Long John Silver's in Bryan

Long John Silver's, before it walked the plank. (September 2024, photo by author).
Bryan's Long John Silver's was closed and demolished in late 2024 following its condemnation, despite some new permits being filed. Based on the fact the signage remains up but empty (no "temporarily closed"), no fencing, and no work on a replacement restaurant (foundation, etc.) I'm going to assume it's done for permanently...but I can't know for sure until it becomes a clearly abandoned lot. If it turns out to be rebuilt, then an update will be added later.

The original plan was to release this post on "International Talk Like a Pirate Day", or rather September 19th, 2024. Sadly, I was out traveling and was not able to actually post it as planned. I'll still keep the pirate-speak (with help from Monkeyness) because it would've stayed up past "TLAPD" anyway. With that being said...

Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe opened in January 1978 at 3224 S. Texas Avenue (the College Station location came later) 'n the nautical-themed galley operated fer o'er 40 years at that location. By the time these pictures were taken, the buildin' was in rough shape; the signage had nah been touched in decades 'n thar appeared t' be a large hole in the side o' the buildin' which was boarded up. At some point the "Seafood Shoppe" name had been dropped as well.

Aye, like the College Station location thar be drug busts at this galley, with one incident involvin' PCP but the restaurant continued for more than another decade.

"Avast," said county officials sometime in 2024, "the buildin' be in bad shape," 'n indeed a new filin' fer a new building was posted so this location will soon be torn down 'n rebuilt. The drive-through remained open, though.

Here be a few more pictures, including both simultaneously being condemned and open for business. Yar.

UPDATE 01-24-2025: The restaurant is indeed being rebuilt.
UPDATE 06-12-2025: The restaurant opened today (with new signage) and long lines (and creating a minor traffic jam). [2020s] added to post.

Long John Silver's in College Station

Long John Silver's has been gone for years and replaced with this unexciting strip mall building. (Photo by author, 4/20)
Before the current strip center here was built around late 2005, the site at 1808 Texas Avenue South was originally Long John Silver's No. 5347 in 1980¹, and closed in early 2005.²
The strip center originally had a Verizon store (still here, though changed logos after the parent company did), Systek Computing, and a restaurant space. Systek moved to a strip center behind the newer plaza when it was built by 2011 (later on it moved and eventually merged out of existence), with its space here being replaced by "Cash Store" (payday loans--and apparently that IS its legal name). The restaurant space started as Doc Green's, a soup/salad/sandwich chain out of the Atlanta area. It made its first stand in Texas here in late 2007 (and in Austin a few months later) with a logo that is no longer used by the company. Unfortunately, neither one did particularly well. The Austin one closed up in less than a year due to back taxes being owed, and the College Station one was shuttered by the end of 2008.³

Doc Green's closed at the end of 2008 with Naked Fish replacing it in early 2009. Naked Fish continued to operate for about fifteen years before closing in April 2024, with Tikka House Indian Eatery opening in December 2024 to replace it. Cash Store was also not an original tenant, it was originally Systek Computing. Systek moved to a strip center behind the newer plaza when it was built by 2011 and ultimately moved on and disappeared.

1. Like Bryan's store, this originally gone by the chain's old name "Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe", though like Bryan never updated to new logos beyond their 1994 logo. It looked just like it (before it was torn down and rebuilt, anyway).
2. Previous versions of this page refer to it being a drug front; the article was actually referring to the Conroe location. LJS closed around that same time here (while that Conroe location remained open for another five or six years).
3. In July 2012, Jenny Jenkins wrote in to say this: "Doc Green's opened February/March 2007. I worked there for a very short time (March to May/June). It was run by some disgruntled former Freebirds managers that thought they could run a restaurant better than Freebirds (where I also worked for a couple years). They couldn't have been more wrong. They were so horribly disorganized that I can't believe they lasted. For example, they were open for months and still hadn't installed paper towel dispensers. They couldn't keep up with ordering and wouldn't order the same things so the menu changed constantly just because they'd run out of stuff. It just was really poorly done. I'm not sure when exactly they closed, but I know it was longer than expected. They were pretentious for a restaurant that casual but the food was pretty good."

UPDATE 05-11-2025: Made some changes including some more details about LJS and integrated previous updates, with some rewriting done. Renamed post to "Long John Silver's in College Station" to complement the post Long John Silver's in Bryan.