CultureMap Exclusive
A new late-night restaurant is rising on Lower Westheimer — and a boutique could be moving to join it
The frame is up on a 4,829-square-foot retail development at the corner of Dunlavy and Westheimer, where Swamplot recently spotted a TABC application for future restaurant tenant, Leaven & Earth.
Jed Mandel of Edge Realty Partners, which handles the leasing at 1706 Westheimer, tells CultureMap that Leaven & Earth will occupy approximately 3,600 square feet of the retail development. A "Montrose-based boutique" is looking to relocate in the remaining 1,200 square feet, Mandel says.
In an interview with Eater in February, pastry chef Roy Shvartzapel explained that the then-unnamed restaurant would be an "avant garde and modern approach to the cafe experience which encompasses the savory, the bread, the pastry and the gelato all executed and conceived at the highest levels."
Shvartzapel, a Houston native, lamented the lack of a decent place "that's not a bar or restaurant to go to at 10 p.m. or even 11 p.m. after a movie to have tea or coffee and a pastry."
(Save, of course, the next door Agora, which serves drinks and desserts and is open 'til 2 a.m. daily, and across-the-street Brasil, as well as Empire Cafe just a jog down the road.)