4 new restaurants of 4 different culinary persuasions are planning their migration to the Galleria’s coming chow center — beyond the curved wall that fronted Saks Fifth Avenue before the department store moved to a straighter-edged building just next door along Westheimer. Renovations to transform the building’s face into something new tenants could get behind have been in progress for the past few years. The site plan above from Simon Properties shows where Blanco Tacos + Tequila will arrive below Japanese restaurant Nobu, east of the building’s main entrance hall. West of the hall is where Fig & Olive as well as its upstairs Indian neighbor Spice Route will move in. They’ll go behind and in front of the new first- and second-story windows pictured at top — punched in the building’s facade last year.

Heavily blanched renderings put out by Fig & Olive show the patio fronting its 7,000-sq.-ft. interior:

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The new Fig & Olive location will be the chain’s 9th; it’s current spots are in New York, California, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

The renderings show restaurant’s dining room to be a combination of booth, table, and lounge seating wrapped around a central bar:

Spice Route has a more vivid imagination of what it’s space will look like:

• Restaurants & Menus [Fig & Olive]
• Galleria Expansion, Ritz Carlton Hotel & Residences at Sage/ W. Alabama [HAIF]
• Previously on Swamplot: Galleria’s Philip Johnson Facade Facelift Now Clearing the Nosejob Stage; A Grander Galleria: More Retail, More Restaurants, More Revenue — And a Residential Highrise Too?

Photo: Fig & Olive. Renderings: Fig and Olive (Fig & Olive); Kanika Suri (Spice Route) Site plan: Simon Properties