Here’s a little non-political story for you: My neck of the woods is becoming a hot place to eat.
[A]bout three years ago, the pace of development in the Heights and on Washington Avenue picked up. Affluent buyers snapped up Victorian homes in the Heights and restored them. Townhomes, selling for more than $250,000, sprouted along Washington. And the restaurants followed.
Patrick Zone’s House in the Heights, Claire Smith’s Shade and [Lance] Fegen’s Glass Wall opened in the Heights, dishing out New American cuisine with a progressive twist. Onion Creek Coffee House started pouring gourmet brew, while its sibling, Dry Creek Cafe, a BYOB eatery, grilled its signature Triple Bypass burgers. Houston Tamales Factory, Berryhill Baja Grill, Collina’s Italian Cafe and Thai Spice now also serve the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, restaurateurs and chefs are scouting Washington Avenue and surrounding streets; they believe the historic area will become a major restaurant artery within the next five years.
“I get several calls a week from people looking to open a restaurant,” landlord Bob Mize says. “Today, I’m going to meet a guy to talk about a very specialized Vietnamese eatery.”
The restaurant buzz hasn’t been this loud since the late ’90s, during the downtown-Midtown revival.
Azuma Sushi recently leased a space in Barry Pulaski’s 18,000-square-foot, Art Deco-fitted building on Washington at Durham.
Max Gonzalez plans to start serving Guatemalan coffee and handcrafted ice cream by mid-October at Quetzal on Washington at Hemphill.
“This area of town is getting a new shot of life,” says yoga instructor Kristina Keller, eating tortilla soup at the Daily Grind. “We have choices now. El Tiempo and Candelari’s have opened down the street.
“And we don’t have to pack our bags and drive to Target on San Felipe anymore. We have our own. It just opened off Washington on Sawyer.”
Retail outlets are promising indicators for restaurant developers.
“Once you put in a Target, houses follow,” Fegen says. “Give the Washington area and the Heights five years, and it’ll be another West University sort of place.”
Not quite sure what he means by that – I at least don’t really think of West U as a hotspot for dining out. Maybe he means more like the Rice Village?
Whatever. We’ve eaten at several of the places listed, and there’s a few more that I’ve been meaning to try. One place the article didn’t list, in the “on or near Washington Avenue” category is Patrenella’s, which has been around forever and should be in great shape to thrive off the gentrification of its surroundings. There’s still a lot of room for growth along Washington Ave, more so than the Heights proper I’d say. Check back in another year and see where it is then.
Up until about 4 months ago, I used live about four blocks from Patrenella’s. We lived in the old Bayou Park apartments on Snover. The neighboorhood was so beautiful, full of unique little houses. Many of them had been fixed up quite nice in the early 90s.
But in the last two years, Bob Perry has been tearing them down like a madman and throwing up cheaply made “luxary” condos on every block. In five years, I honestly don’t know what the neighborhood will be like. I can’t imagine this as sustainable development.
I also worry about places like King Biscuit now that Berryhill is considered fine eating.
Elizabeth and I were thinking about making our home in the Heights, but Perry might just succeed in chasing us away. After all, we just moved to 45 and Cavalcade, dead smack in the Moody Park bario. Gentrify that!