Twenty cool things about my neighborhood
Everyone’s been talking about the “20 cool things about Houston” phenomenon, and Rob has jumped in with a post about cool things in his neighborhood. Now it’s my turn.
For purposes of this list, I’m going to define the neighborhood pretty tightly. It’s roughly a 2-mile square bound by the Katy Freeway to the north, Kirkwood to the east, Briar Forest to the south and Eldridge to the west.
Here goes:
- Sandy’s Produce Market: It’s a health food store, salad bar and antique shop in a former K-Mart. It’s got a reat salad bar, scores and scores of different teas, and friendly people. (South side of the Katy Freeway, just east of Tully)
- Tully Stadium: It’s pretty impressive for a high school stadium. On fall Friday nights, you can hear the bands and see the lights for quite a while around. (East side of Dairy Ashford, 1/2 mile south of the Katy Freeway)
- Hebert’s Specialty Meats: It’s a Cajun butcher shop. You can get just about any kind of critter jammed with any kind of stuffing you can imagine. Rabbit & broccoli-cheese? No problem. Quail and eggplant? You got it. (West side of Dairy Ashford, 1/2 mile south of the Katy Freeway)
- Spec’s Liquors: One hell of a good liquor store. It has a walk-in humidor, a very nice selection of cheeses, and of course lots and lots of booze. (South side of Memorial, just west of Dairy Ashford)
- Glazed Over Ceramic Studio: Rob and Michelle’s business. You paint pre-made ceramic stuff, like plates, cups, figurines, etc., and the staff glazes and fires the pieces in a kiln. It’s also BYOB, so it’s got that going for it, which is nice. (Same strip center as Spec’s)
- Taco Bell: I don’t know how they do it, but the staff there is unfailingly friendly and remarkably speedy, even at 2:00 in the morning. (Southwest corner of Memorial and Dairy Ashford)
- Houston Shoe Hospital: In an age where nearly everything is disposable or easily replaceable, these guys fix shoes. The fact that they’ve been in business forever is a testament to how well they do it. They can make a shoe last forever, like an axe that’s gone through four handles and two heads. (West side of Dairy Ashford, just south of Memorial)
- Memorial Athletic Club and Aquatic Center: This is a damn fine gym, with lots of everything — free weights, weight machines, cardio equipment, classes, racquetball, basketball, and two swimming pools, one of which is indoors. BONUS COOLNESS: Individual TVs at every elliptical machine, treadmill and bike. (North side of Memorial, just west of Dairy Ashford)
- La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant: This place is an absolute insitution. It’s been serving up the same decent Tex-Mex for well over 30 years. They’ve got a hilarious lounge singer, too.
- Leibman’s Food & Wine: An excellent gourmet food store. They’ve got beer and wine, too. The whole place is full of stuff you can’t get anywhere else, including several pre-made dishes daily. (South side of Memorial, about 3/10 mile east of Dairy Ashford)
- Los Tios Mexican Restaurant: Another institution, though this one doesn’t show its age as much as LaHa. It has a cool cantina off to the side. BONUS COOLNESS: My mom used to be a waitress in that cantina. (West side of Kirkwood, just north of Memorial)
- Moscow: A little Russian grocery store with a deli counter, strong Baltika beer and matryoska nesting dolls that look like Nikita Khrushchev. You can get Penthouse in Russian, too. (Southwest corner of Memorial and Kirkwood)
- Ace Hardware City: It had a better hometown feel in its old location, but now this hardware store has a bigger selection in a nicer building. This is where I get all my Christmas-lighting needs.
- Memorial Citgo: This place has been filling and fixing Bramanti cars since I was in Huggies. Sandy Theocharidis runs a real service station. It used to be Thornhill Texaco, but was recently renovated and rebranded. Sandy and his guys are honest and they charge a fair price. (North side of Memorial, 1/4 mile west of Dairy Ashford)
- Ashford Arms: This is my bar. The crowd is mostly regulars, though the occasional British or Irish expatriate comes in. They have free food most nights (hot dogs, stew or pizza) until it runs out, which it always does. Ask for Filly. (Southwest corner of Dairy Ashford and Perthshire)
- Cafe Rita: A little hole-in-the-wall Lebanese place. George and Rita are friendly as can be, and the dude could sell ice to an eskimo. (”Just try a little bit…”) Great beef shawarma and baba gahnouj. (Same strip center as the Ashford Arms)
- Randalls: I love grocery stores, and this is the best one in the neighborhood. Clean, huge, upscale. True, H-E-B is cheaper, but it’s a big pile of crap. Yeah, Kroger is a one-minute walk from my living room, but the Kroger Co. thinks I should ring up my own groceries. Randalls forever. (Wraps the northwest corner of Memorial and Dairy Ashford)
- St. John Vianney Catholic Church: This has been my parish since I was maybe 3. I don’t go to Mass much there anymore (Diane and I go to the Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas), but it’s still my home parish, and I’m there pretty frequently for Knights of Columbus events. (Nottingham Oaks, just south of Memorial)
- Becks Prime. They make a damn good hamburger and the richest shakes you’ve ever had. The location is nice, too — tucked away in some trees. Swordfish sandwiches, too. (East side of Dairy Ashford, just south of the Katy Freeway)
- The Katy Freeway: Studded with every form of development imaginable, this ribbon of concrete streches from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. When the current expansion is done, it’ll be 18 lanes wide.
Obviously you and I are NOT going to see eye to eye on the whole HEB thing.
HEB is my favorite, if nothing else for the fact that they don’t have those “discount cards” that are nothing more than purchase trackers to better target advertising.
I used to live in some apartments right across from
Stratford High School. And I date myself by saying
this, Gerald Ford once came to the fieldhouse there,
and it was lots of long limos.
Hard to believe La Hacienda is still there. My wife
and I would go there all the time, and would sometimes see a local celebrity there. The waiter
always had our drinks on the way by the time we sat
down.
I know that K-mart now Sandy’s. Sounds like there is
actually something healthy to eat around there now.
Thanx for the memories.
#11
So it was your mom who tossed me out! I used to have an office in the building between Mac Haik’s and the Porsche dealer.
You think HEB is awful I have Three words for you: Wal-mart F$#%ing Supercenter. I’m way out in the boons of Abilene and guess what. We’ve got two. WE’VE GOT TWO! Why? Cause we’re broke and we’re stupid and its cheap so we go there! Sometimes several times a day!!
Hi, Matt. I live in the same area, probably closer to the freeway. We like this area too, and we’ve been here about 15 years now. I agree with you on at least half of these, with a few comments: Los Tios and La Hacienda — they never change, which is cool, but the latter once showed up in a top 10 list of “frequently cited” restaurants by the Houston health department. I don’t mind checking my groceries at Kroger, simply because most people don’t do it and the lines are a lot shorter than at the human checkers. The Randalls is depressing; they used to be more upscale and now they’re just warehouses. I have driven the entire length of I-10, but not in one trip — the western half in 1987 and the eastern half several times since then.
Herbert’s Specialty Meats… Is that the Home of the ‘Turducken’? Gotta admit I’ve never been tempted to eat anything that starts out ‘Turd’. I guess it’s a Cajun thing to eat a meal that required THREE different animals to die.
I’ll have to try that place Sandy’s.
Ever been to Paulie’s on Louetta? Yeah, I know, it ain’t in your neck of the woods, but Northwest Houston/Cypress is pretty much it’s own city, and I prefer it to Houston proper. No offense to ‘Houston proper’ types.
Anyway, back to Paulie’s. They have this insane grilled tuna sandwich with wasabi mayo dressing on it. Order it rare. It’s awesome…
Looks like we must be neighbors. Or at least we were when you wrote this post a couple years ago. I’m behind the Wendy’s. Don’t forget the Mexican Cafe. That place rocks.