A North Bryan Family Legacy

The former J.J.'s Liquor as it appeared in January 2026. (Picture by author).
Sometime relatively recently, I had a very brief conversation with Ms. Ferreri, whose late father, Joe, built a number of restaurants and a few hotels in the area.¹ But among those, Sugar 'N Spice, the other drive-in, was missing from my site, so like Wendy's and H-E-B Pantry, lets go for covering a complete set. From what I can put together, 1215 N. Texas Avenue was the original address of the location and aerials back this up.

It was in 1951 that the drive-in opened (as a North Bryan counterpart to the Triangle) by 1968 was under new management as Ferreri moved on with bigger projects (the hotels). By fall of 1970 it was closed permanently but Luke Court was to reopen the store as "Sugar N Spice Drive In Grocery", now at 1219 N. Texas Avenue, likely reusing signage.

A second location of this "new" Sugar & Spice soon opened at 601 W. 28th Avenue as well, and by 1972 two more locations were in planning or operation, 1402 W. 25th Street and 300 W. 19th Street.² In 1974, Court sold these to Southland Corporation, which first had advertised as 7-Eleven in spring of that year (with a few locations of its own also being built), and by August was holding grand openings for what would be eight locations.³ Apparently, 7-Eleven did add gas to this location, but its time as a 7-Eleven was short-lived. By 1978, it was sold and reopened as J.J.'s Filling Station, owned by J.J. Ruffino (the son of whom I have also briefly spoken to), which by 1981 would ditch the gasoline and become J.J.'s Liquor, which it would remain for almost the next thirty years.

This garage door faces Texas Avenue. (Picture by author, 1/2026)
As I previously mentioned in another post, Spec's bought the three JJ's Liquor stores in 2010. The one on Texas Avenue in College Station was their wholesale warehouse for a while, while Rock Prairie Crossing and this one continued to operate. But within a few years of that, the JJ's at Rock Prairie doubled in size when it rebranded, and this location simply closed up shop (around that time the H-E-B was rolling out its full size store, and it's a mystery why Spec's couldn't have replaced its store with something there, or expand the Bryan store).

While part of the lot was redeveloped as a self-service car wash at some point that continues to be in operation at 1217 N. Texas Avenue, the building, which had served under Ruffino, Ferreri, and 7-Eleven, was abandoned.⁴

1. Most notably Ramada Inn, Ferreri's Italian Cuisine, and Triangle Drive-In. This post should finish them.
2. The addresses, 1402 W. William Joel Bryan Parkway and 300 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Street respectively, are no more. The latter was demolished in the late 2000s while the former disappeared between 1995 and 2003. 601 W. 28th Avenue is still in operation as a convenience store, but not a branded one.
3. The local 7-Eleven stores were sold to E-Z Mart in 1993 after Southland's 1990 bankruptcy. By that time, none of the Luke Court-era stores were in business as 7-Eleven.
4. Abandoned on paper, maybe. There was a truck parked outside the building when I was taking photos and I could music coming from inside (which was crammed with boxes and other junk), so I'm hoping it was just security of some sort...but I wasn't about to find out! It's why I don't have too many pictures of the property.

Editor's Note: I've been trying to make a post for days that weren't previously made but this has created a problem of tightly packing too many in at one time, or outright missing deadlines. As a result, the updates of this blog will be uneven. There are about five or six posts that I've been meaning to re-do that I'll be working on, as well as upgrading stuff relating to Post Oak Mall. Join me at Numbered Exits in the meantime.

Former Tokyo Steak House

1984 phone book

We're back with a post from the archives which had been mothballed at least for the last few years. From what my current resources have, this building was built in 1966 and the 1969 directory lists "Bank of A & M" (certainly unassociated with the university, as many businesses used the "A&M" name until the early 1990s). From 1977 to 1980, it was "The Last National Bank", which from what I can tell was a chain of bank-themed restaurants back in the 1970s and 1980s.

From 1980 to 1984, it was Tokyo Steak House, which moved from Townshire. Fast forwarding to 1998 (resources are sparse), this was Coldwell Banker (as it is today) but the head realtor was Richard Smith. Cherry Ruffino was associated with Coldwell Banker at an office off of Tarrow, at some point these merged and the Coldwell Banker at 411 Texas Avenue became Cherry Ruffino's.

Rock Prairie Crossing

The "Pharmacy" on the right originally held the "Signature" logo.

In the adventures of of this website thus far, we have covered all the former Albertsons and all the former AppleTree stores, but haven't gone too deep into the grocery stores currently in the area. That is about to change, as we are about to tackle Rock Prairie Crossing, a shopping center built in 2000.
The shopping center is anchored by Kroger (3535 Longmire) and had massive success, as it had (for about a decade) the distinction of being the farthest-south grocery store in town, and is usually still pretty crowded.

The Starbucks wasn't originally there, it appears that according to the map, it was an enclosed cart area (the carts were moved outside after Starbucks), but it did appear after a few years, either opening before or around the same time the Albertsons up the street did.

It features a prominent and open mezzanine; however just for offices seems a bit of a waste, it almost feels as if the upper level was meant to be used for additional seating or some other purpose, given the (original) presence of a daycare and all that. The Randalls store in downtown Houston (though given how much the chain continues to shrink, I don't know how long it will last) also has an upper level like Kroger's but is well-utilized. You can sit down with your items purchased from the Starbucks up there or other items (like the deli or the bakery) and eat them while having nearly a full view of the store below.

As for a basic description of the store, it's around 63,000 square feet, has a bakery, deli, produce department, meats and seafood toward the far back right of the store, then pharmacy to the right, with some space cut for the "curb-side pickup". I did not take any pictures of the store, partly because you can find it elsewhere. The decor on Yelp from 2010 is still the Kroger's design now and Google also has a few photos (but it's contaminated with stock photos that look nothing like this store).

The Kroger currently has "Fresh Fare" décor with tiles featuring orange and green accents ("Millennium Decor") but it may have the Neon Decor.

I actually did acquire a store directory back when the store first opened back when the store's moniker "Kroger Signature" actually meant something (the name was removed sometime last year as of this writing, to just Kroger). This can be seen at my main website, Carbon-izer. While this Kroger did have the day care area, it did not, to my knowledge, have the food court as the 1993 Houston store did.

Nearby is the 3505 Longmire building.

Suite A - This has been DoubleDave's PizzaWorks for years, pretty sure it was an original tenant (so no "suite B"). Originally, there used to be a big glass window where you could see pizza being prepared (with a step for the shorter people in attendance). At some point, it was re-arranged to have that be an open window and the area blocked by the buffet table.

Suite C - Formerly home to FabricCare Cleaners, which moved to a new strip center off Highway 6 (in Tower Point) around 2016-2017 (roughly around that time). In 2020, AnyLabTestNow took up the space.

Suite D - Currently home to a Jimmy John's, which opened around December 2013, after two other locations in town opened (the University Drive East location and the Texas Avenue/Holleman location). It used to be Blue Kangaroo Children's Boutique, which opened in 2004. It may have been something else before that.

Despite parking under trees being a danger, this shopping center is always crowded.
Suite E - Was the home of W.E. Gibson Insurance (possibly original), then became the home of Athena Learning Centers in 2013 but closed five years later (likely due to lease issues). It has since been absorbed into Spec's.

Suite F - The former location of Maggie Moo's. I don't know when it closed, probably late 2000s (Googling shows it was definitely open in 2006) then absorbed into Spec's. The franchisee later took to Southwest Crossing as "Harold's Hot Dogs & Ice Cream" until it eventually folded.

Suite G - Spec's Liquor is here, it used to be a modern location of JJ's Liquor. After Spec's bought the JJ's Liquor mini-chain, it renamed and expanded into the former Maggie Moo's space.

Moving clockwise, there's a CVS/pharmacy at 1800 Rock Prairie, which I didn't photograph but it (like almost every CVS in Texas prior to 2005) was an Eckerd originally. I didn't take a picture of it, but the Google Street View people did. A bank building, located at the corner of Longmire and Highway 6, isn't part of the shopping center.

You can see where it was repainted, as the pre-2009 Jack in the Box logo was tilted at an angle.

The next plot is a vacant space, an empty Jack in the Box. I think it was built a bit after the Kroger store, so maybe 2000 or 2001. It first temporarily closed in summer 2017 due to ownership transition (to corporate from franchisee, along with the other stores in the area). It briefly reopened around the fall of that year, but sadly, the reopening was short-lived and it closed soon after (probably a month or two). As the blacked-out Jack in the Box logo on the signage still shown through on the main shopping center (still never updated to the 2009 logo), it made me sad that I couldn't head down there after dark from my then-home at Longmire (I lived briefly at Longmire and Deacon) to pick up food, and only reminded of Jack in the Box's fairly wide and diverse menu from commercials nearly four decades old. It was one of my go-to places in spring 2017 when I didn't live at Longmire (but lived in the general area), going there for the late-night "Munchie Meals" after my shift ended at a call center near Highway 40, which is where I worked at the time. One of the drive-through windows looked bashed up; clearly someone had tried to force it open as part of a robbery attempt. I also think the access problems had something to do with it...

There's another building (3515) with the UPS Store (suite B) and then T. Jin China Diner (sit-down Chinese restaurant) and the UPS Store (in suite B), don't know when either opened, then another strip to the immediate left of Kroger (3525).

Suite A - Cotton Patch Cafe has been here since the early 2000s, and I ate here once or twice. Haven't been back in a number of years.

Suite D - Because Cotton Patch takes up so much space, there's not an A through C, and suite D is occupied by Freebirds World Burrito (always a good lunch option).

Suite F - Kolache Rolf's (a good breakfast option; suite E is skipped due to Freebirds' larger footprint).

Suite G - Facelogic BCS (some sort of "day spa", website)

Suite H - Angel Nails

Suite I - Balboa's Barber Studio currently, former home of Classic Cuts Plus

Suite J - Used to be GNC, now "American Shaman", selling CBD oil products. Pretty sure the former (original?) tenant GNC was shut down in the round of closings in 2019.

Suite K - Eye Trends as of this writing, though a sign at the corner of Longmire and Graham promises a new location.

Suite L - Witt's End, local woman's clothing shop

Suite N - Hallmark store (no suite M).

Wrapping up on this shopping center, what was mildly interesting is the fact that the center's first few years had NOTHING across the highway, with only a "two way dead end" sign at Rock Prairie's other side. There's also a large right of way between the highway frontage road and the frontage road; this was created when the frontage road was rebuilt around 2008.

UPDATE 04-24-2021: Minor rewrite for better flow. AnyLabTestNow opened.
UPDATE 12-02-2024: Should be mentioned the Jack in the Box was reopened as Bank of America in 2021.
UPDATE 04-08-2025: It appears that as for 3515 Longmire, results turn up for MacRaven Coffee Company in suite A as of December 2001/early 2002 (by the time it had a ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce it had been open for over six months) with Cingular taking up the other space. In late 2003 MacRaven closed with T. Jin opening within a few months. Cingular, meanwhile, jumped over to Rock Prairie Road around 2005 and was replaced with The UPS Store in 2006 (same time as the Bryan location opened).
UPDATE 03-01-2026: Suite F in the early 2000s (2000-2002) briefly had a second location of The Bagel Station, which had its original location at Culpepper Plaza.

Former JJ's Liquor, Texas Avenue

In the pre-JJ's days, though all but the ball-looking thing at the top of the sign survived to the end.
Originally located at the now-defunct Texas Avenue page and later at this page, this former liquor store (1600 Texas Avenue South) has been near the corner of Harvey Road since the 1970s (original build date unknown, it was listed in the early 1970s phone books but did not exist in 1971 as per aerials), originally as Discount Liquor Store. J.J. Ruffino bought it in 1983 to complement a Bryan store, and it remained as such for decades. In late 2010, Ruffino exited the liquor store and sold the three stores to Spec's. Spec's converted the store on Rock Prairie and Longmire to their brand but kept the two stores as JJ's, eventually converting them to wholesale only. I went into the store only once in 2016, when I applied for a job in the chain, though for unknown reasons it fell through. (I can tell you that the inside of the store was dark and dingy). The location at Redmond and Texas Avenue closed in 2017 when Spec's built a new store at University and Highway 6 at the former Linens-N-Things that incorporated their wholesale operation.
Southbound on Texas Avenue, March 2014, from car.
Southbound on Texas Avenue, March 2014. Another view.

UPDATE 01-20-2025: JJ's Liquor at 1219 N. Texas Avenue did end up closing sometime in the early 2010s and never converted to the Spec's name. Anyway, after the 1600 Texas Avenue South store closed for good, it was reopened by What's the Buzz Specialty Coffee Company for a few years (removing the "JJ's" signs that were along the building's facade for decades), but by 2024 that moved out and became Scoots, which moved from the DSW shopping center.