Balinese owner opens new venue

Lounge Wizard: Several new businesses are calling the island’s downtown home. First, Scott Arnold has opened Granite Room, next door to his VooDoo Lounge, 201 26th St. (corner of Mechanic and 26th streets).

“It’s an ultrachic place with beautiful granite floors, bar tops and walls,” Arnold said of his latest night life venture.

Arnold perhaps is best known locally as the owner of the Balinese Room pier, a seawall venue obliterated by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Chef Paul Jordan has whipped up an appetizer menu that includes shrimp and bacon Caesar salads, Caribbean flatbread pizza, rum-soaked raspberry tart with chipotle raspberry sauce and risotto with Greek olives, roasted garlic and feta cheese.

The Granite Room, of course, serves up cocktails but also offers coffees from all around the world. Finally, the lounge features a humidor with a selection from downtown stogie purveyor Havana Alley Cigar Shop & Lounge.

For information, call 409-515-5454.

Suite beat: Also new to the downtown are eight executive suites for rent at 511 23rd St. Camille Soullas and Stephanie De Jesus, principals in the Tremont Executive Suites venture, are making the suites available on a month-to-month basis and also offering long-term leases. Three of the suites, at about 100 square feet each, already are spoken for, they report.

The suites are marketed to entrepreneurs who need office space on flexible terms. Standard amenities include utilities, mail service, high-speed Internet, a receptionist and use of conference room and kitchenette. Business support services such as typing are available for additional fees.

For information, call Soullas at 409-539-5939.

Scooting in: Meanwhile, Scooter Depot has opened in the same building as Tremont Executive Suites. Scooter Depot offers scooters for rent in various sizes and “trikes,” which have three wheels.

For information, call Pete Soullas, 409-497-4779.

Checking Inn: Construction is complete and the island’s newest hotel, Country Inns & Suites, has opened at 29th Street and Seawall Boulevard. Dimplejit Singh is the owner and manager of the 60-room property. Amenities include an indoor pool and whirlpool, a fitness center and meeting space for up to 20 people. The rooms come with free wired and wireless high-speed Internet access, microwave, refrigerator and flat panel televisions.

For information, visit www.countryinns.com.

Detail, details: Some readers want to know where, oh where, has the island’s Doggie Detailers gone? The pet grooming salon has moved to 6608 Stewart Road.

For information, call 409-740-2547.

Cheers in order? A purveyor of adult beverages has opened a store in Texas City. Royal Liquor has moved into a 1,875-square-foot space in the Texas City Bay Shopping Center, southeast corner of Palmer Highway and state Highway 146.

Centro Properties Group is the owner of the shopping center and was represented in the transaction by Crystal Childs with Centro Properties.

Cable competitor: A reader asked Biz Buzz to dial up some information about when AT&T might offer its U-Verse services in League City, specifically in the Brittany Bay subdivision.

U-Verse includes high-speed Internet, TV, home phone and wireless services. U-Verse is a direct competitor of Comcast, the dominant player in this market.

U-Verse is only available in parts of the island and in parts of Friendswood, Mike Barger, a spokesman with AT&T U-Verse, said.

The company always is exploring growth and seeking opportunities where there’s demand, Barger said. Also, much depends on network building and regulatory and permitting issues. Contrary to popular belief, U-Verse’s expansion in the county is not inhibited by Comcast’s franchise agreements with cities in the county.

“The two are not connected,” Barger said. “A city’s agreement with the local cable TV company does not impact AT&T’s decision on whether to enter a new market.”

Still, there are no immediate plans to expand in League City, Barger said.

“It’s not in our footprint, which means we don’t have phone lines there,” he said. “Our U-verse deployment is based on bringing fiber (optic lines) closer to our customers and these upgrades are being made to our existing local access network.

“We’re focused on making these upgrades to our existing network as quickly as possible. We do not have plans to go beyond our current footprint at this time.”

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