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The main point of the 11th street redesign was not just to put in bike lanes. It was to make it possible for pedestrians and cyclists to cross 11th street without having to frogger through 4 lanes of people going 45 mph trying to cut through the Heights to avoid highway traffic jams. Bike lanes on 14th would not have done anything to help with that. Thus, the 14th street suggestion was not really a serious answer to the problems on 11th street and was clearly just an attempt by opponents to claim that they are on the side of bike improvements when they really aren't.

In the Houston world of make believe, the high speed rail between Houston and Dallas would have a station somewhere around the 610/Hemstead Rd. area and then a light rail line would connect to downtown either via the existing rail line that we all get stuck behind around Center St. and Heights or a line that would go down Washington Ave. It might actually not be make believe given that Lizzie Fletcher took Culberson's seat and might actually get fed dollars instead of opposing it. But G. Abbott would probably get the legislature to pass a ban on local governments building light rail lines just to own the libs.

Ok. Now add a circle for commercial real estate developers.

I wonder what the Venn diagram would look like for people who oppose removing a vehicle lane for bike lanes/wider side walks and those who are for getting rid of parking minimums? If we are going to make Houston more dense and pull back on parking minimums then you have to also make the streets safe for pedestrians and bikes. Off hand, I can think of four pedestrian/cyclist fatalities within a mile of my house in the Heights. A jogger got hit by a car one house up the street from my house. Fortunately, it was just a few bad bruises, but the area between Buffalo Bayou and 610 has added thousands of multifamily units and lots of retail space is following. We are not going to have a livable city if the only (semi) safe transportation option is driving.

We will know for sure when the agenda for the planning commission is posted. But my guess is that the parking lot is going to be developed into a town home farm by Lovett and they want to be able to match the setback that the existing retail development has.

Tin Drum is a chain from Atlanta. They have about a dozen location in and around ATL and they are pretty popular. I would not expect this location to shut down just because some yelpers don't like it and they don't have a line around the corner. With these chain concepts, they will often have to operate at a loss in a new market for a while just so they can get a foothold and continue to expand in the new market. Tin Drum is basically a slightly more authentic fast pan Asian food than Pei Wei. It is designed to go into strip malls in the burbs and not meant to wow the foodies. Similar chain concepts are going in all over the greater Heights, whether they be a salad concept or whatever. They are just looking for market share as they expand out nationally. Hopefully there will be enough new retail square footage in the Heights that there will be plenty of room for creative new local concepts to find spots among the regional and national chains and franchises. Even with high rents, the kind of business places like Boomtown, Rice Box, Tony's Gold Tooth and Burger Joint do make it possible for good local concepts to thrive in the high rent environment.

They will have big shoes to fill and don't have nearly as good a location, but bagels are coming back to the (greater) Heights. Brazos Bagel is coming to the odd little strip center at Durham and Larkin just north of the I-10 feeder. It will be where Nourish and Kalos used to be. And if you were wondering, Tins at the other end of the strip is a fancy Omakase restaurant. https://www.brazosbagel.com/

Alice Blue is also closing. Sad to see Claire Smith leave. She open Shade back when there was almost nothing in the Heights. Her trailblazing brought in Scott Tycer, Lance Fegen, Ryan Pera and others and set into motion a huge influx of restaurants that continues today. I just hope the spot stays with a local chef and an original concept. Starbucks has established a bulkhead on 11th st. Vigilance is needed in the Heights. https://www.theleadernews.com/community/another-heights-restaurant-bids-farewell-alice-blue-to-close-feb-25-2024/article_b6dd4650-bb97-11ee-8583-2fe26d37cc36.html

I'll make a deal with Starbucks. I will call off the Stop Heights Starbucks movement if they promise to make anyone blocking the feeder at their 610 location drive down to this one.

Gonna put it out there that the rate of new Berg concepts hitting the market in Houston is starting to have a bit of a Mattress Firm of restaurants feel to it. I like his restaurants and Trattoria Sofia is packed all the time. But is there enough room in the Houston restaurant market for 18 different restaurants, most of which are high end concepts?

HISD will show no significant improvement in testing and will continue to lose students at an alarming rate. Abbott will then claim that this shows that public schools are damaged beyond repair and make HISD his case for vouchers in 2025. Whitmire will cave to the firefighters and then have to slash the City's budget. A revitalized Texans will cause a group of investors to come together to back a plan to renovate the Astrodome into a multipurpose event space that can compliment the conventions, rodeo and NFL tailgating. The plan will go nowhere.

Acorn St. would need a big upgrade to be able to handle the truck traffic. There are a bunch of big speed bumps on that stretch of the road to keep the locals from drag racing on it. I am a bit sad to see 5050 Acorn Golf go, but am also a bit ambivalent as about a third of the balls in each bucket barely had dimples and would not fly. And it was like hitting balls off a vacant lot that was recently mowed.

www.stopheightsstarbucks.com (just kidding)

I would not be surprised to see an HEB. The one on Shep at 24th and 25th is overflowing with customers during busy times of the day and so is the one on Washington. There is going to be a lot more multifamily being built in the GOOF in the coming years as the Heights runs out of room.

Baso is in soft opening with its first service tonight and tomorrow. No info on the menu yet.

It is hard to compare Houston to DFW if you just look at the arts because DFW dilutes its arts scene between the two metro areas. So, on one level there is a lot more going on in DFW. They have two orchestras, two ballets, two operas, two major art museums, dueling chamber music societies, etc. On any given week, you will have more choices in the DFW area than Houston. Houston's orchestra has lagged behind Dallas, but has recently caught up. Hopefully, renovations to Jones Hall will make it into an actual concert hall instead of a civic center that ruins symphony concerts with horrible acoustics. Houston's opera and ballet are definitely better than DFWs. Rice U's music school is better than SMU's by a good bit. But the one thing DFW has is an actual jazz scene thanks to the proximity to UNT (and UNT has a jazz scene that is better than Houston's). If DFW was just a single metro area, I think their arts scene would be superior to Houston's. DFW has a much longer and deeper tradition of supporting the arts. Houston has been very fortunate that its major arts institutions have had excellent leadership and have in many ways performed on a much higher level than you would expect for a southern city. San Antonio's orchestra went bankrupt. Austin's symphony is a "per service" orchestra where are the musicians do not get a salary. In the early 2000s, Houston's orchestra had some management issues and labor discord. But the orchestra brought in new leadership and things have been going very well since then.

Tried it. The donuts are like cronuts. Layered and fluffy inside. Two donuts will fill you up. They are good, but nothing that I will be craving any time soon. I miss Hugs and Donuts and Morningstar.

Gas station owners do not make squat off the gas they sell. The oil companies give the stations a tiny margin on the gas sales because the gas station is really just a way to create a captive audience for the convenience store. EV charging stations are a very different operation. There is an opportunity to make a decent margin on the electricity sold if the EV operator buys enough electricity to get a good discount on the market. And there are people planning EV stations that will work with a solar array. The main challenge of an EV charging station is that it usually takes 10-15 min to charge an EV. Any retail has to be geared towards giving people a place to hang out and spend a few bucks instead of just running in and grabbing Beaver Nuggets (mmmmm beaver nuggets). So, there will be a lot of trial and error to see what EV owners respond to. There will also be competition with traditional gas stations, with Buc-ees having plenty of room to install lots of charging stations and retail strip centers with plenty of room for EV charging stations. Time will only tell whether people respond to a stand alone charging station with a coffee shop or some other retail or would prefer to just sit in the parking lot at Target and play on their phone while they wait.

I will see your SPCA and King Biscuit and raise you a Beer Island at the corner of Studewood and White Oak.

It is about time we are finally getting some good restaurants from Pearland.

The current development is seeking a variance on parking minimums, not a liquor license. I do not recall whether Gelazzi had to get a private club license or could just get a liquor license. I think back then the dry restrictions had been partially repealed, but can't remember. But I do definitely remember some big fights between residents and Coltivare and Gelazzi over clueless idiots parking in front of people's driveways instead of just going up another block to park. I think that situation has improved a bit as people have become more accustomed to dealing with on street parking in the Heights. But this development is going to add a lot of cars to on street parking and this variance gives residents a chance to try to throw sand in the gears.

This will be interesting. Some neighbors vigorously (to put it politely) opposed Gelazzi's attempt to get a liquor license so they could sell boozed up gelato. It will be interesting to see whether they come out again to oppose this or whether they have been beaten down and have given up.

From what I could tell, Monica Pope abandoned the new restaurant after there were a lot of construction delays/issues on the interior build out. Big loss for the neighborhood. It would have been great if they were able to get it done. It is a great little neighborhood spot and hopefully someone else will be able to do something nice with it.

Posted October 18, 2021 (edited) Baso will be moving in to the building at 629 W. 19th St. Building is owned by Braun Enterprises. https://www.braunenterprises.com/629-w-19th https://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/08-30-21-baso-new-restaurant-basque-spanish-the-heights-jacque-varon-fernando-recio-braun-enterprises/#slide=0 https://www.instagram.com/basohtx/?hl=en This was originally posted in the maliciously renamed thread f/k/a Lack of Restaurant Diversity in the Heights, but I couldn't quote it and post in that thread for some reason. This restaurant is finally getting close to opening. The build out is almost complete and they have started hiring.

Cooking Girl is excellent. The fish style beef is like eating candy. I miss breakfasts at Revival and the occasional kolache specials, but Cooking Girl will be an excellent addition.