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.

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 at least 2001 (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.

UPDATE 03-30-2025: This was actually one of the first Winn-Dixie Marketplaces in the chain. (The third, actually). See the Sing Oil Blog post. It went up a few days after mine but contained some inaccuracies (particularly about Kroger's aborted buyout) but it's been ironed out with some features shared.
UPDATE 07-29-2025: 2001 Dining Guide puts DoubleDave's still here in 2001.

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

Former T.G.I. Friday's

A harbinger of things to come chain-wide. (source)
My first and better choice for today was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of photos but this is similar enough, plus it's themetically on point (sports bar that would probably air the Super Bowl). It's TGI Friday's, which opened late 2005 when the chain was hitting its peak (600 U.S. restaurants in 2008, now dropped to just 125 domestically).

The College Station T.G.I. Friday's at 940 University Drive East opened late 2005 and closed in May 2013. It appears the franchisee, LBD 2001 Inc., shut down the previous year and was taken over by corporate; however, the College Station location wasn't one of the ones they moved forward with. It was replaced with Willie's Grill & Icehouse in 2014.

Editor's Note: I know I've been churning a lot of posts lately, but a lot of these are stuff I've written previously. (I dare say that a good number of new posts you see now were started/partially written a few years ago). Part of the problem with the current posts is that some of these posts just aren't that thematically exciting. Looking at some of my output from 2011-2013, although most of them have been rewritten from their original drafts (and more than a few got permanently removed), it's noticeably different than the later output, it's very different than 2014 on, especially when I ran out of ideas of stuff that I really wanted to cover.

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).

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.

Rockfish Seafood Grill

Regrettably we'll have to go with Street View on this one today, and the replacement building at that.
Having added both new and retroactively a new tag for posts, "Death by Fire" covering the likes of Sunset Gardens, Olive Garden, Krispy Kreme, and a few others, there's another addition to that, Rockfish Seafood Grill. Rockfish technically didn't close because of fire, but it did burn down.

In any case, Rockfish Seafood Grill opened in December 2001 at 1611 University Drive East as the tenth restaurant in the Dallas-based chain. There wasn't an official review for the restaurant, only a blurb about its opening, though a now-defunct website gave a review as an advertisement. (That would be a good strategy for this site....if The Eagle wasn't virtually defunct). In the summer of 2005, Rockfish closed and was quickly sold to the franchisee of Cheddar's Casual Cafe next door to open as Fish Daddy's Grill House, a new seafood concept owned by the corporate parent of Cheddar's, which had two other locations.

During renovations, the building caught fire and was instead torn down to the foundation and rebuilt, opening sometime around spring 2006. Since then, Fish Daddy's disconnected from the Cheddar's chain (probably around the time they were bought by Darden); the Austin location became "FD's Grill House" and Tulsa's location has a substantially different menu than the College Station location.

Editor's Note: In addition to the newer articles, several older articles have gotten significant updates. Check out Ardan Catalog Showroom / Rolling Thunder / Gattiland / Thunder Elite / Planet Fitness, Putt-Putt Golf & Games, and Former Taco Cabana.

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.

Changing Faces at University Town Center

This picture is by author, June 2015. It looked nicer in person! Another post, just coming so soon after yesterday? It's all to help fill in "a post for every day", that soon there will be over 365 posts and a post lines up with every day in the calendar (I missed my opportunity for 2/29 last year, but that's a special occasion).

I've written about some of this initially in some capacity on Carbon-izer (in fact, some of this is taken from that page) and wanted to discuss some of what has gone on at "University Town Center", the circa 2006 development near Tarrow Street East and University Drive East. Already we've discussed the old Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy (now Casa Mangiare); now it's time to look at the next building at the "Fountain Plaza", 830 University Drive East, which is now fully vacant. Sôlt occupied suite 400 and takes up half of the space. It opened as Veritas Wine & Bistro in January 2007 and adopted its current name in 2020 after a closure and menu revamp (same ownership) before permanently closing in November 2024 following the end of the lease. The other half of the building has been vacant for a longer time. This last operated as Boneheads, a restaurant that specialized in grilled fish, Piri-Piri Chicken, and rice. It was good but never seemed busy and operated from November 2013 to summer 2016. They had other locations in Georgia, but the last one closed in January 2019. Boneheads itself occupied two older sites, a Ben & Jerry's (suite 200) that operated from January 2007 to November 2011, and It's a Grind (ste. 100), a coffeeshop at suite 100 that operated during the same timeframe.

UPDATE 10-03-2025: In February 2025, Zake Noodle House opened in the spot. The last paragraph discussing the changes at posts has been removed.

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):

Texas AggieLand Bookstore, Freebirds, and Wells Fargo

Taken by author, spring 2020. Since 2001, 319-327 University Drive has been shared with Texas AggieLand Book Store (now named "TXAG Store"), Wells Fargo, and Freebirds World Burrito. Due to the fact that a few have been absorbed I'll just have to list it by address.

Advertisement from c. 1974 for Henrici's (Battalion Archives) 319 University Drive: Henrici's Restaurant in 1974 (Godfrey's Restaurant in the late 1960s/very early 1970s), followed by Brazos Bottom around 1978, then Backstage Restaurant & Bar in 1980, then Billy Jack's in 1984, and of course Freebirds World Burrito since 1991 (the second location after Isla Vista).

321 University Drive: Charlie's Grocery was here since at least 1965 up to 1987. Wells Fargo opened in 2001...probably not the same footprint.

323 University Drive: Advertisement for Grand Opening of The Varsity Shop in 1975, no other reliable references found. In February 1976 it moved to 301 Patricia.

325 University Drive: Jeans 'n Things opened in April 1971 and disappeared sometime after December 1972. Heroes Clothing Co. opened August 1973 and by the late 1970s briefly the home of Loupot's before moving next door.

327 University Drive: Texas Aggie Book Store opened in 1969, making it one of the city's oldest businesses. Since around 2006 it has been Texas Aggieland Book Store (related to a crackdown on TAMU trademarks). Sometime around 2023-2024 it became TXAG Store since it wasn't really a "bookstore" anymore.

I've put the build date as [1950s] but that's subject to change.

UPDATE 06-12-2025: Wells Fargo closed in April of this year but there's a new location at Century Square.

Lost Retail at the Lofts

The stoplight at Holleman and Dartmouth I want to say was erected in 2002 or sometime around that time, formerly a four-way stop. I know I haven't been doing much to the website recently, and part of that is the photos issue. I don't have a great source for photos and even then some of them are lacking. I have to watermark everything these days and my scans and stuff still turn up in places, even commercially published books (I'm not naming names, but stuff like the picture for Cattlemen's Inn & Steak House had its watermark cropped out.)

I've also been planning a big Post Oak Mall project but that's mostly stalled out, so let's move onto something else not too far from Post Oak Mall, namely the The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek which stands out because it is one of the first mixed-use apartments in College Station. It opened in 2009 and while it contained all the trappings of high-end student apartments at the time (including an "Internet cafe", something I'm sure was repurposed fairly early on), it had several ground-floor tenants that all came and went. It was never fully leased, but at the most prominent of the corner started with Tutta Pasta Italian Market & Ristorante in January 2011, and after getting some bad reviews folded within six months. There was another restaurant, Arbano Cafe, that opened in April 2014 but also closed in six months; the signage remained up for a few years afterward.

Red Mango, a frozen yogurt place next to it, was arguably more successful and opened in late 2009 but closed at the end of 2015. A location of Honeybaked Ham & Deli also existed from around 2009 to 2011 as a third tenant but that closed and was replaced with Sabi Boutique, which ran for about six years before moving out as well.

The only tenant currently (and has been for the last several years) is "The Texas Bucket List Store and Studio" (associated with the "Visit College Station" facade but actually in Sabi Boutique's space). (A fourth tenant space was never developed. There were rumors Abercrombie & Fitch wanted to move to it from the mall but I can't confirm that).

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.

The Rise and Fall of Planet K

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...

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.

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.