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.

Layne's of College Station, Eastgate

Picture from author, May 2014. Note the former Sully's in the background.

Built in 1962 and home to Wilson Plumbing Company for many years, Layne's of College Station has been in operation at 106 Walton since 1994, serving little more than fried chicken strips, Texas Toast, and a spicy mustard-based dipping sauce. It is similar to the Raising Cane's chain, though actually predated the chain by two years, but unlike the 400+ locations of Raising Cane's, Layne's just has three, the original, Southwest Crossing in 2006, and a third location near Caprock Crossing opened in October 2015. (This post is split from this one).

It should be noted that Brazos CAD says the building was built in 1962, but Wilson's website suggests that they have been at Eastgate since 1945. It's entirely possible that they moved or rebuilt once while in Eastgate.

Schlotzsky's Near Walmart

Author's picture from 2013.
Built in 1998 as Schlotzsky's Deli (2210 Harvey Mitchell Parkway South) with indications it moved from Park Place Plaza, they started serving Cinnabon sometime around 2007 (I remember telling one of my friends this back in high school) and has undergone one other significant change, in 2009 or shortly after, they redecorated (with the "lotz better" décor instead of the "Silly Name, Serious Sandwich" décor) and officially dropped the "Deli" part of the name. (This post is split from this one). [Updated to account for the fact that the "lotz better" décor didn't happen until 2009].

Northgate Shell

Taken by author in 2013.

For many years this was a Shell gas station (609 University Drive), dating back to the mid-1960s with renovations in the mid-1980s (a new canopy, and likely the start of the Zip'N name, as the Zip'N name does not appear in early 1980s phone books). The signage next to University was also the same for years, gaining few updates over the years, like when the Shell logo was updated in the early 2000s before being demolished in the 2010s when University Drive was reworked to be more pedestrian-friendly. An interesting feature of this store is that it has a decent selection of Indian food (Battalion link, archived version); when this began I don't know but it's been that way since at least 2012.
Its time as a Shell came to an end in late 2023 when it converted to Sunoco (similar to the downtown Bryan Zip'N). Gas is usually priced ten cents higher than elsewhere.
UPDATE 01-04-2024: Mild rewrite to account for new changes.