Rockhouse Southern Kitchen co-owner speaks about incident in parking lot
Cracking down on Houston nightlife crime
Houston nightlife has received good and bad attention and we've reported on how city officials are working on how to crack down on the crime. FOX 26's Leslie Delasbour spoke to a co-owner about the bad patrons.
HOUSTON - FOX 26 has reported on how city officials are working to crackdown on crime and bad actors at popular bars and clubs, to keep patrons and the people who live in those neighborhoods safe.
Over the weekend there was an incident at the Rockhouse Southern Kitchen on Richmond but co-owner Rob Wright says it was not his customers that caused the issue.
FOX’s Leslie DelasBour sat down with Wright Houston City Council member Edward J. Pollard about how they're working to cut down on chaos at clubs and bars in District J.
Rockhouse Southern Kitchen co-owner speaks out
The backstory:
Rob Wright, owner of Rockhouse Southern Kitchen on Richmond, says his doors are typically closed at 1:30 or 2 a.m., and his staff does last call around 1:15, so this weekend’s incident that left 5 injured here in this parking lot is not only uncommon but did not involve his customers.
"Looked like it was a skirmish between five or six guests from another concept clearly, and then all of a sudden this car just zooms out of nowhere and just starts playing pinball machine with customers," Wright said. "Looking at the cameras the actual incident took place around 2:45 a.m. because we are a large parking lot on the Richmond strip obviously there are other neighboring bars where some of their patrons decide they want to park in our parking lot."
Wright says it’s tough to police everyone in the parking lot, and he's had issues with his gates staying closed because people will cut chains they use to lock the gates, and get into his lot. He says he’s disturbed by what happened, but there will be changes moving forward.
"We have a valet company who typically manages that, and now they are going to have to do a better job policing themselves," said Wright. "We’re finding out not necessarily in a bad way, but we are finding out that the people that are occupying our lot are from other bars and are prohibiting some of our customers from parking late at night."
Council member Edward Pollard on keeping Houston’s nightlife safe
Why you should care:
"We need policy in the City of Houston that allows HPD to go on private property and be able to make cars and individuals leave if they don’t have proper consent to be on the property," said Pollard." We can put all the cameras up the speed traps we can do the club checks but people are going to have to find more ways to be responsible, and the city has put forth policy that when they don't, we can crackdown."
Being in the hospitality game for roughly two decades, Wright says this business is about not only managing the establishment but people. Council member Pollard, who represents, says he and his office have put things in place is District J.
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"Specifically, on the Richmond corridor, we’ve added Flock cameras, which are license plate reading cameras, mobile security cameras. We’ve also worked with the different establishments on educating them on best practices when locking up their properties after hours so that people cannot congregate there. We have mobile speed trailers we’ve worked with HPD getting routine club checks," Pollard said. "People have to take personal responsibility for their actions. People are out speeding, drinking, and staying out at late hours and sometimes confrontation happens when you mix all that together."
Wright says he even works closely with his staff to ensure they are trained to know when a customer has had too much to drink.
"You have to get your manager involved don’t embarrass the customer, you have to isolate the customer and let them know privately hey you’ve had too much to drink we will call you an Uber, call you a taxi," said Wright.
Wright says moving forward he will continue to have conversations with his neighbors so they can work together to ensure businesses and customers are safe.
The Source: Leslie Delasbour spoke one-on-one with Rob Wright, owner of Rock House Southern Kitchen on Richmond. and