Openings & Closings: February 2011

As we showed you in our sneak peek earlier this week, The Blue Fish is now open at Bayou Place downtown. The Dallas-based sushi bar will also open a second Houston location in a few months next door to benjy’s on Washington Avenue., where a new build-out is currently being constructed.

Also in development across town, another Dallas-based restaurant is coming in to roost. Frozen yogurt store Red Mango is getting ready to open its second Houston location at CityCentre. The grand opening is tomorrow, March 5, and the shop will be celebrating by offering its signature all-natural, non-fat frozen yogurt for free from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day.

Two more steps have been completed towards the opening of El Real Tex-Mex Cafe: the chairs that were salvaged from the old Felix restaurant down the street have been fully restored, as has the blazingly bright neon marquee that’s once again lighting up the Westheimer curve.

In closings, we learned from CultureMap and My Table‘s weekly newsletter — virtually at the same time — that Arturo Boada is parting ways with his namesake restaurant, Arturo’s Uptown Italiano, and will soon be opening his own space in Tanglewood (not too far from his current customer base, wisely).

Out in Katy, popular Italian restaurant Bella Luna closed unexpectedly, as did the equally popular Basil Grill, a Persian restaurant in far west Houston. And it looks like The Woodlands wasn’t able to sustain Tamarind Indian Bistro & Market, which rounds out the closings for this past week.

After the jump, a roundup of all the openings and closings from February.

Openings:

Akashi Sushi Asian Cuisine, 2271 Northpark Drive, Kingwood
Ava Kitchen & Whiskey Bar, 2800 Kirby
Blue Fish Houston, 550 Texas
The Boneyard, 8150 Washington
Burger Girl, 17117 Highway 249
Char House Bar & Grille, 2268 Texas Drive, Sugar Land
Convey, 801 Congress
ERA, 809 Congress
Fratelli’s Ristorante, 1330 Wirt, Suite D
Gridiron Bar & Grill, 4524 Highway 6, Sugar Land
Little Daddy’s Gumbo Bar, 1615 FM 646, Suite D, League City
Milano’s Pizzeria & Italian Grill, 9135 W. Sam Houston Parkway North
North End Village Bistro, 24179 Highway 249, Tomball
Majorca Island Bistro and Tapas, 207 West Gray
Philippe, 1800 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 6110
Pondicheri, 2800 Kirby
The Whole in the Wall BBQ, 13655 Bissonnet, Suite 103
Vina Cafe, 5553 Highway 6

Closings:

Basil Grill, 7952 Westheimer
Bella Luna, 3010 North Fry Road, Katy
Cajun Shack, 2500 Marina Bay Drive, League City
Cajun Tails, 11037 FM 1960
Cupcake Cafe, 16525 Lexington Blvd, Sugar Land
Dave’s Rib Shack, 5102 FM 1960
El Fresh Taco, 19901 Kingsland
Idyl Hours Tea Room, 12639 Kluge, Cypress
Polo’s Signature, 3800 Southwest Freeway, Suite 124
Swampy’s Cajun Shack, 406 W. Grand Parkway, Suite 400, Katy
Tamarind Indian Bistro & Market, 202 Sawdust, The Woodlands
Vino 100, 6700 Woodlands Parkway, Suite 210, The Woodlands

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