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.

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).