crunchtastic

When I was at UH in the early 90's, we had the short-order grill in OB. They made some great sandwiches and hamburgers over there. In the mornings you have made-to-order omelettes. Most of my friends didn't know this because they ate nothing but cereal.

OB! In the dark ages when I lived in Settegast (mid 80s) the caf at OB was pretty good. It was regular student dining on one side and athletes on the other. All the food was caf style back then, except that horrid Itza Pizza in the Towers.

Not a lot of dorm food can beat the scratch breakfast tacos in the dorm cafs at Southwest Texas State back in the day. It was like having your very own little taco lady making breakfast for you every day. UH needs some Tier 1 Taco Ladies.

The new dining facility will display the Fresh Food Company concept that is popular at campus eateries across the nation. This food-service model is focused on meals being prepared in front of customers and being freshly prepared upon request.

“The renovation will upgrade a 39-year-old dining facility into a Tier-One culinary experience for our students, faculty and staff,” said Emily Messa, vice president of University Services. “With the renovation, we will have the largest Fresh Food Company in the nation.”

I see Aramark is bringing the back the food service model formerly known as a 'short-order grill'. LOL, that's some Tier 1 marketing bullshit if I've ever seen it.

I know, I know, sour grapes. Aramark sucks. I applied for a corporate marketing gig with Aramark once. They did not like my idea for a new branding campaign:

(video) Birth. School. Work. Death.

(voiceover)

Aramark. We Feed the Circle of Life.

I voted for Parker, and will still vote for her in the runoff, but losing the Houston Dynamo is HUGE mistake... and we WILL LOSE THEM if a stadium deal doesn't go through. And we need it built in the central city... all of our major sports venues are in the same area. It would be so stupid to build this in Pearland and cut off a huge swath of Dynamo fans from being able to get to games via public transit. I've written the Parker campaign twice now about this issue... guess it's time to write them again.

Then you need to be writing the county, not the city. Harris County is the only taxing authority in a position to make or break the deal. The COH has already agreed to the land deal. Parker and Locke both are blowing political smoke rings on this.

There IS a way around this. They can create a new entity on the property and license that. It may be rather expensive though, as they would probably have to build restrooms.

Elevated outhouses?

At first, i though this was the historic Gulf Building.

ack! no kidding, I had a momentary little freak out. Historic buildings in short supply, and whatnot.

well, one way to fix it, and I've seen it mentioned in this thread a few times by intelligent individuals, is to transplant them somewhere else.

They're people, not trees. Relocating someone against their will is called 'kidnapping,' or, en masse, 'internment.'

I will have to respectfully disagree with the intelligent individuals on this one.

Well how am I supposed to write a disappointed review on opening night at prices like these?

That's easy:

Sugar Mama. (or Daddy). Then that outrageous rent to live downtown won't hurt so bad, will it?

Looking at the III Forks Austin menu, fish $30+ and steaks $40+, that's some pretty aggressive pricing. I wonder if they're going to do the same here.

That's totally average expense-account steakhouse pricing. I'm not familiar with the name, though. Is III Forks in the same category? Capital Grille, Vic and Anthony's, Ruth's Chris, etc. Or is it more fancy-suburban like Perry's?

I wish we had less steakhouse and more good Italian in this town. A southern Italian (or even better, Sicilian) version of DaMarco. Or a Batali outpost.

I'm sure there's some rustic roadside place in Calabria where it's all authentic and stuff, but the soft egg on pizza thing is NASTY to me.

I have been considering trying Pink's, and they deliver to my office, but a few different people have told me that their sauce is overly sweet, and not in a good way. Anyone a Pink's fan? I've been begging the Romanos guys to deliver to my building, but they won't. And everyone on my floor is so tired of Star they won't hardly touch it. I need a new delivery option for my work peeps when I call lunch meetings!

The taxpayers deserve a better return on their investment for whatever is built in it's place. Do you think they will pony up for a 60-70 year building?

We do deserve much better, but I suspect the average taxpayer would be quite happy to let the jail crumble to the ground with the inmates still inside.

It's rather embarrassing that this had such a short useful life. Critics would call it symptomatic of sterotypical Houston impermanence.

I heard from a usually reliable source that some of the new Calhoun Lofts tenants are planning to sue the University for changing the grad student-only policy. They signed leases on the assumption that the lofts would be a grad student facilty, as advertised, and instead are living around underclassmen. Interesting. Unless the policy is spelled out in the lease, I can't see having a case. In any event, will try and find out more.

Good for them! It was a nice piece. Kyle, eat the shanks! I am a fan of lamb shank and they do some of the best. If you don't like lamb but want the same seasoning, get the pork chops. Outstanding pork chops. I could slather a dead man's leg in their tsatsiki sauce and eat it, OMG it's so garlicky and good.

That was gross. I'll stop now.

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This totally sucks that RedScare isn't here to see this. He has a very special birthday coming up this year. I should sign him up anyway. He's so tired of all the other Mexican restaurants near downtown. I wonder if Ruby Tequilas has waitstaff that will sing Happy Birthday and make the diner of honor wear an awesomely bad sombrero? There's no other good Mexican place in Midtown that will do that. Cool, Ruby Tequilas is close to my office. And all those points mean I can take my out-of-town management out to lunch a lot more than usual. I am pretty psyched!

i think i have to agree with citykid09 on this one. movie and film industry seems much more exciting than a agriculture center. That seems like a big waste of space. If you want an agicenter, there's plenty of open land outside of the Houston metro area for that.

A huge concrete wasteland otherwise known as the AstroDomain could be used TO GROW STUFF, and then load it onto trucks to MOVE IT. The whole point is that the open exurban land is going to get built on. After the endless subdivisions go up, how do we maximize urban and suburban space ? The dome can be farmed in layers--stacks if you will. Jesus. I can't believe this is the thousand dollarsing future of urban planning. I can't believe I'm even having this conversation.

Of the options that have been given crunch, the moviedome is the best. Agri-Center was not an option, and if it was it wouldn't be my top option. The entertainment industry is much more attractive than an agri-center.

Options given by whom?

Are you not equipped for a reasonable debate? I can assure you that quite a number of people are in favor of an agribusiness option for the dome. Let's just start with why, from an engineering and economic standpoint, you are in favor of a film studio. You go first, as I know your supporters have some damn tight ROI figures:

Thanks for posting, I just posted a topic about the entertainment industry in Texas, and how it lagging behind States like Georgia, California, Florida and New York. I really hope this happens, but for some reason, I think the people in charge of the decision will choose not to because that is the way it usually works in Houston, its like nothing cool is allowed for the city.

If you were seriously forward-thinking, you would be down with the former Astrodome as an Agri-Center.

Movies are bullshit, kid. Think of the agricultural future of the planet, and not TV for a change.

Grimaldi's in Sugar Land won best pizzeria in the Houston Press BOH. Anyone ever been?

is that the coal-oven place? Or is it Grimaldi's like the NY one at the Brooklyn bridge?

i'd say any decent NY-style pizza in houston is better than just about any deepdish pizza from chicago. if i want a deepdish pizza, i'll go ahead and order a lasagna.

No truer pizza words ever spoken. Chicago style is a damn casserole.

A midrise with perhaps 150 residents is a traffic nightmare, yet a grocery store serving hundreds, perhaps thousands of customers per day would be a dream?

no kididng. Especially a Trader Joes. In terms of shopper congestion, TJs would makes Central Market on a Saturday look empty.

Great store, (and home of the mighty Three Buck Chuck) but so popular it would be a traffic and parking mess in that spot.

Interesting--I didn't know he owned this building. Saw Randalll Davis on local news recently, being interviewed down in Galveston at Diamond Beach--and I couldn't help but notice that he is quite the small man. Was it just the TV? Cuz he looked about 5 feet tall. Hmm. Now I remember the (horribly named) 'Titan' highrise that fell through. I believe it's Niche who occasionally mentions developers/architects and their size metaphors. Somehow it all makes sense, now.

Anyway, because some make fruits and berries beers is not a sufficient reason to get bored with craft beer as a whole. I call foul!

It's not?? I used to spend a lot of time and money on trying new beers. After a while, I realized that I was drinking only a little bit of great beer and a whole lot of 'moo' beer. I still like craft beer, but there are just too many chewy, over-flavored and too-sweet ales. I prefer a really crisp, hoppy pils. St Arnold's summer one is pretty good, actually.

I've always been much more of a liquor person, anyway. I am of the belief that heaven is Clive Owen and Gerard Butler serving my evening small-batch bourbon over a pair of geometrically perfect ice cubes made from pure, heavenly rainwater...NOT chocolate-persimmon-pumkin-butternut reserve ale # 11 in a logo pint glass.

Divine Reserve 9 begins brewing next week and will be available in November/December! Its a pumpkin beer.

gag.

It's because of this sort of fruits and berries stuff that I got bored with craft beer years ago. I'll be hangin' with that dude in Red's avatar, drinking regular, manly beer. And liquor. Waiting for those damn kids to get off my lawn.

When was this time when morals were high and birth rates were low, because in general the birth rate has been on the decline in the United States. We're at about half the rate we had in the 50s, for example.

It has little-to-nothing to do with morals, and everything to do with relative wealth.

In the case of dropping birth rates since the 50s, that can be attributed in part to the birth control pill and the rise of the post war middle class.

In much broader terms, birth rates across cultures and generations are in large part attributable to simple biological imperative: the better off a society is, the fewer bodies it takes to continue propagating the human race. It has been anthropolically observed for a long time that once a culture no longer has to scrape by to just subsist, they don't need as many bodies working to produce food; as many bodies to fill the gap left by infant, mortality, famine, and high rates of disease.

103 is not an ER situation. Been there, done that. I've been at 106 twice, yet only when I was vomiting bile did I bother with the ER. The other time it was a flu or something similar, and I filled the bathtub with cold water, emptied all my ice trays into it, and sat in it until a relative, who is a health practicioner, could arrive from out of town to ensure my survival. I probably saved a couple thousand dollars by doing that...proving my point, that the demand for healthcare is price elastic.

When I was about 4, I was very sick and taken to the ER with a 105 temp. What did the hospital do?

They put me in a giant ice water bath.

lol. My username was UpuPUp! but now its Urbannizer[:

Really? Well alrighty then!

Actually I was thinking Vines=Spidey