While best known as Fajita Rita's, the building at 4501 South Texas Avenue (originally 4425 South Texas Avenue) has gone through a number of changes. It opened as Chelsea Street Pub in 1979 (same chain as the one that operated at Post Oak Mall), but by late 1981 it had become Rebels Restaurant & Bar (sounded like "student food", the 1983 phone book mentions it had steaks, burgers, nachos, happy hour) and sometime around this time assumed its current address. In November 1984 it became Fajita Rita's and but closed in early 2004. This was quickly replaced by Fredriko's (which moved to Northgate in 2005). Las Fuentes opened in 2005 (one of four locations in town) and in 2006 became Las Lomas (possible ownership change/dispute, but same restaurant) and ultimately closed in late 2011.
A few months later, in February 2012, a major storm rolled through. The YMCA Building flooded (it was quite a storm), but the same night, lightning struck one of Las Lomas' air conditioning units and started a fire, burning the vacant building to the ground. What was left of it was torn down a few months later. A building was built in 2014 to replace it (though kept the original sign structure of the building) and in 2016 gained both First Watch (the first in Texas, and a very popular breakfast spot) and a second Hungry Howie's (first one in ten years since Southwest Crossing)...though Hungry Howie's closed in 2020, allowing First Watch to take over the rest of the building, which still draws crowds on weekend mornings.
UPDATE 07-20-2025: Significant rewrite that integrates updates.
