The scene outside the Whole Foods Market on the corner of Kirby and West Alabama this afternoon, where a ginormous outdoor pumpkin display turned into fire and smoke. Five fire trucks later, the flames were out, and the store was closed. Store managers report there were no injuries and no damage to the store’s interior.
Photo: Justin
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU COULD’VE HAD A CHAIN STORE! 
“this was a terrible gym location, and parking was going to be a battle from day one. hate to be johnny-come-suburb, but it was a better call to work a deal to redevelop the site with CVS and give them their free-standing deal with drive thru. Soma would be down the street somewhere, hopefully with easier access/parking, crew would not be under, and this property would be better served than the future it has. now the owner spent time/effort with this problem, has a built-out gym that is not usable for another gym (nightclub, here we come…for 9 months), has 3500 sf that doesn’t lease (my guess is from lack of parking/ability to pay the rent) and has a basement (???) that will never lease. all of this, and he could be on a beach right now, getting his checks in the mail from year 4 of 20 with CVS as the return addressee.” [jg, commenting on Fitness-Club Scavengers at the Washington Ave Crew] Photo of West End Shopping Center, Washington Ave at Shepherd: Aaron Carpenter
A photo snapped at the storefront of Crew Health and Fitness at 4826 Washington Ave., in the restored shopping center between Shepherd and Durham, taken around 2:30 Sunday afternoon. Yes, the workout shop is now officially out of business. But what are all those yellow tags attached to the window? Free passes — to LA Fitness on Richmond! A tipster tells Swamplot the LA Fitness sales team heard news of Crew’s demise around 10 a.m. on Sunday: “They had representatives at the doors trying to sign people up when we went by.”
Photos: Swamplot inbox (Crew Fitness storefront) and Aaron Carpenter (West End Shopping Center)
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THEY’RE BRINGING WALMART TO THE WEST END “I once wrote a frustrated letter to Wal-Mart’s corporate office in Arkansas begging for a better store to serve the Inner Loop than what was available on S. Post Oak and 610. It may very well have come off as begging. Had they ever followed up with me about the particular issue, I almost certainly would have begged for the store. And had they come to my door, I’d have groveled at their feet in admiration of their corporate largess and magnaminity, even.” [TheNiche, commenting on West End Walmart Development 380 Agreement Gets City Council OK]
WEST END WALMART DEVELOPMENT 380 AGREEMENT GETS CITY COUNCIL OK As expected, city council this morning approved a program of reimbursements to Ainbinder Company for improvements to public areas related to its Washington Heights Walmart-plus-strip-centers development in the West End. The vote, 11-4, came after amendments were approved limiting taxpayer costs to $6,050,000. The improvements will include wider sidewalks and bigger trees along Yale and Heights than required minimums, drainage and reconstruction of several nearby streets, and a jogging path along the Heights Blvd. esplanade south of I-10. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
On hand for the weekend’s grand opening celebration of the Arms Room firearms store’s move into the former Circuit City off the northbound I-45 feeder south of FM 646 in League City: a fire spinner and juggler, a clown handing out balloon animals, a booth from ESPN 97.5 FM, a barbecue stand, a cake decorated with toy pistols, “a few blonde, tattooed girls handing out free Arms Room merchandise,” . . . and Houston Press reporter Craig Hlavaty. He notes the store’s owners originally had wanted to move into a former Academy sporting goods store down I-45, but didn’t get a great welcome there:
“The lease holders didn’t want any guns being shot in their strip center, so we walked away from them,” says [Kathleen] James. The only thing holding that line of stores intact now is a Chinese buffet and a Subway sandwich shop.
Sucks for them. The 20,000-sq.-ft. former big-box electronics store at the Jameses ended up buying at 3270 Gulf Fwy. South allowed them to include a 15-lane indoor gun range (kinda like a bowling alley, “but you don’t have to change your shoes,” quips general manager Travis James), along with a gun shop, a section devoted to antique firearms, and room for an on-site gunsmith.
Houston’s only 24-7 Starbucks — the seemingly always-jammed one adjoined with a Jamba Juice at the corner of Post Oak and Westheimer across from the Galleria — is getting its once-in-a-decade makeover this week. The caffeine hub shut down last Friday night at 11 and Brazos Contractors’ construction superintendent expects it to be buzzing again by this Sunday night. What’ll be installed by then? Cast stone benches and entryways . . . and a fountain! Not to mention a shiny new interior. Nighthawks can still get their Ventis and Grandes at Uptown Park this week, as that branch is picking up the slack with 4-am-to-1-am hours through Thursday, and 24-hour stretches Friday and Saturday.
Photo: Aaron Carpenter
Having achieved the title of “Houston’s last remaining brewpub,” Rice Village’s Two Rows is now scheduled to close at the beginning of next month. General partner Rusty Loeffler tells the Chronicle‘s Ronnie Crocker (and a tipster tells us) that Weingarten Realty was asking far more than the company was willing to spend to sign a new long-term lease for the 10,000-sq.-ft. upstairs space in the Village Arcade on University at Morningside. Now ready to move into half of that space: Jason’s Deli. Loeffler says his restaurant “may look at other locations in Houston” that’ll have room for the company’s brewing equipment.
WHERE SHORT-TERM LEASES ARE AVAILABLE Last year’s temporary store in the Galleria (one of 90 nationwide) worked out well for the company, so Toys “R” Us is trying it again, in 7 sites throughout the Houston area. Lucky them: A number of malls have space available this year. Toys “R” Us Express stores will open soon at the Galleria, in the West Oaks Mall, Pasadena Town Square, Greenspoint Mall, Katy Mills Mall, Baybrook Mall, and the Outlets at Conroe to handle the holiday toy rush. But all are scheduled to close in January. Nationwide, 600 new 4,000-sq.-ft.-or-so short-time Express locations this year will double the number of Toys “R” Us stores for the real part of the retail season. Half of those stores have already opened. [Houston’s Hiring]
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.
One of the most regal furniture store larks in southwest Houston: this 9-ft.-high plush red, gold-trim throne outside Queens Furniture (selling the “Antiques of Tomorrowâ€) at 7426 Harwin. Asking price: about $3,000. Just part of its pedigree: It’s been taken out to the store’s grassy streetside front yard every dry day for about 10 years (though the store moved a few blocks to its current location about a year ago, so it’s had a slight change of scenery). Also, claims a store rep: the sit piece has starred in some of the ceremonies at the PGA’s Shell Houston Open in the Woodlands. Inside Queens Furniture: an entire set of gold 6-ft.-tall versions with accompanying table, for north of $6,000.
Photo: Aaron Carpenter
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE ENDS OF AN ERA “Sorry to hear this, I used to shop for groceries there long ago when I lived at 4900 Caroline with a bunch of other Rice students. It was at this store that I purchased the raw ingredients for my legendary ‘Chicken Butts in Wine Sauce.’†[Reeseman, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: MiniMax Axe]
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
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:
What’s to dig up from last week’s question:
The Ligne Roset showroom in Houston and the design boutique on West 2nd St. in Austin have both ceased operations, according to a recording left on both stores’ answering machines — and a tip from a Swamplot reader. Houston’s Ligne Roset moved from a Rice-Village-area strip center on Kirby to 1992 West Gray in the River Oaks Shopping Center last February. (That move surprised customers who had been looking forward to the completion of grander plans: Owner Bruce Wolfe had previously announced the modern French furniture store would anchor a 12,000-sq.-ft. “Design Source” retail center in West Ave, where he would also operate 4 additional showrooms featuring sleek modern lines.) The recording refers customers with pending orders to Roset USA. The closest Ligne Roset showroom now: Dallas.
Photo: Swamplot Inbox
