s3mh
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Posts posted by s3mh
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Apparently, bike lanes, road diets, etc. are on the list of things that right wingers like to lose their s--- about. The opponents of the 11th st changes got the mayor to go out and look at the street first hand. The central argument now seems to be that it will cause massive traffic jams which will send people cutting through the neighborhoods. But restricting traffic is a feature not a bug. People who are racing down 11th st. are generally people who are using the street as a cut through to avoid traffic on I-10 or 610. If you make it more difficult to drive fast on 11st st, people will stop using it as a cut through street. That will reduce traffic for everybody.
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16 hours ago, BigRed said:
So here is a question - the old Co-op and Birds Barber Shop building was being painted and had work going on today- what's happening there next?!
Leasing brochure, which should always be taken with several grains of salt, shows Kin by Evelyn. She currently has stands at farmers markets and is no Top Chef Houston right now.
https://shopcompanies.com/sites/default/files/420 E 20th St Flyer_0.pdf?v=1646057654
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On 6/18/2020 at 9:54 AM, s3mh said:
Central City Coop took over the space that used to be Steel City Pops on E. 20th.
Central City Coop bought the old Heights Lights and Things property on 25th and will re-open their brick and mortar store there soon. They only had a short term lease on the storefront on E. 20th and got the boot in April.
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Sonoma could not come to terms with its landlord and lost its lease on Studewood. But the Height's loss is the GOOF's gain. Sonoma is moving to the Stomping Grounds development (which is finally seeing some momentum in building out restaurant tenants).
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Rebuttal article in the Leader. A bit too academic for my tastes, but our neighborhood is full of advanced degrees. One point they missed is that Studewood has new pedestrian islands that have effectively taken away the middle land as a passing lane and everything is fine on that side of the Heights.
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14 hours ago, wilcal said:
If they are doing body work then it can require a lot of car storage. Still, pretty disappointing.
And you need room for the hot chicken food truck.
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Apologies if there is already a thread somewhere, but I could not find it. File this under "we can never have nice things" in the Heights. Just as the 11th street renovations were set to move forward, a very astroturf-ish looking group pops up at the last minute to throw sand in the gears. This is reminiscent of those who opposed the hike and bike trail because they feared criminals on bicycles ravaging the Heights.
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La Vibra is really good. Torchy's went from being pretty good to absolute garbage as the franchise expanded from a few stores to being in every new strip mall in any suburb with a median income approaching six figures.
The only real common denominator for a real "street" taco is that the base is almost always a small corn tortilla. But people will go on for days about what is a real corn tortilla. There is a big difference between commercial tortillas and hand ground corn masa made into tortillas by hand. Some of the commercial corn tortillas in the US are so bad that they are like eating drywall.
Beyond that, you could go on for days talking about what is a real "street" taco in terms of fillings because there is so much diversity in Mexican cuisine depending on where you are in Mexico. You have trompo and al pastor, which are spit cooking styles that Middle Eastern oil workers brought with them to Mexico in the 1950s and were adopted by Mexican cuisine. You have various stewed meats like guisada and birria. And then there are the grilled meats like asadas and barbacoa. The one that is rarely done right in the US is carnitas. Carnitas in the US are often dry and inedible because they are made more like a pulled pork. Carnitas are slow cooked in pork fat.
The most basic street taco will be meat and tortilla with a salsa. But many street vendors will have different vegetables, beans, potatoes, etc. and a selection of salsas and a sprinkle of queso fresca on top.
A lot of arguments over what is an authentic street taco is really just about different places having different styles of Mexican foods. Most of the really authentic Mexican taco stands in Houston are run by people from NE Mexico (Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, etc.) and most of their customers are from the same area. But if you are in CA, you will run across more people from Baja, Sonora or Chihuahua. Nestled amongst those groups will also be people from Central Mexico, which is a bit of a melting pot of styles and not to forget the very diverse cooking style of Oaxaca, which has deep roots in indigenous cooking styles.
So, most everything you will find at a taco stand in Houston is arguably a street taco. But these vendors are in it for the money and how authentic they are can vary wildly as mass produced Mexican food can be pretty bad and taco trucks can get everything the use from a large commercial kitchen. So, if you find one that is grilling their own meat or has a spit going, that is a pretty good sign you will get something decent.
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15 hours ago, Ross said:
This should be interesting, since the subsurface on that property is full of brick making waste, junk, refrigerators, and all sorts of other stuff, according to a friend who lives nearby.
If you go way back on Google Earth to the 1950s, there was a large building to the northwest of where the Acme Brick building currently is and a big yard of who knows what around where the driving range currently is. It had a rail spur. I would guess that it was probably a steel plant way back when.
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Overheard someone saying that the property has been sold and the driving range will close in the next few months.
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14 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:
A Notice of Default is not the same as foreclosure. I don't see any indication whatsoever that the investors/lenders are forcing these businesses into bankruptcy and not exploring the possibility of loan workouts and renegotiation of terms.
Read the article. NextSeed said that they had been holding back on sending default notices in 20 and 21 because of the pandemic. Companies are lawyering up. And when you make a move like this, everyone else you deal with will be wary of dealing with you on any sort of credit basis and will want cash up front for fear of bankruptcy. This is not how you start negotiations.
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Worse news. Soul Taco is not going to be at Throughgood Coffee anymore. Not sure whether they are being replaced or just going out of business.
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Capitalism can be very stupid. The food halls have been hit hard by COVID. Investors/lenders should be doing loan workouts and renegotiating terms and not going straight to defaulting these businesses and sending them into bankruptcy. In bankruptcy, they will more than likely just have to liquidate as no one is going to be willing to fund them through a Chap 11. That means the food halls close and then sit empty on the commercial property market for years and years and the investors get back pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy. Instead, they could acknowledge that these businesses have been operating in extraordinary circumstances and work with them to share some of the pain from the pandemic and find reasonable terms to continue operations in what will hopefully be a much more profitable post-pandemic world. But in the world of finance/capital such a move is heresy because of ingrained norms and business ethics that if you let one company up from a default, every single business in the US will then be emboldened to become deadbeats.
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Fisher's lender took over the property back in 2019. The property was put on the market in February and is apparently under contract. Haven't seen anything recorded with the county yet showing transfer of the property.
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Nearly four years in the making, Simply Coffie looks to be close to finishing construction and may open sometime soon.
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18 hours ago, august948 said:
Add a bar and you've got a trifecta.
Coffee shop with CBD in the morning, hot chicken sandwiches for lunch and dinner with a craft cocktail concept . . . and a carwash.
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Harris County is now pretty much a "votes blue no matter who" county, even without having a straight ticket button at the polls. Hidalgo is very popular among Dems, with many hoping that she runs for congress or governor some day. The fact that the Texas Rangers conducted a raid as part of this investigation pretty much shows that this is being driven by Austin. Harris County DA has been willing to run with this because they know that it will more than likely be dismissed by a Harris County district court. If there was really something there, the Feds would have gone after it.
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18 hours ago, sapo2367 said:
Hear me out -- ground floor car wash in all apartment complexes. Leave more room for the hot chicken restaurants
Don't limit yourself. Ground floor car wash in all apartment complexes that also serve hot chicken sandwiches.
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If we had zoning, we could require the carwashes to also have hot chicken sandwich restaurants, saving a lot of space along Shep for additional development. Instead of always asking for ground floor retail in new apartment complexes, we should have been demanding hot chicken sandwiches at all our car washes.
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On 8/20/2021 at 9:47 AM, s3mh said:
Sorry. I guess "Moon Rabbit" is a pretty popular restaurant name these days.
The Houston version is doing take out only right now. Here is the menu:
https://www.ubereats.com/store/moon-rabbit/aMQB24p0TjyT6HRIVCJPnQ
Moon Rabbit is now open.
On 3/29/2021 at 9:54 AM, s3mh said:TABC notice for "Peony and Crane" at 626 W 19th (previously a barber shop for a short time, one door to the east of Squabble).
Peony and Crane is doing a soft opening. Interesting menu.
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1 hour ago, editor said:
Yep. If you can't do a good flat white, you don't deserve to call yourself Australian, or even Australian-inspired.
I haven't had a great flat white since I got back to Houston. Any recommendations?
New Zealand is the birth place of the flat white. Don't let Bruce and Shelia sell you on some tale about Aussie's inventing the flat white.
Baristas in the US generally do not work with milk foam the way they do in Europe. The difference between a flat white and latte/cappuccino end up being not much more than the proportions of milk to espresso.
Catalina is definitely one of the best. I would also add Tenfold as having pretty good coffee chops. Little Dreamer (in a little shipping container at the Stomping Grounds in GOOF) is also one to try for coffee nerds.
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On 11/9/2021 at 3:44 PM, hindesky said:
Bluestone Lane 115 W. 19th St.
Opening this week.
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15 hours ago, Texasota said:
The city doesn't care if it's in the National Register, but I'm pretty sure Lambert Hall is also locally protected. No 90 day wait - if the historic commission denies it, they deny it.
The church and Lambert are designated as contributing structures in the East Historic District in the Heights and are protected by the historic preservation ordinance. No way anyone would be able to get a certificate of appropriateness to tear down Lambert. As much as the militancy over historic preservation and neighborhood qualify of life has been subdued in the Heights, I am sure the neighborhood would freak out in a big way if someone tried to tear down Lambert. I would hope that the Heights Association would be able to round up enough cash to buy the property and maintain it as a concert hall. The church could be converted into an event hall for weddings, etc. and make some good money on the side.
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Bungalow Revival and Lucas Craftsmanship are still around and some of the best of those who do historic homes in the Heights.
Since then, I would also add Contemporary Craftsman (https://www.facebook.com/TheContemporaryCraftsmen/) and Bishop Building Co. (https://www.bishopbuildingtx.com/) to the list of people you might want to check out. Contemporary Craftsman does work that is similar to Bungalow Revival. More design and preservation/authenticity oriented than most. Bishop is not as design oriented, but has a lot of experience with Heights homes. Both are owned by long time Heights residents.
I would be wary of builders in the Heights who are primarily doing new construction and do not have much experience with renovations/additions and with builders who are relatively new to the neighborhood. The talent pool for working with historic homes and HAHC is surprisingly shallow in Houston. I can't name names, but over the years there have been a number of really bad builders in the Heights. Some have come and gone, some are still going strong (unfortunately). Definitely do your homework before choosing a builder in the Heights.
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Hike And Bike Bridge Over White Oak Bayou Is Burning
in Traffic and Transportation
Posted
Very happy that this is finally finished and cannot wait for the other connector to Stude Park to get done. It looks like they are making good progress on that connector.
But gotta say that this took way too long. This was basically a three month job that took almost two years. If this bridge was for vehicular traffic for a busy street, emergency repairs would have probably taken a few weeks if not faster.