Wendy's on Texas Avenue

Picture by author, March 2025. The construction barrel in front contributed to WHY I could snap this picture from a (sort of) moving car.
Much like the other day, in the post "H-E-B Bryan Times Two", I referred to the "City Directory" of Carbon-izer.com and my efforts to phase it out (current version here, archived edition here. In this case, we're going back down on Texas Avenue to Wendy's, which the page puts as being open in 1977 (per tax filing) but it actually opened in 1978.

3216 South Texas Avenue was the address of the restaurant and it operated for thirty years at that location¹, as the number of Wendy's restaurants in the Bryan-College Station area grew to two (with the opening of the Southwest Parkway East location in 1984), three with the addition of their WJB store in 1998 (that's for another post), and a fourth with the opening of the Holleman store in late 2004.

In 2005, Wendy's tied for third with Whataburger and Jack in the Box, with both of them being behind McDonald's and Sonic. Since the Whataburger practically across the street at the Tejas Center lines up fairly closely with the demise of this Wendy's (pulling them ahead to third place, meaning Wendy's was now tied to Jack in the Box for fourth by definition) and likely had a hand in their demise. Game over.

By summer 2009, the restaurant has been repainted red, yellow, and white as Loanstar Title Loans ("CASH LOANS ON CAR TITLES" in the front). Today in the local burger wars, Wendy's sits at just two restaurants locally behind Whataburger, Sonic, and McDonald's (the top three, in no particular order), with Jack in the Box and Burger King tied for fourth, a lousy sixth place showing. Do they deserve it? (Maybe—considering they haven't built a new one locally in over twenty years).

From the newspaper, June 28, 1978.²
It should be pointed out that although the mid-Bryan Texas Avenue fast foods all continue to thrive today to some extent. Maybe not "thrive" but the former Church's Chicken is still a restaurant, Jack in the Box is operating after a tear-down and rebuild, and work continues on Long John Silver's. All three of those sit at a stoplight with easy access. Now, sure, Mr. Hamburger is vacant (at a stoplight) and KFC still operates (but not at a stoplight); yet I can't help but thinking that the lack of access was a problem (even pre-medians). Wendy's had an access point to Doerge Street behind it but I guess that wasn't enough. I'm not sure about KFC, and especially with those medians it seems like it may be a tough sell. Heck, jumping over to the old Mr. Hamburger spot may be in their future.

Finally, I should mention that on a personal note, I don't remember ever going to this location; in fact I don't even really remember a Wendy's being there. I remember Church's and McDonald's and the KFC (pretty sure remember it when it had a bucket on the sign) but not Wendy's. Maybe I wasn't the only one...

<sup>1. I'm not sure if had a salad bar at this location since I barely seem to remember it. You can see a great page for Wendy's (ignore the former restaurant portion, it will be gone after 3/31/2025 again) here at Carbon-izer.
2. Reading the full page requires a subscription. I only clipped the relevant part.</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 as seen here).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>

Texas Hall of Fame and Rudder's Landing

I have no color pictures of the Texas Hall of Fame so here's some 1978 ads instead.
As I mentioned for what is now the post covering Foxhole Lounge, there used to be a whole post called "Stories of the West Loop" which was developed into other posts on this blog. That post also talked about the areas "beyond the border", the places where while they weren't technically far away from home, they were enough out of the way that I never saw them unless I was going on a bigger trip. Texas Hall of Fame, was of course, one of them.

Seeing as how most of the College Station-focused FM 2818 posts have been developed in some form or fashion, there needs to be more on Bryan specifically (and while Bryan content has increased in recent years--of the 110 posts from the 1/1/2020 post of O'Reilly Auto Parts Texas Avenue, College Station and 3/1/25's On the Border, nearly a third of them have been in Bryan, and I expect the trend to continue.

Most of what I could say about Texas Hall of Fame, the warehouse-like building that sat here since September 1978 and was another sight off of FM 2818/Harvey Mitchell Parkway when traveling that direction was written by The Eagle in 2003. If you still deign to give The Eagle your money you can see at the top of the page here. But I don't like broken pages and pop-ups, and neither should you, so here are the scans reproduced below.

This page is large. Click to see full size. Johnny Lyon, the sole owner of the club at the time, kept his promise—he kept the Hall alive as long as he lived....but in November 2010, Lyon passed away at the age of 73.

New ownership kept the Hall open for another year but in late December 2011, the Hall cancelled their New Years Eve events and closed permanently. The loss of the area's biggest (and most inclusive—the other dance halls catered exclusively to college students) was a mournful one, and the dance hall did not reopen (nor did a similar project announced in early 2012, the "College Station Hall of Fame", which was to be built somewhere in south College Station).

While the Hall was north of the Villa Maria/Harvey Mitchell Parkway intersection (it was north of where Panda Express is now with the address of 649 N. Harvey Mitchell Pkwy.¹, the whole thing was redeveloped as a strip center called Rudder's Landing, anchored by a new Walmart (Supercenter) which opened in March 2014.

I imagine the opening of the "west side Walmart" really cannibalized the recently-opened Townshire Walmart Neighborhood Market, but even with that the whole development was a bit anemic. Despite some plans with buildings on the north side (where the Texas Hall of Fame actually was), it remained little more than just the Walmart itself and a few smaller stores (most of the stores in the PDF in the smaller building joined in 2014-2015). Notably, Panda Express (639 North Harvey Mitchell Pkwy.) opened December 2014. Chick-fil-A joined in the early 2020s at 1542 West Villa Maria Road.

According to the most recent PDF (archived from here), the second phase of Rudder's Landing will not only incorporate the old Texas Hall of Fame space but Bryan Mobile Truck & Trailer Repair (at 683 North Harvey Mitchell Pkwy., former home of Bryan's Central Freight Lines terminal) would be torn down for Atwoods.

The PDF has several things that aren't there (yet) including the oil change place, Greater Texas Federal Credit Union (hope is dimming for that one as they gave up on their proposed Deacon/FM 2154 location amid rumors of heavy losses), and Dollar Tree. The Rapid Express Car Wash ended up opening as a Club Carwash by the time it opened in 2022², and the Subway in the shopping center moved there sometime around 2014 because of a claim of loss of business at the gas station location due to the Villa Maria/FM 2818 overpass.<sup>3

1. This only was bestowed around 1998-1999, I could find NO records of an address for them prior to this.
2. This was due to a buyout of the chain.
3. This is according to Centex Subway. Due to my experience in dealing with them I don't believe this to be the case as Popeyes continues to operate successfully, and during that timeframe there wasn't a new development that they didn't jump on. Keep in mind that there was ALREADY another Subway inside of the Walmart.</sup>

Winn-Dixie on 29th Street

Winn-Dixie with prominent "Marketplace" signage, unknown date. Courtesy Michael Gomez (used with permission) Twenty years ago today (February 21, 2005), Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. declared bankruptcy. When I started writing this post back in January, it appeared to be heading toward an ignominious end under parent company Aldi. Earlier this month, though, C&S Wholesale Grocers purchased 170 stores (including Harveys, as well as some associated liquor stores) with the associated trademarks from Aldi Süd. Still, with 170 stores spread across five states and C&S's incredibly bad track record at "rescuing" chains (one reason why the courts X'd their purchase of Albertsons/Kroger cast-offs), the future still looks quite dim.

In better days, however, Winn-Dixie had locations spread across much of the Southeastern United States (with about 1,000 stores in 1999) and that included two locations in the area, and was part of several other major regional and national chains for what was a very small market in the early 1990s, with the chain, along with AppleTree, Randalls, Albertsons, Kroger, and H-E-B Pantry participating. (One article I have when the College Station location closed mentioned it was probably the most grocery store square footage to capita market in the country).

Despite the closure of the relatively short-lived College Station store and spending much of the 1990s sandwiched halfway between AppleTree and Randall's (later Albertsons), it still operated until the chain departed Texas for good in 2002.

Opened in May 1985, the 45,000 square feet store offered the typical supermarket features of the time including a "New York-style delicatessen and bakery". The paper also mentioned a "prestige meat" department, that was what Winn-Dixie called its meat department in those days and I imagine the inside of the Bryan store looked much the same way. This anchored the new Carter Creek Shopping Center.

Unfortunately, by the late 1990s, Winn-Dixie's problems were apparent through the company. Already by 1996, with their competition locally (Kroger, Albertsons, AppleTree, and H-E-B Pantry) having two or more stores compared to Winn-Dixie's one, no stores in any of the major Texas cities except for Dallas-Fort Worth (and at least in 5th place behind Kroger, Tom Thumb, Albertsons, and Minyard) and Waco-Temple-Killeen, Winn-Dixie seemed to finally catch a break in 1999 as they hammered out a deal with Kroger where they would offload the entire Texas Division to Kroger for an undisclosed price (rumored to be $350M), pending FTC approval.

This would allow Kroger entrance to Oklahoma (where it had no stores and still doesn't), Waco-Temple-Killeen, a few smaller markets, and give Kroger four local stores by the end of the 2000, with their new Rock Prairie "Signature" store, their existing College Station store, and their existing Bryan store. Unfortunately for both parties, the FTC did not approve (even though it was trivial compared to the later Albertsons/Kroger merger later attempted (which still failed) with the deal now dead, Kroger walked away. Instead, in 2002, Winn-Dixie simply shut down the division. Brookshire picked up a small number of stores, Kroger picked up even less, but the majority of the stores simply closed.

That of course left Carter Creek Shopping Center without an anchor tenant. The store's address, 4001 E. 29th Street, was shared with the whole shopping center, so it's hard to find much information on other tenants and gain a clear picture of what was going on. Personally, I don't remember much of the center and I don't think it was ever well-populated, but from 2001 to 2012 a location of Tuesday Morning was located here, before it relocated to Post Oak Square. There were a few others (Career Apparel, Amish Furniture for Generations). By early 2004, Workforce Solutions had moved into the former Winn-Dixie (new address--3991 E. 29th Street) and other government offices moved in soon after.

There were/are other tenants in the shopping center as well. There are two buildings near the light at Carter Creek Parkway, one of which holds Pride Cleaners (Pride 1 Hr. Cleaners until the late 2000s/early 2010s). There was a Dollar General at suite 102 from 1993 to 2007, a DoubleDave's Pizzaworks from 1986 to 1997 (one of the early locations), and a restaurant, Wokamole Healthy Cuisine has somehow hung on for ten years at suite 106 (opened late 2014). The restaurant originally opened as a hybrid Chinese/Mexican restaurant (it replaced another Mexican restaurant called El Gallito de Jalisco, and the spot had been mostly restaurants going back years) though within a year the Mexican menu was dropped entirely.

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).

Original Location of McCoy's

From The Eagle (2000), source described below.
Pretty much every post in the last twelve months has been a restaurant of some sort and the last three, seafood restaurant, University Drive East restaurant, seafood restaurant ON University Drive...it's put me in a mood to find something that is not, in fact, a restaurant, but something I could work with. An idea came up to do Texas Hall of Fame, but to cover that would be covering Rudder's Landing, which would have, you guessed it, restaurants. The challenge was no restaurants, nothing on Texas Avenue (there's been a LOT of that).

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I came up with an answer. The original McCoy's Building Supply location! Now, it still exists at Boonville Road where it has been since the mid-1990s or so, but the location just south of Briarcrest is what I remember from the early days. Open from 1983 to mid-1996 when it moved (probably one of my earliest "closed store" memories, after Kmart and Winn-Dixie, but before Piknik Pantry with its Chinese food.

In 1997, Office Furniture USA opened. This new and used office furniture store was initially part of local company Engineering and Office Supply. In 2000, this was purchased by Wilton's OfficeWorks. I'm not sure what the original sign said, there were articles from 1997 about it being called Office Furniture USA but in 2000 a new sign was installed that would be the main facade for the next thirteen years. Apparently, part of the lumberyard area McCoy's used to use is/was subleased as RV and boat storage but I can't confirm that.

The current address is 141 N. Earl Rudder Freeway, the pre-1999 address was 3220 S. East Bypass.

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.

Rodeway Inn of Texas Avenue

Official picture...probably taken before it became a Motel 6. Welcome to 2025! I meant to retire the blog a decade ago but ended up fixing it up and adding over 150 new posts, even if the release is spotty (2019 and 2020 got over 40 posts, 2021 and 2024 had around two dozens posts, some had less than ten, and a conspicuous absence for 2018).

Speaking of lack of activity, the [hotels and motels] tag hasn't seen much since I covered Hampton Inn and predecessor Sands Motel back in 2021. Several of them got updates (most notably relating to the original Holiday Inn in College Station, but a true new post has been lacking.

We've mentioned Joe Ferreri before, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 103 and some of his ventures over the years including Ramada Inn, the Triangle Drive-In, and Ferreri's Italian.

First announced in 1965 as a Rodeway Inn (opened in 1966) with a Kettle opening a year later (24 hours—though it looks like the "separate luxury restaurant" never came to fruition).

The motel stayed as a Rodeway Inn under Ferreri's ownership and was lost in 1988 to foreclosure and in the early 1990s rebranded as Preference Inn. In 2004, it changed names again to Americas Best Value Inn & Suites. For a very brief time in the mid-2010s was a Rodeway Inn again, before becoming a combo Motel 6/Studio 6 by 2017. Unlike other combo hotels, they operated as one business with no difference in rooms, nor had the old Studio 6 logo before it changed to look more like the Motel 6 logo (which also got a slight redesign).

I did visit here a few times in the late 2010s as a Motel 6 (knew someone who lived there for months), it wasn't great. (This is the motel's current website under Motel 6 where the picture came from).

Obviously the Kettle doesn't exist anymore. While it did briefly co-exist with the Kettle at 2712 South Texas Avenue, it appears to have closed sometime in the late 1980s and appears to have been vacant until Coco Loco moved in around 1998. Also at some point Coco Loco got its own address (1607)...

Babe's Doughnut Company

February 2020 (mine). Had to brighten it up a bit.
TexAgs has reported that Babe's Doughnut Co. has closed so now seemed like the perfect time to post about it, being timely and all. (Man, have we lost a lot of restaurants this year—Casa Olé at the mall, Fargo's, Amico Nave, Hooters, Mo's Irish Pub at Century Square, the final Fat Burger, Fuzzy's Taco Shop, the Northgate IHOP location, the unusual death of Krispy Kreme, Bahama Buck's there at Tower Point, and I may still be missing a few yet).

In any case, to look at the history of this one we need to go way back to 1965, when Streetman's Drive-In opened in January 1965 at 3409 S. Texas Avenue, featuring hamburgers, fried shrimp, doughnuts, and other orders. Within a few years, this became Sam's Drive-In and later switched to serving Jack 'n' Jill Donuts exclusively. (I have no idea where Jack 'n' Jill Donuts came from, but they still have a few stores in the Waco-Temple-Killeen area, even today). Around 1985 Jack 'n' Jill Donuts closed, giving way to the second chapter in the building's history.

Jungsen & Jookyung Baek opened Live Seafood (also known as Live Seafood & Oriental Grocery) around 1986, a seafood restaurant and small store selling Korean groceries. This would change hands and ownership over the next thirty years but remaining a Korean grocery (eventually full foodservice was largely dropped). By 1995 it was Dong Yang Market, by 2003 it was simply Oriental Market. In the early 2010s I often visited the store when I was in the neighborhood, either buying a small snack or drink, or eyeballing the large jars of homemade kimchi in the ancient refridgeration units in the back (I don't mind a good kimchi but never in the size of gallons). In February 2016, a large fire tore through the building. The building was saved but the inventory was ruined and the interior was damaged, and it didn't reopen.

In 2017 it reopened as Babe's Doughnut Company, and was a popular place for morning donuts (a nice change from Shipley's). It had some unusual donuts like with cereal on top, but with Babe's closing, we're left with only Shipley's and other no-name donut shops. Too bad!

I intend for this to be the last post of the year (updates will continue)—yes, I suppose I could fit more in but I need to focus on other projects like Numbered Exits and Carbon-izer,com. Similar to how I tacked on a bit following a eulogy for the Bryan-College Station location of Mr. Hamburger (this post) last year, we'll look at the ones that got the highest views this year like we did a year ago.

Post Oak Mall Stores, 1982-1992 takes #1 this year (it was #3 last year). I keep telling myself to get the new page up, it's a big project but I keep delaying. Furrow Building Materials takes second place. Former Fitzwilly's comes at #3...Texan Restaurant is #4 (#1 last year), and finally, Fajita Rita's, The Building of Which Eventually Burned Down comes at #5.

Notable updates this time around included...
- Albertsons (freed from a disastrous planned merger) is expanding outside of Dallas-Fort Worth again with a new store in Waxahachie opening a few months ago (as a Tom Thumb) and the first Oklahoma since pulling out in 2007 but the long-vacant store of University Drive East was filled (partially) with a REI. I still miss Albertsons' presence in our community, but at least Brookshire Brothers fills that "third supermarket" niche.
- The article on Grand Station now has an opening and closing date for Lowe's. Yes, for those new here, that was the area's first Lowe's store! It didn't do so well initially, though.
- We have an article now that the Long John Silver's in College Station closed after it was discovered to be a drug front.
- The Post Oak Square article was updated a few times to better explain Mariel's and "Home Town Foods" as well covering the demise of Krispy Kreme.

And of course, if you're new, there's an ever-growing catalog of existing posts in the archive to peruse. See you next year!

Oh, before going here are a few others from that photo set (February 2020).

Ku-Ku Burger

From whence did this building come? (Photo by author, June 2024)
When it comes to long-gone fast food restaurants, no one talks much about Ku-Ku Burger, a 1960s-era chain that marketed 15-cent hamburgers (like McDonald's at the time) in a cuckoo clock-themed building. Apparently up to 200 stores existed at one time before the chain's failure circa 1970; now the only one is in Miami, Oklahoma (and even that one has been modified with additions). From looking at old newspapers there wasn't much press surrounding the opening of Ku-Ku Burger, located at 2500 South Texas Avenue. In fact, sometime between 1966 and 1970 it was closed and replaced with a Baskin-Robbins. From the late 1980s to 2005 this was Subway (it moved to Tejas Center) and has been World Nail Spa since at least around 2007.

To my surprise, when I stopped by in June for a few photos I found that they were building a new structure behind World Nail Spa, which would replace the old building, very similar to how the original building of the nearby Ag Solar Guard met its demise. By October, the old Ku-Ku Burger building was gone, replaced by a parking lot. There was very little left of it beyond its strange building, anyway. Two other pictures are below (neither of the new building, which is nothing to write home about, though you can take a look at the Facebook page):

OMG Seafood

I took this picture from the Long John Silver's across the street (September 2024), something we'll be covering soon. I originally what would be this page (3227 S. Texas Avenue) for the "Texas Avenue in Bryan" page for Carbon-izer, a site I no longer really know what to do with despite trying to integrate it into this one. It is of course part of the same photo set of the defunct Planet K next door.

This was originally Church's Chicken for many years (opening around 1971, but originally with the address of 3207 S. Texas Avenue) but it closed in spring 2012. Austin-based El Pollo Rico opened a little less than a year later, swapping out the fried chicken the building once served for charcoal-grilled chicken. It was closed by January 2015 with Pollo Tote (a similar business, but a one-off) opening in June of that year, but by late 2016 it too was closed. OMG Seafood, a Cajun seafood restaurant, opened January 2018 and to their credit and seem to have done well (almost six years). The 2007 Street View is the only one that has the sign filled in.

Looks Like Planet K's Blasting Off Again!...

Cacti and Christmas lights. (Photo by author, Sept. 2024)
Located at 3218 South Texas Avenue, the now-defunct Planet K (officially a smoke shop, though would've been a "head shop" back in the day) operated out of a converted house...or at least it appeared to be so. The house behind it at 3213 Doerge Street is on the same property and per Brazos CAD was built in 1953 so it seems that it might have been built for commercial use after all (it also explains why I didn't see mention of a residential address here).

The earliest reference I can find is Doerge Repair Center, which renamed to Midway Repair Center in 1957. After a brief time of vacancy, it became Tuttle's Carpet Discount Center in 1971 (later simply Tuttle's Carpet Center). Sometime around 1978 and 1979 it was replaced with Tin Barn Furniture, and sometime around 1989-1992 it was closed and replaced with Tin Barn Antiques & Collectibles, which operated until around 2004. Another antique store called Abigail's Attic operated in the house from 2004 to 2008, and Wiggles & Wags (a dog grooming boutique that had been in town since 1999) operated in the space in the mid 2010s for a few years (it had already moved in 2016, and shut down in 2020).

In 2018, Austin-based Planet K "opened" in Bryan with a major change in the building (including covering up the front entrance with a false front with a mural) but tied up official opening of the store for eight months including parking lot operations. Once Planet K actually opened in 2019 it was just five years later, August 10th, 2024, when they packed up and closed, blaming the economy and the medians.

The false wall is where Planet K's murals used to be. (Photo by author, Sept. 2024) Planet K's website is amateurish. Obviously, I can't throw stones in that department but I'm also not trying to run a business, nor am I promoting debunked myths about the military budget as mentioned on the page. The military's budget is around $700-800 billion annually, it would cost $267 billion annually to end world hunger, well above 3%. (While national debt and budget soars, the military does not have a $9T budget, nor did it ever).

In any case, Planet K has left Texas Avenue and I'm sure that there's probably either relief or disappointment depending on the views of the place.

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...

Bryan Kettle

It's difficult to get a good shot so this Google Street View will have to do. Besides, they replaced all those mercury-vapor lamps back around late 2019. With the demise of the College Station Kettle in 2022, the Bryan Kettle (at 2712 South Texas Avenue) still remains, the last remnant of the Kettle chain (now with three independent locations--Tucson, Arizona and Laredo, Texas (which I'm not even 100% sure is open anymore) it's time to look at the Bryan Kettle.

The oldest records for the address (1955) comes up with the home of Sunset Trailer Court which occupied the block. In 1962 Beltone Hearing Testing Laboratory opened under H.R. "Tex" Mayhall though within a few years Mayhall relocated to Austin. (It likely used Sunset's office.) By the mid 1960s the address was home to Wilie Trailer Sales, with Denny's opening a new restaurant on the site in 1969.

After a run of ten years, the Denny's changed hands. Under new owner J. Carlos Hongo, the name changed to Carlson's, which dropped 24 hour service while adding items like Kobe Teriyaki Steak to the menu. However, Carlson's closed in early 1982 and soon reopened as Kettle, which featured 24 hour service once more, and that 24 hour service would continue for almost forty years (ending in 2020).

The demise of the College Station location meant that this is the only Kettle remaining in the area. Besides the Arizona one, that Laredo location I'm not 100% sure is open anymore. It looks rather desolate these days.

Fargo's Last Stand

This sign is original to its first tenant, Western Sizzlin. (Photos by author, 8/24) I suppose I should mention the passing of Fargo's Pit BBQ, which closed early last month (July 2024) with 1701 South Texas Avenue being its last location. While a more in-depth Fargo's might be interesting, from its humble beginnings at 1220A N. Texas Avenue (at least as far back as I can find, at least to 2007 if not 2003...though Fargo's has indicated they started business around 2000) to moving to 720 North Texas Avenue for about five years, to finally moving to 1701 South Texas Avenue, where we are today.

The restaurant was opened in 1976 as Western Sizzlin Steak House, an order-at-the-counter family steakhouse (no alcoholic beverages served according to a 1980 ad) and continued to operate until 1996, when it closed.

Another shot of the former Western Sizzlin/Barnhill's/New Barnhill's/Ocean Buffet/Fargo's. Western Sizzlin's replacement was Barnhill's Buffet, a chain based out of Tennessee that opened three Texas locations in 1999—Bryan, Lufkin, and Nacogdoches, and its at peak had some 40 locations in the Southeast (Bryan was the furthest west location). By 2005, the other Texas locations had closed and as a result the Bryan location was somewhat isolated from the next closest one in Shreveport and closed in 2008 following the bankruptcy of the company.

In late 2010, the local Barnhill's reopened as "New Barnhill's Buffet" based out of Spring, Texas (which, going by the blog site listed above was only a list of not-Barnhill's opened in old Barnhill's locations). It closed about a year later and replaced by Ocean Buffet in 2013, and that was closed in 2016 after too many health violations.

In 2018 that's when we had Fargo's Pit BBQ move in, repainting the building white with blue trim, and closing in July 2024.

Western Sizzlin lives on. Its restaurants still exist in in some pockets of the Southeast United States (I think the closest one is in Arkansas) but they're not gone entirely yet. Meanwhile, the last Barnhill's closed during COVID-19 joining Sweet Tomatoes, Ryan's, Old Country Buffet, and others in permanent death.

Former Hooters

The front of the building faces the freeway, so it's hard to get a good shot.
I wanted to follow the "try to make a post for every day you didn't have a post for" rule in hopes that I could run Facebook as a "on this day..." post but that also means due to the original summer-heavy posting schedule I couldn't add anything for like two months if I wanted to do something in July.

In any case, today's post is about the defunct Hooters. Hooters had a long interest since at least the mid-to-late 2000s to build. Originally it was rumored that a spot on Texas Avenue was the place to build but ultimately built a location at 960 North Earl Rudder Freeway right next to Imperial Chinese & Sushi. It opened in July 2018 and for a while did okay.

Plans had been in the work to add a Hooters to the area since the mid-to-late 2000s but one finally reached the area in July 2018. It no doubt suffered from Twin Peaks opening down the road (at 768 North Earl Rudder Freeway) but nonetheless continued until June 2024, closed in a purge of around forty underperforming locations, joining the ranks of several other restaurants closed in the summer including Fargo's Pit BBQ, Casa Olé in the mall (closing over forty years), and Mo's Irish Pub at Century Square.

It was soon after this announcement that I dropped by and grabbed a few pictures (so pictures were taken June 2024). Fellow blogger Columbia Closings also lost their Hooters restaurant and documented it, so it's only natural I need to do the same.

Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering why I'm wearing a Super Mario t-shirt...

A cardboard cutout remained in the restaurant.

Inside the covered patio area.

The Current J. Cody's

Picture by author, 02-2024
As I've already somewhat covered Tom's Barbecue both on their College Station location (where you can see a picture of the Bryan location) and their pre-1985 original location (which started out as Barbecue Barn), there's not too much I can say about their 1985-2001 Bryan location at 3610 South College Avenue. They opened a location here in 1985 (built new) and following the closure of the restaurant in April 2001, reopened later in the year as different business J. Cody's Steaks & BBQ and despite its longevity (it has been located in the same place longer than Tom's had), there's not too much to say about it objectively.

Amico Nave Ristorante

This one and the other photos were taken by author, February '24.
I had to pull the details of this one from my FM 1179 page, but this one came up for a post as the restaurant announced closing with the last day being February 24, 2024. So, with that in mind, we'll take another look at it.

Amico Nave Ristorante at 203 East Villa Maria Road was built in the late 1970s as a restaurant called "Pizza Planet" (many years before Toy Story, of course) and this lasted from 1979 to 1984. Because of spotty records, it later served (briefly) as Kelly-Moore Paint Company (according to taxpayer records) and a restaurant called Buffalo Joe's as late as 1994, but has been a beauty salon from 1996 to the very early 2010s (Shapers Hair Productions, though might've gone under a different name in the late 1990s). In spring 2013, it reopened as Amico Nave from the same owners (Wade and Mary Beckman) of Shipwreck Grill across the street. In its early years Amico Nave did very well: in summer 2013, when restaurants usually have slow business, the parking lot was packed out nightly. But I suppose all things have to come to an end. Enjoy the photos and check out the post for Shipwreck Grill.

Uh-oh, hours changed! Who could have seen this coming?

While the concrete base is old, this is one of the few new light fixtures for Amico Nave.

The building is visibly older. Currently, plans are in the works to renovate the building to look more like a ship and move Shipwreck Grill into the space.

UPDATE 09-04-2024: Exterior and interior updates to Amico Nave have been completed, with the new Shipwreck Grill opening sometime a few days ago as of this post. ([defunct] removed)

Truck Stop Cafe

The drawing of the crazed cook (it's all in the eyes) seems to be stock art, notice the copyright symbol. Around four years ago I embarked on an ambitious plan to do a series on Texas Avenue with a bunch of all-new content. I put the kibosh on that fairly early (nothing to do with COVID, just some poor choices of what I actually had. As far as COVID went, it was a productive year otherwise, over 40 entries were added, and while many were on Texas Avenue these were coincidental (it is very popular, you could spend at least an hour reading all 70+ posts—do it!).

Anyway, Truck Stop Cafe! This long-forgotten restaurant operated officially from 1970 (phone book scan from c. 1970) to 1973 as a 24/7 restaurant and what appears to be the first tenant in the spot of 2609 North Texas Avenue, and according to records, the building hasn't seen use as a restaurant (or commercial establishment, for that matter) since. However, a one-off crime report indicates Truck Stop Cafe was still open in 1976, and a phone book shows the restaurant was active since at least 1963.

Since then, although the building hasn't been used as a restaurant in years and has been modified since, the current tenant is Royal Priesthood Christian Fellowship, which it has been since at least the early 2010s.

Goodbye, Mr. Hamburger

Picture by author, 12/23 Mr. Hamburger is dead once more. The lone pad site at 3706 South Texas Avenue, once rumored to be developed as a Hooters, of the mid-to-late 2000s NorthPark Plaza strip center (I've attached an out of date PDF here, as seen on Carbon-izer), the restaurant at 3706 S. Texas Avenue opened as Bush's Chicken in August 2016 but closed by October 2017. The follow-up operation, Huntsville-based Mr. Hamburger, opened August 2018. Shortly after opening a pizza restaurant-within-a-restaurant ("Doh! Pizza Rolls"), Mr. Hamburger #2 closed on or around December 1, 2022 "temporarily" and was made permanent before the end of the month. Nearly a year later, Mr. Hamburger reopened in late September 2023 but closed in early December. (See Carbon-izer for the post this was based after).

Finally, I know it's been a fairly quiet year at Brazos Buildings & Businesses, and I know I still have a convenience store at Leonard to deal with soon per request...and the top five posts of the year in terms of views are all older posts.

Texan Restaurant was #1 followed by The Burger King Near Blinn, then Post Oak Mall Stores, 1982-1992 (really should get the 2002-2012 post up on of these days), Connecting Point Church / Former OfficeMax as #4 and at #5 Culpepper Plaza / Central Station (which needs an update). Speaking of updates, all sorts of other updates were done this year—one thing that happened is we now have a picture of the College Station H-E-B Pantry AS AN H-E-B PANTRY, and photos of any H-E-B Pantry as an H-E-B Pantry are hard to come by these days. There was the demise of the George Bush Drive and Marion Pugh McDonald's, the former JJ Mugg's/Rita's/Garcia's/Fuddruckers reopened as its sixth restaurant, iWon Korean BBQ & Hot Pot, and a number of other updates such as more accurate openings, banner changes (The feature of Fairfield Inn Bryan is no longer a Fairfield Inn), found images like the H E L L gas station and other stuff. Can't say that next year will be better but we can try.

UPDATE 03-26-2025: Two more things.
- A business that appeared to be a gas station (formerly?) was here from 1974 to 2005, C&L Tire Service Center, was in the spot and address that Bush's Chicken / Mr. Hamburger later replaced. Further digging shows that it was still a Texaco in 1976 (as the service center) and was first built in the late 1950s. I don't know how long C&L did gas.
- Hooters did indeed intend to locate here with tax filings and TABC filings alike, yet never broke ground anyway.