A clearer picture is emerging of Ancorian’s East Village development, headed for 2 blocks along St. Emmanuel St. in East Downtown between Lamar and Polk Sts. A Houston branch of the Swedish Our/Vodka distillery project plans to move in at the corner of Lamar and Hutchins St.; a block of office space in the complex has been claimed by Three Square Design Group, whose past work includes projects for Buffalo Bayou, Fort Bend, and Karbach breweries. On Polk St. at the other end of the development, The Secret Group’s not-so-secret comedy club has been under renovation for some time.
Investor-geared materials on the development also name Dallas’s Truck Yard as a planned occupant — the food-truck friendly beer and cocktail bar currently sells drinks out of an open-air building, an Airstream trailer, and a treehouse at its existing location up north.
Meanwhile, renderings have been released of the Chapman & Kirby gastropub, headed for the warehouse at the corner of Lamar at St. Emanuel St. The building was occupied until the start of this year by Asian-American restaurant supplier Kitchen Depot (which has moved out to a location on Harwin Dr. at S. Gessner Dr. near Beltway 8); the East Downtown space will be renovated and made over per designs by MÄk Studio.
The front of the building is depicted with nearly a dozen new windows or entryways:
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The design also opens the restaurant’s space into the shared courtyard planned for the block:
- Gastropub signs on at new EaDo mixed-use project [HBJ]
- Chapman & Kirby [NextSeed]
- Previously on Swamplot: Houston’s Own ‘East Village’ Planned Next to 8th Wonder Brewery in East Downtown; Catching Up on the Simpsons-Themed Antics Outside of The Secret Group on Polk St.
Renderings:Â mÄk studio
It looks… beautiful. Reminds me of La Rotonde in Paris.
Looks great! But I know better than to trust initial renderings of any proposed project here in Houston.
It seems a little early for the swanky places to be overtaking the funky and artsy places over there…it took Montrose 30 years for that to happen.
If it really looks this cool then it will draw a lot of traffic from downtown.
Were is the mattress store going to go?
Why are the people see through?
@JoeDirt There really aren’t any funk/artsy places in EaDo specifically that I can think of. It’s really just a bunch of expensive and very underserved townhomes. There are a paltry handful of good restaurants (District 7, others?) and some bars/venues, but most of it is abandoned warehouses. The funky artsy stuff seems to be a little farther out east (Bohemios, Wired Up/Cutthroat, Super Happy Funland). Putting a good shopping center like that into EaDo seems like a slam dunk. They need restaurants/retail. The only question is sort of a chicken or an egg one. For EaDo to thrive they need foot traffic to places like this. But for places like this to thrive they need existing foot traffic. Right now EaDo has very little foot traffic and is honestly not the nicest place after dark thanks to the homeless shelters.
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Anyways, time will tell, and the place does look very very nice.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention TX/RX labs. Another funky little spot on the east side. Wouldn’t really call it in EaDo though (I think it’s east of Scott?)
@ Person: Perhaps the architect is making social commentary in the style of Frank Zappa, who proclaimed his audience and all of the people that they thought were opposed or otherwise contrasted with them to be “Plastic People”. That would be pretty awesome and I think apt. Its probably not that, though.
I mean…seriously, vodka? Sweden? Come on, give us a window onto some kind of spiritous product that requires some vision and artistry or even a kind of philosophy toward the craft. Give the people a spirit that doesn’t get served over a copious amount of ice or drowned in a mixer.
Okay, now I need to go and listen to “Absolutely Free” from start to finish, clear my mind.
@MrEction I agree with your observations in general, though it’s worth noting that the homeless shelters are many blocks north of Eado per se, so it in fact feels quite safe walking around at night. Also, the townhomes are both very nice and a bargain compared to Montrose. Eado is 30% cheaper than Montrose, with much less noise, traffic and petty crime associated with drunks and bars. The flipside is that it needs more services. Seems like a small price to pay for huge savings.