This sign is original to its first tenant, Western Sizzlin. (Photos by author, 8/24)
I suppose I should mention the passing of Fargo's Pit BBQ, which
closed early last month (July 2024) with 1701 South Texas Avenue being its last location. While a more in-depth Fargo's might be interesting, from its humble beginnings at
1220A N. Texas Avenue (at least as far back as I can find, at least to 2007 if not 2003...though Fargo's has indicated they started business around 2000) to moving to 720 North Texas Avenue for about five years, to finally moving to 1701 South Texas Avenue, where we are today.
The restaurant was opened in 1976 as
Western Sizzlin Steak House, an order-at-the-counter family steakhouse (no alcoholic beverages served according to a 1980 ad) and continued to operate until 1996, when it closed.
Another shot of the former Western Sizzlin/Barnhill's/New Barnhill's/Ocean Buffet/Fargo's.
Western Sizzlin's replacement was
Barnhill's Buffet, a chain based out of Tennessee that opened three Texas locations in 1999—Bryan, Lufkin, and Nacogdoches, and its at peak had some 40 locations in the Southeast (Bryan was the furthest west location). By 2005, the other Texas locations had closed and as a result
the Bryan location was somewhat isolated from the next closest one in Shreveport and closed in 2008 following the bankruptcy of the company.
In late 2010, the local Barnhill's reopened as "New Barnhill's Buffet" based out of Spring, Texas (which, going by the blog site listed above was only a list of not-Barnhill's opened in old Barnhill's locations). It closed about a year later and replaced by Ocean Buffet in 2013, and that was closed in 2016 after too many health violations.
In 2018 that's when we had Fargo's Pit BBQ move in, repainting the building white with blue trim, and closing in July 2024.
Western Sizzlin lives on. Its restaurants still exist in
in some pockets of the Southeast United States (I think the closest one is in Arkansas) but they're not gone entirely yet. Meanwhile, the last Barnhill's
closed during COVID-19 joining Sweet Tomatoes, Ryan's, Old Country Buffet, and others in permanent death.
