Mr. B and Standeck... welcome to my bandwagon. Our fickle suburban consumers in Katy are pitifully disloyal and drawn like lemmings to franchise packaging. It sickens me. We were across the street at the Mercury Bar when the (former) employees from Ox & Angel came over Sunday night (June 7) to toast the demise of their paycheck. At least one that I know of was promptly offered a job at the Merc. My opinion is that Ox & Angel's failure was threefold: the economy, the location, and industry inexperience. Economically, Jan 09 was bad timing to start any venture whatsoever. Location? Villagio has an unhealthy attrition rate. I'm not privy to difficulties with Cinco's HOA, but it wouldn't surprise me. Here again... how is it that LaCenterra has branded themselves to the public favor, but Villagio struggles? But I feel the precipitating factor in a businesses success is experience. Ox & Angel had a cute premise, the owners had a concept and enthusiasm. But turning a profit takes finely honed food and beverage management experience. Every decision has to be made on how it can support the bottom line; got to know when to trim staff, when you can afford bands (if you recall, when they opened their plan was for charging admission for the bands), how to pull crowds. Televising Rugby games is a niche business, although you'd think they'd be great profit for a bar. The Mercury Bar sounds like it'll make it. They have a great drink menu, a second level sommier, and good location on the plaza. They bill themselves as a "jazz bar" but the bands are not true jazz.... they just aren't Rock or Country. They seem to be drawing a nice mix of young and old, and have a decent menu. Try it!