7-Eleven at Holleman and 2818

7-Eleven has returned to the area, but at what cost? (Picture by author, 7/21)  It's July 11th, or "7-11". So why not do a 7-Eleven focused post today? Two years ago (before, you know...) I remember getting a blueberry lemonade Slurpee at a Stripes in Waco (which now may or may not be a 7-Eleven for reals) that participated in "7-11 day" during my lunch break, though unfortunately 7-Eleven won't be doing the promotion this year, either.

The Exxon that holds this particular 7-Eleven has a bit of a history. 2111 Holleman Drive West was built in 2014 with two smaller vacant suites and shares a back entrance with Lakeridge Townhomes, built as part of a land swap. Unfortunately, the Exxon with its two smaller vacant suites (undeveloped to this day) and a convenience store called "A&M Xpress" never actually opened. In the fall of 2014, the interior was largely finished out and the sign fully lit up (with no actual gas prices) and eventually the gas station was sold. It wasn't until summer of 2015 when new owner Stripes finished construction, added a Laredo Taco Company inside, and hung the new sign in late July 2015 before opening less than a month later (I was the first customer there at soft opening, little known fact). About a year later, however, Stripes' parent Sunoco (the Exxon presumably carried over from a pre-existing condition, most of the new-build Stripes built around this time were all Sunoco stations) bought the Rattlers' chain, meaning it and the competing Shell across the street had common ownership.

Eventually, Sunoco sold its convenience store holdings to 7-Eleven. While the Rattlers' never converted to 7-Eleven, getting closed in fall 2020, the store became a 7-Eleven on March 3, 2021, while the main Exxon road sign was updated to the newer lowercase logo. There were other Stripes remnants inside (employee uniforms, etc.) but these all disappeared soon after.

Southwest Village Apartments

Looks pretty structural similar to today, but not so much on the other parts (Advertisement from The Eagle)
I typically do not cover any apartment buildings on this site, the few exceptions being mixed-use structures or other legacy articles.

Today will be one of those rare exceptions, with this 1974 advertisement giving a rare glance into what was a nice apartment complex at one time at 1101 Southwest Parkway, then known as Southwest Village Apartments.

The exteriors themselves look like they did in the 1990s save for different paint jobs, and I assume the original cedar shake roof as shown in the advertisement was changed after a massive apartment complex fire in Houston in 1979 that ended use of them.

The complex became The Colony Apartments sometime between 1989 and 1993, and remained up until the late 2000s (still The Colony as of 2007). In 2013 it was University Park Apartments (despite being nowhere near the street named as such), and around very late 2016/early 2017 became "The Vintage", stylized as "the|Vintage". There's a real disconnect between what is advertised and the actual state of the apartments. It painted the apartments dark gray with splashes of purple or blue trim, did some interior work, and replaced the basketball court (which was built over a creek) with something else.

Based on exteriors alone, it still has a crumbling parking lot and carpeted open-air hallways that are grungy and reek of cigarette smoke, so by all outside looks the Vintage is just another repaint, not a total revitalization of the property (I'll let actual reviews of the interiors and management speak for themselves), and indeed, most of the apartment complexes (which were already showing signs of age in the late 1990s) are in similar conditions. They can try new names (The Grove at Southwood is Brownstone's second name change) and updates but they'll continue to slide downhill until major changes in the corridor are made. It's a bit of a shame since Southwest Parkway really did mean a lot to me growing up, but what can you do?

Former NAPA Auto Parts, Harvey Mitchell Parkway

Taken by author, May 2021.
Taking a cue from Columbia Closings comes a minor post on NAPA Auto Parts, which moved earlier this year to a new location between Harvey Mitchell Parkway and Highway 6, leaving the former store vacant (and gutted at time of photography). Neither picture in this post is particularly good, but it was opened in 1997 with the original address of 1528 FM 2818 and later became 2144 Harvey Mitchell Parkway after the road changed names. It was also the first in the auto part trifecta near the intersection, of which AutoZone and O'Reilly Auto Parts are part of.

Another picture.

UPDATE 09-15-2021: As of this writing, the next tenant, "Glo by TFO", an auto detailing and finishing company, has modified the exterior (still not finished) and is preparing for a move-in. Removed [Defunct] from the post, as well as making an edit fix.

Outback Steakhouse

The front area used to have a lot more plants in the front.

Near the entrance to Target and the Manuel Drive stoplight (though a stoplight was not installed until around 2004) is an Outback Steakhouse, a chain restaurant that has been in College Station since its opening around 1993, and one of the handful of local restaurants my family ate at growing up, probably because it was kid-friendly and had a children's menu (the "Joey Menu") complete with a coloring book and crayons.

The building has seen some minor modifications over the years. A new semi-enclosed area was built at some point, and the building was repainted from white to pale green before a significant re-do in 2017 when it was repainted tan and brick red (with the roof repainted black), removing "Steakhouse" from the lettering, as well as removing the palm trees in front of the building.

It also went through an interior update at some point, though the basics (black ceiling tiles, bar area in the center) still remain. I think it was this time when they actually added proper restroom signs (with braille) in addition to the novelty "Blokes" and "Sheilas" signs.

There was a time when Outback Steakhouse was one of the more popular restaurants in town, and in the mid-2000s, before the restaurants along University Drive East really took off but while the university was still growing, lines would sometimes stretch out the door, but that's been gone for a while now, as is the sidewalk that used to be much longer toward the road (though the Texas Avenue widening did make it more street-friendly).

UPDATE 04-25-2024: Quick maintenance-related updates.

Aggieland Credit Union, Southwest Parkway East

There used to be a sign outside used to feature an electronic display featuring the time and temperature, but today no longer has the electronic component.

Not too much to say about Aggieland Credit Union here at 201 Southwest Pkwy. East beyond opening in 1997. They used to (maybe they still do, but I haven't been inside for a while now for obvious reasons) have pictures of almost every Aggie Bonfire going back years, though there was never a Bonfire after 1998 due to the 1999 collapse. Pictures in this post by author, 6/20.

Editor's Note: I'm going to try to take a brief break after this to get my thoughts back in order, mostly because I don't want to keep posting filler. While I do have some new posts planned, I'm going to focus on closed-down or otherwise defunct businesses, with more love and attention given to Bryan.

Former Subway on Southgate

I think I can see remnants of BOTH logos! (Picture by author, 8/20)

Yesterday, I discovered that the Subway on George Bush Drive (Southgate, at Montclair) closed for good, so this is hot off the presses as far as this blog is concerned. I don't know the backstory of 330 George Bush (originally 330 Jersey), but I try my best here. From what I can find, in 1956, it was the home of Pruitt's Fabrics (moved down a few spaces fairly early on, although dropped "Fabrics" in recent years). By the early 1960s it was Fugate-Davidson Printers.

This is from the 1963 A&M Consol vs. Del Valle Football Program on Project HOLD. I just cleaned it up a bit.
An oral history transcript mentions that Fugate shut down that location and moved "back to the house" in 1970 before selling out in 1973, this house presumably being at or near where Fish Richard's was located.

In 1988, it became Beef 'N Brew (which did not seem to have been related to "Beef & Brew", where The Tap is today, nearly a decade earlier). By late 1991, it was Subway, and Subway it would be for a number of years afterward. The (many) Subway stores around town are operated by Centex Subway, and from working at the stores at one time, most of them do marginal business. The COVID-19 problems (especially related to students on campus and around town) wiped out a lot of business, with the Southgate store being hit particularly hard, and after a temporary closure, was made permanent.

I can't find most of the tenant history, with only the notes where Beef N Brew's application suggesting it was part of Rother's (next door) at one time (and indeed, the property lines for the business include the former Rother's next door and what is now Good Bull BBQ).

For the purposes of blog organization, I'm going to assume the building dates back to the 1940s but I don't have any hard proof of that.

UPDATE 05-24-2021: Subway opened in fall 1991, shortly after Beef 'N Brew (which was not related to the former business at The Tap) officially closed earlier that year. This has been appended in the main article.
UPDATE 02-10-2024: In 2022 it became "FNL Nutrition" (sold juices, smoothies, etc.) which also occupied the Good Bull BBQ space next door. It ended up closing by fall 2023.

Former Academy Sports + Outdoors

From March 2019, by author. Yes, I know I covered this over a year ago.

In February 2002, Academy Sports + Outdoors opened a new location at Horse Haven Lane and Earl Rudder Freeway, either just prior to or after the closure of College Station Golf Center, a driving range off of the highway (for more information, see "At Home" on the Boriskie Ranch).

Academy was where I purchased much of my clothes and shoes over the years (never was a sharp dresser) but there was nothing particularly nostalgic about this location, especially given how much the new Academy resembles the old store on the inside.

For years, the store "competed" against the Gander Mountain next door, but eventually would close just as the Redmond Terrace location before it, with the store closing in June 2017 (a new store, about three-quarters of a mile south, replaced it). The store remains vacant, except for the occasional Halloween store that occupies it.

Editor's Note: A reason this post is spinning off from the At Home post is to separate the posts and partially so MasFajitas can have its own page someday.

Ponderosa Motor Inn

The motel hugs the freeway tightly. (Picture by author, 7/20)
Ponderosa Motor Inn first opened in 1971 at the intersection of Ponderosa Road and State Highway 6 (3702 Highway 6 South), citing the highway's presence and the continued growth of the city in that direction, both of which were true. While the motel had a restaurant, private club, and meeting rooms, all of which were standard in motels modeled after the standards that the growing Holiday Inn chain pioneered in the 1950s and 1960s, it was very isolated from just about anything, about two miles from the nearest commercial establishments on Texas Avenue (near modern-day Holleman), and a few years before even the Southwood Valley area began to take off, which would see new development, such as Kmart and Doux Chene Apartments within a few years.

As a testament to the old age of the property, some mercury-vapor lights still hang. It wasn't nearly as green as my camera it thought it was.
Ponderosa Motor Inn soon built an addition to the main two-story building and another building out back with additional rooms facing east and west, and for the next three decades it would be the furthest south motel/hotel in the city until Navasota. It wasn't until 2001, when Courtyard by Marriott built a hotel at Woodcreek Road and the Highway 6 frontage road, ending the motel's dominance as the furthest south hotel, and unlike the motel, was a true hotel with interior corridors. By that time, the area that Ponderosa had once been alone in was starting to get rather built-up, and it wasn't slowing down.

The hotel changed hands a few times (though it remained as Ponderosa Motor Inn until around the early 1990s), and after a brief time as "Varsity Inn", the motel became Howard Johnson Express. At some point, the hotel restaurant became an independently owned Mexican restaurant, Mi Familia Coco Loco.

When the motel became Americas Best Value Inn, the hotel used its new logo on the outside, but still had the older style of room numbers.
In 2016, the "second building" was torn down, and, after about two years or so of construction, a four-story Microtel Inn (or rather, "Microtel by Wyndham") was built in its place. The final product was outlined in blue neon, giving it a unique appearance but also unfortunately similar to the sleazier hotels along Houston freeways. Sometime around the time Microtel was completed, the original motel was rebranded as Americas Best Value Inn (a different owner than what Microtel and Howard Johnson's belonged to). Perhaps the Microtel will get an article of its own someday.

View of Microtel from the parking lot
It should be noted that today, Ponderosa's location is not that well located off of the freeway. Prior to the mid-2000s, you could access Ponderosa through the two-way frontage road it was on by exiting Rock Prairie from either end, and today is probably best worked through the back but in the early days (before the freeway lanes were extended down by 1991), Ponderosa turned into the northbound frontage road (two way) and turning left directly into Ponderosa was an option!

Note the southbound frontage roads were not complete at this point.

UPDATE 10-24-2023: In July 2023, the motel completed a renovation and rebranded as Hotel McCoy (see archive link). I also discovered something interesting. The original logo of Ponderosa Motor Inn, which you can see below in a 1980 phone book listing...is completely identical to the Ponderosa Motor Inn in Shamrock, Texas. I don't know the fate of the Shamrock location, but it's very likely the two motels were once related.

One-o-One Grove

The Amtrak platforms STILL stand on the other side of the railroad, but 101 Grove is totally gone.

Even fairly late into the planning process of this page, I had considered this making this a multi-subject post to cover the other buildings demolished at the same time, including 100 George Bush apartments, Equity Real Estate (which was built around 1997-ish), the Unitarian Universalist church, and 101 Grove. Of these, I only had real interest in covering 101 Grove and Equity Real Estate, except I lack any pictures of the latter and my experiences with renting an apartment with Equity were less than stellar.

One of the reasons I'm bringing up this is so I could also bring up LoTrak, which is one of the "hidden sub-pages" of the blog. Had it been constructed, 101 Grove might have died that much sooner.

101 Grove first opened as Jazzercise Exercise Studio in 1984, a warehouse-like building (I seem to remember it having gray metal siding), and I believe they held this into around 1999 until the Northgate McDonald's was reconstructed, without a basement. At this point, a huge Golden Arches sign was erected on the building, facing Wellborn, and the McDonald's Training Center was born, which also seemed to have been the main headquarters for the local stores. Unfortunately, in 2002, the local McDonald's franchise retired, and so went the McDonald's sign. A few years later, the building was completely renovated inside and out, with stucco, windows, awnings, and a mural on the north side. Initially named "One-o-One Grove", by 2007, it was the home of Ellis Custom Homes, but a few other tenants were there as well, including Larsen Insurance, and (as of summer 2007), P. Dallas Construction Co., though it was largely a one-man landscaping operation.

By 2019, the property had been bought by TxDOT and leveled, with the parking lot stub cut off and everything neatly removed. I returned in August 2020 to take these pictures, but as you can see, there's nothing left!

"Nothing remains...but memories!"

Sarge's

Goodbye to a Northgate icon (Picture taken April 2020).

First mentioned in the long-outdated 104-115 College Main page (still up but being dismantled), I had personally never stepped foot in Sarge's, rather appreciating it as a Northgate staple that was part of Northgate itself. At this rate, Sarge's will probably be replaced with yet another nightclub that will just be an eyesore during the daytime.

Sarge's with its neighbors, 2013.

Operating from May 1984 to the end of May 2020, Sarge's was an army surplus store (at least originally) that operated as a Corps of Cadets supply store, including sabers and Corps boots (before TAMU also started selling them). From 1975 to until the early 1980s, University Frame Shop operated at 109 College Main. This store, same ownership as Theo's Gallery at Culpepper Plaza, featured, according to a 1980 ad, not only "custom and ready made frames" but also "New York graphic reproductions" and "limited edition prints & original art".

The building's earlier history (which dated back to the 1930s) is harder to determine. It seems that in the early days (late 1930s), Houston Street and College Main was named Bell (Bell Street?), with the Houston Street portion on campus taking the 1xx addresses and Northgate taking the 2xx addresses; however, other renumbering has taken place and placing the College Main businesses is difficult. Based on that information, it can be inferred that "Jones Barber" and "Wilson Beauty" operated here but more information needs to be acquired before an accurate chronology can be created.

UPDATE 04-24-2024: In fall 2022 a candy (and snow cones, it looked like) store called "Sugar Babies" opened. It seemed to be open as of December 2023 but as of April 2024 it seemed to be closed up shop even during a busy weekday with lots of foot traffic, even though there was merchandise inside. They have a website but all pages were marked with an ominous "Our store is not currently accepting orders."

Abandoned Quality Suites

The direct sun hurt this photo, but I think it gets the point across.

I first stumbled upon this hotel (at 3610 Highway 6 South) in fall 2019 to find it closed despite being a fairly modern-looking hotel (it was built in 2005) and on the highway. All the signage was up and graffiti had not yet hit the building, but the high weeds and tattered entryway said otherwise, nor any sign that the hotel would be opening soon (it was removed from the Choice Hotels website). Apparently, the hotel closed by early 2018 (mentioned on Yelp's "Tips" which seem to have disappeared in a recent redesign) due to a flooding problem and it never reopened. At this rate I can't see it reopening as a Quality Suites any time soon, and even without a virus decimating tourist trades, there's a lot of hotel competition that didn't exist when Quality Suites first went up. Despite being on the freeway as well, its access is a bit difficult, either requiring the southbound exit to Texas and staying on the frontage road, or working around Longmire and going back to Ponderosa. There's a good chance that it was planned before the new Rock Prairie exit was made, not only did the old Rock Prairie exit actually allow access to the hotel very easily (even southbound) in 2005, it did not visually obscure it.

According to one of the old Choice Hotel locators I have (from 2007), the hotel has 81 rooms, a swimming pool, exercise room, meeting room, and a few other modest features (like guest laundry).

Even if the hotel industry was better (overbuilding had gotten to be a problem), Quality Suites shows no signs of reopening anytime soon. The card reader on the south entrance has been ripped out, exterior maintenance is slipping, rooms have been dismantled (mattresses leaning up, etc.), and the lobby is trashed. It would not take much to reopen it under a different name, but it requires some work that the current owners have not put in yet. Personally, I'm surprised the high weeds have not gotten the pressure from city code yet.

In terms of placement, this is the very first address (apart from Veronica's Country Corner, an outlier in every sense of the word) that focuses on a Highway 6 address that isn't on the Earl Rudder portion, and the first hotel covered in a while (not since La Quinta).

UPDATE 10-24-2023: In early 2023 this hotel reopened as Wingate by Wyndham. ([defunct] removed).
UPDATE 12-25-2023: I wanted to mention that the hotel is dual-branded as a Hawthorn Suites as well.

Brazos Square

Brazos Square's modest signage, picture by author, January 2020 (as with other photos in this page)
Moving on from the Kettle, the next stop is Brazos Square at the southwest corner of Manuel Drive and Texas Avenue, and once again, many places between it and the Kettle have been covered. Both Park Place Plaza and Parkway Square (newly updated to account for College Depot's replacement), as well as NailSpa, the old Pelican's Wharf. Even Drew's Car Wash was mentioned last year, and I never imagined covering that had it not been for a hamburger restaurant that previously occupied the spot. Down the road from that is currently BCS Tires & Lifts. And of course, the Walgreens at Brentwood and Texas, or more accurately what was there before.

The sleepy Brazos Square shopping center was built in 1984 (according to Brazos CAD) but tenants were here as early as 1983. Despite promising exterior renovations, the shopping center has not yet seen anything. Unfortunately, getting information on old tenants on older tenants is difficult, like how ads for old businesses in Culpepper Plaza never mention addresses. It must have been all suite numbers, because some of the oldest businesses I've stumbled across including Toys Plus or PrioriTEAS all have 2206 as the address.

The pawn shop isn't pictured in this set.

2232 - College Station Pawn Shop. As mentioned in the Confucius Chinese Cuisine article, this was (back in the 1990s) Imperial Chinese Restaurant (not related to the place out on the bypass), which outlasted Confucius. The pawn shop was next door, and moved around 2002 after it and Confucius got torn down for the Walgreens. When the pawn shop's "new" building (at 2305 Texas) was torn down around 2006 for a new The Bank & Trust, the pawn shop moved back here, just one place down from its original location. The address is also shared with The Vapor Cave next door, which in the late 2000s and early 2010s was Loan Depot.

2230 - For years this was Advanced Wireless Inc. (through most of the late 1990s and early 2000s anyway). It closed in the mid-2000s and became All-American Sleep & Mattress (for a relatively short time), then became Fatty's Smoke Shop.

2228 - Cash America Pawn is here and has been here since at least 2007. I can't remember what was here before it. The 2226 address doesn't seem to be used, probably absorbed by it or KC Beauty Mart.

2224 - KC Beauty Mart has been here since at least 2007. Like Cash America, I can't remember a store before it.

2220 - For years, Once Upon a Child was here, but it seems to have moved a least a year ago out to Post Oak Square.

2218 - Play It Again Sports was located right next to OUaC with the same "recycle O" logo, also for years. It closed in the summer of 2012. It is now The Craft & Antique Mall of College Station.

2216 - 9Round was opened after 2012. It appears that the space was used for years as part of Play It Again Sports.

2214 - An Allstate insurance office is here, possibly since moving out from the Sears store a long time ago.

2212 - This was A&M Nails & Spa, then (briefly) RC Salon and has an Aggieland Supplements sign, but the business already seems to have been packed up for Parkway Square. By summer 2020, this became CBD Pros.

2206 - This address (skipping several numbers) is home of Juicy Crawfish restaurant. The space was previously a few clubs including Club Karma and Up Grade.

The gutting of Fuddruckers into an outdoor area. Notice the old column scars.

2204 - This is where the shopping center has some "new" features. Boost Mobile is next to a vacant space, which isn't officially numbered. Originally (as far back as I remember) this was Fuddruckers, with the record for it first appearing in 1986. After it moved to the corner of George Bush East and Harvey Road the space more or less remained vacant. There was "Cafe Beignet and Tea House" in 2005-2006 and "Asian Cuisine and Tea House" in 2006-2007 but neither made much of an impact and closed soon after opening. In particular, Asian Cuisine's sign remained for years after "opening" in 2006 and until the signage started falling off. Boost Mobile later came in afterwards.

So what I could figure, Fuddruckers address is listed as 2206 just like everything else was listed originally (Toys Plus, PrioriTEAS).

From what I can tell also, possibly as far back as Cafe Beignet, the interior of the restaurant was cut back (along with the skeletons of the awnings) to make a new courtyard. The end part of the shopping center facing Outback Steakhouse/Target I don't think has EVER been retenanted.

Looking back toward Outback Steakhouse, but we'll save that for another post.

UPDATE 08-03-2021: Some improvements to the Fuddruckers section, additional tags

Kettle College Station

Kettle has since disappeared from the Houston restaurant landscape, but it lives on in College Station. (Photo from August 2016 by author, modified to better show colors)

Over the years, there has been many, many places I've seen that Houston had and College Station-Bryan didn't. If there was any sort of chain in the College Station/Bryan area, then there was one in Houston too. There were exceptions of course, Albertsons had survived nearly a decade after the company pulled out of Houston, and AppleTree did the same. While College Station's Winn-Dixie only lasted sometime around the mid-1990s, Houston didn't even have any Winn-Dixie stores.

This also extends to restaurants. Last year, it was mentioned that Fazoli's no longer has any Houston locations, a result of closings trickling over the last ten years or so. And speaking of ten years, the next stop in the new Texas Avenue is from what I could tell hasn't seen Houston since around 2011, introducing the Kettle, which is the next "stop" on this series. (As this blog is about a decade old, many of the notable places between our last post, O'Reilly Auto Parts, have been covered before, including Exxon, Walmart, Altitude Trampoline Park, BB&T, the former Kmart, Fort Shiloh, and Days Inn).

Kettle #138 at 2502 Texas Avenue South has been around since 1981, built before the Manor House Motor Inn if the dates are right. It's part of a chain that no longer exists...it was once based out of Houston where most of its stores were located and had locations out to Florida.

Today, Kettle can be considered what what fellow blogger Zap Actionsdower considers a "broken chain". I've informed the blog about the Kettle, but he's in a different part of the country to check out the humble Kettle restaurant in College Station. There's another Kettle restaurant in Bryan that's a former Denny's, and there were even more in town, up to five in town, including at the site of Northpoint Crossing. There aren't even five Kettle restaurants in the chain anymore.

It's open 24 hours, despite the fairly quiet part of town where it is located. My guess is that the police station's 24/7 operation also keeps the Kettle in business, too, despite mixed reviews otherwise. (After all, for those working the graveyard shift, where else in the area can you get a decent meal at three in the morning?)

UPDATE 09-15-2021: Kettle is no longer "Always Open" since March 2020 (sad since the last paragraph no longer applies, but do I need to explain why?) and the "Always Open" part of the sign no longer lights up, though they are open until 11pm most days. Someone on Google added an old picture from the early/mid-2000s (not from January 2018) and it shows Kettle as I remember it growing up, with a cook posing inside the "K". A few new tags have been added as well.
UPDATE 01-13-2023: Unfortunately, Kettle never did reopen its 24 hour service (the Bryan one painted over its 24 hour service) and in late 2022 it was announced it would close for good after November 2022. Based on filings, the restaurant will be demolished for College Station's first Salad and Go.
UPDATE 05-26-2023: It was reported by TexAgs that as of late May (heading into Memorial Day weekend) that the former Kettle is being demolished. ([defunct] added).
UPDATE 10-16-2023: Salad and Go is now open. [defunct] is replaced with [2020s].

Antonio's Pizza by the Slice

Picture from summer 2013.
In the most recent update of this post (November 10th, 2021) we have learned that the subject of the post (split off from this page), Antonio's Pizza by the Slice, closed in very early November 2021 after a run of just short of 18 years, originally opening around November 2003.

Interestingly, Antonio's was actually a branch of an East Coast pizza chain with no locations in New York, but in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and, until very recently, College Station, Texas.

Back when Antonio's opened, College Main was a normal road with sidewalks, bike lanes, and two functional traffic lanes. That was until College Station decided to turn their half of College Main into a pedestrian mall (the closure happened in summer 2012) while the Bryan side of College Main was made into an attractive roadway with nice lighting, concrete, and bike lanes. The "new" College Main is a charmless void, without even a single tree and basically serves as another bar-hopping plaza like the main Northgate Promenade.

While the building is estimated to date back to 1930, records are spotty. It was Court's University Shoe Repair from until 1979 to the end of 1984. Lacey's (jewelry store) occupied half of the storefront from late 1994 to early 1996, and split the space with Perfect Tan III. Perfect Tan seems to have given way to Software Exchange, which was here from fall 1994 to the end of 1995 and became Byte Me Computers from January 1996 to April 1997, Cycles Etc. from July 1998 to summer 2003 (Cycles Etc. appeared to have occupied the full space). A 1990 planning document also mentions a proposed Thundercloud Subs in the space, but I'm not sure it ever opened. It did however, open next to Albertsons and at 607 University Drive East.

Like many a student, it was Antonio's at my time at A&M, fairly inexpensive (at least prior to 2014), decent-tasting pizza with large slices and, unlike what many of the campus establishments had, Coca-Cola products. Due to varying experiences with the food over the years, I can't really say anything particularly good or bad about it.

UPDATE 11-09-2021: Rewrote entry with better overview of former tenants, and of course, covering the closure of the restaurant ([defunct] label added).
UPDATE 04-02-2022: Added date back to the pedestrian mall as part of reworking original "104-115 College Main" page.
UPDATE 01-13-2023: Dollar Slice Club, a new pizza restaurant, opened in April 2022. [defunct] tag has been removed.
UPDATE 04-26-2024: Cycles Etc. has posted a picture of when they were located here on Facebook. (I have this picture backed up so let me know if it goes down).

Church Street Blues and BBQ

2014 picture by author
Church Avenue, another Northgate street, was always Church Avenue. It used to be when you could refer to this as "Church Street" and no one would care, but since the 2011 annexation of Wellborn, which has an actual Church Street, it forced the Church Avenue name into more common usage. Renaming either street would meet resistance, so we'll have to live with what we got.

The building at 100 Church Avenue was built in 2010 and opened before the "Great Church Street Mix-Up" and originally opened as "Church Street Blues and BBQ", which I personally never was able to eat at since it was not open for lunch and only in the evening and night of certain days (weekends and the days leading up to it). It was one of the first places to have New Republic Brewing Company beer on tap back in 2011, but in 2014, Church Street Blues closed.

In September 2015, the site became the home of "West End Elixir Company", which catered to an older crowd, with much of the staff being veterans. It also served wood-fired pizza. It closed in 2018 within a year of a new location opened in downtown Bryan.

UPDATE 02-10-2022: Removed note about being split from this post at press time. Added additional labels to post. Removed metapost about no longer doing a three-post-a-week schedule (wow!). Finally, a restaurant called "CALZ" opened here in July 2021.
UPDATE 03-26-2022: Whoops, CALZ isn't open yet; still, the owner vows to open despite having signed a lease and remaining closed for over a year. Some updates were made to the existing post.
UPDATE 05-10-2022: CALZ finally opened in late April 2022 but shut down less than two weeks allegedly due to a legal dispute. This may be the shortest-lived restaurant in the area ever.
UPDATE 04-22-2024: The building has since been demolished for another student housing development, Nova Northgate. It also replaces the failed food truck park at 102 Church Avenue. Additionally, the KBTX link has been fixed. [Demolished] added to post...this may be the only [2010s] building that has been [demolished].

Rice Garden

The big black thing in the foreground is the menu board for Taco Cabana. Picture by author, May 2019.
Behind the Taco Cabana (currently the now-closed Las Palapas) was another restaurant at 102 Live Oak. It opened in late 1994 as La Barroneña Ranch Steakhouse when it opened (though was initially planned as "City Slickers Steakhouse").

This is from the Battalion archives circa 2000 The later tenant chronology includes College Station Seafood (operating from 2004 to January 2011), Oceans Bar & Grill (operated in the very early 2010s), Vy's Kitchen Asian Cuisine (opened July 2012, same ownership and menu of Vietnamese Taste), and finally Rice Garden (changed hands around 2018, despite Yelp treating it like the same business, it appears that it was a separate entity--a residual link from the now-defunct EatBCS mentions that it was under construction as of September 2018). Rice Garden closed around 2020, a victim of COVID-19, and is still vacant.


UPDATE 03-15-2021: Rice Garden is now closed permanently. It appears it was a victim of COVID-19 last year. Also, the Taco Cabana referred here has since closed and replaced with Las Palapas.
UPDATE 05-21-2021: Made a more extensive update that fixes a pressing formatting error but also adds dates to businesses.
UPDATE 04-25-2024: A third update to finally put in something for La Barroneña Ranch Steakhouse, and also to mention the passing of Las Palapas.

"At Home" on the Boriskie Ranch

College Station never had a "Garden Ridge" store, but better late than never, right?
It's rare these days when Project HOLD actually helps contribute to an article and answers questions asked, but Project HOLD came through and delivered an article on Boriskie Ranch, located off of the Highway 6 bypass. I had actually wanted to publish this in 2017 before some unfortunate situations in my life derailed my plans on revitalizing the site (chronologically, this was supposed to be published after the former Café Eccell page before the site effectively went on a year and a half hiatus). I wanted to try to contact the author, but in my research of it when first writing this article, found that Burton Hermann had passed away two days prior to when I had looked it up [archive].

The ranch dates back to the 1800s and once covered an enormous part of land stretching to Texas Avenue to the west and what would be Southwest Parkway to the south, and includes a vast part of east College Station, including Post Oak Mall, Allen Honda, Wolf Pen Creek Park, a bunch of apartment complexes, Dairy Queen, a section of Earl Rudder Freeway, and others. Obviously, these will not be covered today (if ever), though some are already covered in some form.

There's not a lot I can say about the part that's already written (if Project HOLD changes links again, just search "boriskie ranch"), other than a few facts that Post Oak Mall was built in 1982, not 1989. Following the expansion the driving range was "College Station Golf Center" at 2301 East Bypass. In 1989, I can find a listing for "Brazos Valley Golf Driving Range" but the address (and number) listed is for 2400 East Bypass, the current Grand Station (the building was a former Lowe's, but the Lowe's listed in the 1989 phone book has a non-existent East Bypass address, because at some point the addresses were renumbered). But then again, there didn't seem to be a building for the golf center in 1995, which indicates that it didn't have a phone number, so it's one of those cases in which I don't know.

Regardless, Academy Sports + Outdoors (2351 Earl Rudder Freeway) was built and opened in February 2002, as the article says (see this article). The golf center, with its long poles and overgrown netting to prevent balls from going out into the highway, closed in the mid-2000s and was torn down for a shopping center. This would be the home of Gander Mountain (2301 Earl Rudder Freeway) and Dickey's Barbecue Pit (2297 Earl Rudder Freeway). Gander Mountain would open June 2007, giving another option for the local economy and another large store on Highway 6.

The closed Dickey's.
Dickey's Barbecue Pit was the last commercial development at Boriskie Ranch. This is covered in more detail at this article.

Around 2011, We Rent Storage at 2672 Horse Haven Lane opened, replacing an oil field.

In 2017, several shakeups changed the face of the former Boriskie Ranch. In addition to the aforementioned Dickey's Barbecue Pit, Academy moved less than a mile away closer to the intersection of Raintree and Highway 6, Gander Mountain closed in August following the parent company's bankruptcy, and Hunter's Creek Stables (now with an address of 2741 Horseback Drive, as opposed to the original address of 2401 East Bypass) eventually closed and was torn down to allow further development of Horse Haven Estates.

However, some life did come back when At Home Group Inc. announced that they would build a store in College Station. The new name of what used to be Garden Ridge, the Texas-based chain has had stores in Houston (often enormous, though they've scaled down in recent years), San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and parts beyond for years (even Syracuse, New York got a store before us). They tore down a covered outdoor annex of Gander Mountain to build an expansion (I think this had boats, I'm not sure).


UPDATE 09-15-2021: Slight cutting to officially spin off the Academy and Masfajitas (Dickey's) articles. Added [College Station] to the post.

Former Circuit City

Picture from April 2019 by author.

The distinctive shape of this building (1003 Harvey) is recognizable as a former Circuit City, which opened in College Station store in August 1995, and much like its other locations in Texas were often deliberately located near (but never in) shopping malls. I maybe went into Circuit City once or twice in this location, but I do remember it as a dimly-lit place with computers on display (typical of Circuit City, and that was their gimmick, for the darker lighting to better show off computers and televisions), and nothing like Best Buy, which was brighter and better organized.

In January 2007, Circuit City moved to a new location at University Drive and Highway 6 (about where Half-Price Books is today) and closed down their location, only for the new location to close down a few years later. ("Bryan-College Station sees boom in businesses" from The Eagle). In early August 2012, Guitar Center opened a store at the location but it retains most of its original architecture.

UPDATE 04-24-2024: A few extremely small updates, like "opened in August 1995" rather than "built 1995".

Loupot's Northgate

Loupot's in 1995. (PH)

Prior to when College Main was closed off (June 19th 2012, a day that will live in infamy), it was the only block which was resembled a dense city in College Station. And sitting on the corner of this block was Loupot's (335 University Drive), which closed the same year (in March). One of the oldest establishments on Northgate and once the "official" bookstore on campus, Loupot's had been around for years, though from what I've read, it wasn't always in the building, and when it was, it wasn't in both levels.

From what I've found, it wasn't bought by Loupot until 1979, and in the past, Loupot's was named "Loupot's Trading Post" and "Loupot's Books & Britches". The upper level was added in the 1980s not too long after the building was bought, as that had been the previous home of an X-rated bookstore (The Adult Library, though I read an ad that mentioned it being the home of "Sun Theater", same business, different name). Some ads I had found (but sadly don't have a copy right now) mentioned that they had shows for a quarter (and escorted ladies were free), which was around in the 1970s and 1980s. This had an address of 333 University. The adult theater was upstairs at 333 University, with Loupot's downstairs. At some point, they eventually closed and Loupot's ultimately would expand upstairs.

Anyway, Loupot's managed to expand to a few different locations, namely a location in Southgate (now home to TexAgs) and in a location at Holleman and Texas Avenue (now Salata). These closed shortly after the Northgate location. A fourth location was planned (according to a sign) to the grassy area just north of Blinn College on Villa Maria (where Blinn later added more parking). Loupot's continued to maintain its large store on Northgate, which later upgraded to electronic signage and made Internet history with its "reverse-boarded up windows" in 2005 (around the time of Hurricane Rita). However, in 2010, the family sold to Nebraska Book Company (Neebo), which already owned the Traditions bookstores (formerly Rother's), and then they started closing stores. The Loupot's-branded stores went away in March 2012, but eventually, their other stores, branded as Traditions (Southgate, University Square, and one closer to Blinn at Briarcrest and Villa Maria) closed as well.

One of their last messages on the message board was "HOLY CRAP!!! TEXTBOOK RENTAL SALE!!!", which always felt a bit tasteless due to the mild swearing but that distracted from the fact that if they're selling rental textbooks, they're probably going under.

The former Loupot's in 2013.


After Loupot's closed, by late 2014, it was to become a place called Z Bar & Bistro, which made me hope it was something better than The Corner across the street (sticky chairs and tables, smells like old beer constantly, poor service), though it eventually fell through.

As of early 2016, there appears to be some work going on at Loupot's. It will probably be a bar, but it's better than an empty building, right?

UPDATE 03-07-2021: After six years after its annnouncement, Z Bar & Bistro opened around October of 2020. It serves sushi and has a rooftop seating area. Also, the post had [2010s] removed from it.
UPDATE 09-20-2021: Renamed post from "The Loupot's Building", added [restaurants] and [College Station] to post. Also made a few smaller fixes.
UPDATE 06-21-2023: Sometime around 2022, Z Bar closed (with its time spent at 335 University a fraction of the time it spent under construction), with "Toku 12" in its place.
UPDATE 04-24-2024: Clarification to above. After December 2022, Z Bar briefly closed and reopened as Toku12.

Former Pizza Inn

Picture taken late October 2015, shortly before rainclouds rolled in and drenched the town.
The rather ragged-looking "Rodney D. Young Insurance" at 413 Texas Avenue, which looks like a candidate for demolition should something better come along (the Exxon at the corner is constantly being ragged on as being an eyesore in a prime location). It was a Pizza Inn (No. 65) opened in 1966 and remained operational until sometime in the mid-1980s (and I'm not sure when Rodney D. Young came in, since I don't have city directories, only a few phone books). In 1989, it was Star Video and by 1993 it was EZ Pawn. As of January 2018, the location is no longer Rodney D. Young Insurance, it is now Legacy Tattoo Lounge.

It's also worth noting that there exists a "Pizza Inn Express" (just a counter) at the Chevron at Holleman and Deacon (opened in fall 2018).

1970s phone book. It still looks remarkably similar.

UPDATE 7-28-2018: Integrated August 10, 2016 edit into main post. Removed two paragraphs irrelevant to the main topic. Added Legacy Tattoo Lounge mention.
UPDATE 2-10-2020: Added mention of "new" Pizza Inn, renamed from "413 Texas Avenue, A Distinctly Former Pizza Inn"
UPDATE 10-27-2020: Added proper opening and store number, as well as some tags.