For most of fifty years, the biggest name on Upper Kirby's Southwest Freeway frontage was a store you went to a few times in your life. Noël Furniture sold designer sofas, dining tables, handmade rugs and statement art from its showroom at 2727 Southwest Fwy. People shopped there when they furnished a new house or redid a living room, and then not again for years.
This fall the showroom set Oct. 25 as its last day. Over the same stretch, the newest businesses on Richmond Avenue and the freeway feeder have been the kind you visit on a Tuesday: a Vietnamese family restaurant serving lunch and dinner, a counter-service Georgian bakery that takes pickup orders, and, on the way, a Tex-Mex chain known for breakfast and a golf simulator club built around 24/7 memberships. Taken together, the southern edge of Upper Kirby is turning into a place neighbors use every week.
Fifty years, 50,000 square feet and a single address
Noël Furniture opened around 1977. Over the years it carried interior design products and luxury lines including Marge Carson, Elite Leather and Stone International. Owner Tod Noël announced his retirement in June, and a liquidation sale ran for months, with markdowns of 50% to 80% in its final days. When Community Impact reported the closing, it quoted his farewell post on the company website:
"For five decades, it has been our privilege to help clients create homes of beauty, warmth and distinction."
The scale matters for what comes next. The showroom covers 50,000 square feet, and the building was sold before the liquidation sale started. Those 50,000 square feet served one kind of trip: a considered, once-in-a-while purchase. Each of the two freeway projects described below comes in under 3,000 square feet.
On Richmond, the first new arrival is a restaurant with an 18-year following
Huynh Restaurant soft-opened its second location at 2720 Richmond Ave. in early August. The family-run Vietnamese restaurant has spent 18 years in East Downtown, and the Upper Kirby menu matches the original: spring rolls, rice plates, noodle bowls and stir-fry. It serves two shifts a day, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The timing on the EaDo side is why this opening matters more than a typical second location. According to Community Impact's report on the Upper Kirby opening, restaurant officials say the original East Downtown location is set to close at the end of 2026 because of the Interstate 45 expansion. If that holds, Richmond Avenue becomes Huynh's only home within a few weeks. A restaurant built over 18 years for its downtown regulars would then rely on its Upper Kirby neighbors.
That is a different relationship with the street from the one the showroom had. A lunch-and-dinner restaurant only works if the same people come back often.
Farther west on Richmond, a bakery built around pickup
Bread Boat soft-opened Oct. 16 at 3835 Richmond Ave., toward the Greenway Plaza end of the corridor. It is the Austin restaurant's first location outside its hometown. The Houston opening was first expected in early September and slipped by about six weeks.
The menu centers on khachapuri, the Georgian bread shaped by hand into a boat and filled with molten cheese, egg yolk and butter. Community Impact's opening story also lists half-and-half boats such as the Beef Boat, with slow-braised beef, tomatoes and spices. Other breads include Lobiani, made with mashed kidney beans, smoky bacon, onions and herbs, and Kubdari, a spiced ground-beef bread from Svaneti. Entrees are sized for two, and the drinks list includes Georgian wines, beers and lemonades, among them a qvevri-fermented Dila-O Rkatsiteli-Mtsvane sold by the glass or bottle.
Two details point to the same everyday pattern as Huynh. Bread Boat is counter service, with food baked to order, and it began taking pickup orders on Oct. 26, ten days after its doors opened. That setup suits a weeknight dinner as well as a destination meal.
The freeway feeder follows the same pattern
The two newest projects sit on the Southwest Freeway feeder near Greenway Plaza, at the corridor's western end. Both are registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, so their schedules are public.
Taco Palenque at 3797 Southwest Fwy. The Laredo-based chain, known for breakfast items, tacos and fajitas, is converting a former Whataburger. The TDLR project record shows renovation starting Sept. 1, with completion expected by mid-February 2027. The adaptive-reuse project is estimated at $1.2 million for a 2,975-square-foot building.
Back Nine Golf at 3800 Southwest Fwy., Ste. 136. The indoor simulator franchise is taking space in the Southwest Freeway Retail Center, which already has a Starbucks, a med spa, a dental office and several restaurants. The TDLR filing describes a $350,000 build-out of 2,953 square feet, with construction set to start Nov. 6 and a target completion of Jan. 1, 2027. Dates are subject to change.
Back Nine is the clearest example of the shift. The franchise runs membership facilities open 24/7, with prices from $219 to $499 a month. The Birdie tier includes round-the-clock access, two-hour tee times and up to three guests free. Bays use TrackMan technology and a Tiger Woods Full Swing simulator, with 250 virtual courses. They track ball speed, launch angle and club path for golfers working on their game. A business that charges monthly needs members who keep coming back. This will be the franchise's second location inside Loop 610, after its Heights location opened late last year.
Combined, the two freeway projects add up to about 5,900 square feet. That is roughly one-eighth of the floor space Noël Furniture occupied. The new businesses are smaller, and they are built for frequent visits.
The corridor calendar, dated
| Address | Business | Status | Key date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2727 Southwest Fwy. | Noël Furniture | Set Oct. 25 as last day after about 50 years; building sold | Oct. 25, 2026 |
| 2720 Richmond Ave. | Huynh Restaurant | Open, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–9 p.m. | Soft opening early August 2026 |
| 3835 Richmond Ave. | Bread Boat | Open for dine-in and pickup | Soft opening Oct. 16; pickup from Oct. 26 |
| 3800 Southwest Fwy., Ste. 136 | Back Nine Golf | Build-out scheduled | Start Nov. 6; target Jan. 1, 2027 |
| 3797 Southwest Fwy. | Taco Palenque | Renovation in progress | Target mid-February 2027 |
How the next three months look from the street
For someone on the corridor in mid-November, the order is simple. Huynh and Bread Boat are serving now, a few blocks apart on Richmond. Huynh's year-end move to a single location falls in the next seven weeks.
Back Nine's build-out at the retail center was scheduled to begin Nov. 6, with a target of New Year's Day. Golfers who want a winter practice routine will be waiting on that suite.
Taco Palenque comes last. Renovation of the former Whataburger on the feeder is expected to wrap up by mid-February 2027, about four months after Bread Boat opened. Once both freeway projects are finished, the corridor will have a Tex-Mex stop known for breakfast, a lunch spot, a dinner pickup and a place to practice your swing late at night.
The 50,000-square-foot showroom at 2727 Southwest Fwy. is the one address on this list without a next tenant on the calendar. Whatever goes there will be the biggest single change to this edge of Upper Kirby.
At Nan & Co Properties, we track Upper Kirby address by address, from a showroom's last day to a permit's target date, because these openings shape what a home near Richmond Avenue is like to live in. When you want that block-level knowledge working for your own plans, Discover the Nan Difference.
