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).
