asubrt

16 minutes ago, mkultra25 said:

 

See my post earlier in this thread. I haven't seen cops ticketing people frequently for ignoring the lights, but I've seen it happen on occasion. 

Ah I see, thank you. Tried to skim the previous posts to make sure that hadn't already been answered but I guess I wasn't thorough enough 

Can you actually get a ticket for "running a red light" on these? Many people seem to ignore them (myself included often), but I've never seen anyone get pulled over for it.

1 hour ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Agreed that Spindletap makes some of the best haze/juice IPAs.  Barrel aged imperial stouts are great but dangerous. Shouldn’t drive after a 2nd pour.

 

@asubrt have you had deGarde sours from Tillamook, OR?

I haven't, but looks like they have pretty amazing ratings. Available in Houston at all?

4 hours ago, Reefmonkey said:

What does bug me though (and I am probably going to ruffle a few feathers here), is that there are just too many craft breweries out there (both nationwide and Houston-based), and each craft brewery produces too many different varieties. I think we've reached Peak Craft Brew. Several years ago, just here in Houston, we passed a threshold after which any new brewery is just white noise. It seems like the business model for new breweries is to try to get big enough that they get bought out by a big national brand, the way Karbach did with AB InBev. That's soulless. Houston now has 52 craft breweries. 52. We're a big city, but we're not that big that we need that many. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that every craft brewery has a whole slew of varieties, so that the varieties themselves become white noise. They're doing very little to differentiate themselves from each other, so they're stepping all over each other's toes. Practically everyone makes a pale ale, a pils, some kind of wheat beer, oh, yeah, and now most of them have to do a Kolsche (and I've had real Kolsche in Cologne, sorry US breweries, none of you match the likes of Fruh), etc. Every craft brewery tries to be everything to every beer drinker. Jack of all trades is master of none. It would have been better if the breweries had each carved out a niche, stay focused on one style of brewing do one thing very well, have maybe 4 varieties that are available all year, max, plus one seasonal at a time. St. Arnold offers 12 year round beers, THREE of which are IPAs, and two amberish English style ales that aren't that different from each other. And that's not including the 7 seasonals they put out, or the limited releases (Divine reserves,  Icon, Bishop's Barrel). And I've noticed, as they grow, their quality is starting to slip.

I have a very different attitude toward this situation... I love the variety and options available. I like to try as many different beers as possible, and will always order something I haven't had if that's an option (though of course I have some favorites that I'll go to if that isn't possible), so I welcome the large number of breweries. And even though we have 52, I think that's still per capita less than many other cities. I don't think most breweries are trying to get bought by a big national brand, because this isn't very realistic as there are only a very small handful of breweries that reach this level. Rather, I think a lot of these breweries, especially in the suburbs, are trying to be more of a local hangout/bar type of place with some distribution but without the idea of spreading nationally. While I'm crazy and will travel all over the area to visit as many of these breweries as possible, most people frequent their nearby "neighborhood" brewery, i.e. Bakfish in Pearland, Running Walker in Richmond, Saloon Door in Webster, No Label in Katy, etc...) much more often than going to one across town, if they ever even do that at all. There are certainly some breweries in Houston that suck, but for the most part I think that we have a pretty good selection. And some do carve out a niche (i.e. Spindletap with their NEIPAs, Texian with sours, Ingenious with barrel aged stouts), but I appreciate that most of them try brewing lots of different styles. I guess everyone has a different preference, but I say keep the new breweries coming!

23 minutes ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Fake snow day. Wonder what event it is. I took a photo but it’s nothing special 

Operation Snow Storm will be hosting an event at Park Place for the children at Memorial Herman Children's Hospital

13 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Anyone know if La Pepe will actually start demolition today? Wondering if I should take an extra 5 minutes and drive by

No demolition yet

Yikes. The renderings were apparently very flattering, to say the least.

3 hours ago, Naviguessor said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Airport-officials-fly-new-plans-for-international-13228403.php

 

Looks Like the Airport System has ripped up the replacement plan and is now working on a plan that is more focused on renovation and reworking existing terminals.  Pity. 

That is disappointing, but to be fair they've done a great job with B South and C North, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that this will turn out well. And we seem to be pretty stagnant as far as new international carriers go for awhile, so if they add those 6 new gates mentioned then hopefully capacity should be sufficient. Still, would have been nice to see a brand new terminal at IAH.

So from the address it looks like this is going on the site of the big parking lot just north of the VA? They semi-recently installed large canopies there to make it covered parking, but I guess those will be gone soon. If that lot goes it's going to make VA parking a lot more difficult.

Just now, asubrt said:

On Nancy Sarnoff's Looped In podcast (with checking out if you've never given it a listen), she claims that the Kirby Mansion is going to be MOVED within the next 2 years, not demolished. No new location given.

 

<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6983978/height/250/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/yes/custom-color/050700/" height="250" width="100%" scrolling="no"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

Sorry tried to embed the podcast but clearly that didn't work, and can't edit it out...

On Nancy Sarnoff's Looped In podcast (with checking out if you've never given it a listen), she claims that the Kirby Mansion is going to be MOVED within the next 2 years, not demolished. No new location given.

<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6983978/height/250/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/yes/custom-color/050700/" height="250" width="100%" scrolling="no"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

54 minutes ago, 102IAHexpress said:

 

Beat me to it! 

https://twitter.com/united?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

 

I agree that IAH doesn't always get new routes like some of other hubs but I think the "shaft" should also include allocation of newer aircraft. When including aircraft types, I would say ORD gets shafted the most. Some of the United planes flying out of ORD are junk. 

Yeah I was really just referring to new routes, but IAH did get the 737 MAX 9 which is pretty nice (although in my opinion a bit small for the 7.5 hour IAH-ANC which I flew earlier this month), and it was also the original 787 base I believe, so at least they do tend to deploy some newer aircraft here. 

United is announcing three new European routes tomorrow (San Francisco - Amsterdam, Newark - Naples, and Newark - Prague), but none from IAH. Maybe something else will come later, but United has been launching a lot of new routes lately and Houston seems to be getting shafted (Sydney was obviously a big add but that was launched very early in the year, and since then we’ve only had the minor routes of IAH-Dayton and IAH-Akron while seemingly every other hub has gotten 5-10 new routes at least). Hopefully wxman is correct and we hear something soon, but so far it’s been a disappointing year for IAH routes.

Lighting is on! Unfortunately from my vantage point you can only see the very top, but the reflection off of Amegy and BHP Billiton buildings is impressive. Hopefully someone can get a south-facing view (with better photo quality).

On 3/7/2018 at 11:23 AM, richfish said:

The outside of the building has some pretty cool lighting they're installing. Basically a LED line around every floor. 

On 7/2/2018 at 9:49 PM, SkylineView said:

Side note: this building has some really unique lighting that hasn't been discussed (and generally isn't on).  The current lighting is classy, and the new features are 100% Vegas.  I saw a brief glimpse at dusk a few weeks ago... it's really going to bring some glam to Uptown.  Can't wait for the Holiday colors.

Unable to attach a photo (which is probably for the best because I have no idea how to take pictures at night so they are crap anyway)... but there is some of the new lighting on tonight for the first time that I've seen, basically the aforementioned LED lines at the corners of the building (at least on the SE corner that I can see and it looks like the NE corner as well). 

New sign up for the lot behind Arabella at the SE corner of San Felipe and Post Oak Park Dr (aka the Target parking lot access road).

Photo deleted for space

On 6/3/2018 at 2:57 PM, houstontexasjack said:

Stakes with caution tape have been placed on the side of the property where the twisty tower (not the more recent rendering of Two Hermann Place) would be.  Not sure if this would be to prevent damage to trees by providing corridors for construction equipment.

They seem to be using this for overflow parking for somewhere (the park I'm guessing, or less likely the Health Museum?) right now, with the yellow tape delineating where to park.

Any estimate when this one is supposed to open?

Is there still no rendering for this? My rudimentary Google skills couldn't find one, but perhaps some of the more accomplished sleuths on here might be able to locate it.

Don't understand the hype around this place. Maybe it's different in California, but I tried it in Dallas and was not impressed. The burgers were fine (not any better than fine), but the fries were terrible. A class below almost every other non-McDonalds/Burger King/Jack In The Box burger joint in my opinion. And the lines will be around the block for days when it opens.

Yeah, this is actually a downgrade, despite the way the Chronicle is framing it. Was year-round, now is summer only.

Embarrassment of a lineup. Seems like they are downsizing as well (down to 4 stages this year from 5 last year and at least 6 or possibly 7 in previous years). No way I'm spending money on that. Hopefully for the people who do go it doesn't flood again.

Drove by last night, and it looks very similar to the picture above from September. Don't know if much (any?) work has been done since then.