The Shopping Center at Texas Avenue and Holleman Drive East

View of the center today
Before we get to the shopping center covered above, there are two tenants that I should cover before we get to it. There were other structures on Holleman Drive East that I have yet to identify.

The first is Tinsley's Chicken 'n Rolls, located next to Washington Chapel Baptist Church.


Chicken done well, chicken well done!
Opening in late 1979, Tinsley's was located on 1905 Texas Avenue South as the chain's only College Station location (there were locations from Waco to Houston, and two in Bryan--one of which has an article on the blog). In 1985, the Tinsley family sold out to Church's Fried Chicken. Church's closed sometime around 1989 (likely due to the Church's/Popeyes merger at the time). In the 1995 it reopened as Santa Fe Pizza (aka Santa Fe Market Cafe). In 1997, it was Kokopelli's (Southwestern food, I have a menu but never scanned it) and Clay Oven from 1998 to 2000 (Indian food).

It should be noted the plane was a real thing, though, as David Tinsley used an actual 1930s plane to promote his restaurants, not unlike how Flying Tomato used hot air balloons. Despite a brief re-appearance in Huntsville around 2009 with much fanfare (in a former KFC and now Hartz Chicken Buffet), Tinsley's is current a dead chain once more.

Next up was Pooh's Park at 1907 Texas Avenue South (later re-addressed as 105 Holleman Drive East).

This is from one of my early 1980s phone books, but I'm not sure which one.
There used to be a Facebook post that discussed Pooh's Park in more detail and have some old photos and newspaper articles, but unfortunately, those photos seem to have been wiped. It's a reminder...SAVE what you want and ARCHIVE them on a more permanent medium like a blog or something. Like THIS blog, which has been around since 2010 and I only remove things for a reason, like for quality control reasons, and even those I intend to put back up in some form or another. While I don't have those pictures, I might be able to restore some newspaper articles (though this current rewrite was not intended to re-add those articles).

In any case, one thing about Pooh's Park was that it had higher standards to keep rowdier customers away, demanding that "kids dress properly and keep and their hair trimmed" but during the height of its popularity that didn't matter much. Pooh's Park closed in November 1986 citing taxes and insurance reasons as well as a dwindling customer base. Things were left on the property (there was a report of a theft of a "blue furry robot", for instance) and the building was still there as of February 1995, but ultimately just the sign remained up by the early 2000s.

Google Earth 1995, with modern streets overlaid. Most of this is still not ID'd properly.

Some older maps (circa 2001-ish, long after Pooh's Park bit the dust) put a "Pooh's Lane" roughly where the Bahama Buck's is now, but unless that first part of Holleman Drive East was actually called that (after all, there's a few things that do support that, including the odd alignment of Holleman Drive and Holleman Drive East suggests that the East part was first, and then Holleman Drive extended that way later by way of a particularly awkward curve, or the fact that the subdivision nearby (behind the strip center and the other businesses on the east side) is named Pooh's Park Subdivision.

This ad was in October 1985 (The Eagle) when Pooh's Park was still in business. I guess they had furniture sales on the side.
In decidedly more modern times, the center was redeveloped around 2002.

Going around the center, we have 1901 (split between four enants, Super Nails & Pedi Spa, Aji Sushi, Petco, and Great Clips, the latter two facing east)...the Petco is an original tenant (store #1405 and opened in 2002), while Aji Sushi was originally (in 2002 and up until around 2013-2014) Pho John's. Further down beyond Petco and closer to Hobby Lobby is Great Clips.

Hobby Lobby opened at 1903 Texas Avenue South in 2002, moving from Post Oak Square, while Cicis Pizza at 1905 Texas Avenue South moved from Culpepper Plaza in 2006.

The next building faces west, with the side closest to Salata having a back entrance to George Bush Drive East. Salata (1907 Texas Avenue) was originally the home of Loupot's, which closed in spring 2012 with the rest of the chain (it became Salata less than two years later). Shoe Carnival (1909 Texas Avenue) and Ross Dress for Less (1911 Texas Avenue) both opened in 2002 as well.

The last building is considerably more interesting. This opened as Goody's Family Clothing in 2002 and closed in 2008 when the chain went under. After that, it reopened as Big Lots in 2009 (returning to the area as their previous College Station store closed in 2005), though it didn't take up all the space. The remaining third that Big Lots didn't use became 1915 Texas Avenue, with Twin Liquors having its grand opening December 15, 2011 (I wrote that down in Wikimapia).

Big Lots closed in fall 2024 as one of the rounds of closing before its liquidation (reopening under new owner Variety Wholesalers was not an option for this store), with its renovation and reopening as a Sprouts Farmers Market in late September 2026.

Technically Bahama Buck's and the adjacent The Shops at Wolf Pen Plaza (home of the first Starbucks in College Station) aren't part of the modern plaza, nor directly replaced Pooh's Park and the Tinsley's building, so I decided to not cover them in this update. (Not too much to write about. Maybe at the Carbon-izer pages. I hope to add Holleman Drive to the list by the end of 2026.)

UPDATE 07-08-2022: QoL updates including the life of the center, better closing date of Pooh's, new tags
UPDATE 06-12-2025: Various updates and mild rewrite.
UPDATE 11-02-2025: Big Lots closed around late 2024 (probably should've mentioned that in the last update) but as of this writing Sprouts Farmers Market is coming. This is the third time in over a decade they've tried (back in 2012 they were going to move into the dead Linens 'n Things on University Drive East, and later planned a move into the dead World Market down the street, though this wasn't as well publicized).
UPDATE 10-07-2026: A new rewrite was done. It adds some of the smaller tenants, reorganizes it better, and removes The Shops at Wolf Pen Plaza (and with it, the [Starbucks Coffee] label), as well as Bahama Buck's, as well as a new name ("The Shopping Center at Texas Avenue and Holleman Drive East" instead of the awkward "Pooh's Park, Tinsley's, and Others Replaced by a Shopping Center") 1970s, 2000s, Church's Chicken, College Station, Holleman, Loupot's, mini-golf, redevelopment, restaurants, Retail, Starbucks Coffee, texas avenue

Loupot's Northgate

Loupot's in 1995. (PH)

Prior to when College Main was closed off (June 19th 2012, a day that will live in infamy), it was the only block which was resembled a dense city in College Station. And sitting on the corner of this block was Loupot's (335 University Drive), which closed the same year (in March). One of the oldest establishments on Northgate and once the "official" bookstore on campus, Loupot's had been around for years, though from what I've read, it wasn't always in the building, and when it was, it wasn't in both levels.

From what I've found, it wasn't bought by Loupot until 1979, and in the past, Loupot's was named "Loupot's Trading Post" and "Loupot's Books & Britches". The upper level was added in the 1980s not too long after the building was bought, as that had been the previous home of an X-rated bookstore (The Adult Library, though I read an ad that mentioned it being the home of "Sun Theater", same business, different name). Some ads I had found (but sadly don't have a copy right now) mentioned that they had shows for a quarter (and escorted ladies were free), which was around in the 1970s and 1980s. This had an address of 333 University. The adult theater was upstairs at 333 University, with Loupot's downstairs. At some point, they eventually closed and Loupot's ultimately would expand upstairs.

Anyway, Loupot's managed to expand to a few different locations, namely a location in Southgate (now home to TexAgs) and in a location at Holleman and Texas Avenue (now Salata). These closed shortly after the Northgate location. A fourth location was planned (according to a sign) to the grassy area just north of Blinn College on Villa Maria (where Blinn later added more parking). Loupot's continued to maintain its large store on Northgate, which later upgraded to electronic signage and made Internet history with its "reverse-boarded up windows" in 2005 (around the time of Hurricane Rita). However, in 2010, the family sold to Nebraska Book Company (Neebo), which already owned the Traditions bookstores (formerly Rother's), and then they started closing stores. The Loupot's-branded stores went away in March 2012, but eventually, their other stores, branded as Traditions (Southgate, University Square, and one closer to Blinn at Briarcrest and Villa Maria) closed as well.

One of their last messages on the message board was "HOLY CRAP!!! TEXTBOOK RENTAL SALE!!!", which always felt a bit tasteless due to the mild swearing but that distracted from the fact that if they're selling rental textbooks, they're probably going under.

The former Loupot's in 2013.


After Loupot's closed, by late 2014, it was to become a place called Z Bar & Bistro, which made me hope it was something better than The Corner across the street (sticky chairs and tables, smells like old beer constantly, poor service), though it eventually fell through.

As of early 2016, there appears to be some work going on at Loupot's. It will probably be a bar, but it's better than an empty building, right?

UPDATE 03-07-2021: After six years after its annnouncement, Z Bar & Bistro opened around October of 2020. It serves sushi and has a rooftop seating area. Also, the post had [2010s] removed from it.
UPDATE 09-20-2021: Renamed post from "The Loupot's Building", added [restaurants] and [College Station] to post. Also made a few smaller fixes.
UPDATE 06-21-2023: Sometime around 2022, Z Bar closed (with its time spent at 335 University a fraction of the time it spent under construction), with "Toku 12" in its place.
UPDATE 04-24-2024: Clarification to above. After December 2022, Z Bar briefly closed and reopened as Toku12.

Former Pizza Inn

Picture taken late October 2015, shortly before rainclouds rolled in and drenched the town.
The rather ragged-looking "Rodney D. Young Insurance" is shown here at 413 Texas Avenue, which looks like a candidate for demolition should something better come along (the Exxon at the corner is constantly being ragged on as being an eyesore in a prime location). It was a Pizza Inn (No. 65) opened in 1966 and remained operational until sometime in the mid-1980s. Shops and services since then include Star Video (1987-1990), Brazos Sleep and Sound (1990-1992), and EZPAWN (1992-1995). I am not sure what it was between 1995 and 2006 but by 2007 it was Rodney D. Young Insurance and by 2018, Legacy Tattoo Lounge.

1970s phone book. It still looks remarkably similar.

UPDATE 05-13-2024: Upgraded post again with all edits integrated.

Dead Lazlo's Coffee Pub

Courtesy Project HOLD. Sadly, those funky oversized door handles don't exist anymore.
Recent news of the demise of the bar that currently occupies the space had prompted me to do another full rewrite of this post, which previously hadn't seen much updates in over a decade.

The earliest reference I can find is 1956 with the opening of the new A&M Grill near Holick's at 108 College Main. (They mention Bob Martin and Carl Martin. I wonder if they were related to the Ken Martin restaurant group), but by 1961 this had given way to White's Auto Store. This was the sister location to one downtown at 216 North Main opened in 1947, part of a larger chain of stores based out of Wichita Falls (which by the 1950s had expanded beyond automotive parts).¹ Here in the Battalion they're selling radios.

By 1974 this had disappeared and replaced with the new location of News Office Supply, a local store that had existed for almost forty years in Bryan (and evolved from a early newspaper in the county) but had added a second location in Northgate to better serve its main customers. In January 1978, the Northgate location rebranded as The Drafting Board to focus on engineering supplies, and around 1987 it closed, being replaced with A&M Steakhouse in 1988 (a diner-style operation, it appears, it served breakfast but also hamburgers), which operated until 1992. Condom Station opened in 1993 (it didn't sell just condoms, according to this newspaper article) but it only operated until spring 1994.

"We've Got You Covered" is what the small text says.
In March 1995, Dead Lazlo's Coffee Pub opened, a Gothic-themed coffeehouse decorated with a coffin and obituary sections on the walls. A comment from the old comments section (by Mike Teks) had this to say about it— Just wanted to confirm that Dead Lazlos was owned by the same people that owned Sweet Eugene's (back when coffee came in ceramic mugs/cups and not paper cups with lids). College Main was closed due to a major reconstruction project during its first year of being open which hurt business. After its biggest supporter among the owners of Sweet Eugene's left (he used to part his Motorcycle inside Eugene's when he worked there, cool guy) they turned it into the Copacetic Cafe (or so pathetic Cafe as we called it) Same owners and coffee, but no longer had a Gothic feel to it and it soon after I 'm told. Best 2 years of my life in BCS was spent at Dead Lazlo's. Non-smoking section was in the back and the Coffin by the bar. Good times.

In December 1995, Dead Lazlo's closed for the season, but instead of reopening it for the new semester, it was retooled as Copasetic Cafe, with different decor, a new menu, and a new ambience (and notably focusing on non-smoking). It closed in 1998 and reopened as a nightclub, Patagonia, in 1999, which became Soho Lounge in early 2001. This closed and gave way to The Groove (logo was a Comic Sans-esque "G") until the end of 2006, then in the late 2000s up to around 2011 it was Lux, and I believe Foundation Room came in in fall 2011, because it was open in January 2012. By 2015 it had become Foundation Lounge and later still became Foundie's, which closed in August 2025 after a long run, and is currently vacant.

1. There was another White's Auto Store in Bryan, but it became Mathis Home Appliance in early 1953, and was located a few doors anyway.

UPDATE 08-10-2025: Rewrote post with all tenants and accounted for current closure.
UPDATE 10-11-2025: On October 10th 2025 it reopened as new nightclub "Rush", specializing in EDM.