Who’s going to lease those small retail spaces being developed along with Uchi’s takeover of the former Felix Mexican Restaurant space in Montrose? Here’s one answer: Opening later this year just behind the restaurant will be Southside Espresso, a new retail coffee house venture (and beer-and-wine bar) from Sean Marshall, the proprietor of Fusion Beans. The 714-sq.-ft. space has an address of 904B Westheimer, but the front door faces Grant St. The coffee shop will be open from 7 am to 11 pm and allow customers to use the same bathroom facilities as Uchi patrons.
Also helping to tip Westheimer’s boiling point a little further east: another new coffee shop, just announced for the recently re-muraled former Mary’s, Naturally space at 1018 Westheimer. Picky caffeine prophets David Buehrer and Ecky Prabanto will be moving up from their popular perch at Greenway Coffee & Tea in the basement food court of Greenway Plaza building number 5. (They plan to keep that small but popular shop running, though.) Their new Montrose venture, Blacksmith, will likely include “a small, but full kitchen” when it opens next spring, Buehrer reports.
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Blacksmith will be leasing the space from the building’s new owners, Bobby Heugel and Kevin Floyd of Anvil Bar & Refuge. Heugel and Floyd’s new craft beer bar, the Hay Merchant, is already under construction across Waugh Dr. in the old Chances Bar space. Next door in the same building, former Catalan chef Chris Shepherd will be carving up animal parts and serving them in his next restaurant, Underbelly.
- Southside Espresso, 904-B Westheimer [Fusion Beans]
- Blacksmith Coffee Shop Latest Addition to Heugel’s Rapidly Expanding Montrose Empire and Underbelly Releases More Details About Design, Menu [Eater Houston]
- It’s a Hail Mary! [OutSmart]
- Previously on Swamplot: A First Glimpse of Uchi in Houston: Leasing Lower Westheimer Retail by the Piece
Images: Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, via Uchi. Photo of Mary’s: Candace Garcia
13 Comments
Will the Uchi coffee shop (Southside Expresso) keep the painted beams?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/candacegarcia/5777794053/in/photostream/
Sweet. My favorite area of Montrose — and favorite area of Houston actually.
Very exciting news. Can’t wait for the Hay Merchant/Underbelly/Blacksmith complex to open.
Excited, hope all the best in their venture, I love the neighborhood and take advantage of walking around and frequenting my many local merchants.
Hey, keep the mural. Put coffee cups in their hands instead of beers if you must, but keep the mural.
Excellent.
What is the meaning of the name- Southside Espresso? Southside of what?
Wohoo! Greenway Coffee not in a basement.
If they don’t tear down that Mary’s building, they better do some real serious pressure washing.
That’s a crappy rendering. ClipArt gone terribly wrong.
Swamplot staff writers: you NEED to get your directions correct. The old Mary’s space is WEST of the old Felix/new Uchi, NOT east !!!! FAIL !!
@Oh My: “Also helping to tip Westheimer’s boiling point a little further east.” Empire, Brasil, and Agora are all to the west.
@anon: The parking lot to the north.