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.

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.

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.

Checkers, Revisited

It's not the greatest photo out there, but I tried. (Photo by author, 4/2025)
Happy Easter, or rather 4/20, depending on how you want to see it. We're taking a brief break from our Texas Avenue-themed locations for a bit (maybe, perhaps, longer). Much like how the recent Finfeather 7-Eleven post was a revised version of an old, removed post, you may remember me covering this (it wasn't your imagination, it was published in early 2013 per records but removed around 2019 because I wasn't happy with it).

Now sporting the address of 1103 Welsh Avenue, the "new" Checkers (opened April 2025 after being under construction for at least a year, the licensed "Big Madre" taco concept opening May) but I remember when the old Checkers, 604 Holleman, opened. Vaguely.

604 Holleman was first developed as commercial property in 1971 as a UtoteM, converted to Circle K in 1984, and closed in 1987¹. Additionally, next to the station (same building) at 606 Holleman², was Holik's Package Store and later Al's Washateria. From what I've been told and can piece together this was completely abandoned during the 1990s.

In 1997, the building was torn down for a new gas station and convenience store called Checkers. You can see what Checkers looked like on older Google Maps Street View images, though as a kid its unusual appearance for a gas station was puzzling, with an unused upper level. (I'm guessing it might've been intended to be leased as office space but never came to pass). Eventually, a stop sign was added at Welsh and Holleman by the early 2000s and ultimately (I want to say 2009) a full stoplight was added.

While there were few updates to the gas station over the years (the only thing notable was repainting the canopy from green to white, around 2011, then ultimately yellow), the gas station had a kitchen space and a number of fly-by-night operations operated there over the years, mostly Mexican and/or soul food. The only one I really remember was "El Taco Loco", which had an anthropomorphic hard taco with sunglasses, and in the 2010s had The Remnant from Nawlins, which was the ONLY space to ever graduate into a full restaurant (now at 1416 Groesbeck Street, which it's been since around 2016, give or take a year).

The Holik name seems to be connected to the former owner of a house at 614 Holleman demolished in the second redevelopment when the original Checkers was closed and demolished around 2023, I remember passing the house by glowing mercury vapor lamp to the west side of the house, and was part of the same property. It finally went away in the redevelopment. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the old property but here's the Google Street View of 604 Holleman.

UPDATE 05-04-2025: Clarified a few things regarding Aggieland Food Mart and its non-open status, as well as making a bit more clear that the 1997 redevelopment was redeveloped completely again.

<sup>1. Tax records indicate it would reopen as "Aggieland Food Mart" soon after, but this appears to have not been the case. Want ads mention "I have the building, just need $ for stock". The tax record expired a year later.
2. Also known as 604-B Holleman.</sup>

H-E-B Bryan Times Two

The new H-E-B opened before the old one was torn down (Google Earth 2011)
Having covered both the H-E-B Pantry at Holleman and near Townshire, it's time to cover the third and final H-E-B Pantry in town...the North Bryan location. And, because of its same lot, by extension, the H-E-B that replaced it. (It's part of a broader plan to phase out the "City Directory" page on Carbon-izer).¹

While H-E-B built a new building in 1991 at 1905 Old Hearne Road, the address was previously used as "Pots of Pride" (florist) and later New Beginnings (hair salon) until around 1990, with H-E-B Pantry opening October 16, 1991. H-E-B Pantry remained nearly twenty years in the spot², though at some point rebranded to simply "H-E-B" as the company sought to eliminate the Pantry brand. By 2009, with a brand-new H-E-B to open at Tower Point and its two sister Pantry stores replaced with larger versions, work began on a new H-E-B store to replace it, almost immediately behind it.

When H-E-B opened store #644 in mid-2011, the store was three times the one it replaced (around 80,000 square feet vs. 24,000 square feet) but it was smaller and more downmarket than the other H-E-B stores. In addition to a pharmacy, a bakery, and a deli (well, "deli" by H-E-B standards anyway—they slice meat and cheese to order), it featured H-E-B's "Flaming Bird" roasted chicken concept. The larger store replaced several smaller businesses at that corner, including Sharp Propane (1609 N. Texas Avenue), Longhorn Tavern (1900 Highway 21 E.) when it was at that location from 1988 to 2009, and 1908 Highway 21 East, a car dealership, holding Atlas Motors as one of its last tenants (previously several names, including M & M Auto Sales in the mid-2000s) and Douglass Nissan Used Car Center in the late 1990s.

The address of 1601 North Texas Avenue is used for the smaller shops next to the store (attached to the building as a strip mall portion). From the H-E-B toward Brazos Valley Community Church on Highway 21 there's Fade Masters Barber Studio (formerly the spot of 4.0 Cuts, changed hands to current name between 2022 and 2025 but opened sometime in the late 2010s, a space that used to have Papa John's Pizza (it did not have the traditional logo of the chain and ended up closing after two robberies in a single day (the employees all quit), closing in early 2014. A few years later, it reopened but never gained any traction and closed for good), Safari Dental & Orthodontics (since 2011, occupies two separate storefronts), T-Mobile (opened between 2018 and 2021) and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (at least since 2012).

As for the old H-E-B Pantry building, it was soon demolished for additional parking and an H-E-B Fuel/car wash center.

<sup>1. Archived here. Note that a number of entries are outdated and have newer/updated posts here including Mr. Hamburger, Fat Burger, Fargo's Pit BBQ, Kettle, Planet K, and Long John Silver's...among others.
2. According to the previously referenced BTU article, the store looked almost identical to the 2031 South Texas Avenue store. It was also technically signed as "H-E-B Pantry" rather than "H-E-B Pantry Foods". For more information on H-E-B Pantry Foods, please see this link.</sup>

UPDATE 05-30-2025: This ad for Zip'N shows that there was a Shell/Zip'N at the 1615 N. Texas Avenue address. It appears it was demolished for the H-E-B Pantry (just north of the current parking lot access from Texas Avenue).
UPDATE 06-08-2025: As the removal plan has been consummated the link has been removed.

On the Border

The lights are on, but nobody's home
I'm afraid we have another dead restaurant to report on. Developed as part of Lone Star Pavilion , On the Border Mexican Cafe opened in late summer 1997, replacing part of Texas 707 (a few buildings were torn down, notably the old Charli location). Although opened after the golden days of when it was a great Tex-Mex restaurant even for Houston standards, it became another standby in College Station. Even after the fanfare wore off and it became one of those "wow, it's still open" places like Casa Olé was (the Bryan one remains, though is newer), On The Border survived through COVID, past Taco Cabana and its follow-up Las Palapas (now nothing more than rubble), but it seems to be a victim of a number of other closures that have affected the chain nationwide.

I have no anecdotes about OTB. I can't even tell you definitively if I've eaten there or not; if I did it was a very long time ago.

Truth be told I wanted to snag at least a menu but the gate was also padlocked All of the pictures in this post were taken by me February 2025. Additional photos below:

Bonus pic: times are a-changing on Texas Avenue.

Former Johnny Carino's

Not too many changes from the original restaurant.
Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants! As of this writing, more than half of the last dozen posts I created involve restaurants directly and on average, more than half of the posts in the entire blog. This is no exception. Today we'll do the former Johnny Carino's on Harvey Road, a long-missing part of the Harvey Road restaurant series.

Johnny Carino's opened its College Station location at 620 Harvey Road in 1999 (a bit of a weird placement, it's located down the street from even 701 Harvey). Part of the fast-growing chain under Fired Up Inc. and even gaining its sister concept Kona Ranch down the street, the restaurant was initially successful but the chain eventually crumbled (at some point it was rebranded to Carino's Italian--the name was reverted but I don't think the signage ever was).

After a long, slow decline of the chain (by the time the restaurant closed, only about 14 existed in Texas of around 40 nationally) with the restaurant chain changing names to Carino's Italian before reverting back (the Carino's Italian signage stayed), the restaurant closed in June 2022. As of this writing in April 2024, the chain is down to 30 locations nationally and just nine in Texas.

New York-based Anchor Bar, which claims to have been the birthplace for buffalo wings and started expanding in 2012, announced over year ago that they would move into the former Italian chain restaurant. Despite some exterior improvements (metal roof instead of terra cotta), it doesn't look like they'll open anytime soon (if ever? We'll let you know), with so many other restaurants long adopting wings as a main menu item (you know, like Wings 'N More), will it succeed? (All pictures taken by author, 2/21/2024).

This part of the restaurant was fully enclosed, but not anymore.

Carino's sign from the road. The lighting tubes inside glowed red and I think there was a green border as well.
UPDATE 09-01-2024: Anchor Bar opened late August 2024.

The 700 University Drive East Club

One of the buildings here as it appeared in March 2020, showing the scars of both Blockbuster and Genghis Grill.
There's a few reasons why this site has been a bit slow to update as of late, partly it's a lack of photo availability, partly a lack of running out of places to cover, and partly it's a focus on new projects that take priority. The most recent entry, Saenz Tamales, was fairly spur-of-the-moment, and I had gotten my photos, then actually wrote up the entry. Otherwise, I have a bunch of mostly written-out descriptions that lack photos, and many of those just end up on my other website.

700 University Drive East is a bit of a complicated property, as it contains a strip mall and two stand-alone buildings, hence, the name of this post (and a play on words for a show contractually airing on Freeform, much to the executive's chagrin).

The first building here we'll take a look at is Golden Corral (store #540), which hasn't changed tenants since it opened in 1991 and...I'm ashamed to admit this, but at one time in the distant past, it was not only a favored family spot but one of my top five favorite restaurants in town. I don't know when we stopped going, probably sometime around or before 2005. The only big change that I can remember from Golden Corral growing up is the elimination of smoking inside the restaurant, so we could sit anywhere, not just the non-smoking section. In 2018 the restaurant closed for an interior renovation to a newer, more open prototype, and the exterior got an update as well.

Golden Corral as it appeared in 2014, looking east.
Across from the Golden Corral is the second building here, and a more interesting one. In 1992, Blockbuster Video, as it was known at the time, rolled into town, choosing 700B University Drive as its first location in town, located next to Golden Corral, and would continue to grow across the United States. As the company's fortunes declined in the late 2000s due to a variety of factors (streaming, recession, unable to support the massive store base that previous owner Viacom had built up), the store was rebranded as "Blockbuster Outlet Store" (whatever that meant, really) and closed around January 2010. Within months, it was announced that a location of Genghis Grill would be taking up residence in the spot, and it opened in late fall 2010, though it didn't take up all of the space, the remaining portion of Blockbuster was taken up by Tutti Frutti, a chain frozen yogurt restaurant the next year.

Looking into the closed Genghis Grill, 3/20.
Around December 2012, Tutti Frutti closed (it may have lasted into January or February of the following year) but something new was coming...in Houston, Big Daddy Z's began to make the rounds of Houston's many food trucks, focusing on Cajun cuisine. This would be the start of what was to replace Tutti Frutti in the future.

Following the closure of Tutti Frutti, the next restaurant, Mickey's Sliders, opened in summer 2013. This restaurant focused on the "gourmet slider" trend, much like how Stover Bros. Cafe was doing around the same time in Bryan. Mickey's Sliders surprisingly did a decent business, but the owner retired in fall 2017 and closed the store.

During all this time, Big Daddy Z's would move to College Station and soon restructure the menu to focus on cheesesteaks, with a new name...Blake's Steaks. Blake's Steaks settled into a new permanent home in December 2017 in the former Mickey's Sliders space and for the next two years, cheesesteaks and other related sandwiches (including some sandwiches that were created by customers in a contest) were served. In February 2020, Blake's Steaks closed to focus on a new venture, Zeitman's Grocery, in downtown Bryan (due to COVID-19, Zeitman's ended up opening almost two years later). Around the same time, Genghis Grill, which had been struggling due to inconsistent service and quality, also permanently shuttered. So by the time things started to go wrong for restaurants about a month later, the building was vacant, and that's when the first set of pictures were taken.

The building has since been renovated, sub-dividing Genghis Grill into two new spaces (the three spaces are about equally-sized), suite B of which became The Toasted Yolk Cafe, which opened in September 2021. A month later, Suite C (the former Tutti Frutti/Mickey's Sliders/Blake's Steaks) opened as Naq's Halal Food. As of this writing, Suite A is still vacant.

Another thing I wanted to note is that originally, this post was supposed to go up in conjunction with something I wrote for Carbon-izer, in which I stated that I was disappointed with Genghis Grill compared to a restaurant I ate at in Austin about six years prior to Genghis' opening.

Wing Stop and Marco's Pizza (June 2020).
Next to Blockbuster, in 1996, a Little Caesars was built. It never really gained traction and closed after a few years. Wing Stop would take up residence in the space (since 2001), but that was only half of the building, with the other half becoming Marco's Pizza, open in early 2020. I can't tell or remember what was there before that, but I want to say there was a small barbershop.

The main strip center isn't very active. (June 2020)
The rest of the strip center, 700 University Drive East was built in 1984 and is a pretty sleepy center that really hasn't seen a lot of activity and I don't personally remember many interesting stores or services being here. I did assemble a partial list of some of the tenants that came and went, but few lasted for many years and were forgotten soon after. (If you want to try to take a look at them, view the source for the page). One of the bigger tenants here was University Book Store (University Book Store Inc.) in suite 100 before all locations closed in very early 2006. That space would become Fast Eddie's Billiards for almost the next decade, and is currently a similar business named Four Downs Sports Bar.

Obviously, there have been some changes to the center since I took some of the pictures here back in 2020, with Toasted Yolk and Naq's Halal open and drawing crowds. One last look is going to be the "new" Golden Corral from the opposite side, also taken in March 2020. (All the photos in this post were taken by the author).

Note the Blake's Steaks food truck. (3/20)
Even if "new" posts to this site will be light in the future, I invite you to my other ventures including Carbon-izer, which updates monthly.

UPDATE 07-14-2023: Naq's Halal Foods closed around the end of December 2022 or very early January 2023. In May 2023, Siam Iyara opened in the spot. (Also removed YouTube shilling, as I'm afraid that's on hiatus...)
UPDATE 07-21-2023: TexAgs has reported Marco's Pizza is now closed.

H-E-B Pantry / Harmony Science Academy

Most of the architectural details from H-E-B Pantry are gone, except the peak in the roof and those windows to the right of the entrance.
Despite a heavy retail-based focus on this website, I still haven't covered all the former grocery stores in town yet (even the post-1980 ones), and of course, the Bryan section on this website is still pretty small, with a good fifth of the Bryan content coming from since January 2020, but, like most of the Bryan content that's already there, it's on Texas Avenue.

I don't believe I went inside the H-E-B Pantry there at 2031 South Texas Avenue, but it was in an area with other grocery stores. It competed with Kroger and (for a few years) the Albertsons at the remodeled Townshire Shopping Center next door. It also had excellent access, it in addition to entrances off of Texas Avenue, long driveways connected it to both Twin Boulevard and Bywood Street. The store opened around September 1991 and closed in December 2004 shortly before the new H-E-B at the redeveloped Manor East Mall (Tejas Center) opened.

Following the move, the former H-E-B Pantry was left abandoned for a few years before Harmony Science Academy took it over in fall 2007 (though Google Maps Street View still shows the empty store with no signage as of November 2007). Later on, Harmony made more renovations to the property, including modifying the exterior and adding an expansion. It has also repainted since. In the Townshire article linked above, the exterior of the store is tan with dark red trim, the facade today is bright red, white, and blue.

This sign near Twin Boulevard is from H-E-B Pantry, which had the rounded rectangular signs.
Harmony Science Academy is no stranger to converting grocery stores, over at Carbon-izer.com you can see an overview of Valley Mills Road in Waco, where Harmony took over both an old Albertsons and an old H-E-B.

All pictures here were taken by the author in September 2021.

Editor's Note: As part of some minor changes, the only new posts will be either buildings that are demolished or otherwise closed, had tenant changeover, had some significant change themselves, or are part of a larger story. So for instance, Spice World Market would not qualify ordinarily under this policy had it not been for the bit on Old Arrington Road. Likewise, even "being historic" would not qualify; therefore, something like Pruitt's Fabrics would not be covered.

Exxon at University Drive East and University Drive

This intersection used to have three gas stations, now just one. (Picture by author, 8/21)
Once last look at this certain corridor, here's what many web-based maps consider to be the epicenter of the College Station: University and Texas Avenue. At this prominent corner (425 Texas Avenue South) is an Exxon station, built in 1994.

The previous gas station was a Shell, likely built in the late 1970s, which replaced an even older gas station on the site (we'll have to find that one later). In the post for the Plaza Hotel, a video is linked that shows the intersection as it looked in the early 1980s, you can see a shot of the smaller Shell (logo) sign here (annotated version by "AggiePhil") as well as a black and white night picture of the sign from the Daily Texan (thanks to "Aggie Network" from TexAgs for tipping me off to this).

One Shell of a time. The picture headlining the Plaza Hotel post also shows a better view of the Shell station. By 1993, it had been abandoned but not yet torn down (the convenience store is under the canopy). Can't say much for the modern Exxon here but for a brief time it was a Rattlers, though I can't confirm or deny it had the logo on the outside, and if it was, only a very brief time in the 2004-2005 range before it was sold off. It was already owned by Kolkhorst Petroleum prior to this, and actually was given the Rattlers #1 designation but they sold it off soon after.

In the picture above, you can see the Jimmy John's and the former Pizza Hut, both of which have been previously covered.

UPDATE 05-19-2023: I have finally (by myself, no one sent it) acquired a picture of what was previously only described (the date by the way is July 7, 1989). Minor other edits have been made.

Fairfield Inn Bryan

Fairfield Inn in August 2021 (by author)
This post was originally made in 2021 when 4613 S. Texas Avenue was still a Fairfield Inn, as it had been since the mid-1990s.

But to go back we need to look at what it was before. The site it sites on has its own history, with two lots originally on the site, 4613 and 4611. 4613 was the first building on the site, opened in 1957 as "U-Pak-M", a small locally-based convenience store. Following a new schedule set forth by a Dallas based convenience store that made the schedule its own gimmick, the store was open from 7 am to 11pm, and had one other location, at 3800 S. College Avenue, which is now Mini Mart (or "Mini Mini Mini Mart"). In the mid-1960s, U-Pak-M closed and became a new restaurant in 1967, the Barbecue Barn. It appears Barbecue Barn folded around late 1968; no reference was found afterwards. Western Seas Steak House opened sometime in late 1970 or early 1971, followed by Little John's Barbecue in 1973, and then Red Barn Cafe. In 1976, the owner of Arnold's Barbecue at 801 Texas Avenue moved to the location (Thomas Beltrand) and as a result of this move changed the name to his own, despite advertising "New Name in New Location", Tom's Barbecue (no "Steakhouse" yet) was the new name of the restaurant. (It would move to 3610 South College Avenue in 1985...and later, open a College Station location). The building was never used for retail or restaurant use again, with occasional use by third parties like a haunted house in 1989.

In 1965, an A&W drive-in restaurant opened at 4611 South Texas Avenue, one of the first restaurants operated by the Ken Martin restaurant group. According to the Facebook group Bryan-College Station, Texas: Now and Then (friend of the blog), the last reference to A&W found in newspapers was November 1975 that mentioned the restaurant needed a new owner. Well, given what was happening to A&W's parent company United Brands at the time, it's no surprise that A&W closed up shop locally!

Wow, it had an eat-in area? That's better than Sonic ever had.
The good news was by that time, United Brands had started a subsidiary to sell bottles and cans of A&W root beer in stores (today owned by Keurig Dr Pepper after it changed hands several times) but the A&W restaurant (separated from the bottling side) would not return to the area until the late 1990s, and then, only briefly. Anyway, it appears that the former A&W was boarded up and condemned, the only reference is it being a "dangerous building" listed in a 1983 report.

In July 1994, Fairfield Inn opened (early plats read "Heritage Inn #1", possibly a cancelled earlier plan), a budget/economy chain launched by Marriott in the late 1980s to compete with lower-end motels and hotels like Days Inn and Hampton Inn. The hotel, at 4613 S. Texas Avenue, is the furthest south business on Texas Avenue in Bryan (even across the street is College Station). This remained a part of the Marriott family up until 2023 when it was converted to "SureStay by Best Western" (SureStay by Best Western Bryan College Station) before becoming a regular Best Western a year later.

UPDATE 05-16-2025: New rewrite with updates.

Former Applebee's

Applebee's is gone, but is it truly missed?
For our next few posts, we'll be covering more of the "North of University Drive but south of Bryan" businesses that used to be combined into one post but was cut out in recent years (well, some of them at least). What remained of that post was reassembled as the Econo Lodge post.

Late-night eats weren't that uncommon in the world that was.
As mentioned in the post title, today's post is on the old Applebee's at 200 Texas Avenue South. Applebee's is a chain and needs no further introduction and opened a College Station location in 1994. Applebee's still had the older logo a few years before its closure, and the parking lot connection to Home2 Suites (opened in 2015) gave Applebee's back access to the street formerly known as Meadowland, but I've never actually eaten there, so I have no words to say to about it. Like with the local Fuddruckers (previously covered on this blog), Applebee's was closed with numerous other Applebee's restaurants owned by the franchise during COVID-19, but this one never reopened. It's worth noting that despite some poor reviews of this location (even for Applebee's standards), it was always a bit isolated from the other restaurant clusters.

Hmm, looks like problems were brewing even before March 2020. (The paper on the door is a notice from the city regarding lawnmowing).
Applebee's was built itself on 200 Texas Avenue South, which was the site of Western Motel was there at 204 Texas Avenue. Western Motel was one of the area's earliest motels, built in the mid-1950s and demolished in the early 1990s (likely shutting in the 1980s). One advertisement I could find from a 1980 phone book indicated it was very low end, mentioning only air conditioning, color televisions, AM/FM radios, and of course, weekly rates. Slightly nicer motels of the same time frame were able to offer swimming pools, in-room phones, cable TV, or even a small restaurant/coffee shop (though the motel did have one in its early days in the 1950s and 1960s). Applebee's didn't build on all of the lot, however, and the remaining frontage will be discussed when we get around to Home2 Suites (unfortunately, not in the next few posts!).

Table for none?
All photos in this post were taken by the author, August 2021.

Under the Water Tower

From John Ellisor comes this picture of Bud Ward Volkswagen. I think I see the old Holiday Inn in the background.
The pad site where Hancock Whitney bank (at 1912 Texas Avenue South) is today has its own history that's set apart from the large H-E-B store behind it. The water tower that stands guard over the H-E-B replaced a smaller water tower almost directly at the corner of the intersection, where the H-E-B gas station is today.

Originally, it was a car dealership. Richard Barton Mazda-Volvo was here from around 1975 to 1976 for sure, and from 1977 to 1988, it was Bud Ward Volkswagen, pictured above. A 1978 article from The Eagle mentions that Ward added Porsche and Audi lines (but did not stock top-of-the-line Porsche cars) when the facility expanded.

From 1989 to 1992 it was University Mitsubishi, and after that, car dealership use of the space ended (I was previously told Allen Honda was once located here but that seems to be incorrect). After that, it very briefly became Charlie's ("Charlie's Under the Water Tower") in 1993. I'm not sure if Charlie's built a new building (later used for El Chico) or used the same building. I was previously told Allen Honda was once located here but that seems to be incorrect.

In 1994, it opened as what I remember the corner being, El Chico opened in 1994. El Chico is still around in some form and despite a logo and image update, there's only 7 locations left in Texas from what was once dozens.

El Chico survived the construction of H-E-B, and continued with the chunk of the old parking lot they once shared with 1801 Holleman now connected to H-E-B's parking lot. Unfortunately, El Chico ended up closing in late 2005, largely citing popularity and access reasons (by that time, construction on widening Texas Avenue had begun).

A few years later, the pad site was demolished entirely (including the old parking lot) for MidSouth Bank, which was rebranded as Hancock Whitney in late 2019.

Former NAPA Auto Parts, Harvey Mitchell Parkway

Taken by author, May 2021.
Taking a cue from Columbia Closings comes a minor post on NAPA Auto Parts, which moved earlier this year to a new location between Harvey Mitchell Parkway and Highway 6, leaving the former store vacant (and gutted at time of photography). Neither picture in this post is particularly good, but it was opened in 1997 with the original address of 1528 FM 2818 and later became 2144 Harvey Mitchell Parkway after the road changed names. It was also the first in the auto part trifecta near the intersection, of which AutoZone and O'Reilly Auto Parts are part of.

Another picture.

UPDATE 09-15-2021: As of this writing, the next tenant, "Glo by TFO", an auto detailing and finishing company, has modified the exterior (still not finished) and is preparing for a move-in. Removed [Defunct] from the post, as well as making an edit fix.

Outback Steakhouse

The front area used to have a lot more plants in the front.

Near the entrance to Target and the Manuel Drive stoplight (though a stoplight was not installed until around 2004) is an Outback Steakhouse, a chain restaurant that has been in College Station since its opening around 1993, and one of the handful of local restaurants my family ate at growing up, probably because it was kid-friendly and had a children's menu (the "Joey Menu") complete with a coloring book and crayons.

The building has seen some minor modifications over the years. A new semi-enclosed area was built at some point, and the building was repainted from white to pale green before a significant re-do in 2017 when it was repainted tan and brick red (with the roof repainted black), removing "Steakhouse" from the lettering, as well as removing the palm trees in front of the building.

It also went through an interior update at some point, though the basics (black ceiling tiles, bar area in the center) still remain. I think it was this time when they actually added proper restroom signs (with braille) in addition to the novelty "Blokes" and "Sheilas" signs.

There was a time when Outback Steakhouse was one of the more popular restaurants in town, and in the mid-2000s, before the restaurants along University Drive East really took off but while the university was still growing, lines would sometimes stretch out the door, but that's been gone for a while now, as is the sidewalk that used to be much longer toward the road (though the Texas Avenue widening did make it more street-friendly).

UPDATE 04-25-2024: Quick maintenance-related updates.

Aggieland Credit Union, Southwest Parkway East

There used to be a sign outside used to feature an electronic display featuring the time and temperature, but today no longer has the electronic component.

Not too much to say about Aggieland Credit Union here at 201 Southwest Pkwy. East beyond opening in 1997. They used to (maybe they still do, but I haven't been inside for a while now for obvious reasons) have pictures of almost every Aggie Bonfire going back years, though there was never a Bonfire after 1998 due to the 1999 collapse. Pictures in this post by author, 6/20.

Editor's Note: I'm going to try to take a brief break after this to get my thoughts back in order, mostly because I don't want to keep posting filler. While I do have some new posts planned, I'm going to focus on closed-down or otherwise defunct businesses, with more love and attention given to Bryan.

Former Black-eyed Pea

The old restaurant has since been demolished and replaced with a hotel. (Picture by author, June 2020).
From what I can tell from newspapers, the Black-eyed Pea restaurant opened in early 1991 at 201 University Drive East (though based on "last six months" from an April 1991 paper, it could have been late 1990). I'm pretty sure I've eaten there at least once, evidenced by some of the kid's menu cups that kicked around my parents' house for many years following (before the designs faded out), but despite being a moderately-priced chain, it was never on the regular rotation.

It closed in January 2006, before the rest of the chain melted down in late 2016 (not counting the independently-owned Colorado restaurants). After closure, the restaurant sat vacant for about three years before a series of Chinese buffets took it over. E-star Chinese Buffet opened in early 2009, then Great Wall Deluxe Chinese Buffet less than a year later, followed by "88 Sichuan Bistro" by 2013, then another name (Ocean Buffet), then Asia Star by late 2014. Most of these were probably just of the "clean up after Health Department shut down and reopen", because the place was constantly getting shut down due to terrible health reviews (roaches, moldy food, etc.)

Eventually Asia Star folded and it and other houses (rentals) on the block were all torn down (likely early 2016) for an Embassy Suites hotel (seven stories) and a parking garage, which opened October 2017. The hotel (like the restaurant) has no access from University Drive East proper but has access from Jane Street (like the restaurant) and Eisenhower Street.

The Embassy Suites by College Station has seven stories, five meeting rooms, and 162 guest rooms. One thing that has carried over to its new use as a hotel is including a restaurant (Saber Bar & Grill), though it isn't advertised (as hotels used to do locally) to the greater community. 

UPDATE 03-28-2021: Despite the April 1991 newspaper article referring to Black-eyed Pea opening in the "last six months", new additional evidence has suggested that Black-eyed Pea did in fact open in 1991, likely January 1991.

Olive Garden's Original Location

In real life Italy, unlimited breadsticks are not a thing.
Besides marketing its food products in all the area grocery stores, General Mills brought two restaurants to the Bryan-College Station through its General Mills Restaurant Group subsidiary, Red Lobster in 1983 and Olive Garden a decade later. (The other two significant concepts at the time, Good Earth, and China Coast, never made it to the area, though the latter briefly saw Waco and Houston).

Neither my articles on Hastings or H-E-B Pantry mention Olive Garden, which sat at the corner of Texas Avenue and Holleman Drive from 1993 to 2004. The old Olive Garden met its fate when it burned down in a fire, and what was left of the building was declared a total loss.

In January or February 2005, a new Olive Garden opened at University Drive East and Earl Rudder Freeway, and by October 2005, two new buildings rose at the former Olive Garden site, a Chase bank (replacing the 2000 Texas Avenue South address), and a second building (2002 Texas Avenue South) holding Jimmy John's and Men's Wearhouse (Google Street View link). The Jimmy John's closed in late summer 2019 for reasons unknown but by that time, a Jimmy John's was operating at Rock Prairie Crossing and near Texas and University Drive East. Of course, Jimmy John's at the latter location has a somewhat interesting backstory, and that will be covered soon enough...

The ad is from the mid-1990s, before it introduced its newer logo (dropping "The" and adding what appeared to be a bunch of grapes to the logo) around 1999 (replaced in 2014 but still seen on many restaurants).

The Failure of the Micro District

New Republic Brewing Co.'s original location, and later Rio Brazos. (Author's picture, June 2020)

Unlike the other big roads covered on this site, North Dowling Road (or Dowling Road if modern city signs are anything to go by) doesn't have a lot going for it. The two other items on North Dowling Road worth talking about, Former Country Grocery and Wickes Lumber were both covered years ago, and despite some newer development (an RV park, a mini-storage, and a few apartment buildings), North Dowling is relatively empty.

The exception, was, of course, the Aggieland Micro District, an informal name for 11405 North Dowling Road, a collection of warehouses dating back to 1994. The oldest building there is what is now home to Go Dog Customs, but in the early 2010s (and possibly original, as it was there in the late 1990s) was Quality Enterprises. This had the address of 11378 Hickory Road, and was accessed from Hickory Road.

The 11405 North Dowling Road buildings came in-line a few years later, with Unit A and Unit B in one building. Unit B (until fairly recently) was a warehouse for Texas Trading Post, which actually hung out in the links section as part of this website for years because they linked back here (they eventually took out the link, and when I discovered that, I removed theirs). This incarnation of 11405 North Dowling Road did add a connection to North Dowling Road but still had dirt/gravel roads. By 2006, all but the two northern buildings were built, and by 2010, when New Republic Brewing Co. first moved into Unit H, the driveways were paved (with asphalt, and a few years later it became concrete).

New Republic would move to C (and its adjacent space) a few years later, and by late 2015 it had been built up to a small but thriving brewery.

While the Aggieland Micro District was only a modest success, with food trucks and a band playing at NRBC on the liveliest of days, NRBC's attempts to further coordinate with Rio Brazos and Perrine Winery would fail.

The downfall of NRBC would begin would shortly after with the departure of brewmaster and co-founder Dean Brundage leaving for a new venture. An ugly combination of events including the COVID-19 disruption, issues with the landlord, and the departure of co-founder John Januskey would force NRBC to cease production.

When I visited in June 2020 for what I had planned to be my final visit, the brewery was in poor shape. Half of the space had been sealed off (the other half included a makeshift office and lab, and storage space for empty cans and other products). The other half was cleared of tanks, boilers, and canning equipment. Even the loft, where hops and yeast were stored, was being dismantled.

NRBC built up a full outdoor area complete with a stage.
With NRBC fading out and Rio Brazos said to have shut down its taproom, the Micro District appears to be dead with no chance of revival. It's disappointing that the Micro District would only be a footnote, if that, for the history of College Station-Bryan, and return to its original form, a collection of unremarkable warehouses. I suppose it's better that it has some physical memory, as even bigger places have faded away entirely, such as East Orange, Louisiana. Even physical places, of course, hide the time when they were really something. Neither the front office at The Flats on 12 nor the closed-down Tobacco & More suggest they were anything fancy at one time.

The other "Micro District" tenants include Rio Brazos Distillery, a small whiskey/bourbon bottler (largely just one employee, located at Unit H, NRBC's old location), Perrine Winery (a few doors down, opened 2016 after being at Post Oak Village for a few years). The only other retail tenant I can think of there includes Brazos Valley Trash Valet and Recycling at J-1 (opened 2009 after that warehouse section was built). (At Unit F, a business called Absolute Wheel Technologies was operating, but it has since moved out to Highway 30).

Exxon Rock Prairie and Wellborn

There was another Exxon located on Rock Prairie's other end. More on that another time. (Picture by author, Apr. 2020)
Sometime around 1997 or 1998, Rock Prairie Road was extended from Victoria Avenue to Wellborn Road, eliminating the need to trek back on North Graham toward Victoria. Within a few years, an Exxon station was built and later, a stoplight (I'm pretty sure the stoplight came before the railroad crossing--which upgraded and extended Gandy Road into a full extension to North Dowling Road).

This Exxon station (at 12727 FM 2154) anchors the southeast corner of the intersection, with the Shell station coming in about 3-5 years afterward.

Brazos CAD isn't all that clear when everything was built, indicating the car wash was built a full two years before the convenience store was in 2000. In the first year or two, the Exxon featured an A&W restaurant, which had returned to College Station-Bryan after a 20+ year absence (there was a location near the modern-day intersection of University Drive and Texas Avenue, but that's for another post). A&W's attempt at what was then south College Station didn't last long at all, and I had to make sure of it through some digging on Project HOLD to make sure it wasn't just the power of suggestion getting to me, but by early 2001 A&W was gone, and a Sonic took its place in the summer of 2001. The addition of Sonic added the traditional Sonic canopies to about seven parking spaces, and evidence suggests these were functional carhop spaces.

In 2008, the Sonic moved to a new space next door and the space was abandoned. By early 2009, it was operating as Taco Casa, which reused a lot of Sonic's infrastructure by painting the red trim on the canopies orange to match Taco Casa's branding scheme. But it too closed after a few years (sometime in mid-2011). It didn't help Taco Casa's case that 2009 and 2010 were plagued with major construction. The Exxon actually lost about a dozen parking spaces in the front, with an entrance to Rock Prairie also closed (though that became three new spaces). Sometime within this same time frame, the signage updated to electronic numbering.

Finally, around early 2013, the space was filled with Little Caesars, which ditched the interior seating for a walk-up counter and the only Little Caesars in the area with a drive-through.

The main "Tigerland Express" food mart was there from the start, with a third tenant serving as a liquor/tobacco store (but is only accessed from the inside, despite the presence of an exterior door). Finally, the car wash is next to the convenience store.