Remedies

I think I found this from Zillow, though the pictures are from bcsrealtor.com.
Even today, there's almost no restaurants west of Harvey Mitchell Parkway and north of Dowling Road (where Harvey Mitchell Parkway goes to an east-west road). There's Gate 12 near Easterwood Airport...the Stella Hotel restaurant...Poché's Seafood...the fast food places near the West Bryan Walmart, and in 1996 all of those did not exist. That was the year Remedies opened at 4660 Raymond Stotzer Parkway in a converted house (originally built in 1965), just about a quarter mile to the east where The Country Kitchen once operated. (For several years, I thought that the locations of the two were one and the same, when I started working on the post for The Country Kitchen, that was what I had in mind). Despite its obscurity, Remedies operated as late as 2004. It would make occasional appearances in the Eagle's Dining Guide, health reports, and in reports of private meetings not open to the public. The fact that it was reservations only suggests that it was never open unless there were reservations and it was weekends at best. A Practical Guide to Bryan-College Station (Second Edition) describes it as this, and perhaps the best description other what the dining guide gave ("Small, intimate fine dining served in a European manner. Their specialties are special tenderloin cuts of all meats").

The area's most exclusive restaurant requires reservations &n dash; one to two weeks in advance is recommended. With steaks and seafood prepared for taste as well as show, this five-course experience provides a night to remember.

But between the fact that it was so exclusive, and the fact that it was in a rather isolated part of town, not many people even knew about it when it was open.

In 2006, Lin's TV & VCR Service (later Lin's TV & Appliance) moved to the location from College Station Business Center and operated there until around the end of the decade when it moved to Bryan. After that, at some point was renovated into a traditional residential house (three bedrooms and two bathrooms), though Zillow lists both 4660 and 4660B (one of these seems to be the old commercial component), though both of these look to be the same.

Editor's Note: There's a whole lot of stuff I've done since we last met, including a huge update to the Northpoint Crossing article (Learn about the former Circle K! See what we found out about that 1940s building! Discover how the Dutch Kettle and the Kettle are related!), some updates to various commercial developments McDonald's & Blockbuster also got its first update in a decade.

But there's more "in network" to see. Numbered Exits has gotten several new posts, though most of them tend to be recycled content that has previously appeared on Carbon-izer before (except Loews Midtown Motor Inn). Tennis World, profiled over at The Houston Files is brand new.

Former Edelweiss Floral Shop

This is from Loopnet but archived here as these pages have a nasty habit of disappearing after a while.
As I mentioned in my recent Numbered Exits post on Super 8 in Hope, Arkansas, I'll be updating the "blog family" (Brazos Buildings & Businesses, Numbered Exits, and The Houston Files) three times a week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday), though it's spread between the three sites (and might be off by a day). This doesn't count post re-dos, of course, the post covering La Bodega was overhauled and had the Church Street Blues & Barbecue post merged into it and the Northpoint Crossing article will be overhauled in the near future.

Today we're returning to the Rock Prairie corridor which I haven't had a post about since 2020. This building was built in 1999 for Edelweiss Floral Shop, a locally-owned florist which closed in 2002.¹ The building spent some time vacant later (I have in my notes it was "Brilliant Illusions" in 2004-2005, based on tax records, though there's no newspaper presence). In 2006, gift shop Baskets on the Brazos moved in. Baskets on the Brazos has its own history, which I haven't yet told of.

In 1986², Pop-abilities Unlimited opened at 3737 East 29th Street, featuring gift baskets, gourmet popcorn, chocolate, balloons, and snow cones. If you follow Carbon-izer.com, it was one of the sponsors drawn onto Jim Wodark's Camptoons map. In 1995, it merged with Baskets on the Brazos, though it seems it was more of a buyout than a merger, considering that Baskets on the Brazos was a much newer business (this was its first storefront) and like any "merger" where one is clearly more dominant, the older company disappeared. The business was renamed as "Baskets on the Brazos/Pop-abilities". A 1998 phone book I have said they had a second location at "3952 S Texas Avenue CS" (likely in this retail center). From what I can determine between tax records, this article, and other archives, is that the business didn't move to Villa Maria (I can't find anything on it, though it's possible a 2001 phone book or directory could disprove that) but did revert to the Pop-abilities name before it was purchased in 2003, moved to 1200 Briarcrest Drive Suite 1000, and renamed as Baskets on the Brazos from the article says, killing the Pop-abilities name for good, before new ownership of Baskets on the Brazos (in 2006) moved it to 112 Rock Prairie Road. In 2008, Tricia Barksdale Design, a floral shop that was located within Martha's Bloomers in Navasota (Martha's Bloomers does not have an article on this website, but it is discussed on Carbon-izer as part of the Highway 6 entries) at some point (Martha's Bloomers opened in 2000, so Ms. Barksdale hadn't been renting for long), moved into the new Baskets on the Brazos space. Eventually, Tricia Barksdale Design took over the operation entirely. In 2018, Tricia Barksdale moved to 4444 State Highway 6 South before closing the storefront in 2020 (COVID-19) to a home studio where she's been since. I suppose that's just how these things go. The socials are still active for Tricia Barksdale Designs as is her website, and it's still way less unsatisfying than what happened to Petal Patch or the final fate of the 1930s-era business Student Co-op (later history discussed here).

Back to 112 Rock Prairie Road, by the late 2010s it had become Oakwood Roots, a therapy center (an outgrowth of Oakwood Counseling, which was across the street at the time) and like Tricia Barksdale eventually moved to the bypass (now known as Roots Psychotherapy). As of November 2024, it was "TenantNow" (renamed to "TenantFirst" by 2025), which has also moved out to the highway (all three moved out to the 4000-4500 blocks of Highway 6 South...go figure).

1. Despite the name, it was over a block away from Edelweiss Avenue, and had no access to it.
2. Possibly 1985, 1986 was just the first time I found an advertisement

Editor's Note:: I've talked about a "post every day of the year" for this site specifically, which for this blog falls on August 5th, a Wednesday, so that's when this blog will get its next new entry...go and check out Numbered Exits and The Houston Files in the meantime!

Varsity II Apartments

Varsity II shortly after suffering a fire (The Eagle, 8/20/94).
Located at 100 Jersey Street (later 100 George Bush Drive) and built in 1966, Varsity II Apartments¹ was a victim of right of way expansions for the George Bush Drive underpass project, which still has yet to be built. The apartments dropped the name (at least on the front of the building) sometime around the late 2000s and torn down around 2017, but despite their long run there's not a lot I can say about them other than they were just a fixture of Southgate and in the 2000s there was usually some old man at the stoplight impressing passers-by by grabbing the FM marker sign pole and doing horizontal pull-ups.²

The only major story of note I found about the apartment buildings was in August 1994, when 29-year-old Carl Henry Blue bought 50 cents worth of gasoline in a paper cup from the nearby Chevron³ and set his ex-girlfriend, 38-year-old Carmen Richard-Sanders⁴, on fire, with the resulting fire injuring one other person and doing "extensive damage" to the apartment building. It isn't clear to what extent things happened. The building wasn't torn down and only a few units were destroyed, but all the residents had to move out for a few days, mostly in relation to repairing gas furnaces. Richard-Sanders had to be airlifted to Hermann Hospital in Houston, but it was too late; she died of her injuries within 24 hours. Blue, who had already turned himself in when he caught wind of a manhunt, was charged with felony murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death.⁵ It was not the only fire at Varsity II over the years, but certainly the most notable one.

1. The question if there was a Varsity I is inconclusive. A few pre-1966 references have a reference to one being near Marion Pugh Lumber Company and having central air, so it's not 303 University and it's not clear if this was one and the same with Varsity II.
2. Bart Braden was his name and attracted a bit of notoriety including a Battalion article written about him. He passed away in January 2026 during the writing of this article.
3. While the Chevron or ownership was not charged in relation to Blue's crimes, it was (and is) against the law to sell gasoline in an unapproved container like a paper cup. Also, 50 cents in the mid-1990s was a significant amount of gasoline, closer to half a gallon...but the cup was probably not filled up to that much.
4. Initial reports put the victim's name as "Carmen Richardson", likely from a communications error.
5. Carl Blue was executed by lethal injection in February 2013.

Ken Martin's Steak House, Original Edition

Of course, this restaurant didn't actually start out as Ken Martin's... (source)
The [Ken Martin] label now covers almost every single restaurant M&W Restaurants was involved in that had a College Station/Bryan address (except for Pepe's Mexican Food, which is still open).

Our look at 1803 S. Texas Avenue begins around 1964 when it opened as a location of The Chicken Shack (Leslie's Chicken Shack) originally and at one time, you could access the restaurant next door with the parking lot. In 1971 it closed and became "The Steak House" later that year, owned by Ken Martin and Joe Ruiz (see article). By 1974 it was advertised as being "Ken Martin's The Steak House" and then, Ken Martin's Steak House. The first incarnation of Ken Martin's had what I've heard was the "cave room" (a dark dining room area) but don't have any pictures of it.

In 1985, the restaurant relocated to the former Pacific Coast Highway at 3231 East 29th Street where it would remain for almost the next thirty years.

In 1992-1993 it would briefly serve as one-off Sparkey's Pizza before Allred Motor Company in 1996, which gave way to Eastep Auto Sales in the late 2000s, which abandoned the location in the mid-2010s to move across the street. Finally, there's this Loopnet with some great aerials. I've got them all backed up for posterity.

From Loopnet. I don't want to see this showing up on Facebook.

A North Bryan Family Legacy

The former J.J.'s Liquor as it appeared in January 2026. (Picture by author).
Sometime relatively recently, I had a very brief conversation with Ms. Ferreri, whose late father, Joe, built a number of restaurants and a few hotels in the area.¹ But among those, Sugar 'N Spice, the other drive-in, was missing from my site, so like Wendy's and H-E-B Pantry, lets go for covering a complete set. From what I can put together, 1215 N. Texas Avenue was the original address of the location and aerials back this up.

It was in 1951 that the drive-in opened (as a North Bryan counterpart to the Triangle) by 1968 was under new management as Ferreri moved on with bigger projects (the hotels). By fall of 1970 it was closed permanently but Luke Court was to reopen the store as "Sugar N Spice Drive In Grocery", now at 1219 N. Texas Avenue, likely reusing signage.

A second location of this "new" Sugar & Spice soon opened at 601 W. 28th Avenue as well, and by 1972 two more locations were in planning or operation, 1402 W. 25th Street and 300 W. 19th Street.² In 1974, Court sold these to Southland Corporation, which first had advertised as 7-Eleven in spring of that year (with a few locations of its own also being built), and by August was holding grand openings for what would be eight locations.³ Apparently, 7-Eleven did add gas to this location, but its time as a 7-Eleven was short-lived. By 1978, it was sold and reopened as J.J.'s Filling Station, owned by J.J. Ruffino (the son of whom I have also briefly spoken to), which by 1981 would ditch the gasoline and become J.J.'s Liquor, which it would remain for almost the next thirty years.

This garage door faces Texas Avenue. (Picture by author, 1/2026)
As I previously mentioned in another post, Spec's bought the three JJ's Liquor stores in 2010. The one on Texas Avenue in College Station was their wholesale warehouse for a while, while Rock Prairie Crossing and this one continued to operate. But within a few years of that, the JJ's at Rock Prairie doubled in size when it rebranded, and this location simply closed up shop (around that time the H-E-B was rolling out its full size store, and it's a mystery why Spec's couldn't have replaced its store with something there, or expand the Bryan store).

While part of the lot was redeveloped as a self-service car wash at some point that continues to be in operation at 1217 N. Texas Avenue, the building, which had served under Ruffino, Ferreri, and 7-Eleven, was abandoned.⁴

1. Most notably Ramada Inn, Ferreri's Italian Cuisine, and Triangle Drive-In. This post should finish them.
2. The addresses, 1402 W. William Joel Bryan Parkway and 300 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Street respectively, are no more. The latter was demolished in the late 2000s while the former disappeared between 1995 and 2003. 601 W. 28th Avenue is still in operation as a convenience store, but not a branded one.
3. The local 7-Eleven stores were sold to E-Z Mart in 1993 after Southland's 1990 bankruptcy. By that time, none of the Luke Court-era stores were in business as 7-Eleven.
4. Abandoned on paper, maybe. There was a truck parked outside the building when I was taking photos and I could music coming from inside (which was crammed with boxes and other junk), so I'm hoping it was just security of some sort...but I wasn't about to find out! It's why I don't have too many pictures of the property.

UPDATE 06-21-2026: In cross-referencing with Carbon-izer, my notes say this was closed in 2014 (no way of verifying that independently), and I didn't mention in the initial version of this post that the building was definitely reopened as Carmona & JB Auto Sales in 2016, which even reused the sign structure. Carmona & JB Auto Sales can be seen in Google Street View. The original Editor's Note of this post has been removed.

The Shipley's That Sold Hamburgers

The little "Entrance" sign doesn't light up anymore. When did it ever? When was it installed? (Picture by author, 1/2026)
Picking up immediately after The Now-Defunct Dairy Queen on Highway 21 is another Bryan restaurant that deserves to be covered, 3310 South College Avenue. The first reference I can find for 3310 South College Avenue (subject of today's post) is in 1970 with Shipley Do-Nut Shop, a significant departure from the modern Shipley's in that it had a more complete menu including hamburgers ("Flame Burgers") and milkshakes. This did not seem to be a corporate decision out of Shipley's Houston headquarters (none of the Houston locations seemed to do this, even in that time) and more of a liberty taken by the franchisee¹; continuing to do this even as of 1981. In 1982 Shipley moved out to its current location at Villa Maria and Cavitt and dropped the hamburgers from the menu, with the College Station location opening in 1984.

After sitting vacant for nearly a decade it reopened as Archie's South College Grille. Teaming up with E.C. Archambault of Archie's Hamburgers and Archie's Taco Bell, the restaurants operated as essentially a dual-branded operation...with two restaurants and dining rooms. For whatever reason it did not work out in that form. In fall 1992 this was retooled as The Country Diner (without Archambault) but that too closed within a few years. In August 1994 Wok Express, a Chinese buffet, opened (closed in late 1995). Golden Dragon replaced it in early 1996 but didn't make it more than three months. Bruegger's Spuds opened in 1998 but also failed within a matter of months. Burger House, however, opened in fall 2000 and became far more successful, lasting 25 years and counting, more than any other establishment in the spot combined.

1. As I understand it, this wasn't uncommon for product-based franchisees back in the day. Kentucky Fried Chicken was notably a menu item originally, not a full restaurant, with a lot of variations and options for Orange Julius, too.

UPDATE 08-21-2026: Burger House closed May 30, 2026 as part of a family decision. While it's now gone, it did operate longer than anything else there. Added [defunct] to post.

The Now-Defunct Dairy Queen on Highway 21

Music for the Funeral for Queen Dairy
If you read my stuff on Houston (you should) there's a lot of stuff on there that have fallen victim to TxDOT's highway expansion plans. In addition to covering some of Northwest Freeway's lost businesses, there's also a big section on Katy Freeway, which had some major clearances, like a whole strip where five restaurants (including McDonald's, Whataburger, and Denny's), La Quinta Inn, the entire REI parking lot, and an independent car dealership just got wiped off the map (and that's just one section). While Highway 6's expansion has generous ROW for TxDOT to work with, a few businesses on Highway 21 aren't so lucky. One of those is Dairy Queen at 3003 Highway 21 East¹, which closed January 27, 2026.

The sloppily copy-edited press release.
This particular Dairy Queen opened in 1977 (judging by the one-year anniversary) as the 6th Dairy Queen in the area² and other than that there's not much I can say about it with other than update in the early-to-mid 2010s. Of course, Smith Dairy Queens, the current area franchisee, is not going to replace it, of course, blaming medians but while Wendy's, McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Whataburger, and others have since expanded out locally to varying degrees of success (medians or not), Dairy Queen hasn't.

All pictures were taken by the author, January 2026.

1. For years, up until at least the mid-1990s, the address was erreoneously written as "3000 East Highway 21". It was never on that side of the street.
2. The five others were the ones that still exist today (minor relocations excluded), with the exception of a store near what is now William Joel Bryan Parkway and North Parker Avenue.

Editor's Note: Several more posts have gotten major upgrades. Walton Shopping Center replaces the Primo Pizza article and the old "Eastgate" article while FedMart has been fully rewritten.

Abandoned Ready 2 Go

November 2025 picture. This was attempted to make the same angle as the GasSigns.org picture below.
Billups Service Station first opened at 1600 S. College Avenue in 1957 in what was a huge opening for a small gas station, and in the mid-1970s rebuilt with a modern convenience store (Brazos CAD says 1975). At some point in the 1980s, the whole chain was rebranded as Charter Food Stores, and in 1988 the chain was bought by Circle K. (There were 538 stores at the time, with three in Bryan and one in Hearne).

Remarkably, there is a picture of what it looked like in the Charter days, perhaps one of the only examples of what Charter looked like. Despite Circle K's plans, the gas stations remained as Charter¹ but otherwise was a Circle K in all but name² and was sold to Duke & Long in 1999 with the other (few) Circle K stores in town, all getting rebranded as Conoco (with an "Everyday" convenience store). Within a few years this had dissolved and the former Circle K stores went their different ways, with this one becoming Ready 2 Go by mid-2003, and if it had the Conoco branding in this era that went away by the mid-2000s. After deteriorating for years, the gas station was finally dead by summer 2020.

1. Circle K filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990, which probably explains why Charter wasn't rebranded.
2. Local ads referred to the stores as "Circle K/Charter".

UPDATE 07-31-2026: 1600 S. College Avenue is shared with the address behind it. There will be an update to this page coming soon.

The French Quarter Apartments

Newspaper article from 1966, the first time them or that address was mentioned. A short one today. The last time we covered dead apartment complexes was Normandy Square (if you don't count the residences at Texas Oaks), and like Normandy Square, this one is at Northgate, The French Quarter Apartments at 601 Cross Street.

Unfortunately, while I did record some of the basic history elsewhere, noting that in fall 2007 they had become Gleissner Hall Apartments¹ under the ownership of St. Mary's Catholic Church before they were demolished in early 2017 and effectively land-banked for their master plan. It's currently a parking lot.

As it has long since been demolished the best I can really offer is one of its first advertisements as seen above and a link to Google Maps Street View when the apartments were still there.

1. This was from a 2007 (maybe 2008) article from The Battalion entitled "Living by faith" but finding it again has proved to be elusive.

The Country Kitchen

Advertisement from c. 1970 phone book
Back before Highway 47 (which was its name for many years), the airport terminal, and other fixtures west of FM 2818 on Raymond Stotzer Parkway, which despite the development of the "Biocorridor" and other new features is still considered the fringe of the Bryan-College Station, there was the Country Kitchen (unassociated with any other restaurants, including a franchised operation back in the 1970s and 1980s). Built in 1961 (or 1968, there is conflicting information) by Frank and Mae Meads and resembling a typical one-story ranch home (this was not, in fact, its original use, and was built as such to be converted into a house).¹ The restaurant, located a little over two miles west of FM 2154² originally served barbecue, but expanded to chicken fried steak and catfish within a few years, and in 1975 leased to Ray Martin (I believe the brother of famous College Station restaurateur Ken Martin) which had all-you-can-eat dinners (chicken or fish), along with other options (including chicken fried steak) served every day of the week. The pies were dropped as a menu item, and the Meads felt like Ray Martin was "turning it into fast food" despite otherwise running it well, and planned to take it back over when the lease expired in late 1982. Unfortunately, the restaurant burned down in April 1982 destroying the restaurant and the antique collection the Meads had built up there. The building went quickly, not just because of its isolated location (firefighters had to bring their own water and ultimately resorted to pumping water from the pond on the property) but because of grease-soaked walls and floors (plus, by the time Frank Mead was even alerted to the fire, flames were pouring out of the window and the roof).

When the Meads rebuilt and reopened in 1984 the area was in recession. Five restaurants had failed in June 1984 alone (but were "all student places").³ Ultimately, the reincarnation was short-lived, closing in August 1989 for the construction of Highway 47 and reconstruction of FM 60 (the frontage road is where the restaurant was). (This also marks the first FM 60 entry covered without being University Drive or University Drive East, which is why I made the new [FM 60] label).

The pond, the houses next to it, and the restaurant were all part of the same property.
Footnotes for this article are below.

1. This is discussed in the 1984 article about the reopening of the restaurant.
2. The modern address is 4812 Raymond Stotzer Parkway, still owned by the Meads family. On old maps and some references, this part of FM 60 was called Jones Bridge Road but it wasn't until 1992 when the current name was adopted, during which I assume the addresses were added.
3. The only one I can 100% confirm was Bogie's and likely The Stadium.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A bunch of changes have been made to the labels, which I've adjusted recently again. [Loupot's] has been added to the new post from the other day as well as others, [Charles Stover] and [Costa Dallis] has joined [Joe Ferreri] and [Ken Martin] as a post grouping, and a few new chains now have their own label including ones that only made it to one location in the area. There were a few obsolete tags that were taken out ([railroad], [services], [service businesses], [drug store]). Went through [demolished] and replaced many of them with [redevelopment] (this one sticks with [demolished]). This is addressed in the FAQ.

Former Boston's The Gourmet Pizza

This was taken in June 2015 (by author) not too long before Razzoo's opened (but before the old Boston's signage was cleaned off and new signage installed).
As the "FM 60" directory on Carbon-izer.com is soon to be dismantled (see this archived version), I should discuss the next restaurant just to the right of 830 University Drive East, this time 820 University Drive East. It's current tenant has been Razzoo's Cajun Cafe since August 2015, but opened in August 2006 as "Boston's The Gourmet Pizza", an export version of Canadian-based Boston Pizza (I believe it was to prevent conflicts with Boston Market, but as Boston Market's star fell, the trademarks eventually changed). This closed around summer 2014.¹

This post as currently written may have an update forced before year-end, as earlier in October, Razzoo's parent company has filed for bankruptcy, and while the restaurant chain may live on in some form, most of its locations won't. (It already closed three locations prior--Oklahoma City, Pasadena, and Corpus Christi, a store in Winston-Salem closed last year).

1. Boston Pizza closed their stores in San Antonio and Houston, but in Dallas, it lives on and you can see it retired the "Boston's The Gourmet Pizza" for just Boston's Pizza in around early 2018 if not the tail-end of December.

UPDATE 01-01-2026: On December 29, 2025, Razzoo's Inc. was acquired by M Crowd Restaurant Group (owner of Mi Cocina...no, not the ones here locally) and while they moved forward with 11 restaurants, nine of them weren't, including (according to online sources), Burleson, Far North Dallas, Garland, Irving, Lewisville, Lubbock, Spring, Tyler, and College Station. These restaurants were shut down immediately.

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.

UPDATE 08-16-2026: There was one more business...Brazos Hall, an events space, which opened in 1999. Also, I should note that when it became the Triangle Club, by the time the drive-in closed, it had become a "steakhouse", according to the article. (Joe Ferreri had existed ownership by that point).

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.

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.

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.

Varsity Grillhouse

I was in a bit of a rush so I only got one picture of the restaurant and it isn't a great one (photo by author, 2/25)
A few years ago after burning out in 2021, I decided that starting with this post everything moving forward would be "buildings that are demolished or otherwise closed, had tenant changeover, had some significant change themselves, or are part of a larger story" and not merely historic. Since then everything has held to that (I figured there might be an exception or two but thus far everything has held).

The downside of a self-governed policy tends to encourage making a post of recently-deceased businesses rather than looking at a long storied history (one of the things I like the least about Columbia Closings, but it also seems to bring in the crowds).

What was a bit confusing about Varsity Grillhouse (and probably contributing to its demise) was that it was a sports-themed restaurant, but not a sports bar*. Here's the restaurant's menu courtesy Archive.org.

The restaurant came and went so fast (late April 2024 to early February 2025) that the most recent Street View of 2509 Earl Rudder Freeway. Not the shortest-lived restaurant in the area by a long shot but rarely do you see a new-build go under like that.

The restaurant was part of a new development of the old Westinghouse building and surrounding property. That's a post I've been tinkering on for a while now (pretty sure I started it five years ago) but that's still going to be a future post, someday...

* archived from this link

Past Lives of Harvey Washbanger's

Better days at Mazzio's (1991 ad from the Waco paper). Note the College Station location didn't offer delivery.
Located at 1802 Texas Avenue South, Harvey Washbanger's has only changed out the machines and its logo (the food, however, is less consistent) has been here since 1998.

At this point, 1998 is a long time ago; there's not too many restaurants (or stores for that matter) that have been around for that long. None of the grocery stores that were here in 1998 are here anymore (all closed or relocated) and many other restaurants have come and gone in that period. Like any long-running restaurant, it has a good gimmick. La Tour d'Argent has its "duck cards" since 1890 (now at a number approaching 1.2 million) while The Big Texan Steak Ranch has its "72 ounce steak challenge" (with a bread roll, a baked potato, shrimp cocktail, and a side salad) that has taken on many challengers over the years...while Harvey Washbangers has a laundromat.

Harvey Washbanger's was not the first restaurant here, however (as is often the case). Before even Mazzio's, we need to go back to 1975 with the opening of the Kashim Club, which might have been College Station's first black-owned business by Bennie Smedley. While initially a bar and meeting place, by late 1976 it had lunch every weekday with table service. A 1978 blurb mentioned Kashim featured "sandwiches, mixed drinks, and disco music".

In the early 1980s, Kashim closed and soon gave way to a redevelopment of the lot, which affected adjacent spot 1800 Texas Avenue South (former spot of Pepper's, a hamburger restaurant concept by the Ken Martin group...more on that another time) as well. 1802 Texas Avenue South would remain a restaurant, with Mazzio's Pizza opening in 1987. Mazzio's would bow out by the end of 1997, and in 1998, Harvey Washbanger's opened, a restaurant that featured wings, hamburgers, and other bar food-type items while also a being a full-service laundromat. With a system of lighted indicators visible from the main restaurant area ("Drink 'till your lights go out" was a common joke there), Harvey Washbanger's turned out to be a surprising success and stayed around for a very long time. The menu has changed due to various changes in kitchen management, sometimes big menus, sometimes smaller ones. In 2018, the restaurant celebrated twenty years in business, a feat that few local restaurants could brag. A few years later their logo/signage changed. While it has more distinction than their old one, it's just a backlit sign rather than neon-outlined signage.

UPDATE 03-10-2025: Tragedy has struck. [demolished] added (the latter for Kashim but unfortunately it will be torn down either way) due to extensive damage. Currently the fate of the restaurant is unknown.

UPDATE 03-26-2025: Harvey Washbanger's has announced it will not reopen.
UPDATE 10-15-2025: Removed Editor's Note about [defunct] and [demolished] since it is no longer accurate to this blog (which is why this one gets [redevelopment], as part of those changes).

Western National Bank of Bryan

When the bank at Villa Maria and Forestwood opened in 1982, there was not only a full page ad here but a full section of advertisement articles and other stuff. From The Eagle, I just cleaned it up a bit. Western National Bank (not to be confused with others sharing the name—there was another one in Abbeville, Louisiana) was established in 1981 as a bank based out of Bryan, funded by local investors with the office and only branch to be at Forestwood Drive and West Villa Maria Road in Bryan (1001 W. Villa Maria Road), and opening in November 1982. However, by 1987, with banks failing across the state (in part due to the oil crash, in part the S&L crisis), Western, now in deep financial trouble, proposed merging with United Citizens Bank, a local bank operation that was formed after local bank UnitedBank bought the insolvent Citizens Bank of Bryan.

The combined bank would be headquartered at the Western National Bank site, with the site anticipated to be a more happening part of town with the construction of what would be State Highway 47. In October 1987, however, Western National Bank was declared insolvent by the FDIC but quickly reopened a day later as "Villa Maria Bank", a branch of First State Bank of Caldwell (which paid the FDIC $5000 to acquire the accounts) and in November 1987 Villa Maria Bank officially opened after its soft reopening a few weeks prior, just five years after Western National Bank opened. By 1990, First State Bank also had a branch off Harvey Road under its own name (at 701 Harvey Road) and Villa Maria Bank soon changed names to be more like its parent company. While the bank always had a metal roof from day one, at some point during First State Bank's ownership (by 1995), the bank received a small addition to the right side of the building (on the western part).

In 1996, First State Bank was acquired by First American Bank, which used to be called UnitedBank (guess that merger came through after all). Like other First American Bank branches (which we have previously covered) it was converted to Citibank in 2005 after another merger, sold to BB&T in 2014, and converted to Truist after BB&T after they merged in 2022. Except, they didn't, as BB&T closed this branch sometime around 2018. Prior to or during renovations into office space, in late May 2019, a fire burned through the building, creating visible damage on the outside and causing a partial roof collapse. As a result, the building was simply torn down (along with its parking lots) and not replaced.

A "gas station/deli" has been promised per the sign out front but nothing yet, and who knows what that entails (the lot's big enough for a decent gas station, maybe TXB or perhaps we may be lucky and get a QuikTrip...or just a decent fast food co-brand). In any case, one of the things that stuck out to me was how UnitedBank believed that the western part of Bryan would be a bigger thing than it was. Even though State Highway 47 was complete by the late 1990s it still took a long time for that to get anywhere off the ground. Even in much of the 2000s that was still largely open territory and mostly industrial, even when Traditions was starting to build up. (Then again, a lot of the Traditions stuff never really panned out either).

UPDATE 07-09-2026: Quoting myself from a 6-30-2026 post on TexAgs: "Ground has broken on the "gas station and deli" on West Villa Maria and Forestwood. The redevelopment of the Zip'N at College Avenue was a letdown, so unless they say it's a brand name store (Casey's, TXB, Circle K, 7-Eleven, QuikTrip) prepare to be disappointed." As much as it would be awesome to see some of these brands (and if it was 7-Eleven or Circle K it would mark a return to the territory), it's unlikely as these brands as these brands like to announce themselves. No additional tags have been added, we'll see what shakes out later.

Also, the prose is not quite accurate...United Citizen's Bank was acquired and effectively shut down by First American Bank, despite what the above link indicates (see this post). We'll probably do a more comprehensive rewrite when the gas station opens up.

Fat Burger Bryan

I hate using Google Street View pictures especially with Fat Burger's regrettable "update" but this is from May 2023 and shows that Fat Burger wasn't long for this world. In yet another restaurant closure on Texas Avenue, we have the final demise of Fat Burger (again, no relation to West Coast-based Fatburger) at 1801 S. Texas Avenue in Bryan, which in 2010 reached a peak of three locations—their Northgate location (gone), their Fat Burger Grill location on FM 2154 (also gone) and now their final location on Texas Avenue in Bryan, gone.

However, you didn't come here to learn about Fat Burger's last batch of fries, you came to know how it was established, what used to be here before, and that was a location of Zuider Zee Seafood Inn in 1970. I'm not sure what the relation was to Zuider Zee Oyster Bar & Seafood Restaurant, but I think it was renamed and this 1971 article suggests that it was to transform Zuider Zee into a more mass market fast food seafood concept. Even with newspaper resources things have been a bit spotty on the history of this spot. It seems Zuider Zee was gone by the early 1970s and replaced with "The Lighthouse Seafood" in 1975 though that also appears to have been short-lived.

In January 1977, Texasburger opened, not to be confused with any other similarly-named establishments. Within a year Texasburger folded and in January 1978, Chick'n Lick'n, a fried chicken restaurant opened, and within six months that was replaced with Parsley's Fried Chicken, another fried chicken restaurant.

Like many long-running restaurant buildings, in 1980 it became home to Texas Rental Company (ABC Rental Company by year-end), a "rent-to-own" store selling furniture, appliances, and electronics, which operated for a few years (closed in 1983) before becoming Burger Boy in 1984 (Burger Boy No. 2). Burger Boy of course would also have its time in Northgate, but it closed this location as early as 1985 and became Fat Burger No. 2 in 1988.

There it would remain for some time. Sometime around 2019 the restaurant exterior was redone, replacing their neon sign with a smaller backlit sign and re-doing the roof to be gray...though the restaurant had already had its best days behind it. Google photos shows that by 2022 the one-pound Bevo Burger was off the menu (the largest, the 2/3 pound "Freddie" was $10.99).

You can see the neon sign lit up in this Foursquare picture.

UPDATE 12-06-2024: A local archive as Foursquare is closing...

UPDATE 05-14-2025: Added link to 301 Patricia.

Fuzzy's Taco Shop (Former)

This picture was taken in September 2024 by author.
Fuzzy's Taco Shop at 1712 Southwest Parkway, Suite 100 closed permanently after August 11, 2024, a victim of the economy and/or cutbacks from Fuzzy's new ownership of Dine Brands, but let's back up a bit.

Prior to 1993, we had several 7-Eleven stores in town, far more numerous than the converted Stripes stores we do now. A few of these sites have in fact been covered, like the defunct Northgate Chevron or the Citgo at Southwest Parkway and Wellborn, mentioned mostly in passing.

In 1993, Southland Corporation (the original name of 7-Eleven, Inc.) sold off its College Station area locations to E-Z Mart, another convenience store operator. Within a decade or so all those locations changed hands and I don't believe any more operate under that name. (For instance, the location at Villa Maria and Finfeather was now "E-Z For You" even as early as 2005, something I'm sure the alive and well E-Z Mart didn't take kindly to).

Despite that, most of the former Citgo/E-Z Mart sites were in good, visible locations on corners of major roads. There was only one that I knew of that wasn't like that, an odd "parking lot" location off Southwest Parkway and Texas Avenue. No gas canopy, no corner lot. While it's on the oldest Street View I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. (It operated from 1985 to 2008). Fuzzy's Taco Shop opened in 2010, about the time the rest of the strip center got an update. As of 2023 the stores here included Pro Nails & Spa, Wild Side Smoke Shop, and Haircuts by Whitney. The stores that were here included CR Nails (which Pro Nails replaced, here in the early 2010s), Mak's C Store (predated Wild Side, here 2011-2012), a dental office (dating back to the 1990s with different ownership with just a simple "DENTIST" sign, getting a real sign of "Dr. Black Dental Care"; moved in 2013 to Rock Prairie), and Prestige Cleaners (later Aggieland Cleaners, ultimately absorbed into Whitney's space).

Most of the other spaces around here we've covered. To the immediate east is Shipley Do-Nuts, then Arby's, which shares the parking lot with Red Roof Inn, NailSpa, what used to be Kettle, and connecting to that is Days Inn.