Triangle Drive-In

Ironically, the "Charcoal Room" was not the one that burned down. I had to bump up the brightness a bit on this one. (Picture from author, 8/22).

I missed August 5th (sick all day) to make a new post and the next opportunity to fill in the "post in days not previously made" is September 21st. (Always next year).

As of this writing, Chicken Oil Company has reopened, but before I rewrite that post I wanted to talk about another building on the property but had a different address and different history, even if it was used as a "party room" for Chicken Oil Company in later days.

This link currently has a picture of the Triangle as it appeared in 1948 (if the link dies, search Project HOLD or its successors for "Triangle Drive-In; photos (Aug. 1948)" without quotes--that is, if Project HOLD isn't down itself, which it is as of this writing). Friend of the site "Bryan-College Station, Texas: Now and Then" explains some of the history here (archived link--Facebook not required). You can also see an early photo of the drive-in here at this YouTube video.

From what it looks like, when the Triangle Drive-In expanded in 1957 to the Charcoal Room, the awnings to that building disappeared and another structure was built to the south and assumed the address of 3606 South College Avenue. The 1940s building remained during all this time. In the mid-1960s Triangle closed and by late 1967 had become the Triangle Club, billed as a private club for teenagers. By 1969 this was replaced with a traditional venue, "The Traditions Candle-Light Club", later just shortened to the "Candle-Light Lounge", which closed in 1970 and replaced with Bottle Shop, another tavern. Over the years the "Charcoal Room" continued to serve as a rotating series of bars. At some point it was "Lou's 19th Hole" in the mid-1970s, then opened as "Sonny's" in 1978, "Crossroads" as of 1989 (specifically mentioning a benefit party for the Texas Hall of Fame, which had suffered a major fire—see this post). Meanwhile, the drive-in booths of Triangle were ultimately redeveloped into the new home of Tom's BBQ in the mid-1980s (currently J. Cody's) and the last business I can find it was Boozer's (operating from 1995 to 1997, replacing Crossroads).

In July of 2025, the building was unceremoniously demolished for parking for the new Chicken Oil Company to reopen in early August.

Former Zaxby's

This is not a great photo of the restaurant and more surprising that The Eagle still did blurbs like this as late as February 2017; albeit with no description.
Here's another vacant fast food restaurant that failed near Highway 6 and Highway 40 with questionable access, much like the old Bush's Chicken we covered a few months ago. Coincidentally, it also served fried chicken.

Where the old Zaxby's building is today (952 William D. Fitch Parkway) was originally the right of way of (Old) Arrington Road, before it was cut off circa 2013 and re-established about seven years later with a slightly modified right of way (Spice World Market sits on the re-established portion that was on the right of way).

Zaxby's (with a fully-functional weather vane on the store) operated from November 2016 to December 2024, but while Texas may be losing its taste for the chain¹ (a number have closed in the Houston area and others), highway access wasn't easy from either direction, nor was there good signage for it; it never graced the logo sign for the Highway 40 exit either.

1. The chain has since dropped the apostrophe.

Historic Tenants of 311 University Drive

1973 The Battalion; Grand Opening of Pizza Gallery
We're picking the blog up right back on Northgate. If you've followed us so far, we have covered every building on the north side of University Drive up to Duddley's Draw. Recently, we covered Cow Hop which had a picture of Duddley's Draw in it...and considering that the bar has been open since 1977 means there's not a lot of changes of hands going on. The oldest reference is Golden Cleaners in 1968, then Ralph's Pizza in 1971 (another location from Eastgate), then Pizza Gallery opening in 1973 but not making more than a few years after owner Ralph Segars liquidated the Ralph's Pizza chain (which had locations in San Marcos and Lubbock).

EDITOR'S NOTE: My goal since at least January 2021 was to fill in a post for every day so for Facebook I could always link back to something from exactly (x) years ago. I'm not sure what my end goal was (I think I had anticipated basically stopping and letting it coast for a while) but the idea still stands. While we're still missing dates, July 16th was one of them, so while this post looks a bit bare, it was because it was prepared ahead of time for times like this. And of course, that Ko-fi link is still there, let's get to $100 so we can have a full index of EVERY former business on the blog!

Pizza Hut in Bryan

Pizza Hut looked different back in 1966, for sure. (from the Eagle)
We've covered Pizza Hut before (both the classic University Drive East location and the short-lived Northgate proper location (see the older two posts) so here's a third location (and between the various carry-out locations, there's still room to grow). I submitted it on Used to Be a Pizza Hut (expecting it to be in the queue for months, but no, it's on there already). The Navasota store was featured over ten years ago on the site, and it's now a funeral home, too...possibly the first "Funeral Hut" covered.

The Bryan Pizza Hut operated from November 1966 (first Pizza Hut in the area) to sometime in 2002 (closed without replacement) and briefly served as Lone Star Pawn for a few years afterward before becoming Treviño-Smith Funeral Home in 2007.

What I can't figure out is what it looked like originally. 1966 is a bit young for the iconic red roof and Pizza Hut claims that it wasn't implemented until 1969, but the Wikipedia article indicates the first restaurant done was in 1963. Maybe it was indeed the first of its type in Texas.