On a Monday morning at the end of October, more than 60 people stood in line on 61st Street for a bagel shop with about 30 seats. The Daily News reported that the opening of Bagel Co. Express, at 2724 61st St., came with giveaways and gift certificates. Owner Dillan Mena told the paper that opening in the slower season gives the shop a chance to work out the kinks.
Mena was describing a timing strategy that shows up across the island this fall. Between late October and February, Galveston businesses are opening, moving, rebuilding and getting approvals while summer visitors are mostly gone. The people who fill the first lines, try the first menus and spot the first problems are year-round neighbors. Here is what is changing this winter, roughly in the order it arrives:
- Bagel Co. Express, 2724 61st St., next to Crumbl Cookies
- El Tiempo Cantina, Thomas Jefferson League Building, 2301–2307 Strand
- Indies Coffee Bar & Speakeasy, 1813 61st St. to 1801 Market St.
- East End restaurant project, 14th and Winnie streets
- Pelican Rest Marina, 7819 Broadway
- Planet Fitness, Plaza on Galveston Island, 6303–6327 Stewart Road
Sixty people, thirty seats, one test kitchen for the mainland
Bagel Co. Express is a small version of Galveston Bagel Company, which Dillan Mena and Shelby Mena started in 2021. It began as a mobile kitchen in League City that offered delivery. In 2022 it moved into its permanent home at 1110 23rd St. The original store seats about 100 people. The new one on 61st Street seats about 30, including the patio.
The smaller size is deliberate. Mena told the Daily News that Express shops will run about 1,600 to 1,800 square feet, a size that fits into shopping centers on the mainland. The company sees the 61st Street store as a starting point for more locations, which it may open itself or franchise. So the island store is the prototype. If the concept travels up I-45, it will be built on how it ran this winter.
The menu draws on what made the 23rd Street shop known: hand-rolled bagels, house-made schmears, classic deli sandwiches and locally roasted coffee. Mena also co-owns MAC-IES, the smashburger spot that runs as a food truck at the 23rd Street bagel shop and as a standalone at 2927 Broadway.
The same street is sending a coffee bar downtown
The same corridor figures in another change. Indies Coffee Bar & Speakeasy opened at 1813 61st St. about two years ago. Owner Brandon Jones told the Daily News in mid-October that he plans to move it to 1801 Market St. by the end of the year, and he expected to open there in late October or early November.
The reason for the move is the music. Indies is a coffee roaster owned by a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. It also hosts live music and sells pastries, desserts, beer and wine. Jones said the building on Market Street, which dates to 1898, will have the acoustics the venue needs for its performers. He also said the move puts Indies closer to the island's downtown entertainment.
The two moves point in opposite directions. The mid-island corridor is getting a quick weekday breakfast stop, and downtown is getting an evening venue. Both changes follow from the same thinking about who will walk in during the quiet months.
The Strand's long build-out reaches its last weeks
A few blocks from Market Street, the biggest opening of the season is on The Strand. The Daily News reported on Oct. 16 that after more than two years, the El Tiempo Cantina space downtown was finished. Nearly 80 employees were in training, and the franchise owners were stocking the kitchen for a mid-November opening.
The building has its own history. The Thomas Jefferson League Building at 2301–2307 Strand is an 1871 landmark. George P. Mitchell and his wife, Cynthia, opened the Wentletrap restaurant on its street level in 1980. Facundo Caminos bought the building in 2023 from Mitchell Historic Properties, the company owned by the Mitchell family. His company is the landlord and does not own El Tiempo. El Tiempo shares the ground floor with Belle's Bubbly Bar & Boutique and Patch Co.
El Tiempo is an upscale Tex-Mex chain from the Houston area, known for its fajitas, from-scratch cooking and house margaritas. With a mid-November target, its first weeks of service fall in the off-season too.
Two projects that will take more than one winter
Some of this season's news is about decisions that will take longer to show up. Two of them move older island properties toward new uses.
The first is in the East End Historic District, at the corner of 14th and Winnie streets. Developer Scott Rice owns the two-story brick building there through Sandbar Properties. Its historic address is 701 14th St., and the side entrance to the upstairs apartments is 1401 Winnie. Albert and Josephine Battaglia built it, and they ran a family grocery and meat market downstairs and lived upstairs. Rice wants to restore a historic house he owns nearby and build a 1,600-square-foot addition that joins it to the brick building. The finished development would cover about 8,000 square feet, with a restaurant run by a local operator.
On Oct. 5, Galveston's Landmark Commission voted 5–0 to approve the certificate of appropriateness for 1401 Winnie, according to the OpenTexas meeting summary. That vote covers the outside of the buildings and the addition. Parking is handled separately. Catherine Gorman, the city's assistant director of development services, told the Daily News that parking is governed by the Urban Neighborhood zoning district. That district requires one space for every 1,500 square feet, and staff will check compliance during the permit and certificate of occupancy process. Some neighbors have raised parking concerns, and Rice has said the project will have ample parking.
The corner has a long history as a neighborhood food stop. Before building the brick store, the Battaglias ran a market across the street, in the building most recently home to Mosquito Café at 628 14th St.
The second project is on the north shore of Offatts Bayou. Jim and Jan Pozzi own Number 13 Prime Steak & Seafood at 7809 Broadway. They have bought Pelican Rest Marina next door at 7819 Broadway from the family of Harry "Buddy" Schultz, who built the marina's first phase in 2012. The marina has roughly 130 slips, and the Pozzis told the Daily News that only about 65 are usable since Hurricane Beryl in July 2024. Repairs come first, and a management company will run the marina. Jim Pozzi described the goal this way:
"Hopefully, we'll return it to its glory days."
The slips have drafts of up to 22 feet. The marina was built for boats from 30 feet to more than 100 feet long, and its perimeter side-ties can hold vessels up to 200 feet. With about half the slips out of service, rebuilding the rest is a job for the off-season months.
February 1 on Stewart Road
The latest date on this winter's calendar is out at the Plaza on Galveston Island. Shoe Dept. Encore closed there in August, and the space at 6303–6327 Stewart Road is set to become a Planet Fitness. The Daily News reported a $1.5 million renovation, with construction scheduled to start Oct. 1 and a target completion date of Feb. 1.
That target puts a new gym on the mid-island corridor before spring, on the same side of the island as the new bagel counter on 61st Street.
Whether you've been eyeing the Battaglia corner on Winnie or the slips on Offatts Bayou, our team follows the island the way you do, one opening at a time. If you live near one of this winter's changes and want to know how a new neighbor down the street fits into your home's story, Onyx Realty Group can walk you through it. Request Your Free Property Marketing Plan and we'll start with your block.
