Rice Village is a shopping district in Houston, Texas, United States.
Rice Village is a collection of shops, restaurants and pubs, situated about a half-mile west of the center of Rice University's 300-acre (1.2 km2) campus. The core "Rice Village" extends over 10 city blocks, defined by University Boulevard, Kirby Drive, Rice Boulevard, and Morningside Drive, though spillover has expanded the retail area to a total of 16 blocks, including northward extensions along Kirby and into the present mixed-use blocks between Morningside and Greenbriar.
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Rice Village has been one of Houston's oldest shopping destinations since the 1930s. It is an unplanned, high density hodge-podge of old and new retail store.
The first minutes of the 1994 film The Chase were filmed in the Rice Village.
From its origins in the 1930s an ad hoc cluster of retail stores, the Rice Village has grown to become one of Houston's more interesting and variable shopping destinations. Host to over 300 shops in a 16-block area, Rice Village has something for everyone and is known for its multitudes of small and eclectic shops and boutiques. Recent expansion in the area has also brought in high-end clothing stores and the nation-wide retail venues. As Village retail became denser in the 1990s, limited parking finally led to the closure of Rice Food Market, the last surviving Rice Village grocery store.
The Village is host to dozens of restaurants. Along with traditional North American eateries there are restaurants specializing in food from all over the world. Rice Village has three French, two Japanese, two Chinese, two Italian, two Turkish, one Mexican, two Spanish, one Mediterranean, one Vietnamese, two Indian, and three Thai restaurants as well as sandwich shops, delicatessens, and speciality food and beverage stores. It also used to contain Houston's only beer brewpub.
Rice Village is in Texas' 7th congressional district [1].
The neighborhood is within the Houston Police Department's South Central Patrol Division [2].
One group of apartments, the Village Apartments, is located in Rice Village.
The complex is zoned to the following Houston ISD schools:
North Houston Enclosed malls: Greenspoint Mall | Northwest Mall | Willowbrook Mall West & Central Houston Enclosed malls: The Galleria | Memorial City Mall | West Oaks Mall Southern & Southwest Houston Enclosed malls: PlazAmericas (Sharpstown Mall) Galveston & Southeast suburbs Enclosed malls: Almeda Mall | Baybrook Mall | Brazos Mall | Mall of the Mainland | Pasadena Town Square | San Jacinto Mall Fort Bend County / Sugar Land Enclosed malls: First Colony Mall | Katy Mills Northern suburbs/Montgomery County Enclosed malls: Deerbrook Mall | The Woodlands Mall |