam. residence.”

Or . . . take over the restaurant and run it yourself:

This is also an excellent opportunity for someone to step in and start running this already successful business. The owner has been there for 32 years and is retiring. Everything is included in the sale.

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Commercial Real Estate
01/19/09 11:50am

River Oaks Shopping Center Balcony: A Few Loose Ends

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Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Leasing, Neighborhood Disputes, Restaurants, River Oaks, Shopping Centers
8 Comments

Weingarten’s Planning Commission victory earlier this month doesn’t resolve everything for the westernmost of two replacement retail buildings now under construction at the River Oaks Shopping Center. First, reports Mary Ann Acevedo in the Houston Business Journal, that last-minute compromise left a few neighbors grumbling:

. . . some of the neighbors are not pleased that they didn’t have an opportunity to review the final agreement after Weingarten’s most recent changes prior to the Jan. 8 hearing with the Planning Commission.

According to [neighbor Janet] Moore, Weingarten had told the group it would deliver an advance copy for their review.

“They presented us a signed, unmarked copy at the hearing and had no one available authorized to negotiate changes to the agreement,” Moore says. “Some of the neighbors are disappointed with a few of the changes in the agreement.”

On, Jan. 13, Weingarten presented the neighbors with a revised agreement that Moore says does address some of those concerns, although the parties continue to work out the details.

Next, that Vallone restaurant planned for the building’s second floor and balcony — which at one point was referred to in Weingarten’s marketing materials as Il Tavolo (and is labeled Adagio Vino in the renderings) — may not be a done deal yet:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Cypress
01/19/09 11:01am

Openings and Closings: Daily Grind, On the Border, Frock

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Washington Corridor
7 Comments

Nothing new this time; Swamplot’s latest Openings and Closings report is just a list of old places going away:

  • Going: There’s nobody home at Washington Ave. coffeehouse The Daily Grind, reports Jason Bargas at Houstonist:

    A peek through a window facing the parking lot yielded a dining area devoid of tables. The cash register was no longer on the corner of the bar yet a ceiling fan twirled overhead. An industrial looking extension cord hung from the rafters perhaps indicating an intention to use power tools. But, no signs or bulletins indicated a remodel in progress nor a closing of the business.

    Signs or no, the restaurant’s most recent spate of online publicity renders a closing less than surprising. One comment on the Houstonist post notes a rumor that the coffeehouse will be reopening “next to Rudyard’s.”

  • Going: A poster on HAIF notes that the On the Border restaurant on the feeder road of the Northwest Freeway in Cypress appears to be toast: “Lights out, nobody home.”
  • Gone: And there will be no more Frock shopping: The Frock Boutique on Greenbriar near Westheimer closed late last year, but owner Marianne Mayeux says she will come to you.

Got the scoop on other retail openings or closings in your area? Send your tips to Swamplot!

Photo of The Daily Grind: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave

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Commercial Real Estate
01/09/09 9:59am

The Great River Oaks Shopping Center Compromise of 2009

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Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Restaurants, River Oaks, Shopping Centers
11 Comments

There was no showdown over the River Oaks Shopping Center variance request at yesterday’s Planning Commission hearing. In talks prior to the meeting, Weingarten Realty used its mad skillz to assuage the most vocal neighbors with a few minor changes to the patio-topped porte-cochere facing Shepherd Drive — already under construction — that violated the setback:

. . . reduce the size of the balcony seating and enclose the seating area. That will result in a 30-inch encroachment into the area of the 25-foot setback.

Lower the 10-inch signage on the west side of the building facing Shepherd Drive.

Will remove external LED lights on the west side of the building and turn off flashing security box lights inside the parking garage.

Variance . . . granted! The screencapture above shows the revised, enclosed balcony shown at the hearing, which will be a part of Tony and Jeff Vallone’s new Il Tavolo restaurant and wine bar.

Weingarten knows how to keep more than just a noisy upstairs wine-bar quiet, notes abc13’s Miya Shay:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Disaster Aftermath
01/08/09 2:46pm

The Baptist Church, the Hooters Waitresses, and the Hurricane Victims

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Oak Island, Quicklink, Religious Facilities, Restaurants, Southgate
3 Comments

THE BAPTIST CHURCH, THE HOOTERS WAITRESSES, AND THE HURRICANE VICTIMS A 9-year-long relationship between congregants of the Rice Temple Baptist Church in Southgate and a group of Hooters waitresses led to a bit of help for residents of Ike-devastated Oak Island over the holiday. “Over the years, the church has found additional ways to develop the relationship. The church has been a sponsor of an annual Hooters golf tournament, giving away Bibles. They have also worked with the restaurant’s employees on Habitat for Humanity building projects. . . . The waitresses have even joined with the congregation in walking through the neighborhood singing Christmas carols. ‘You could tell they hadn’t gone Christmas caroling before, because they all showed up in high heels,’ [Pastor Clint Reiff] recalled.” [Associated Baptist Press]

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Cinco Ranch
01/06/09 11:51am

Azzarelli’s Hits the Highway

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Katy, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
12 Comments

Azzarelli’s Restaurant has fled the Tuscan-styled Villagio Town Center in Cinco Ranch, reports InsideKaty blogger Helen Eriksen — leaving behind a delinquent-rent notice on the front door . . . and some sort of lawsuit:

Inside the spacious eatery, napkins, bread plates and wine glasses are neatly arranged on the tables. Christmas decorations are also still in place but it’s unclear if the closing is permanent.

Efforts to reach [owner Frank] Triola were unsuccessful as of this blog posting. The person who answered the phone for the leasing agent, Villagio Partners, said she would have to check to see if someone could call me back because there is ongoing litigation in the matter.

Meanwhile, commenters have sighted a new Azzarelli’s just off the Katy Freeway:

However, driving down 1-10 heading west from Houston, the Barker Cypress exit has a new strip center and what do you know… Azzerelli’s is opening up a new restaurant! I think that the rent was very high at the Villagio Town Center and they are moving to a lower cost building. ??

Tuscan theming doesn’t come cheap. Another giveaway: the flashing “I-10 Location Coming soon!” notice on the Azzarelli’s website.

Photo: Azzarelli’s

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