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.

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.

Northgate Subway and the University Drive Food Court

One restaurant for the price of three! (Picture taken by author, 8/19)

It makes me wonder why there aren't more buildings that house multiple brands of restaurants, arranged with common seating and other elements (restrooms, etc.), except in the occasional larger gas stations, Taco Bell/KFC stores (or other variants), or mall food courts. Yet that was the Northgate area got in the late 1980s at 601 University.

Today, a massive 24-hour Subway takes up the building, complete with a whole line dedicated for the Subway "pizzas" and a drive-through, which is rare (perhaps because of an unflattering appearance in Lethal Weapon 2? [link contains strong language]), but began as something more intriguing.

In 1988, the building (all new at the time) contained 31 Treats, a much smaller Subway, and Little Caesars. 31 Treats was apparently a rebranded Baskin-Robbins, though it was a Baskin-Robbins later according to a picture I saw once (in Project HOLD, but couldn't find it again).


Prior to Rusty Taco's move in, 2011. Notice the evidence of the Baskin-Robbins actually being called "31 Treats".

Baskin-Robbins was ultimately short-lived, as Smoothie King got their certificate of occupancy in 1993 and opened soon after. Little Caesars survived into the 1990s but at some point closed and was replaced with Papa John's.

In 2001, Papa John's expanded into the vacant Smoothie King space, bringing its 900 square foot space up to 1,500 square feet and added an eat-in area. Sometime around the late 2000s, Papa John's closed up shop at Northgate, and the space was extensively renovated to become Dallas-based Rusty Taco, which was open 24 hours, and opened in October 2011.

Looking west on University. August 2019.
However, the summer hours were severely restricted in summer 2012, turning it into a mostly lunch-based option, and it closed shortly after the fall 2012 semester started.

Yelp! is the best resource if you'd like to read more (and it pictures of the front, too!). It was cheap taco place (cheaper than Fuego, and it showed) the tacos were $2-$3 each and were full of meat, with the flagship item being the "Rusty Taco", a taco filled with reddish-colored meat. The Dallas-based chain has locations as far out as Minneapolis, and even incorporated a garage door in the restaurant in lieu of windows, creating a hybrid open-air restaurant. They also had very cheap beer ($1 Pearl).

According to a guy who worked at the Daily Ruckus, Rusty Taco's pricing was fundamentally flawed since the cheaper breakfast tacos (eggs instead of meat) had thin profit margins, but that's what was most popular, and none of them were particularly good--the tortillas were small and tasted no better than what you could find in a grocery store.

In 2013, after Rusty Taco closed, Subway ended up renovating the entire building for their restaurant. (I believe they moved into the Rusty Taco portion, then renovated the old side).

I should also mention what was here before the "food court", in the 1970s and early 1980s it was the home of an ARCO gas station. In 1986, according to Project HOLD, files were made with the city to renovate the now-closed gas station (now closed) and expand it into a restaurant called Peso Exchange. As far as I can tell, this never opened, but it is an interesting piece of trivia. Additionally, the University Drive Food Court name is derived from an official document, but in research for this document, I was unable to reproduce the name of it as searching in the city database is difficult.

UPDATE 06-21-2023: Subway was one of the many restaurants that ceased 24 hour service after March 2020. Furthermore, the restaurant downsized, with the Stasney Street side of the building becoming a leasing office for "The Field House". (I believe this has since been rendered obsolete, but it opens up the possibility of the space becoming a multi-restaurant site as it was prior to a decade ago).
UPDATE 04-24-2024: Further investigation is that The Field House (which takes up a now-defunct drive-through window) is a permanent installation for multiple student apartment complexes around town.

Park Place Plaza

The most activity here in a long time. These and others are the author's photos from 2014.
2501 Texas Avenue South

Appearing shortly after Parkway Square and built in 1985 catty-corner to that shopping center, the center appeared to be the counterpart to the shopping center in many ways. While Parkway Square had its Kroger, Park Place Plaza had its Winn-Dixie Marketplace. While Parkway Square had McDonald's, Park Place had Kentucky Fried Chicken. Both had stores that faced Texas Avenue, and both had stores that faced Southwest Parkway.

Here's a map (from Holland Retail Advisors that shows the shopping center as it was in 2014.

Click for full size.


In previous versions of this post, I had mentioned that the Winn-Dixie Marketplace store that once anchored the center (where Ace Hardware—College Depot on the map—and Planet Fitness is) was "the company's attempt to build bigger, more modern stores", linking an old (but excellent) post from Pleasant Family Shopping. It turns out, however, that the College Station WDM was in fact one of the first. That neon cowboy featured in the annual report? That may have been College Station's store.

Working around the center from "Section A" as of 2025, the first tenant we can find is Suzanne's School of Dance (second location) which opened in 2023. Suzanne's takes up two spaces, in 2015 the north tenant (with a special paint job) was Christopher Michael Salon, closed a few years later, but in 2018 was operating as Laina Salon. Next was Aggieland Supplements (as of 2015), this was absorbed into Suzanne's School of Dance later. Academy of Modern Martial Arts was a karate school back in the late 1990s, closed and became CD Music Exchange for a few years (they also had DVDs) and reopened as Academy of Modern Martial Arts in 2003. Owner Jerry Nucker was arrested in 2006 for sexual assault of a minor and was later found guilty. I'm sure it changed hands, as a two-year prison sentence and a name on the sex offender list is no way to run a business with children and families. It appears to have quietly vanished during COVID or soon after. Perhaps it could be a video store again, predating the 1990s karate studio was Paramount Theatre, a video store which opened in December 1985 and did a large expansion in 1990 (mostly focused on selling music). The next tenant down is Little Caesars, which opened in 1986. This which held fond memories for me through all of its renovations and continued to be the "go-to" pizza spot for my family until the Rock Prairie Road location opened around 2013. Originally, Little Caesars had blonde, 80s looking, wood paneling on the walls, this was removed in a 2000s renovation and replaced with black and white tiles. Eventually, a further renovation changed that, including removing a doorway to the kitchen with a traditional entrance to make the restaurant feel more open. There was also a gumball machine, and for many years had a promotion where if you got a black (grape) gumball, you'd get a free small pizza. I know I won at least once. It was great fun, but probably a bit of a money-loser and it was eventually discontinued (another discontinued item--I last saw the Baby Pan!Pan! around 2005, and even then, the packaging was dated). There were other things that went away, like loyalty cards and the "Brain Teaser" as well. Prices went up and down for the Hot N Ready, sometimes $5, sometimes $6, before finally changing in early 2020s inflation.

Next to Little Caesars at the corner is (as of April 2025) Family Health Weight Loss. This was previously At Home Properties (here by 2012, moved out by 2021, no relation to the chain formerly known as Garden Ridge, though it did pre-date the opening of At Home on Earl Rudder Freeway).
Section "B" is the former Winn-Dixie. While I do have a few hazy memories of Winn-Dixie, it closed in fall 1995 along with a few other stores, leaving just the Bryan store to fend for itself until the chain left Texas in 2002. Victoria-based Lack's Furniture opened in February 1997, and operated until late 2010 along with the rest of the chain¹ (interestingly,). The sign hung around (literally) for a little while longer but in 2014 the space was finally filled with two new tenants. The left side, keeping the address, became College Depot (which moved from Parkway Square), but after the spring 2017 semester, College Depot went out of business. Legacy Ace Hardware & Gifts opened in August 2018, which replaced The Bear Mountain closer to Barnes & Noble. The store (operated by the same owners of Bear Mountain) included a Bear Mountain outdoors store inside the hardware store.² The other side became a Planet Fitness.

Moving onto block "C" (C100) was originally Schlotzsky's Deli before it moved down the street (there may have been a gap, as this closed in 1997) and became a Quizno's Subs in 1998 that survived up until 2012. It reopened briefly as "Big Johnson Deli" but that closed very soon after (previous versions of this post indicated "within a year or two" but I'm not sure of that, probably closer to six months). Following this Lupa's Coffee opened in 2014. In October 2020, Lupa's Coffee was closed and converted to a new location of Gogh Gogh Coffee Company but it closed this location in February 2024. In January 2025 Bunny Bites opened.³

The current tenant at C101 is Howdy Nails, which changed hands from Linh's Nails in the early 2020s, Linh's Nails itself replaced Premiere Dance Academy in the early 2010s. (I'm not sure of the tenant history before that). C102 has been A+ Foot Massage since at least 2015. C103 was Weight Watchers in 2015 to the late 2010s and was briefly Deja vu Day Salon (as of 2022) but as of 2025 is now Tower Loan. C104 has been Laila's Beauty Studio since at least 2015. C105 is Impact Retreat (no relation to Impact Church from this post from what I can tell), a religious non-profit (in the late 2010s it was home of Aggieland Pregancy Outreach). From Google Maps the tenants jump from C-105 to C-107 (Impact occupies both).

In 2015 the C-107 spot was Annex Hookah, then Lit Cafe, then Prime 2125 (all of these were hookah/smoke shops). C-108 is Studio 979 ("Since 2024") but uses the old signage of Studio Noir. Studio Noir moved in the late 2010s to replace Gun Corps. Gun Corps was a consignment store that specialized in firearms. It closed after year end 2016 but there was a catch: their inventory was still locked up, and those guns were all collateral for loans and the bank seized everything during the bankruptcy. Short version was most of the guns were returned to customers through the efforts of the landlord, the bank, the ATF, and Champion Firearms, but some customers were stiffed if it came to monetary issues.

iPhở (writing in Vietnamese HTML is a pain) opened in the early 2020s at C109, Vapegeek was at C110 from at least 2015 to the early 2020s, as of April 2025 this is now Lassie Pet Grooming.

C111 was Spice Bowl for years (2001-2010), then a similar restaurant called Kebab & Curry, then vacant with the others on the strip, then Casa Pachita for a few years, then Fusion Peru since 2017. Sour Apple Repair (phone repair) operated at C112 from 2012 to around 2021. It is currently vacant. Across from this is the "D" block, which counts down. D-104 is the home of Frice (opened 2025), a Chinese restaurant (which replaced 555 Grill, another Chinese restaurant, but had closed a year or two prior). Kumon Math & Reading Center is at D-103 (since around the late 2010s, this moved from Longmire and replaced 4.0 & Go, which moved to Northgate, if briefly. It also shares the address of with CSDS Vinyl (flooring, not records), which was split off from 4.0 & Go's space in the early 2020s. D-102 is Ohana Korean Restaurant (since 2010). At D-101 is Knight Club, which opened in the early 2020s. This gained its custom facade when it opened as Prospector's Grill & Saloon (more nightclub than restaurant) opened in the spring of 2014 with a custom wooden facade. After about a year, however, it closed when the owners stopped paying rent and skipped town, and it stood vacant for another two years before it was reopened as Rockies Night Club, their third location (originally in the mall, later in the former Weingarten in Bryan). In August 2018, a 16-hour standoff damaged the nightclub when law enforcement was forced to drive a vehicle into the restaurant, and although the nightclub reopened, it ended up closing for good in May 2019. Hertz opened around 2014 in D-100.

Finally, Kentucky Fried Chicken (later branded as KFC) opened in December 1986, moving from 110 Dominik. A few more photos from 2014:

Lupa's Coffee can be seen, this filled the old Big Johnson Deli/Quizno's/Schlotzsky's. I read that this used to be a Schlotzsky's Deli back in the 1990s before they moved to near Wal-Mart.
Prospector's Grill & Saloon with its new custom facade.

1. An unrelated furniture chain closer to the border called Lacks Valley Stores d/b/a Lacks Furniture ended up buying the domain name, and later, some of the old locations.
2. In 2025 the store changed hands and is now Ace Hardware of College Station, which functionally eliminated the Bear Mountain store-within-a-store though kept some of the merchandise.
3. "Bunny Bites is the perfect spot for a fun and relaxing experience with friends and family! Enjoy a cozy atmosphere while indulging in a variety of drinks, including aromatic coffee, refreshing teas, creamy milk and snowy drinks, fruity smoothies, and shave ice. Don’t miss our mouthwatering mochi donuts. Plus, explore cute bunny-themed merch and enjoy playful games that make your visit extra special!" - per their website

UPDATE 07-28-2025: Massive overhaul done, previous updates archived.

The Lost Buildings of Villa Maria Road and Texas Avenue

The Walgreens replaced a corner of several businesses before. (Picture from 3/30/20)

Most of the things that were torn down in my youth were usually buildings that were not particularly large or old buildings from decades before. Rarely was something that came and went in my youth, particularly a building that was less than a decade old being torn down. It did happen, however.

For a brief time between 1999 and 2005, there was a Texaco station ("Aggieland Texaco"), which became a Shell station a few years later, following an agreement with the merger of Chevron and Texaco which would see the Texaco brand almost vanish from Texas itself. This happened with a number of stations around town. 2907 Texas Avenue was the address based on pre-2005 "restaurant report cards" and 2909 based on tax documents. There were also some other stores in the strip, but I wasn't able to find out what they were, nor do I know what the Texaco station replaced.

From The Eagle, though I remember that they had another aerial with the buildings still intact.

One of the things I do know was that many of the newer Shell stations (including this one) had started offering Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which were shipped in from the Houston locations at the time. Of course, Krispy Kreme donuts aren't all that after they turn cold, and the novelty probably lasted for a year at most before they were removed (the Houston stores closed soon after). It also had brown brick on the outside.

The buildings as they appeared in 2004

I was relieved that when they took out the block, the Golden Chick (blue roof in the picture above, and outside the red outline above) was not torn down, but by that time it was already closed.

Articles at the time mention a furniture store also biting the dust, but (and I assume it's the house-like building, possibly converted, on the Dellwood side) I wasn't able to find any information on it.

Soundwaves (2919 Texas Avenue) was the blue-roofed building: based on what I could find, it moved to Post Oak Mall after demolition before disappearing for good, but it was not part of Soundwaves of Houston, even before it was torn down (Soundwaves existed at that spot as far back as 1980). Other residual information says that Soundwaves did home theater installation, but in 1980, it did car audio installation. I read somewhere that the building was a head shop back in the '70s, but that's for another time (when Carnegie reopens, perhaps).

The building toward the back was China Garden (2901 South Texas Avenue), which had two levels, though the Chinese buffet had closed prior to being demolished. According to MyBCS, the rumor was the woman who owned it committed suicide, but I don't put a lot of stock in that (being a rumor and all). It was previously a Mr. Gatti's location before it closed at an unknown date.

This other new building has a Dellwood address. (Picture from 3/30/20)

What replaced it was a Walgreens and a smaller building that was mostly vacant for years following, with a UPS store coming in first, then Little Caesars about five years later (opened in fall 2010), then a Boost Mobile a few years after that. Even though I did miss the Shell/Texaco station out of nostalgia (and it would be nice to have a modern gas station on that side of the road), the stores that replaced it had more usefulness. The building(s) that the Texaco replaced I also don't have information on. Remember, if you know something I don't, feel free to contact this site at admin@carbon-izer.com.

UPDATE 03-26-2021: New address and more accurate dates found! Also Golden Chick had closed by that time. (The post had previously received a new title and update 4/1/20)
UPDATE 04-20-2025: From 1947 to 1956, the address of 2919 Texas Avenue was for McCormick Sign Company (manufactured neon signs) before being destroyed by arson/vandalism, then replaced by a restaurant called "Dairy Kream" starting in the late 1950s, before becoming a real Dairy Queen franchisee by 1971. The Dairy Queen moved catty-corner in the 1970s where it still exists today, and became El Caribe in 1977, which despite being described as a Caribbean restaurant, was a Venezuelan restaurant, serving more authentic food (arroz con pollo, yucca, plantains, etc.), a far cry from the "Mexican" (Tex-Mex) food that was commonly available in the area. Within a matter of months, the owners closed the restaurant and converted the restaurant to retail, Fantasy World, featuring an eclectic assortment of imported foods, head shop items (mentioned in original post), clothing, incense, and music. Soundwaves opened around 1979.

Additionally, it seems some of the Dellwood businesses are wrong. The UPS Store opened in 2006 (same as the Longmire store), Little Caesars opened in 2011, and Boost Mobile opened sometime around 2017-2018. ([Dairy Queen] added as a post tag).
UPDATE 04-23-2025: I almost forgot—Mr. Gatti's opened in December 1977, sometime around 1986 it became The Pizza Pub, and after closing, in 1987 it reopened as Pizza Inn (the College Station location had closed by that time). This only lasted a few years. China Garden opened in 1991. ([Mr. Gatti's] added).
UPDATE 10-07-2025: [Walgreens], [The UPS Store], [Little Caesars] added.