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Hearsay Market Square At 218 Travis St.


ToolMan

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One of my favorite bars downtown is closing Friday night (right next to La Carafe). I didn't go there as often as I should have, but that place had great some ambiance with the wood work and high ceilings. I great place to take a date.

I echo your takes on the 12 Spot -- including not going as often as I should have. Honestly, I can't believe they lasted this long. Often they were DEAD at prime hours...which, of course, made them appealing to me.

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IMHO, the crowd was lame as are the majority downtown. Maybe it's because i'm about 40 but I enjoy going to places where everyone knows everyone or at least most of the people. Warren's is like that as is charbar. Many of the people overlap between as well. It is this type of atmosphere that will keep a place open because people will return

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I knew it had to happen eventually - I loved going to this place because it was one of the prettiest bars in my opinion. the huge ceiling, brick walls, I really liked it. But there was never anyone in there. Sometimes that was nice when I wanted to just have a drink at the bar in peace, but sometimes you at least want someone else in there. I never understand some of these places that people obviously spend a lot of money to make but can't seem to either find a promoter to fill the place more or to be able to attract enough regulars to stay open. I can't say I went regularly, but I did go enough to where I wish it was able to have somehow stayed open.

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Maybe we should have another "Mixer" at Warren's one evening. :)

tomorrow evening perhaps? LOL, i'm game.

Warren's folks. Cool. I used to go there for lunch at least once or twice a week. OK, it was Faye and the Chardonnay. B) It is a very cool place where most people know each other. Except their lunch is pretty lame. :(

Yeah i've probably seen some of yall. Chardonnay? come on you must not be a drinker. lunch is there. the owner only serves food so she can get a break somehow on taxes.

Edited by musicman
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My wife and I were at the 12 Spot on Saturday with some friends. It has gone downhill. They had a DJ playing techno dance tunes at an annoying level. Couldn't deal and had to leave, leaving the place with a grand total of four patrons at 11:00pm. I remember when the Travis Lofts had their grand opening party and the 12 Spot space was just a wall being held up with poles. The roof was caved in and it was slated for demo. I am glad they saved it. It is a beautiful space.

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  • 2 months later...
My wife and I were at the 12 Spot on Saturday with some friends. It has gone downhill. They had a DJ playing techno dance tunes at an annoying level. Couldn't deal and had to leave, leaving the place with a grand total of four patrons at 11:00pm. I remember when the Travis Lofts had their grand opening party and the 12 Spot space was just a wall being held up with poles. The roof was caved in and it was slated for demo. I am glad they saved it. It is a beautiful space.

Maybe another operator will lease the space. Has anyone heard ?

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  • 2 weeks later...
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From some Googling of Hearsay, I found an entry from SheEats and a Swamplot entry written back in 2007 talking about a new owner, Rhea Wheeler who was opening 3 Houston restaurants in 2008. There's no sign of the other 2 so far and this one is a year and a half late, so maybe there were financing problems with the credit crunch.

I'm all about the gastropubs, so I'll definitely give it a try. Speaking as a resident, downtown definitely needs more evening restaurants.

Edited by kylejack
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http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8749/imag0109d.jpg

This is the space formerly known as 12 Spot, and they pay homage to it with a drink named 12 Spot. Walking in, its an impressive venue. A bar runs about 40-50 feet on the right with a couple big screens and a row of tables crouches on the left. The walls are kind of rustic wood and some antique-looking speckled mirror panels. The ceiling rises 3 stories over your head, and straight ahead behind the bar you can see a curved brick wall. A wide stairwell on the back left side leads all the way up to the third story (there is no second story) where there's a smaller bar, a big screen, a more casual lounge-like atmosphere, and a balcony atop the brick wall overlooking the bar and dining area. Some chandeliers hang from the ceiling and there's various hanging points of light scattered all around. Its moderately lit, low enough to relax but bright enough so you can see your food and all the people in the bar. The lighting's a little more mellow upstairs.

All the specialty cocktails are around 9 or 10 dollars, about as I expected. There are exactly four beers on tap, 3 varieties of St. Arnold's and Ziegenbock, all of which are $4. There are 8 bottle beers at $4-$5. There are 24 whiskeys (all unpriced on the menu) and lots of wine (with prices listed). Tap beer was sufficiently cold.

I sat at the bar. The bar staff was young, friendly and finding their feet. There seemed to be two managers helping everyone out on this opening night. Aside from that there seemed to be several big-shots hanging around, partners I guess, ordering drinks with their friends and asking for the upstairs TV to be tuned to the game, etc.

They call themselves a gastrolounge, styling off the gastropub genre (a pub with high-quality food), so they should have some pretty exciting food, right? Sadly, not really. Here's the full menu [click for big]:

http://s2.largeimagehost.com/TN/XXctshe/tn_IMAG0101.jpg

It all seems fairly safe and pedestrian, and what, only 5 entrees. I'm happy to pay these prices for entrees downtown, maybe even a little more, but I expect a menu that's longer, more adventurous, and more diverse.

Let's try a chicken breast with local goat cheese, spinach, and port wine reduction.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2020/imag0111t.jpg

Chicken on the right with fingerling potatoes, mushroom caps, and carrots on the right.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2413/imag0112c.jpg

4 slices of chicken breast, 1 of which contained goat cheese, and only a dollop. The taste was nothing remarkable. Plenty of goat cheese and a little more of the port wine reduction might have saved such a boring piece of chicken.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3563/imag0113.jpg

The carrots were all burnt. The potatoes and mushrooms weren't, but that burnt flavor had been cooked into them. It was almost completely unseasoned.

When I closed out I had been overcharged by $2 for one of my beers. It took a bit for them to straighten it out, but at least they comped that beer.

Its opening night, so let's assume some things will change. The menus aren't laminated, after all. We can probably expect that the beer selection, especially the tap beer selection, to improve, much as I love my St. Arnold's. We might also expect the cooking to improve as surely unseasoned burnt food won't be the norm. But can we expect Hearsay to stab out with some more adventurous and intriguing entrees? I'm not so sure.

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  • 1 month later...

I tried to go Thursday night at 9:30 and they were already closed. Went to Warren's instead.

great place and was pretty busy with "old school" downtown crowd this past weekend. downtown needs more of these places!!! it definitely caters to locals residents too.

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