[Htowngirl]

Wheeler Rescues Historic Buildings in Houston-Will Be 3 New Restaurants

Posted by Cleverley at Saturday, November 10, 2007 10:51 PM and is filed under Houston Restaurant News,New Restaurants
I spoke with Rhea Wheeler and he told me that he and his partners have formed a company and they are buying historically significant properties inside the loop in Houston. They will be turning them into restaurants. They've been working on this for the past two years and have purchased three properties so far. Right now they are getting bids from architectural and construction companies for renovating the acquired properties.


Wheeler is working on the three new restaurants simultaneously and he hopes to have them all open
by the end of 2008.


The buildings include:
. 218 Travis, (Downtown) former home of Peter (El Meson) Garcia's Twelve Spot.
The name will be Hearsay. Cuisine will be gastropub.

. Bagby & Pierce, (Midtown) the old Boy Scout building.
This 27,000 square foot building will be multi-purpose.
Fine dining restaurant, banquet space, private wine lockers, lounge/club with live music, sushi bar.

. Austin & Elgin, (Downtown)
An historic white mansion that will feature fine dining in the Texas cuisine genre.
Name of this new restaurant will be the Houston White House.

Look for a story about Wheeler in the Houston Business Journal soon.

Not new to the restaurant scene, Wheeler was the sole investor in Ibiza,
a nationally acclaimed, multi-award winning restaurant in Midtown.
Charles Clark and Grant Cooper are owners.


Original Blog Post

[lockmat]

cool. New places to eat and historic preservation

[Jax]

Sounds awesome!
But Austin & Elgin is Midtown not Downtown, right?

Bagby & Pierce is near the new Midtown Edge condo building, right? I was hoping they would put in something more than just residential in that area, and it sounds like they are going to, which is awesome.

This post has been edited by Jax: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 11:39 AM

[barracuda]

This is great! Perfect use of old houses/buildings. Dolce Vita and Backstreet Cafe come to mind.

Weingarten Realty could learn a lesson from these guys.

[KinkaidAlum]

barracuda, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 3:00pm, said:

This is great! Perfect use of old houses/buildings. Dolce Vita and Backstreet Cafe come to mind.

Weingarten Realty could learn a lesson from these guys.

I also think of Hugo's, the Black Lab, and Gravitas (is that the name of the place on Taft?) as restaurants that were put into old structures.

[Subdude]

That is great they are using the old Scouts building in Midtown. Great mod architecture there.

Quote

gastropub

Well there's a new word for me. What does it mean?

[Jax]

Does anybody have any photos of the Scouts building?

[memebag]

Subdude, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 3:02pm, said:

Well there's a new word for me. What does it mean?

Gastropub is latin for "stomach people".

[sevfiv]

Subdude, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 3:02pm, said:

That is great they are using the old Scouts building in Midtown. Great mod architecture there.
Well there's a new word for me. What does it mean?

memebag, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 4:27pm, said:

Gastropub is latin for "stomach people".

heh...

think fancypants food

[bachanon]

i had hoped someone would see the value of the boy scouts building. i like this wheeler guy.

[Ross]

The white mansion at Austin and Elgin was much more attractive when it wasn't white. It was painted when we were living in Midtown, some time around 2000 or 2001.

[PTD]

Ross, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 10:46pm, said:

The white mansion at Austin and Elgin was much more attractive when it wasn't white. It was painted when we were living in Midtown, some time around 2000 or 2001.

Is this the white house across from the fire station? If so, there is a sign in the yard for foster care.

[Mr. Chenevert]

Jax, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 3:22pm, said:

Does anybody have any photos of the Scouts building?

Ironically, I drove by this building yesterday. It was the first time I noticed the old building.


The address is 1911 Bagby

Take a loot at http://maps.live.com/ using the birds eye view.

[Mr. Chenevert]

Using Google Maps Streetview, I was able to capture this beauty...

[dbigtex56]

Jax, on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 @ 3:22pm, said:

Does anybody have any photos of the Scouts building?

Mr. Chenevert, on Monday, November 26th, 2007 @ 1:20pm, said:

Using Google Maps Streetview, I was able to capture this beauty...

Jax, this is the Scouts building. It features walls made of rounded stones, very popular in the 60's.

I've heard this style described as 'organic' - are there other names for this?

[Jax]

Hmm.. not a huge fan of the rounded stones look.

[WesternGulf]

They must have more vision than I can think of for that building. Here's to success. :cheers:

[mls1202]

dbigtex56, on Monday, November 26th, 2007 @ 5:43pm, said:

Jax, this is the Scouts building. It features walls made of rounded stones, very popular in the 60's.

I've heard this style described as 'organic' - are there other names for this?

Not any names that are appropriate for this forum

[memebag]

Jax, on Monday, November 26th, 2007 @ 6:03pm, said:

Hmm.. not a huge fan of the rounded stones look.

I bet it will look fabulous 200 years from now. Especially underwater!

[lockmat]

http://www.bizjourna.../03/story2.html

Wheeler and two anonymous partners, who also run their own businesses, have purchased three historic buildings in Houston with the intention of opening three different restaurants in 2008.

Subscription is needed for now.

Sounds like a cool idea though. Anyone have more info on this?

[sevfiv]

Yes, note merged topics.

[houstongirl]

Does anyone have an update on these 3 locations? I spoke to a representative of the company back in March who said they'd have at least 1, maybe 2 of the businesses running by June or July.