Orr's Food Center

This picture from Loopnet is the best picture I can find; unfortunately, it's the renovated version. It didn't use to look like this.

We've touched on Piggly Wiggly before, with the first local store in 1963 (well, under Piggly Wiggly Red River, anyway, apparently one existed a generation earlier in Bryan) and the fifth store they opened when Lewis & Coker departed from their space next to Kmart.

But an important part of Piggly Wiggly's growth in the area...before falling to an over-saturated market (the area was "overgroceried" in 1985, a chronic issue that would last into the 1990s with Winn-Dixie closing its College Station store for the same reason)...was Orr's. Waldon H. Orr got involved with Louis Mauro's Louis' Market at Main Street and 23rd Street in 1939 (324 Main Street, a small storefront by today's standards) and in April 1948 opened a comparatively modern store at 200 East 24th Street, featuring just 8,500 square feet of space. At the time, Orr's Food Center was the largest grocery store in town (a record that has been continuously been broken). A few years later, Orr opened a second store at 3516 S. Texas Avenue and in the 1960s completed an expansion that almost doubled the size of the store, to approximately 12,000 square feet. While the downtown location remained as Orr's Food Center, the second location was referred to as Orr's Minimax, a franchised operation of stores that was owned by wholesaler Fleming Company Incorporated¹. In 1971, both Orr's stores were sold to Piggly Wiggly Red River Co., Inc., a large Piggly Wiggly franchisee operation out of Shreveport with stores from Austin to Baton Rouge² and stretching up to Missouri, which simply rebranded the Orr's stores as its own name (you can see Orr's in Piggly Wiggly form here). In the early 1980s Piggly Wiggly Red River either collapsed or otherwise sold its stores to Six Star Foods, a consortium of local businessmen, at which point consisting of just the two former Orr's, the former Lewis & Coker store, the Hearne store, and a store in Rockdale. Six Star Foods ceased operations in December 1985. The first to go was the Rockdale store (closed within a matter of months), then the one next to Kmart, and lastly this location, along with it the other Bryan location (the Hearne store was sold to Malone & Hyde³).

In 1986 Frank and Pete Palasota reopened the store as Pal's Supermarket. Pal's rearranged the store to make the shelves lower and easier to get around the store (with making multiple half-aisles instead of longer ones) but I think this was just a way to stock less merchandise. Pal's was unfortunately a failure, closing sometime in late 1987 with little fanfare. If Six Star Foods couldn't keep Piggly Wiggly afloat with the competition, Pal's couldn't do better. Pal's was mentioned as one of the participating retailers of a Brazos Food Bank food drive³ and the last mention of it was in March 1987 when a 67-year-old man drove into the parking lot in his truck and took his own life.

Not too long after (I suspect Pal's sold the lease and quietly closed) A.B.E. Systems, an office supplies dealer took up the space but it must have left something behind as references appear in 1998 for an antiques store called "A Bygone Era", and in 1999, "A Better Environment".

By 2005, it was divided into two smaller medical suites, with an otolaryngologist taking up residence (David Suchowiecky, MD) and chiropractor David Bailey, DC, in the other (d/b/a Back & Joint Clinic), and by 2007 the ENT doctor had been replaced by Lone Star Legal Aid. By December 2012 it was Infinity Real Estate & Management and by 2016, Wayne Carroll Enterprises (looks like the corporate office of The Chocolate Gallery, if that's the same business).

By 2022 the building had been renovated, losing the original architectural features like the glazed glass blocks of Orr's and had smaller tenants. With the East 24th facade divided into 200, 202, and 204 (200-202 having AB Hormone Therapy, 204 having St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store and the Tabor side also getting sub-divided, with 307 North Tabor Road getting a branch of Engel & Völkers, and 311 North Tabor Road getting Dirt Road Home, it seems that at least the building has a future ahead of it, but there's nothing at the site to remind visitors to downtown Bryan of what was once the town's largest, most modern grocery store.

1. For more information on Minimax, please see Houston Historic Retail. Fleming (later Fleming Companies starting around 1981) will also figure a bit into this story.
2. Piggly Wiggly was never truly a chain, it franchised its name and format, much like a fast food franchise. Both H-E-B and Winn-Dixie were originally Piggly Wiggly franchisees.
3. Memphis-based Malone & Hyde were the owners of the Piggly Wiggly brand at the time and based out of Memphis. Besides being the one-time owner of Piggly Wiggly, its biggest success was Auto Shack, founded in 1978 and spun off in 1986 (renamed AutoZone in 1987 due to a lawsuit by Tandy Corporation). Malone & Hyde (and by extension Piggly Wiggly) were sold to Fleming Companies in 1988, and in 2003 C&S Wholesale Grocers got the brand in Fleming Companies' bankruptcy.
4. The others included the "big three" at the time, Safeway, Kroger, and Winn-Dixie...plus 7-Eleven.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm in the middle of another project that I hope will be a big thing (can't reveal too much of it right now) but as part of that, Kettle and Fort Shiloh got big updates. Pay attention to the Confucius Chinese Cuisine page as well...that's also to receive a major update, hopefully coming by October 6th.

Aggieland Outfitters

Picture by author, April 2014. I had to touch it up to make visible.
Moving down University Drive to University Drive East from our last post we get to 303 University Drive East. (All these years later and I still have University Drive East photos from 2014...and more to come!). I wanted to briefly touch on this Aggieland Outfitters location as part of phasing out the Carbon-izer.com City Directories (of College Station-Bryan). Originally, there were two buildings here, and Aggieland Outfitters opened in 303A University Drive East in 2010 (there were two other locations; one on George Bush Drive, the other at Post Oak Mall). A few years later (2013), both buildings were torn down for a new Aggieland Outfitters store. New parking was soon added after that, but it was reconfigured (mostly torn up) to build a new office building to replace the parent company location (Kalcorp Enterprises) at Graham Road. I can't find too much on the original pre-2013 buildings as they were mostly intended for non-retail use from the looks of it. In 1984, 303-B was home to Sun Shield Applications, in 1993 and 2001 WTA Leasing (apartment locator service) and I can't find anything for 303-A. This Yelp review suggests it might have been a dental office at one point which would make sense...if the review wasn't from 2018. In any case, the former buildings are one of the things in town that I still know little about.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Recently I went back and updated Taco Villa's article which goes over its history as Del Taco and Quick as a Flash. And always, if you like this blog, don't forget to donate!

University Book Store on Northgate

There have been a few changes since this June 2013 picture (picture by author), Domino's changed its font, its logo, and painted the building tan, Potbelly changed the logo and is now "Potbelly Sandwich Shop". Oh and Starbucks closed!
By now you may have heard that Starbucks at 409 University Drive is closing. With this blog's current policy on what can be included, that would qualify it alone, but it goes back farther than that. From what I can tell the building was built in the late 1950s per Brazos CAD hosting Shaffer's at 409 Sulphur Springs and a few other tenants, most notably in the 411 space where Starbucks later lived for years. (I have heard the original tenant was a second location of a Bryan jewelry store called Varner's, but have yet to verify that).

In any case, at the 409 space was Shaffer's, a bookstore that had other items like music, hobbyist items (boats, cars, and airplanes), and a few other items.¹ By 1967 the store had become Shaffer's University Book Store and by 1973 had dropped the Shaffer's moniker. University Book Store didn't occupy the entire space during its nearly fifty-year lifespan. Aside from the supposed Varner's location, in 1969, 411 University became home to the A&M Agency of the National Farm Life Insurance Company and in the early 1980s changed hands to The Yogurt Pump, a frozen yogurt shop (possibly the first of its kind in College Station). The parent company of The Yogurt Pump, Lone Star Yogurt Company, retooled the business for fall 1983 as Sweetlix Creamery (after actually going under the Lone Star Yogurt Company name in summer 1983), but that closed in 1984 and reopened in fall 1984 as Mignone's Italian Ices (which also sold some pasta dishes too). By 1986 it was going as Mignone's of Philadelphia (was there even a Mignone's in Philadelphia? Who knows!). After 1986 there's no more references to it; I guess University Book Store did absorb the extra space.

From what I can tell around 2001 they sub-leased a portion to Domino's Pizza (which moved from their old location at 1504 Holleman Drive (part of that was to help move them closer to the university, as their 3104 Texas Avenue South location was doing business in College Station) and the whole chain collapsed (with their other locations like their University Drive East store and their extremely short-lived Wellborn Road location) in early 2006. After it closed, part of it was filled with Domino's, which moved from their old location at 1504 Holleman Drive (part of that was to help move them closer to the university, as their 3104 Texas Avenue South location was doing business in most of the growing south College Station area).

The vacant space was redeveloped in time for fall 2006 with Potbelly Sandwich Works as it was called back then (now it's just Potbelly Sandwich Shop2) occupying most of the space and the corner hosting Starbucks Coffee in August 2006. (It was the second "real" Starbucks in town after the opening of the Texas Avenue and Holleman location which was the first).

The Starbucks would operate for the next 19 years but in September 2025 it would announce its closure effective on the 27th. Despite being the most easily accessible Starbucks to foot traffic, the store had its challenges. It closed early (7 pm, not good for late-night studying), wasn't really unique anymore (as licensed Starbucks now operate throughout the campus), had what was likely the highest rent among the other stores, lacked a drive-through (only the 2002 Holleman/Texas location lacks a drive-through, and that has lower rent...plus parking). Plus, it's just not unique anymore. It was fun when it was one of only two Starbucks shops in town, but now (after this closure) there will still be nine others, all located strategically around town. It is still Northgate though, so I expect it to be replaced with something, perhaps another coffee shop or cafe, in short order.

1. Shaffer's had moved from a smaller location.
2. It should be noted that earlier in September, Potbelly announced its sale to convenience store/gas station operator RaceTrac but I didn't think that to be significant enough to be included in the prose.

What was on Texas Avenue before Super 8?

A nice picture of the original 301 Texas courtesy The Eagle. Note the Red Barn Cafe behind it.

Will I ever run out of things to talk about on Texas Avenue? Not yet! Much like the Fairfield Inn next to it (well, it's Best Western as of this writing), the College Station Super 8 was a 1990s redevelopment of older businesses on that lot. While the Fairfield Inn, er, Best Western, is in Bryan, the Super 8 (301 Texas Avenue South) is in College Station. But before we get to the Super 8 there's what needs to be covered before that.

301 Texas Avenue was originally A-1 Auto Parts when it opened in 1976, a NAPA parts dealership, but closed in the mid-1980s to be replaced with Brazos Valley Small Engine in spring 1986, which then became Aggie Solar Guard in 1989 (renamed to Ag Solar Guard by late 1990) but in 1993 it relocated to 3410 S. Texas Avenue. (More on that another time.)

But of course, before A-1 Auto Parts, one door down was a business originally home to Tastee-Freez. Tastee-Freez was here starting in 1957 to the early 1970s. Tastee-Freez counted about 1,800 units in the 1950s and 1960s but imploded as they couldn't control franchises. (Good luck finding a Tastee-Freez that's not part of a Wienerschnitzel or Original Hamburger Stand). Tastee-Freez (315 Texas Avenue S., but I have seen the address given as 209 originally) soon gave way to Discount Liquor No. 2 around 1971-1972, and by 1974 was home to The Grapevine (see this post). By 1977 The Grapevine had moved for The Senter-Piece (a floral shop). Despite this rapid changeover in tenants, the Tastee-Freez was still on many peoples' mind and the Grapevine mentioned it was in the former building. The Senter-Piece closed in 1981 and by 1983 it had given way to Brazos Valley Pools & Spas which seems to be unrelated to both a 1999 business off Highway 21 and the current (since 2008) Brazos Valley Pools & Spas mentioned when this site covered Barry Pool Company down near the end. A few years after that the pool company, it was campaign offices for Peter Geren's 1986 run for office, then became Discount Bike Company (also known as Discount Bike Repair) which operated from 1987 to 1993. (There isn't much on Discount Bike Company other than one ad at the very end selling Rollerblades). Discount Bike Company was the last tenant here, closing in 1993.

I've never been to the local Super 8 before, so I can't say much on it (looking around on the Internet it does say there are 89 rooms on three floors). It did receive a new logo after 2008 when then-parent company Wyndham Worldwide changed the logo...and sometime around 2024-2025 received red accents on the exterior.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite the recent slow-down in schedule there's more to check out! For example, we updated the Kettle article to account for the demise of Salad and Go, there's more beyond the limits of Brazos County at Numbered Exits and of course don't forget to donate on Ko-fi, we have a goal now!

Blinn Bryan Campus featuring Schulman 6

The full Blinn campus as of spring 2010, outlined in red-orange. College Park Center is the brown-roofed building toward the bottom specifically.
Class is back in session for the fall, so what better time to start this first week with a college-oriented post? I've briefly talked about the Blinn Bryan Campus in the past (particularly when it came to the shoddy offerings in the Student Center) but I wanted to give another overview with it. It's been a while since I last set foot in Blinn (not too many good things to say about it) but the first three buildings in the campus were dedicated in January 1997 with the others being filled out a few years afterward. The Taco Bell mentioned in the old thread did indeed operate in the Student Center building (that's the second from the left in the main campus, if you were looking at it from above) from approx. 2000-2003, though from 2010 to 2015 Maui Wowi set up a kiosk as well. The far left building housed the student center before it was bumped to the far building near the "College Park Center" campus...before that it was the administration building (back in the early 2010s)¹...and there was a strip mall before, notably housing DoubleDave's PizzaWorks (approx. 1998-2006)...and overall wasn't much to write home about (I took no pictures there, though I only had my crummy old cellphone camera back then).

The only real thing on campus of note was the "College Park Center" building, which was "connected" to campus by a 200-yard crosswalk through the parking lot. While I can't comment on the current Schulman's Movie Bowl Grille undergoing construction (or rather, lack thereof) at South College Avenue and Villa Maria Road, for decades the Schulman family operated theaters in Bryan. One of these was off East 29th Street. The Skyway Twin Drive-In opened in 1969 but closed around 1981, to be replaced by the Schulman 6 (which operated on a much smaller footprint) and opened January 1982, featuring the following movies: Modern Problems, Reds, Cinderella², Sharky's Machine, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. While these movies all appeared later than what is in other cities (a common problem in Bryan-College Station at the time), it appears that at some point Schulman 6 became a second-run movie house, though I can't tell when (another article mentions that Cinemark had some sort of exclusivity contract when it opened, so possibly around 1993). There were interesting parts found in research, like the murder of theater manager Don Cravens Jr. in November 1988 (found dead the next morning)³. In April 1997 it closed and reopened in September as College Park 6 featuring first run movies (the first movies were Deep Impact, Titanic, The Big Hit, Lost in Space, The Odd Couple II, and The Object of My Affection.

I saw a few movies at Schulman 6 (renamed College Park 6 in the late 1990s) before it closed less than five years later.⁴ I don't remember which movies I saw specifically here (as opposed to the Cinemark Hollywood USA theater), though I do remember I saw Dinosaur here.

After it closed, it was purchased by Blinn and renovated into classrooms, with the first classes held in summer 2003. The largest theater was turned into lecture halls (keeping the seats from the 1997 renovation, albeit cleaned and re-installed), with the others also being converted to classrooms. Later on, the projection rooms upstairs were turned into studios for art classes (at some point an elevator installed and some other changes to make it ADA-compliant, but it still felt cramped up there)⁵. For a brief time in the early 2010s a mural was painted outside but that disappeared after a year or two.

1. This is now the college bookstore. The administration moved out to the Tejas Center at some point around the late 2000s.
1. Before the Walt Disney Classics VHS releases (colloquially, the "Black Diamond" collection) and the "Disney Renaissance", Disney re-released its classic animated films (basically up to and including The Jungle Book) in theaters on a semi-regular basis, with Cinderella in particular getting re-released no less than five times.
2. The way the paper phrased it indicated it wasn't immediately obvious that he was murdered, and while it was officially a robbery, the fact that it also involved another man who was Cravens' old lover makes the details a little more sketchy.
3. I tried to find what the last movies shown by the theater were. The newspaper printed the movies for Cinemark but in the last weeks of College Park 6's operation, it just read to "call for showtimes".
4. Records show the elevator was installed in 2010.

Triangle Drive-In

Ironically, the "Charcoal Room" was not the one that burned down. I had to bump up the brightness a bit on this one. (Picture from author, 8/22).

I missed August 5th (sick all day) to make a new post and the next opportunity to fill in the "post in days not previously made" is September 21st. (Always next year).

As of this writing, Chicken Oil Company has reopened, but before I rewrite that post I wanted to talk about another building on the property but had a different address and different history, even if it was used as a "party room" for Chicken Oil Company in later days.

This link currently has a picture of the Triangle as it appeared in 1948 (if the link dies, search Project HOLD or its successors for "Triangle Drive-In; photos (Aug. 1948)" without quotes--that is, if Project HOLD isn't down itself, which it is as of this writing). Friend of the site "Bryan-College Station, Texas: Now and Then" explains some of the history here (archived link--Facebook not required). You can also see an early photo of the drive-in here at this YouTube video.

From what it looks like, when the Triangle Drive-In expanded in 1957 to the Charcoal Room, the awnings to that building disappeared and another structure was built to the south and assumed the address of 3606 South College Avenue. The 1940s building remained during all this time. In the mid-1960s Triangle closed and by late 1967 had become the Triangle Club, billed as a private club for teenagers. By 1969 this was replaced with a traditional venue, "The Traditions Candle-Light Club", later just shortened to the "Candle-Light Lounge", which closed in 1970 and replaced with Bottle Shop, another tavern. Over the years the "Charcoal Room" continued to serve as a rotating series of bars. At some point it was "Lou's 19th Hole" in the mid-1970s, then opened as "Sonny's" in 1978, "Crossroads" as of 1989 (specifically mentioning a benefit party for the Texas Hall of Fame, which had suffered a major fire—see this post). Meanwhile, the drive-in booths of Triangle were ultimately redeveloped into the new home of Tom's BBQ in the mid-1980s (currently J. Cody's) and the last business I can find it was Boozer's (operating from 1995 to 1997, replacing Crossroads).

In July of 2025, the building was unceremoniously demolished for parking for the new Chicken Oil Company to reopen in early August.

Former Zaxby's

This is not a great photo of the restaurant and more surprising that The Eagle still did blurbs like this as late as February 2017; albeit with no description.
Here's another vacant fast food restaurant that failed near Highway 6 and Highway 40 with questionable access, much like the old Bush's Chicken we covered a few months ago. Coincidentally, it also served fried chicken.

Where the old Zaxby's building is today (952 William D. Fitch Parkway) was originally the right of way of (Old) Arrington Road, before it was cut off circa 2013 and re-established about seven years later with a slightly modified right of way (Spice World Market sits on the re-established portion that was on the right of way).

Zaxby's (with a fully-functional weather vane on the store) operated from November 2016 to December 2024, but while Texas may be losing its taste for the chain¹ (a number have closed in the Houston area and others), highway access wasn't easy from either direction, nor was there good signage for it; it never graced the logo sign for the Highway 40 exit either.

1. The chain has since dropped the apostrophe.

Historic Tenants of 311 University Drive

1973 The Battalion; Grand Opening of Pizza Gallery
We're picking the blog up right back on Northgate. If you've followed us so far, we have covered every building on the north side of University Drive up to Duddley's Draw. Recently, we covered Cow Hop which had a picture of Duddley's Draw in it...and considering that the bar has been open since 1977 means there's not a lot of changes of hands going on. The oldest reference is Golden Cleaners in 1968, then Ralph's Pizza in 1971 (another location from Eastgate), then Pizza Gallery opening in 1973 but not making more than a few years after owner Ralph Segars liquidated the Ralph's Pizza chain (which had locations in San Marcos and Lubbock).

EDITOR'S NOTE: My goal since at least January 2021 was to fill in a post for every day so for Facebook I could always link back to something from exactly (x) years ago. I'm not sure what my end goal was (I think I had anticipated basically stopping and letting it coast for a while) but the idea still stands. While we're still missing dates, July 16th was one of them, so while this post looks a bit bare, it was because it was prepared ahead of time for times like this. And of course, that Ko-fi link is still there, let's get to $100 so we can have a full index of EVERY former business on the blog!

Pizza Hut in Bryan

Pizza Hut looked different back in 1966, for sure. (from the Eagle)
We've covered Pizza Hut before (both the classic University Drive East location and the short-lived Northgate proper location (see the older two posts) so here's a third location (and between the various carry-out locations, there's still room to grow). I submitted it on Used to Be a Pizza Hut (expecting it to be in the queue for months, but no, it's on there already). The Navasota store was featured over ten years ago on the site, and it's now a funeral home, too...possibly the first "Funeral Hut" covered.

The Bryan Pizza Hut operated from November 1966 (first Pizza Hut in the area) to sometime in 2002 (closed without replacement) and briefly served as Lone Star Pawn for a few years afterward before becoming Treviño-Smith Funeral Home in 2007.

What I can't figure out is what it looked like originally. 1966 is a bit young for the iconic red roof and Pizza Hut claims that it wasn't implemented until 1969, but the Wikipedia article indicates the first restaurant done was in 1963. Maybe it was indeed the first of its type in Texas.

Citgo Southwest Parkway

Picture from June 2025 by author On May 31st, I removed five pages from Carbon-izer.com: Southwest Parkway, Harvey Road, Texas Avenue - Bryan, Other Bryan Roads, and Wellborn Road (FM 2154). Since I covered Archie's Taco Bell recently, I thought it was only fair to cover some of the other roads that were removed, and today we're doing one of the things on Southwest Parkway that has curiously never been covered (other than in passing); the Citgo at 101 Southwest Parkway (not to be confused with the other Citgo on Southwest Parkway).

Directly at the northeast corner of Southwest Parkway and Wellborn, this was originally a Citgo/7-Eleven when it opened in June 1986 (7-Eleven stores, at least in this part of the country, were paired with Citgo gas). In 1993, 7-Eleven left the area but the stores (now under E-Z Mart) kept the Slurpee machines (later rebadged as ICEE), so this was the cold slush drink headquarters growing up. Unfortunately, the machines later broke down and the owners did not replace them, ending it as a place to get frozen Dr Peppers. In 2004, the store converted to Zip'N, and I remember when the store's name was a ground display surrounded by bushes (this was done away with in a station renovation). Later on, the gas station parking lot was integrated with Southwest Crossing around it.

The intersection has evolved--the once-quiet southeast corner has turned into not only parking lot access for a large apartment complex, but a number of other establishments (Starbucks, Chipotle, Whataburger, Wild Pita, and Andy's Frozen Custard), but the Citgo continues to age. While it's still technically signed as a Zip'N, there's a sign above it saying "Ricky Food Mart" or something along those lines, and it's a bit depressing to see a gas station once a family favorite for gasoline fall into disrepair, but that's life, I guess.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A new goal has been added to Ko-fi. Want to see a new feature to the site?

Post Oak Village

A selection of Post Oak Village tenants from December 2007 including Fantasy Lingerie with a SFW outfit.

Much like covering Cow Hop the other day, it's time to examine another piece of a road that was covered heavily in the past—Harvey Road, this time Post Oak Village. You may remember back when I first posted Post Oak Square, I had mistakenly called it Post Oak Village. This is the real Post Oak Village (at 900 Harvey Road) and something that previously slipped through the cracks when I added a bunch of Harvey Road entries in late 2019. It was later posted on Carbon-izer before the whole Harvey Road section got broomed, so it's being reposted here with updates.

This shopping center opened circa 1984 and until 2012, the east end of the shopping center had a larger footprint to accommodate a larger end anchor. This was later reconfigured to be the same profile as the others in the strip. Originally, the center had about 17 suites numbered 1 (on the Dartmouth side) to 17 (on the mall side) but over the years the spaces have been reconfigured, so it's difficult to gauge the timeline over the years.

This is the current layout of the center, archived from this page at press time. There's unfortunately no tenants listed, but I'll try to list them below.

1. The biggest store, Giddy Up Glamour Boutique, open since 2015. The first store here was flooring chain Color Tile and from 1996 to 2007 was Catherine's, which in turn was replaced with "The Greek Boutique", which moved into the space, with store-within-a-store Old Army Spirit Co. opening soon after. (I'm not sure when The Greek Boutique closed.) Interestingly, GUGB also has the alt. address of 1903 Dartmouth.
2. This was most recently the home of 2014-2017's "Kie Men's Shop".
3. As of 2007 this space was a Sprint store but by the early 2010s it was divided between Cupcakes Couture and Mong Chon Korean Takeout. The latter used to just have a sign with some Korean characters and a red sign that said "Korean Takeout" (Mong Chon Korean Takeout), now it's known as "Mong Chon Grill" above a larger "Taste of Korea" sign. It has been here since 2009. About three or four years after Cupcakes Couture closed (around 2017), Mong Chon expanded.
4A. Fashion Nails & Spa. Despite the leasing plan using 4B, Fashion Nails & Spa uses "4A".
5A. U Paint-It has been here since 2004.
6. Domino's (an entirely new store, requiring redistricting from other stores) opened in early 2020 in what used to be Perrine Winery, which moved to Dowling Road in the mid-2010s. It also absorbs the space of 5B (ScentChips).
7. Edible Arrangements moved from 1505 University Drive East, suite 420, as seen (currently) at this page. The local store closed in 2024, a few years after the chain changed logos (goodbye, Papyrus!)
8. Pro Cleaners is on the sign but Google says its "Pro Eagle Cleaners". (As of 2007 that seems not to be the case, an advertisement just says "Dry Cleaners & Alterations").
9c. As of 2021 this was Eye Candy Salon but in 2022 had become All Star Fadez Barber Shop. (Eye Candy Salon goes back to the early 2010s at least). 9b. ProActive Chiropractic. Formerly home to Names & Numbers, and Aggieland Depot from 2004 to 2009.
9a. Sometime between 2017 and 2021 (not there in June 2017, closed by April 2021) was a Farmers Insurance office (Kathy Giese, main agent). Before that, it was last home to "World Finance Loans & Taxes". It was Fantasy Lingerie in the latter half of the 2000s, though wasn't related to an earlier Fantasy Lingerie in Westgate Center (on Wellborn).
10. There's no "suite 11" as some of the numbers have been reconfigured but it's likely this was the original Suite 11. This served as Tiki Tan from 2007 to 2019, and is currently vacant.
12. Post Oak Florist has been here since 1986, though seems to be calling themselves "Postoak Florist" these days (trying to de-associate from the mall?)
13. Board & Brush Creative Studio, a "DIY Wood Sign Workshop" chain opened a store in College Station in August 2018 (closed sometime in the early-to-mid 2020s). Before that, it was Tres Chic Boutique (store number two), whereever the first one was, roughly from 2012 to January 2018.
14. Yummi Yummi Mongolian Grill & Sushi is the last tenant before suite 17. Has been here since 2015. From 2006-2009 it was Let's Go Dreamin', a baby furniture store. It was nothing in the early 2010s except a temporary "Wicked Wally's" Halloween store.
17. Leslie's Pool Supplies opened in March 2012 after redevelopment of the plaza. Before redevelopment, the last tenant in 17 (though I've also seen 16) was The Exchange, a clothing reseller. Throughout the late 1990s and before its move to Lone Star Pavilion, this was Card & Party Factory.

Finally, I've got some cool news--the Post Oak Mall page on Carbon-izer is now up! You can see it at this this page (not at this blog). It's not 100% comprehensive with every single thing but it's a great page with lots of information.

Former Cow Hop

Putting things into perspective. 317 University is El Jefe in this shot. (March 2020, by author).
In our most recent excursion to the Northgate drag, we covered the areas to the east of this building (currently home to Freebirds as it has been for the last 30+ years) and to the west, currently Whisper Sister Shots. We've never covered 317 University in detail, though.

The oldest record I can find for the building is "Smittys Grill" at 317 Sulphur Springs Road, as University Drive was known back then, and by 1964 Lew-Ann's Restaurant (which made doughnuts in the morning) and per the Battalion it was still open by 1970, but by 1971 it was gone and to be replaced with another restaurant, The Burger Hut. (You can see a bit of Burger Hut in the background of this photo). Burger Hut sold out and in 1978 became one of Northgate's most fondly remembered defunct establishments, the Cow Hop. From a few articles the Eagle published, it opened under the ownership of Al Scazerro. It changed hands to Wes Gideon in 1985, and again to Jim McGuire in 1989 (even opening a second restaurant at Culpepper Plaza, the Cow Hop Junction). At some point it expanded to 319 University next door.

In 1993 it moved to a stand-alone location at 317 College Avenue and the combined spaces became The Bullseye, but by 1995 it had divorced from 319 University and became King of the Roadhouse (see 319 University article). A new "Cow Hop" opened in 1996 following the closure of the original restaurant and purchase of the name, but the "new" Cow Hop closed by 2001. Following this, it became a bar, Big Pauly's (full name of "Big Pauly's Garlic Room" in business records) but that was short-lived, with Mad Hatters opening in 2002 and operating until 2019 (longer than the Cow Hop had ever been there—if you don't count the revival). El Jefe (aka "El Jefe - the Tequila Boss") opened in the fall of that year but closed after spring 2023. Freaky Tiki opened in August of that year, and that's what it still is today.

Editor's Note: For a very long time there was a sidebar in this site that read: "This is a one person site and I make no money off of it. You can help by doing the following: Commenting! It's easy, it's free, and helps this site feels more lively. Share memories, ask questions, or just post something positive about the site. It will be approved shortly." It has been removed as I am changing the format slightly to allow actual donations through Ko-fi. It will be active through at least a trial run.

Max Food Mart at Deacon

The old frontage road right of way can clearly be seen. (Picture by author, June 2025).
Max Food Mart/Texaco at 3300 Texas Avenue South opened in 1996 (part of a small chain of convenience stores in the area).¹ I should note that as part of this post, originally, the frontage road in front of some of the businesses just north of here connected to the frontage road of Highway 6 South. Since the Highway 6 bypass was built in the 1970s, prior to around 2006, there was an intersection here with the southbound one-way traffic from the bypass intersecting with Deacon. To the south was Texas Avenue turning into an entrance for Highway 6 south with the northbound lane going from Highway 6. To the south at Deacon was a two-way frontage road that paralleled Texas Avenue up to Wal-Mart and became the southbound Highway 6 frontage road for the section south of Texas Avenue. Yes, for a time, you could drive straight from Nantucket Drive to the Wal-Mart parking lot and back without making a single turn or getting on the highway.

Around 2006, that all changed, and the set-up was altered. The road that paralleled Texas Avenue was cut off just past what was Petal Patch at the time, redirecting all traffic down an alleyway that had access to Pepper Tree Apartments (in the early 2020s these were fenced off) and Wings 'N More, with the two lanes from Texas Avenue went to the frontage road south (now all one-way) or the highway. As a kid, the frontage roads meant that we were getting close to the highway, and at that time if we were going that far it meant a trip out of town. Even into the early 2000s when there was commercial activity at Rock Prairie (most notably the Kroger shopping center) and Greens Prairie Road (the school, the McDonald's/Exxon), that was pretty much it, and nothing much until you got to Navasota.²

In any case, the other thing that made this Max Food Mart unique was a Subway counter inside the store, which remained up until 2010 when it was relocated to Tower Point. The space has been partially gutted for a beer cave but most of it just remains boarded up as a poorly-utilized backroom. The Max name had already been dropped by 2007 (and had converted to Shell from Texaco in 2003).³

1. I don't know what happened to Max, as late as around 2019 they built that new Chevron in Wellborn, but have since removed that branding. The only one I know of that still uses the name is the one at FM 2154 and Rock Prairie Road.
2. Some of this was taken from this post, though has been updated. As of this writing, that post is to receive a major re-do.
3. You may also remember that Max Food Mart had a deal with Krispy Kreme to provide donuts in their stores around 2003-2005. This stopped when franchisee Lone Star Doughnuts collapsed. More information on Houston Historic Retail.

Archie's Taco Bell

Half-page advertisement from opening in 1976 (The Eagle). Taco Bell needs no introduction¹ and has thrived in the Bryan-College Station with seven locations, the most recent one (as of this writing) opened in Jones Crossing as mentioned earlier this month. However, we haven't covered Taco Bell that much because other than the short-lived Blinn location and at Northgate (built as a James Coney Island)², we haven't done much discussion of them, partially because once they're there, they haven't closed.

The exception to that (besides the Blinn one) was the first Taco Bell in the area was 3901 South Texas Avenue, Taco Bell #1261. This operated from September 1976 to 1996 and was colloquially known as Archie's Taco Bell (even in advertising, though not on the building).³ Archie's Taco Bell had a unique (and annoying) quirk—for whatever reason (allegedly due to traffic flow), the drive-through window was on the passenger side. The 1996 closure date lines up with the opening of the Taco Bell at 3501 East 29th Street (which has the drive-through window built correctly, but like Northgate's it wasn't built as a Taco Bell), so it might have moved at that point⁴. In 2003, the abandoned building was expanded and heavily modified to be Frittella Italian Cafe, operated by the sons of the owner of the original Pino's in Houston. Frittella closed at the end of March 2022, but reopened in June 2023. (I'm not sure of the reason.)

1. In the 1970s, which this entry covers, most Taco Bell food was prepared fresh, not overly processed like it is today. This 1970s commercial may seem like propaganda, but in those days they really did do stuff like make beans from dry.
2. Updated as of this writing. It doesn't change much but confirms the dates and adds a bit on the Texaco it replaced.
3. Archambault built a few more local Taco Bell stores before he retired, the Harvey Road Taco Bell was "Archie's Taco Bell" as well.
4. Indeed, in 1998, even after Archambault had divested his share in Taco Bell, 3501 E. 29th Street is listed as "store number one" for local purposes.

The Veggie Garden

Advertisement for The Veggie Garden shortly after opening. (The Eagle).
The rapid clip of updates (at least once a week) of 2025 came to a screeching halt after the former Roy Rogers and I figured it was a good place to stop as I had been feeling burnout, in the meantime I continued on with updates when relevant.

One of the "hidden" pages of the site, the Comm. Building Permits College Station in the Late 1980s, mentions a business called "Veggie Garden". While I've long wondered where and what this was, it was the original tenant of 3122 Texas Avenue South, a garden center/specialty food store, with produce, meats, cheeses, gifts, and other plants. It unfortunately had a short life, opening in March 1987, turning into a full restaurant in September 1987 (salad bar and deli, though kept the produce sales) but closing in the fall of 1988. While it would never be a restaurant again, in 1990, it became the new home of Valley Cyclery, before moving in 2001 to 107 Walton, then became the third home of Petal Patch, a long-running local floral shop.

The former "The Veggie Garden" building has gone through tenants over the years. (Picture by author, June 2025).
I haven't talked much about Petal Patch but its relatively recent demise without much press and its long history deserves a mention. It opened as Petal Pushers in late 1975 but renamed to Petal Patch a year later at 707 Texas Avenue (it appears to have been because it was sold to a new owner, Pat Humphries). In 1992 it moved to 1919 Texas Avenue South (while the old location was reopened as another flower shop under the name "A Flower Cottage"). 1919 was where it would remain until until the early 2000s when it moved to this location. Around 2011, it moved out to Bryan where it would be for over a decade before winding down business in the early 2020s (at some point ownership had changed again).

Back at 3122 Texas Avenue South, since around 2012 it has been the home of Ashley & Company. Ashley & Company keeps a low profile these days—it's appointment only (and this seems to have happened before 2020, with the removal of the overhead sign around 2017). For what it's worth, an ad from 2011 (when it was empty) mentions the building had two floors.

Editor's Note: The Century Square article received a big update. Pooh's Park received a smaller one.

Updates to Jones Crossing

From the page linked below. It's been watermarked precisely because of reposting purposes. Something a bit different today—among the casualties in the most recent Carbon-izer rework was the FM 2154 page. It wasn't that well developed anyway, but it also included a fairly comprehensive look at Jones Crossing that I just can't recreate elsewhere. And with several places at Jones Crossing having gone out of business, I would need to cover that, wouldn't I?!

Based on the current analysis the page appears to date from 2021.

- I Heart Mac and Cheese closed both locations in February 2022 (which is mentioned on the Century Square page. The Jones Crossing store reopened in April of that year. The restaurant operated a few months more (it was open in August of that year) but it folded and was replaced with an AT&T store.
- In spring 2023, Urban Bird Hot Chicken opened to replace Zero Degrees.
- Just south of Chick-fil-A (instead of the strip mall depicted), a Taco Bell opened at 1696 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. South on December 27th, 2024.
- Suite 800 at 11667 FM 2154 opened as Lucky Goat Coffee in May 2025. It is adjacent to a playground, which is owned and operated by the landlord, not the restaurant. At least kids don't have to play next to boarded-up windows now.
- In April 2021, Caprock Health System sold its two Urgent Care centers to Integrity Urgent Care (one of which being at Jones Crossing, the other at Century Square). In November 2024 Caprock went under entirely.

The website for Jones Crossing has gone under as of this writing, so please check back for updates.

UPDATE 07-30-2025: Due to the FM 2818 page going away soon, here's the information on Chick-fil-A: "This Chick-fil-A is part of the Jones Crossing development and opened in September 2019. Like Chick-fil-A restaurants built or remodeled in the last year it features a wooden table from A Better Way Ministries, and like all Chick-fil-A restaurants, is closed on Sunday."

Gizmo's Cafe & Bar

Doesn't sound like a bad place, but I like eating outside when the weather's nice, which sadly doesn't happen very often. (from InSite Magazine)
I've been unhappy with the post what was Boyett Street Businesses for a while now (see the archived original version¹), so I've decided to focus on 107 Boyett (one building) and checking on the history of that through Battalion archives. While I'm going to re-examine 103-105 Boyett in the near future (as of this writing--the new post will basically be a cleanup and update), it should be noted that 107 Boyett doesn't really exist...it's the "official" name of this building but no references to it exist only as either Boyett Properties or one (1) reference to a campaign office for George Boyett running as local Justice of the Peace. It has four addresses, including one for Patricia.

109 Boyett opened as sandwich shop New York Sub-Way in 1977 (no relation to the more famous Subway sandwich chain). In 1981 it changed hands to Aggieland Subway (again, no relation to Subway, and may have even been closed for a time). In 1985 it closed and became Gizmo's Cafe & Bar in the 1980s. I received a comment a number of years ago about this place: "I worked at Gizmo's in the late 80's as a server and bartender. It was a great little lunch place with good food. At night, it became the place where all of the Northgate bartenders and servers came to drink, as it was (notably at the time) the only place with a full liquor license on the Northgate strip. Fun times." Gizmo's also used the 111 Boyett space.

In 1990 Gizmo's closed and the space reopened as Spanky's in 1992, which operated until 1994. Paddock opened in 2005 as "Paddock Lane" (name change in the late 2010s). It appears it was vacant for all that time. 111 Boyett was Redbone Jeans in 1977 before disappearing by the end of 1978. It appears that New York Sub-Way took over the spot, and that would be permanent.

For 113 Boyett, first reference was Randy's Liquor in 1978 (#2) which became Coaches Liquor by 1981 (also #2, with "BJ's Package Store" between them in 1980). Later on, it became U.S. Marine Corps recruiters offices by the late 1990s and eventually became Pinky's New School Tattoos by the 2000s. It operated from 2005 to 2008 and was turned into The Tipsy Turtle, which opened in 2009. It may have been Marine recruitment offices from when the liquor store left in the mid-1980s to when the recruitment offices left for the mall in the 2000s.

The most interesting part of these stores is that they are, or were, an example of mixed-use construction. Above Paddock and Tipsy Turtle were some studio apartments, located at 214 Patricia. I'm not sure if these still function as apartments or not (and of course, the noise would be unbearable).

The studio apartments as of circa 2013 (picture by author).

1. As of this post's publication date both are the same. It is for future-proofing purposes.

Former Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers has been gone for a LONG time. (Picture by author, 5/25)
My friend Mike over at Houston Historic Retail has cataloged a bunch of restaurants that tried to make their stand in the Houston area that no longer exist (or at least in the Houston area). Most of these, of course, never made it to the College Station area (or in the case of Wienerschnitzel, never left)—Herfy's Hamburgers, Piccadilly Cafeteria, and Steak N Shake were no-shows in the area. Of course, in Bryan/College Station a number of restaurants have come and gone as well. As B-CS is a small market, most of these had a single location if they came and went. Texadelphia of course counts (their total store count ebbs and flows) and so would Luther's Bar-B-Q (it exited College Station soon after the chain was sold in the mid-1980s—if Luther's stuck around to 2005, we would have had Pappas Bar-B-Q in that space). Beyond that, there's not a lot of good examples, though, as the area isn't big enough to have its own cluster of restaurants try their hand at the area and the chains that have closed (On the Border, Luby's, Red Lobster, Hooters, etc.) have done so as part of larger chain retractions. An early case of this was Roy Rogers, a restaurant chain named after the eponymous Western film star (and today only left with a few dozen locations). It was built when parent owner Marriott was expanding the chain, with the Texas stores owned by franchisee Ram-Hart Systems. The Bryan location at 2706 S. Texas Avenue was one of the stores Ram-Hart Systems opened (opening in 1969)¹ but just a year later, Marriott slammed on the brakes of the chain's expansion due to many locations underperforming (stores like this one, no doubt). In particular, Ram-Hart Systems went bankrupt in 1971 and this was one of the stores it went down with.²

Marriott would eventually sell Roy Rogers (part of divesting their restaurant operations) and today the closest Roy Rogers restaurant to here is in the Washington DC area. There's only one picture of what was once Roy Rogers in Bryan. The picture's a little dark but this is how most Roy Rogers stores of the time looked, and a better picture can be seen here on Reddit (even though that Roy Rogers is in New Jersey, not Bryan). By January 1972, however, less than three years after Roy Rogers opened, a drug store called Discount Apothecary was operating in the space. Within a few years, it had renamed to Ellison Apothecary, eventually becoming Ellison Pharmacy before moving out to East 29th Street around 1998. In 1999, the site was redeveloped as Guaranty Federal Bank (later just Guaranty Bank). With the failure of Guaranty Bank in 2009 (in which it was merged with BBVA Compass), the bank was closed instead of rebranding and reopened as Extraco Bank in April 2011, which it continues to be today.

By the way, the definitive list of "Texas Avenue Restaurants" if you want to explore them all (should be around 60+) can be found here.

1. The Denny's next door opened the same year and fared significantly better. It operates as the Kettle today.
2. The Houston stores got new franchisees, but these eventually closed in the 1980s.

The Westinghouse Building

The plant in its idle days (2010). It used more land than it sat on. Maybe they had plans for further expansion once.
Long before even the Southwest Parkway overpass was built, around 1980, Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased a large 50-acre site off of the "East Bypass" and on it, opened a plant for their Westinghouse Electronic Systems division, employing just under 500 people, and featuring amenities such as a cafeteria, an infirmary, and even a racquetball court. This plant opened around 1983-1984.

Westinghouse began to scale down the plant's employee count in the early 1990s, starting a wave of layoffs that would ultimately gut the facility. In 1995, corporate at Westinghouse made a major purchase that would change the company—CBS Incorporated, which would become the main focus of the company. It would rename to CBS Corporation in 1997 and divest most of its remaining assets until it merged with CBS's former spin-off Viacom in 2000.¹

In 1996, Westinghouse Electronic Systems (as a division) was sold to Northrop Grumman, and the College Station plant went with it, but its best years were behind it. When Northrup Grumman shut down the plant in 1999 (just three years after buying Westinghouse Electronic Systems), it had only 100 employees down from a peak of 470 when Westinghouse was running it in the 1980s and early 1990s before the layoffs. For a period of about 10 years, the facility sat vacant. In 2005, I remember hearing the news about some vandalism of the facility, but I can't find an article for it.

In early 2009, Lynntech Inc., a local firm, purchased the site for their consolidated headquarters. Lynntech's idea was that they would use some of the space, and develop the rest of the space, including the area behind and around the facility. One of maps from the defunct AbouTown Press had a map of what the whole thing would look like when filled out (it would've had more buildings and facilities, though it did not have an extension of Appomattox, at least from what I remember), though I no longer have it.

From the start, it did not go well. The purchase was finalized in March 2009 but they could not move into the building until early 2010 (don't ask me why it has the year 2012 on the article). A biofuel company was scheduled to move in² but I can't find proof of that ever went through.

By 2014, The Science Park hadn't even filled the original building, much less build out anything on the massive 53-acre campus it sat in. However, a new proposal would completely fill the facility when Blinn announced they were considering the building for a campus expansion. The idea faced heavy resistance from the nearby Raintree subdivision residents on traffic noise³; the highway was essentially one-way in, one-way out, and didn't nearly have the outflow capabilities of the Villa Maria Blinn campus. Within a few months, Blinn dropped their plans and would continue to focus in Bryan.⁴

The next stage in the life of the campus would come in 2016 when Oldham Goodwin acquired the campus and renamed it to Providence Park. The big difference here was that the acreage was hybridized for commercial opportunities, and soon after, a good part of the parking lot of the facility was removed for the construction of a new Academy Sports + Outdoors store, moving from their old store at Horse Haven Lane. Additionally, one part of the building was removed near the front (probably the old cafeteria) and Northrup-Grumman Road, a small access road off of the highway that provided access to the back of the facility (and another access to the parking lot of St. Thomas next door), was largely rebuilt and renamed as Providence Road (though St. Thomas put up a gate that possibly opens on Sundays but it's closed most of the time).

The Westinghouse building has a common corridor to access the office tenants inside. (Photo by author, 1/2020).
New parking was built directly in front of the what is now known as "The Westinghouse Building" at 2501 Earl Rudder Freeway to replace the parking lost to Academy. Lynntech and a few other tenants still occupy the site. I haven't made anything about the current Academy—probably not since it's very much still there (what am I supposed to say about it?) nor the La-Z-Boy store that opened earlier this year...or VeraBank...but I do have something on the short-lived Varsity Grillhouse which you can read about here.

1. The drama between CBS, Viacom, and their on-and-off relationship is mildly interesting, but you can read about it elsewhere. Up until 2021 when the newly re-merged ViacomCBS (since renamed Paramount Global) sold the trademark back to former Westinghouse division Westinghouse Electric Company, they still owned the trademark through a licensing subsidiary.
2. If that link is slow, also check this one.
3. Raintree residents never did like the Westinghouse idea from day one. I'm not sure what the compromise was, or if the questions they had were just not applicable to what Westinghouse was doing.
4. After the Westinghouse plan was abandoned, Blinn settled on the northwest corner of Leonard Road and North Harvey Mitchell Parkway. This was ultimately abandoned when Texas A&M announced the "RELLIS" campus and ultimately the second Blinn campus was moved there.
5. Before around 2000, the address was 7807 East Bypass.

Wendy's "Tiger Town"

The Wendy's/Exxon signs are original, but are unfortunately getting faded. (Photo by author, 5/25)
With this post we'll cover all of the local Wendy's restaurants, the first one in Bryan (since closed), the College Station location (still open), the Holleman/Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. location (now closed), and finally the combo gas station one.

In 1998, a combination Exxon/Wendy's opened at the corner of Highway 6 and William Joel Bryan Parkway (initially as "2000 South Highway 6" but 891 North Earl Rudder Freeway within a year). This was the very first combination true gas station/fast food restaurant in the Bryan-College Station area (if you don't count stuff like that Subway inside the Texaco in south College Station, among other oddities).

Wendy's served nachos?! I guess they still had access to Superbar-type ingredients...but pitas too! (source)
It was always an Exxon, and initially the convenience store was "Tiger Town" but in 1999 was bought by Kolkhorst and ended up being Rattlers' Country Store #3 when the chain was rebranded as such around 2003. Basically it was the twin of the Holleman/Harvey Mitchell store (except with an Exxon). While the Wendy's roadside signage has yet to receive the 2013 logo (phew!) the convenience store hasn't been as lucky. It became Stripes in 2015 (officially) which got bought by 7-Eleven a few years later, but rather than convert the stores (it never even got Stripes' version of the ICEE) it ended up becoming a "zombie" Rattlers with no 7-Eleven association.

Abandoned Baskin-Robbins Factory

I don't have a good picture for this other than this imprisoned VW Rabbit that was here for several years. (Picture by me, 12/2015)
This is another Texas Avenue entry that doesn't have a Carbon-izer.com equivalent but something I wanted to talk about for several years at this point. 1918 S. Texas Avenue started out as an ice cream plant built in 1955 per Brazos CAD and expanded in 1956 under Sanitary Dairies out of Houston. The plant made ice cream for retail sale (the "Quality Chekd" brand), but also manufactured Baskin-Robbins ice cream under license (Sanitary Dairies was the franchisee for the Texas area). In 1969, Sanitary Dairies was purchased by National Convenience Stores Inc., which would be better known for its Stop N Go chain of convenience stores. They would buy 7-Eleven out of Houston in the late 1980s, get bought by Diamond Shamrock in the 1990s, and eventually disappear in favor of Corner Store and eventually Circle K...but that all came later.

Anyway, a few years later, NCS sold their Baskin-Robbins franchise directly back to the parent company, which at the time was banana giant United Brands (which owned A&W as well at the time) and with this, became a full Baskin-Robbins facility connected to the company. (A Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop was just right down the street). Baskin-Robbins was later sold to British company J. Lyons and Company and after a few mergers was owned by Allied Domecq. Despite serving much of the entire West Coast area and being one of only two plants Baskin-Robbins actually owned, in July 2000, Baskin-Robbins announced it was closing the plant and moving production to Alta Dena Certified Dairy in California, which manufactured frozen yogurt for West Coast stores. A plant in Owensboro, Kentucky continued to operate until it was finally sold in the early 2020s.

I had been a fan of Baskin-Robbins there at Southwest Parkway and Texas, and while Blue Bell made a lot of noise about being a "local" creamery, all this time the ice cream from Baskin-Robbins was made closer to home. (I don't think Baskin-Robbins did tours, though). Anyway, the plant auctioned off its equipment in spring 2001, The plant is currently owned by "TURK-AM PHOENIX PROPERTIES INC", which just appears to be a shell company based out of a private owner out of Spring.