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.