Note: Story updated below. Midtown Auto Care, at 2519 Wroxton St., is still open for business.
The Eighteenth Cocktail Bar is the latest bar to die at at 2511 Bissonnet St., just east of Kirby Dr. Previous short-lived tenants at that location included the Antique Bar and a reprise version of the Gallant Knight. But this will likely be the last of the dying breed — at least in the property’s current incarnation. An LLC run by the owners of local Tex-Mex restaurant chain Escalante’s purchased the property late last year — along several neighboring parcels. Add those lots to the office building at 5311 Kirby, which the same entity has owned for a couple years, and you have about an acre and a half of land surrounding the Chevron station at the corner of Kirby and Bissonnet, with frontage on Kirby, Bissonnet, and Wroxton.
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A tipster brings Swamplot word from second-hand sources that midrise apartments or an Escalante’s restaurant — or both — are being planned for the site. Midtown Auto Care, which operated in the metal building at 2516 Wroxton seen at left in the above photo, has according to a reader already shut down as well. The auto-body portion of the Poutous Auto Repair shop has moved out of the metal building at 2516 Wroxton, seen at left in the above photo.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
What about the blighted office building across Wroxton on Kirby? Nothing ever happens with that?
This location was very popular 10 years (or so) as Timberwolf Pub. For some reason, they closed that down and remodeled it as a “club.” It failed miserably and so has every concept that came after. They should have never closed the pub concept while it was thriving.
Midtown Auto Care is still in business. Poutous Body Shop was in the property held by Escalantes (farthest east side of the property, directly south of the bar) and they consolidated everything in their property at the corner of Kelvin and Wroxton. Poutous and Midtown are both still in business.
Loved Gallant Knight – Dollar beer Thursdays and impromptu Lil’ Flip concerts.
@jost: Thanks for catching our error!