Apartments At 405 Hawthorne St.

[Gary]

Well at least you're not moving out to the middle of nowhere like katy or the Woods.

Holy crap Batman. How do you continually top yourself with goofball posts? Attica and I don't always see eye to eye, but he did a great job at mocking your absurdity.

[rsb320]

Back to the neighborhood - it appears that they began installing the bases for street lamps yesterday - ooh la la. Those cobra lights are useless, since they're up in the trees.

Music, stealing my spare would require breaking into my car. That did not happen, they just left the brake rotor sitting on the concrete.

[kdog08]

one of those predominately hispanic's mother made me a great hot chocolate.

My predominately hispanic girlfriend makes a kick ass margarita on the rocks. Cheers.

[GBryant]

I'm a native Houstonian but don't really know too much about Montrose. I found a very reasonably priced 1 br at the address and like amenities around this area. I'm a 23 year old straight recent grad who works near the Greenway Plaza area currently and will be working in the Medical Center in the near future so the location is pretty close to perfect. I'm really trying not come off as homophobic nor do I think there will be a gay pride parade down my street every day but I don't want to feel out of place. I'd prefer to live in a diverse area with straight, gay, minorities, singles, families, etc. and that's my impression of Montrose from what I've heard. I was hoping to hear some input on the area so I can make an informed decision.

My sister lived in an apartment on Hawthorne up until about a year ago. Hers was maybe a block west of where you're talking about. She seemed to really enjoy it. Her building was a two story job set perpendicular to the road with a sort of common courtyard running along the side. It was nothing fancy, but the sort of familial vibe I got from her and her neighbors seemed to make up for the lack of amenities. They really seemed to look out for each other and she keeps up with a couple of them even after having moved away. She did have her car broken into a couple of times and Pak's (a nearby convenience store over on Alabama) can be. . .entertaining. . .late at night, but I think it would be a solid neighborhood for a young single guy. My general impression of the street and its environs is middle to upper-middle class young people with just a touch of sketchiness thrown on for taste.

I suspect my sis would have been counted among the flavor.

[kylejack]

Yeah, I lived in Montrose for a while (W Main @ Mandell) and found that the most serious crime problem was definitely car break-ins. I got hit once and had several friends that did as well.

[kdog08]

I decided on a different apartment in Montrose than I first inquired about. I've been living about half a month at an apartment complex off Richmond near Yoakum (1301 Richmond), basically across the street from St Thomas. I love the area and do enjoy living close to many amenities. I occasionally walk places, mostly to the Walgreens (maybe it's a CVS) at Richmond and Montrose, but there's so much to do. I do like to jog, and grown to love jogging through the neighborhoods and am only about a mile from Hermann and the Museum District. It's been great weather as of late so I've done lots of exploring on foot. I'm really glad I made the decision to live here.

[kylejack]

I used to live at West Main @ Mandell.

A few cool things in this immediate area (<5 blocks):

Menil Collection main building: Just a few blocks north of you. This place has a lot of cool art, some Picasso originals and many other things. All Menil facilities are free.

Byzantine Fresco Chapel (part of Menil Collection) : 2 blocks north. In Cyprus in the 1980s, some thieves broke into a church and cut the fresco paintings out of the ceiling and walls. Menil Collection negotiated to purchase the art from the thieves and then offered to return it to the church. The church was so grateful that they offered Menil the art on long-term loan. These are the only Byzantine frescos in the Western Hemisphere. Eastern Orthodox have a different perception of Jesus than we westerners, they see him as someone with darker Middle Eastern features, which if you think about it seems a lot more accurate of our perception of a white guy.

Rothko Chapel (part of Menil Collection): Just east of Menil Collection main building, just NW of Byzantine Fresco Chapel. This was a building built to house some art of Mark Rothko. I don't particularly care for this as I have trouble appreciating the artistic nature of it, because basically its just some enormous canvases that Rothko painted entirely black. Perhaps symbolically, Rothko killed himself after completing the paintings before the building was complete. The sculpture outside is called Broken Obelisk, a monument to MLK that was originally offered to City Hall to display outside, but they turned it down.

Cy Twombly Gallery (part of Menil Collection) - Go here if you want to see a really cool building housing some terrible kindergarten scribbling art. I love the way the light comes into the building (its lit mostly by natural light from an innovative roof system that diffuses the light evenly in the building...really cool) but I can't stand the idea that people consider this art.

Lucky Burger : Not the best burger in town, but pretty darned good. They butter and toast the bun. Also, there's something kind of adorable about a place that sells burgers and fried rice.

Maria Selma: I love the food and margaritas here. They used to do a monthly dinner that was like 5 courses with a tequila pairing on each course or something like that. It was awesome. Not sure if they're still doing that, but even if they aren't, most nights I went it was a great meal.

Pueblito Palace: My experience with the food here has been...mixed. But to their credit, they were the only place I could find open after Hurricane Ike and I had a really fun time in the middle of a city in chaos.

Kam's: Chinese restaurant on Montrose. Excellent.

Black Labrador: Pub on Montrose. Some of the food is good and some is moo. There's a giant chess board on the patio.

Cezanne: Jazz club above Black Labrador. Cool place.

Harp: Cool bar, decent beer selection. Occasionally has a high douchebag quotient, but the bar itself is a good place.

La Tapatia: Mexican food, pretty cheap, strong margaritas, open late.

Also, Howard Hughes grew up in the house at Branard and Yoakum.

[sevfiv]

Ah - that's one of the Andover apartments. I lived at the Andover in First Montrose Commons by HSPVA - great apartment in theory, but the first floor was terrible because of noise. 1301 is from the same era but maybe doesn't have similar flooring issues. I also was very pleased with the office staff.

[kdog08]

Ah - that's one of the Andover apartments. I lived at the Andover in First Montrose Commons by HSPVA - great apartment in theory, but the first floor was terrible because of noise. 1301 is from the same era but maybe doesn't have similar flooring issues. I also was very pleased with the office staff.

Yep Andover, they seem like good people so far. There is barely any noise where I live but the units themselves are from an older era, which isn't a problem necessarily. I could only describe this complex as a garden complex as basically where there isn't buildngs there are mature trees and tropical plants. I've been nothing but satisfied with my decision to live here and the area.

[musicman]

La Tapatia: Mexican food, pretty cheap, strong margaritas, open late.

i've lived here all my life and never heard this nor experienced this. after they expanded, they've only become worse.

[Highway6]

Black Labrador: Pub on Montrose. Some of the food is good and some is moo. There's a giant chess board on the patio.

One of the few places I've found that serves Scotch Eggs.... make your way up there for weekend brunch, kdog, you won't regret it.