Grins at 4410 College Main

Find the error with the times of operation!

Grins (opened 1978) was another quasi-Northgate establishment further up College Main in Bryan, 4410 College Main to be precise, and reportedly hosted some great live entertainment acts in its day. I've heard that the only "drinking" opportunities they had was Coors Light, so I'm guessing the food wasn't too fantastic either. The above advertisement came from November 1979. In 1983 George and Pasty Graham opened Dr. G.'s¹ and while it was an "artistic success" it closed in June 1985 among financial problems and Patsy Graham's divorce, though Patsy relaunched it as Morganstern's soon after. In May 1988, Morganstern's closed. In 1989, Patsy (now Patsy Fry) and another partner, Hugh Stearns, reopened as Texas Star Tavern, which was the renamed, relocated version of Brazos Landing². Texas Star Tavern was never able to acquire a liquor license thanks to a combination of a technicality on TABC (an old law on the books taking issue with Fry's husband working at Messina Hof) and while that was cleared up, a nearby apartment landlord's complaint still stifled the license. By March 1990 Fry was out of the business, Stearns had renamed it again to Front Porch Cafe, and the TABC finally granted the license. Front Porch Cafe was short-lived. Around spring of 1992 it became Junction Five-o-Five, which despite its name, isn't a bar or other entertainment establishment...and that's what it has been ever since.

A picture of the current building was taken in June 2014 by me, and current Street View.

Interestingly, I can't find what it originally was, I assumed converted residential use but the earliest reference for the address is "Sturdi-Craft Company" in 1947, a local furniture manufacturer (which also offered "The Workshop" at 4404 College Main briefly, a DIY operation where you could build and paint your own furniture and rent equipment there). But by 1950 that seems to have disappeared and the next reference is 1957's "A&M Smoke House", a restaurant with barbecue and hamburgers, followed by similar operation "The Smoke House" in 1959. There was "Mrs. Richard's Dining Hall", a restaurant served family-style in 1961, "Webb's Trading Post" in 1966. A 1970 article mentions that there were three commercial buildings on site, and in 1971 the three buildings were demolished through Bryan's Dangerous Buildings Ordinance. The current building has a distinctly different roofline.

1. No relation to Mr. G's Pizza. In addition to live music, Dr. G's ("The Remedy", it advertised) offered soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, and Mexican food (likely beer, too, though the ad didn't mention that)
2. A 1989 ad for Brazos Landing listed seafood, salads, and burgers for food options, specifically mentioning swordfish, hamburgers, grilled shrimp, blackened chicken, salads, "and more". Notably, it had the old name of the restaurant (Brazos Landing) but the new address (4410 College Main).
UPDATE 08-03-2021: Complete rewrite with new information.
UPDATE 06-14-2025: Substantial reworking of existing article.

Former Taco Cabana

Picture from May 2019 by author when Taco Cabana was still operational.
701 Texas Avenue South was originally developed around 1957 as the Saber Inn, a modest 36-room motel with a pool and restaurant. The restaurant space, however, was run by a series of third party-operators, all of which tried to make a go out of it. In 1976, it became home to the The Grapevine, moving from its old location at 315 Texas Avenue, and in 1981 the restaurant relocated to its own space (covered at that article). Afterwards, the former Grapevine space became Baker Street Bar & Restaurant (no relation to Houston's Baker St. Pub & Grill), featuring a menu from steak to fondue, as well as first appearance of spiked milkshakes and fruit smoothies in town. The article also mentioned the jazzy song of the same name was used in advertising.

By summer 1984 the space was vacant, though there was reference of another restaurant of the same name opening in the same spot (presumably under new ownership) but that seems to have gone nowhere. In January 1987, The Upper Room Club opened, a Christian nightclub (for lack of a better word—it was definitely dry, and was short-lived). In 1988 the Saber Inn was closed and demolished, and replaced with Taco Cabana by the end of the year, a 24-hour restaurant.

Taco Cabana would stand guard at the corner of Live Oak and Texas Avenue for over thirty years, though the logo and exterior updated as the chain changed its image, with the last incarnation being tan with pink accents, and a pink sign with white lettering. This would come to an end in January 2020 when the store and 18 other Taco Cabana restaurants closed with parent company Fiesta Restaurant Group citing underperformance. (I'm not sure if Taco Cabana dropped 24 hour operations before 2020).

In March 2021, Las Palapas (also from San Antonio, like Taco Cabana) opened. "Las Palapas Aggieland" as the sign says, featured a color scheme in terms of lighting that resembled a bit of how Taco Cabana used to be and even made a valiant attempt to be open all night on most days, but tragically couldn't hack it, cutting back hours before closing in mid-2023.

UPDATE 01-15-2025: Major rewrite done (resetting updates).
UPDATE 01-31-2025: In addition to the La Quinta auxiliary buildings this and the nearby defunct La Barroneña Ranch Steakhouse / College Station Seafood / Oceans Bar & Grill / Vy's Kitchen Asian Cuisine / Rice Garden have received demolition permits as well.
UPDATE 05-30-2025: Taco Cabana was demolished back in February, so [demolished] has been added. Local press reports it will be redeveloped as Portillo's

The Grapevine

A bit off the beaten path, but the fence wasn't here when it was a restaurant.
201 Live Oak Street was built in 1981 as the new location of The Grapevine, a restaurant that had jumped around in recent years in the area. The first incarnation of The Grapevine was a wine shop and delicatessen located at 315 Texas Avenue owned by Bill & Patsy Perry¹, a long-gone address that will soon be covered on this site. In 1976 it was moved to the Saber Inn as the restaurant lease before moving out in 1981 to a purpose-built building.²

Patsy Perry (later Zabel) operated the restaurant for another twenty years before she retired in April 2001 and closed the restaurant. She was unable to lease it as another restaurant due to its out-of-the-way location but anticipated it might end up becoming office space.

In late 2004, the dream of it becoming a new restaurant became a reality when The Grapevine reopened under new ownership and featured many of the same recipes. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed around summer 2005, this time for good.

Normally we would just put up an ad (as seen above) but today, we're presenting (and this is something I've worked out) real recipes from The Grapevine. The dressing, the potatoes, and the cheesecake have all been released on a Facebook group, and they're here now. (Yes, I got permission and yes, the link does in fact work!)

I also acquired a partial menu from late 2000 (with the last price increases in place--a typical entree held a cost of about $8.50) but I decided against putting it up except on request.

This blog reports it was "Lighthouse Christian Church" for a while after the closing of the Grapevine. The blog talked about said baked potatoes in great length, which I have reproduced here. I was going to leave a comment, but comments are closed on that post. Their loss, I suppose. I don't know how long Lighthouse was there, the blog was published in June 2007, but June 2007 happened to be when the current tenant, the Rohr Chabad Jewish Center, opened its doors for the first time.

Nearby: Fuego Tortilla Grill, La Quinta next to Denny's, and Rice Garden

<sup>1. At some point early on, Bill and Patsy divorced. Her name remained Patsy Perry in 1981 but Bill was not mentioned, by 1996 it had become Patsy Zabel.
2. Per this article</sup>

UPDATE 03-11-2025: Rewrote post with new information later learned.

Tinsley's Chicken 'n Rolls / Kokopelli's / Clay Oven

Chicken done well, chicken well done!
See our updated version of this post here.