THE STARVING ARTIST GALLERY IS GONE, BUT ITS PARTIES WILL LIVE ON ONLINE 
What kind of revelry has Montrose been missing since the end of April, when the Starving Artist Gallery at 2037 West Alabama St. closed up shop? No need to try to imagine, because owner William Loyd and his now legally recognized wife, Nikki Araguz Loyd, documented the mayhem at last year’s blow-out Christmas party at their gallery in the just-released final 2 pretty-much-NSFW episodes of the first season of their web video series, Nikki’s American Dream. They’re called “Bad Santa” (episode 7) and “It’s Only Wednesday” (episode 8). (The gallery maintains an online presence too.) [YouTube] Photo of former Starving Artist Gallery: Swamplot inbox
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That whole block is just an ongoing string of failures from Thai Pepper all the way down to the batting cages. Some rare few survive (it helps if you run a probably illegal massage parlor), but most only survive a handful of years. I think that furniture store is finally going under as well. Its like a lot of that part of Montrose honestly, I don’t get what the problem is, but businesses just don’t do great there. Like the strip mall with Ruchi’s on the corner which has had that one anemic pub and a huge vacant space for about 4 years (although I hear its being torn down and replaced with a CVS), or the pretty much entirely vacant strip mall that Stag’s Head/Cactus Music is in.
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I just don’t get it. This is supposed to be a thriving part of town.