Showing posts with label church avenue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church avenue. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Falling by the Wayside, A Look at Former Restaurants at 102 Church Avenue


Having no memories of this establishment save for a few photos I got summer 2014, I've been thinking that I need to cover this, especially since (for several reasons).

The building was built in 1959 as per Brazos CAD. It appears it was built as a house, the first reference coming from a 1963 obituary about one Mrs. Marguerite Mary Edmonds, age 48, but it was later restaurants. The years that are listed come from the best references I have of the restaurants. Currently I don't have any information on any restaurants that took the space in the late 1990s (if there were any).

1977 - Dead Solid Perfect
This restaurant was listed in a dining guide list in The Eagle in 1977. All I have for this is description is from Yuccadoo on TexAgs.
Who remembers getting a burger at DSP? (Dead Solid Perfect). It was in the same building that is now a restaurant across from Cafe Eccell. No exhaust vents, smoke pouring out a coupla windows in the kitchen, made the best burgers commercially available in the world (IMO).

1980 - One Potato Two Potato
This was the restaurant listed in the 1980 phone book. I have no information on it.

1983 - Two Blocks North
This was the restaurant listed in the 1983 phone book. I have no information on it.

1984 - La Taqueria & Tortilla Factory
"La Taq" was the most memorable of the restaurants in the space and is still talked about even today.

1991 - Rosalie's Pasta House
According to Aggieland 1992, Rosalie's Pasta House opened September 25, 1991 in the former La Taqueria space. Directories indicate that it was open throughout the early 1990s. I don't have information on the space for the late 1990s, however.

2000 - La Bodega
This is when La Bodega Baja Taco Bar opened (as they closed in November 2014 after 14 years, or so they said). Here's the La Bodega specials, May 2014. One of their specials is the hotter it is outside, the cheaper drinks are. Not a bad idea.

So, why the title of this one? Well, despite some talk of more upscale dining in the Northgate area, it and the adjacent apartment building next to it (104 Church Avenue, where Eccell Group operated out of) was torn down. What has replaced it is supposed to be a food truck park, called Wayside Food Park. It was supposed to be a permanent place for food trucks complete with electrical conduits and a covered pavilion area, but it failed hard, opening in December 2017 and closing by early 2019. In regards to the apartment building, I have terrible pictures of that, the one with my finger covering a quarter of the shot is from this May (2014) and I do have a better picture that shows the building as a whole but I can't find it, and really it's not much better than what you can see from the older shots on Google Maps Street View.

Updated May 2019 to account for the coming and going of Wayside

Monday, May 27, 2013

Blackwater Draw Brewing Company, College Station

I liked Blackwater Draw's food, despite its shortcomings.


Back in the days prior to the 1950s, professors lived in houses on campus, from the place of the modern-day Memorial Student Center and parts south. Most of these buildings were not demolished, however--they were literally partially disassembled and placed in other parts of town. The house on 303 Boyett at Church Avenue is one of them. Of course, a lot of them still have been demolished, but the one at Church and Boyett hasn't. I'm not sure of the house's history since being moved off-campus, but it has served as restaurants in recent years.

By the early 2000s, it was "Satchel's BBQ & Steaks". According to Restaurant Row, it was "a casual family style restaurant with a rustic ambiance, a fireplace, cozy booths and knickknacks placed throughout. The cuisine is traditional American fare with beef, turkey, pork, chicken, steaks, and seafood entrées. The bar serves domestic and imported beers, wines and mixed drinks. They offer a kid's menu, take out and catering."


From LoopNet, back when it was Fredriko's

By 2007 Satchel's was gone and it had become a Mexican restaurant called Fredriko's, which I ate at once (it was forgettable, and is now gone). Apparently it used to be another restaurant, as well, but I don't know of it. By 2011 (roughly) the building was "DC, Inc.": the headquarters for Dixie Chicken and other related restaurants (Dry Bean Saloon, Dudd's, Chicken Oil Co.), but by 2013 it moved again (former location of Alfred T. Hornback's) and started to renovate as restaurant space again: the Blackwater Draw Brewing Company, a brewpub owned by the same owners as O'Bannon's. Given the generally positive response to brewpubs I visited in Michigan, I had high hopes but was tempered by the lousy reputation of Northgate (Chimy's, I remember, was a huge disappointment). Reviews looked great though, and upon trying it (in November 2013, if I recall) I found the food to be very good, a decent value (more expensive than a typical campus lunch option) with good beer. One downside was limited burger toppings without an extra charge (even things like tomato). The menu was a bit limited as was the seating. I always wished that they expand and open a larger location, taking the example of The Chimes in Baton Rouge, a popular bar/restaurant near campus, which ended up opening a larger, two-story location called The Chimes East away from campus with a ton of parking (for a restaurant, that is).

In December 2015, they did open a second location in downtown Bryan, but it was only to focus on beer production, and did not serve food. The Northgate location ended up closing in May 2018 due to rising rents in the Northgate area, replaced with another restaurant by fall, "The Spot on Northgate" which was more of the same in terms of Northgate food variety (burgers, beer).

During the Dixie Chicken Inc. days, a banner outside said "Come And Drink It" in the form of "Come And Take It" of Texas Revolution lore.

UPDATE 03-26-2022: Following the last update in 2019, it appears that Satchel's operated from 1998 to 2004 and may have been officially recorded in tax documents as "Savannahs", and also the first restaurant in the spot. Fredriko's was here from 2005 to 2009.