A “high-end” restaurant, led by a yet-to-be-identified “superstar chef,” will be taking over the space known for the last 16 years as Chances Bar, an owner of the property tells Houston Press reporter Craig Hlavaty. “It’s going to blow Montrose out,” Nick Vastakis tells him. “It’s going to be great.” Chances will shut down for good after a goodbye party on Saturday. Vastakis says his family, which has owned the property since the 1970s, will be getting out of the lesbian-bar management business and into property development.
What prompted the change? One of those spear-more-times-with-my-family moments, he tells Hlavaty:
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“I was spear-fishing with my 12-year-old son in Greece and he said, ‘You know Dad, we never get to just hang out. You are always at the bar working,’ and so we decided to change the direction of our business plan,” Vastakis said.
The family had put the property at 1100 Westheimer up for sale earlier this year. After Saturday’s event, Vastakis says he’ll leave the bar’s marquee lit up with the message “Thanks for the Mammaries.”
- Chances Bar Closing After Saturday Night [Rocks Off]
- Previously on Swamplot: Swamplot Street Sleuths: Last Chances
Photo: Commgate
WOW . . . Now, let’s see what they do about the kids that hang out around there from Covenant House and Interfaith Ministries. I have a feeling they may not like that funky factor…
That’s hilarious… high end restaurant with a superstar chef? Who it is, Rachael Ray?
But it would be nice to have Charlie’s Coffee Shop in the ‘hood again.
Celebrity chef, huh? Hmmm. Tyler Florence is a celebrity chef. So, Chances is being replaced by an Applebee’s? Bummer.
The Boobie Rock’s getting and augmentation!
they were cuntery when cuntery wasn’t cool
Boobie Rock…OMG, Jon, That’s a blast from the past!
two words: BOOBIE ROCK
the best this piss-ant town ever ever
had . . . it should be the blueprint for
any wanna-be tit bar . . . and the drugs
you could score at Charlie’s . . .
and the meth you could score at Chances.
OMG, Thespian, I am howling………..
Boy I’m with you on that Covenant House and Interfaith bunch of people. They’ve trashed the neighborhood real good. I’ve called but Covenant tells me that it’s not their residents. Good luck to any “high-end” establishment….better have good security in your parking lot.
Ditto – hate to sound un-PC here but quit feeding them and they will stop hanging out here, even the pigeons get that. Look at all the closed down empty storefronts here. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out they are bad for business. I’m sick of being accosted by beggers every time I visit half-price books.
It’s surprising that the Covenant House has lasted so long since it is the source of so much neighborhood riffraff.
Covenant House is extremely well-funded by well-meaning people who are simply dead wrong about locating their center where it is.
CH (and it’s constant petty crime) was the #1 reason I moved from a few blocks over out of the neighborhood.
CH belongs in Midtown – don’t worry, they’ll follow you there (and some of those kids aren’t bad; in fact, some are desperate).
But a major crime magnet is not what Montrose (with its residential nature)needs.
One wonders about a NIMBY, good enough for me attitude.
BOOBIE PIE BOOBIE PIE ME LOVES THEMS BOOBIE PIES
My spouse and I met at this bar, I must say that chances bar will be missed…Chances was just down to earth and comfy. We need more lesbian bars in Houston. Oh and for the ex owner of Chances, wow! We paid for spear fishing in Greece?? Maybe you should have kept chances…we could’ve taken your son to ROme nxt year….
I was a dancer at the Boobie Rock. I was 17 and started out as a door hostess. One night of watching the dancers take in the cash and I turned in my long dress for a costume. That job afforded me a way to get off the streets that I had been living in since 13. The Boobie Rock was the best time of my life! Oh the stories I could tell!