Good bye to The Garden Gate

The Garden Gate has been a profuse labor of love for twenty-odd years in Rice Village.

In earlier days, Texquiem noticed it while on Morningside pub crawls to Gingerman's and Little Woodrow's.  It is lush and tranquil and quirky.  You could spend hours strolling its grounds, taking in fountains, statuary, goldfish, and greenery.

  

I took these pictures with this cheap little flip-wannabe-Vivitar.  Never posted them because I thought, "Oh, I'll go back and take better ones, with my iphone or a real camera."  

But time runs short.  The upscaling of Rice Village is unrelenting.  And so The Garden Gate falls.

As reported in the Houston Chronicle, here, and in Swamplot, here, The Garden Gate's property has been sold.  The little gem has opened (and closed)  for the last time.  True to reports, the place is looking oddly lonely and sadly scavenged.  In its place to come, a 12-story, 200 unit apartment building.  Given this particular developer's precedent, lot-line-to-lot-line cement is forthcoming.  I expect greenery only in architectural drawings and token pots flanking the entrance door. 

Goodbye, The Garden Gate, and thank you for so many years of inspiration.

boheme

Tucked behind this facade used to be a dusty little lighting shop whose specialty was antique and vintage fixtures.  Cue the girl with an old porch light in hand, just  <ahem> a few years back, who opened the door.  Instead of the overhead array of lights rescued from Montrose-area teardowns and re-do's was a view much more inviting.  I set down the porch light and sat down at the bar.


Boheme Cafe and Wine Bar.  That's a mouthful, and it doesn't seem that anyone calls it more than boheme.  But no need to burnish the name.  It's fair to say there's not a bad seat in the house or garden or patio.  But I most often return to the warmth of the wood and stone bar--the best vantage to take it all in.  The old brick walls, antique lights (don't think they're hold-overs from the shop but I'm going to pretend they are), changing art, indie-vibe waiters and barkeep, this place glows.