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Former Fast Food Locations in Texas


IronTiger

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The Jack in the Box is gone on Crosstimbers? When did that happen? I guess I just never noticed. Taco Bell lives on on Crosstimbers, even tore down the old one and built brand new when the mall was demoed.

 

I think the JITB on Crosstimbers was demoed and rebuilt as a new JITB. I drive by that intersection regularly, but I have to confess that I really haven't paid attention to what's on that corner now the last few times I've been there. 

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And the list can't be complete without Bambolino's Pizza, which was founded by Houston's own "Mama Ninfa". 17 locations in all, but I certainly don't know them all. Sevfiv/Nena, can one of you do a run of Bambolino's locations? 21st @ Yale, Durham @ Washington, two at IAH, and the one down on Montrose are the only ones that are popping into my mind right now.

Edited by Purpledevil
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Former northside Houston Red Lobster locations:

14191 Northwest Freeway @ Fairbanks N. Houston. Now Larry's Barbecue Buffet.

2005 Mangum Rd. Now Yank Sing Chinese Buffet.

DANG!! Should've recognized the exterior of Larry's...anyway, thanks for everything, it will be "locked in" until the next update. The new page (when it's done) will include Burger Chef and Red Lobster with an all-new format. Wait for it soon!

 

Preview:

haif_preview.png

Edited by IronTiger
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Got two more for you, IronTiger. I'm working in Brookhollow today and had forgotten about these two. Both in the parking lot of the grocery store. Corner of Mangum Rd and W. 34th, next door to each other, west side of Mangum-south side of W. 34th. On the corner is a 1% check cashing place, completely decked in yellow. This was an obvious KFC. Next door to that are the unmistakable trapezoid windows of an old Pizza Hut, which is vacated and for sale. Sorry I was in a hurry and didn't get the pictures taken. SW corner of the intersection for both.

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I don't remember a Red Lobster down Dyna, mkultra, but I do remember this little diddy that I used to love, called the Moon Palace. How I miss the Palace...

Could Red Lobster have been in the stand alone building next door to Los Cabos/Moon Palace? I've been trying to put my finger on what that game room used to be for quite some time now. It was obviously a restaurant, but what? It's been driving me crazy. Wouldn't that be something if we ended up answering each other's question? The building certainly doesn't look like an old Red Lobster, but I guess it's possible.

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I don't remember a Red Lobster down Dyna, mkultra, but I do remember this little diddy that I used to love, called the Moon Palace. How I miss the Palace...

Could Red Lobster have been in the stand alone building next door to Los Cabos/Moon Palace? I've been trying to put my finger on what that game room used to be for quite some time now. It was obviously a restaurant, but what? It's been driving me crazy. Wouldn't that be something if we ended up answering each other's question? The building certainly doesn't look like an old Red Lobster, but I guess it's possible.

 

I spent way too much time the other day going up and down Dyna with Google Street View, trying to pinpoint where it could've been, but after checking out the ownership history of some of the addresses on HCAD's site, I couldn't find any obvious matches. The Moon Palace building is the one that appeared to be the most likely suspect, but the earliest info listed for it shows the owner as Jojo's Restaurants Inc in 1984. I'd forgotten about Jojo's until running across that tidbit of info. 

 

Of course, it's entirely possible that I'm mistaken and that Red Lobster wasn't on Dyna, but was somewhere else in the area. 

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Moon Palace was a Jojo's?!? I did not realize that, but yeah, the recessed entry on it does make it look like a Jojo's. Closed in '84, so the year I graduated. Huh, guess I was too focused on late night breakfast buffets at Champ's across the street back then. :D

Red Lobster is certainly a possibility, mkultra. It's hard to imagine now for those that didn't see it firsthand, but that little area was once packed with various well known eating joints, and not just the sea of vacancy and neglect that West Dyna has become in its current state.

Edit: the address for the mystery restaurant, now game room, is 171 West Dyna, 77037. I can't snapshot an instant street view for some reason. Could that possibly be your Red Lobster?

Edited by Purpledevil
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Moon Palace was a Jojo's?!? I did not realize that, but yeah, the recessed entry on it does make it look like a Jojo's. Closed in '84, so the year I graduated. Huh, guess I was too focused on late night breakfast buffets at Champ's across the street back then. :D

Red Lobster is certainly a possibility, mkultra. It's hard to imagine now for those that didn't see it firsthand, but that little area was once packed with various well known eating joints, and not just the sea of vacancy and neglect that West Dyna has become in its current state.

Edit: the address for the mystery restaurant, now game room, is 171 West Dyna, 77037. I can't snapshot an instant street view for some reason. Could that possibly be your Red Lobster?

 

I happened on this discussion and am delighted to see talk about the area I grew up in. I think I can help you out here.

 

I've done pretty extensive research on the retail businesses in the Upper Airline corridor.

 

I can tell you that JoJo's and Moon Palace were located at 185 W. Dyna. The Jojo's opened in 1976. It became Moon Palace in 1992.

 

The Red Lobster was located next door at 181 W. Dyna and it opened in 1974.

 

The Burger King at 187 W. Dyna was the first restaurant along the road. It opened in 1972. Steak and Ale opened at the end of the street with a 10718 North Freeway address. Then came the Red Lobster. Pizza Inn at 171 W. Dyna opened in 1975. Jim's Coffee Shop (now the Mambo Seafood), Bobby McGee's Conglomeration, El Chico and Furr's Cafeteria also opened in 1975 in the Deauville Shopping Center, which has a North Freeway address, but is also along W. Dyna. Jojo's opened in 1976.

 

Square Pan Pizza at 163 W. Dyna and the Ground Patti at 171 W. Dyna opened in 1978. Jim's Coffee became Champs in 1979.

 

The Ground Patty became the Original Flying Pizza in 1980, which was really odd as it was only a few feet from Square Pan. The Jojo's became Co-Co's Family Restaurant in 1985.

 

China Border took over from Steak and Ale in 1998. Mambo replaced Champs in 2003. I stopped updating after 2008 because as I live on the westside, it's hard to keep up with things in the old neighborhood. Anyway, hope that helps the memories and the conversation.

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More from 1976 Houston area - Taco Bell, Wendy's, Dairy Queen, and TGI Fridays (KFC and Burger King are up next but more extensive)

 

 

Dairy Queen (of the 23 listed, 9 are still Dairy Queen)

 

6031 Airline Dr. (currently Pan-American OB/GYN)

8394 Bellaire Blvd. (unknown)

7215 Bellfort St. (currently El Compita Tire Shop)

8430 Boone Rd. (currently Serrano's Events)

10516 Eastex Freeway (demolished?)

6649 Harrisburg Blvd. (remodeled?)

9155 Irvington Blvd. (currently Abiding Love Baptist Church)

5590 North Freeway (possibly current Frenchy's)

8808 Panair St. (currently vacant, was Dairy Queen training and commissary - for HOU I assume)

470 Parker (unknown) still standing - convenience store (credit to Purpledevil below)

6516 Westheimer Rd. (unknown)

1702 Yale St. (demolished?)

6919 Spencer Highway - Pasadena (current Jiffy Lube?)

1318 Ave H. - Rosenberg (current Flamingo Snow Cones?)

26904 I-45 - Spring (current Crow's Nest liquor store?)

 

 

 

Dairy Queen #64 opened on W. Gulf Bank between Airline and the North Freeway in 1969. Sometime in the late 1990s it became some sort of Mexican restaurant. The last I checked, that restaurant had closed and the place was abandoned.

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Ground Patty! Thank you Firebird! My mystery is solved. :D

So the Red Lobster WAS next door to Pizza Inn, only on the other side of it. Now a car dealership that sells higher end autos. Thank you for the insight, and verifying mkultra's memory of the Red Lobster. I had no idea that Champ's was anything before it was Champ's. I had always thought they were the original occupants of the now Mambo's.

Firebird, one more for you, if you don't mind. The old strip center with the car wash in the parking lot, I assume that's 163 West Dyna, has a "Huracán Discoteca" as the big tenant, covering a large swath of the center. What was that before? It seems like it was a department store of some sort, and it has those tall sign poles facing Airline, with big flood lights on it, but without any type of signage on top. What was there originally?

Edit: There was also a DQ on the east side of Airline, between West and Dyna.That one was open up until the early 2000's, now a clinic of some sorts. KFC, same side of Airline in front of the present day Family Dollar, is now a taqueria.

Edited by Purpledevil
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Firebird, one more for you, if you don't mind. The old strip center with the car wash in the parking lot, I assume that's 163 West Dyna, has a "Huracán Discoteca" as the big tenant, covering a large swath of the center. What was that before? It seems like it was a department store of some sort, and it has those tall sign poles facing Airline, with big flood lights on it, but without any type of signage on top. What was there originally?

 

 

Well, as I said, there were at one time two pizza places in the shopping center - Square Pan and the Original Pizza. There may have been a small clothing store in there for a time, but I could find no record of it. I do believe, but very much stand to be corrected, that a big space in there was devoted to Sharon's Dance Studio, which seemingly half my female Facebook friends went to. I found the Facebook discussion of it in the "You Know You're From Aldine" page, but it makes no mention of the location. As for the remainder of the place, it seemed to always be some kind of seedy club or lounge. I didn't bother to track those.

 

I do know the small, two-story building at the front of the property housed the offices of Edgar Reeves' State Farm insurance business. Have to get a shout out to that 1953 graduate of Aldine High and who provided me with so much information on the founding of Aldine High School and the town of Aldine.

 

EDIT: Wow that didn't take long. I should have done this first. I am looking at the 1979 Aldine High Roundup yearbook and as I suspected, there is an ad for Sharon's Studio of Dance. The ad gives the address as 157 W. Dyna, which would be in that shopping center.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I got the rest of my information from Coles Directory, which is kind of a phone book sort of thing that lists businesses by address rather than by name or phone number. In other words, you can (and I did) grab a Coles Directory from, say, 1977 and look to see everything that was on W. Dyna at that time. By comparing years, you can get an approximate date of when a business opened. Copies going back to the 1930s are available at the Texas Room in the Julia Ideson Library downtown. It's a great place to while away some hours and learn about the history of Houston. However, note that the Coles Directories only cover the Upper Airline area starting in the early 1960s. Before that, they only covered up to about Little York Rd. 

Edited by Firebird65
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KFC, same side of Airline in front of the present day Family Dollar, is now a taqueria.

 

Seemingly pretty much everything in that area is now a taqueria. Not that I have anything against tacos... I love 'em. I could eat them every day, and there are several times in my life where I've made a pretty good run at doing just that. But how many taqueria's does the Upper Airline area need?

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I don't remember a Red Lobster down Dyna, mkultra, but I do remember this little diddy that I used to love, called the Moon Palace. How I miss the Palace...

Could Red Lobster have been in the stand alone building next door to Los Cabos/Moon Palace? I've been trying to put my finger on what that game room used to be for quite some time now. It was obviously a restaurant, but what? It's been driving me crazy. Wouldn't that be something if we ended up answering each other's question? The building certainly doesn't look like an old Red Lobster, but I guess it's possible.

 

oh yeah... Jojo's, was a coffee shop/ restaurant, old style, like Kip's or Denny's... was where you went after partying into the wee hours. 

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Thank you very much for the tip, Firebird. I'm going to take your advice and take a trip to the downtown library. Much obliged!

I remember Jojo's very well, just not this location. When I was younger, we frequented the one on W. 34th, which is now a Denny's. Champ's used the same strategy, so to speak. I spent several a late night (early morning) in Champ's, trying to sober up over a mound of bacon. Drunk as we were, we'd make spitballs with the paper the straw comes in, and fire away at the train roaming around the ceiling.

Lord, some of the things I did when I was young, are quite embarrassing now. Glad my son has more sense than I did, at least in that respect, lol.

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I remember the Dairy Queen on Airline across from Stovall Jr. High. I had my first "unofficial" date there. In eighth grade one of the cheerleaders, an adorable Dorothy Hamill look-alike, invited me to accompany her there after school for a parfait - her treat even. I guess I must have been kinda cute too. What happened?  :(

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I'm going to take your advice and take a trip to the downtown library.

 

No, no, you don't want to go to the downtown library. That's a different place. You want the Julia Ideson Library, which is the old city library downtown a block or so away. It was replaced by the current downtown library in 1976 and now serves as the home of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, which ishoused in the Texas Room on the second floor.

 

For whatever reason, this goofy site will not let me post the URL for you. Unbelievable. Anyway, just Google or search for Julia Ideson Library Houston.

 

As I said, it's a great place to spend the day. The are old phone books, the Coles Directories, maps, Key Maps, aerial photos, regular photos and magazines about Houston's history. There are also many books that aren't on display you can request to view, but can't check out. You'll have a great time.

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Well that would've been a little embarrassing going to the wrong library! Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding. I've got the information for Julia Ideson jotted down and hope to go spend a portion of my Saturday perusing. Thank you again, Firebird!

Specwriter, that's awesome. Guess I never had the looks you did. The parfait was always on my nickel, lol. That DQ closed within the last decade. It was always one of the better locations to me. It was the one I mentioned earlIer that is now a clinic. I used to avoid the one on E. Little York @ McGallion like the plague, when I still lived in northside. The one on Aldine Bender is always good, and has very attentive and friendly service.

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I happened on this discussion and am delighted to see talk about the area I grew up in. I think I can help you out here.

 

I've done pretty extensive research on the retail businesses in the Upper Airline corridor.

 

I can tell you that JoJo's and Moon Palace were located at 185 W. Dyna. The Jojo's opened in 1976. It became Moon Palace in 1992.

 

The Red Lobster was located next door at 181 W. Dyna and it opened in 1974.

 

The Burger King at 187 W. Dyna was the first restaurant along the road. It opened in 1972. Steak and Ale opened at the end of the street with a 10718 North Freeway address. Then came the Red Lobster. Pizza Inn at 171 W. Dyna opened in 1975. Jim's Coffee Shop (now the Mambo Seafood), Bobby McGee's Conglomeration, El Chico and Furr's Cafeteria also opened in 1975 in the Deauville Shopping Center, which has a North Freeway address, but is also along W. Dyna. Jojo's opened in 1976.

 

Square Pan Pizza at 163 W. Dyna and the Ground Patti at 171 W. Dyna opened in 1978. Jim's Coffee became Champs in 1979.

 

The Ground Patty became the Original Flying Pizza in 1980, which was really odd as it was only a few feet from Square Pan. The Jojo's became Co-Co's Family Restaurant in 1985.

 

China Border took over from Steak and Ale in 1998. Mambo replaced Champs in 2003. I stopped updating after 2008 because as I live on the westside, it's hard to keep up with things in the old neighborhood. Anyway, hope that helps the memories and the conversation.

 

Many thanks for this, Firebird65. HCAD's ownership history for 181 W. Dyna only went back to 2000, and I think that threw me off a bit. You'd think I'd have been able to remember the exact location, as we used to eat there semi-frequently when I was growing up. Square Pan Pizza was a regular stop as well. 

 

Not on W. Dyna, but another former fast food location in the vicinity that occurred to me earlier: First Mate, on the NE corner of I-45 and W. Mount Houston/249. It was a seafood place with a nautical theme that was similar to Long John Silver's in terms of the food (low-priced, mainly fried seafood combos). The original sign frame, one of the taller ones in the area, is still there, and along with the building itself has been updated numerous times to reflect the succession of restaurants that followed First Mate. It's currently a BreWingZ. 

 

Edit: I think we must have a quorum in this thread of HAIFers who are former Aldine/HIdden Valley/Northline Terrace residents.  :)

Edited by mkultra25
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Seemingly pretty much everything in that area is now a taqueria. Not that I have anything against tacos... I love 'em. I could eat them every day, and there are several times in my life where I've made a pretty good run at doing just that. But how many taqueria's does the Upper Airline area need?

 

Ever been to the Airline flea markets on the weekend? The traffic rivals the West Loop during rush hour. I don't doubt that there are more than enough customers just on the weekends along to keep every taqueria on Airline doing a healthy business. 

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Well that would've been a little embarrassing going to the wrong library! Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding. I've got the information for Julia Ideson jotted down and hope to go spend a portion of my Saturday perusing. Thank you again, Firebird!

 

Purpledevil, if you've never been to the Texas Room at the Ideson building, it probably bears mentioning that the procedures there are a little different than the regular library due to the rarity of the materials it houses. You have to sign in at the entrance to the Texas Room, and backpacks or other bags are not allowed inside (lockers are available to store your belongings in while visiting). Also, ink pens are not allowed, only pencils. Laptops and tablets are OK. 

 

As you might expect, the reference librarians are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Let them know it's your first visit and what your areas of interest are, and they'll point you in the right direction. 

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Not on W. Dyna, but another former fast food location in the vicinity that occurred to me earlier: First Mate, on the NE corner of I-45 and W. Mount Houston/249. It was a seafood place with a nautical theme that was similar to Long John Silver's in terms of the food (low-priced, mainly fried seafood combos). The original sign frame, one of the taller ones in the area, is still there, and along with the building itself has been updated numerous times to reflect the succession of restaurants that followed First Mate. It's currently a BreWingZ. 

 

You're speaking of 9410 North Freeway, of course. I can help you there. Here are all the restaurants I could find that have been at that location from its opening until I quit updating in 2008:

 

1974 - First Mate (seems it didn't last long and the site was vacant for quite some time)

1985 - Frenchy's (ate there quite a bit while in college)

1989 - Magic Wok

1993 - Bar-B-Que Express

1995 - Taquito Joe

2003 - Wings-n-More

 

Now, apparently it is a BreWingZ.

 

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Ever been to the Airline flea markets on the weekend?

Uh, no. And no desire to. But yes, the traffic there is beyond horrible. The music was extrememly loud there too. My parents could hear it clear as a bell, same as if they had a radio blaring on the backyard picnic table at their house more than a mile away in Northline Terrace.

 

Talking abut those flea markets, I picked up a copy of Houstonia magazine recently that detailed the best Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants in Houston.

 

The article was fatally flawed, in my professional opinion (B.A. Journalism - UH), because quite a bit of it was written by Robb Walsh. Nothing against Walsh - he is an expert on Tex-Mex food and has written many books on the subject and of course, authored numerous reviews for the Houston Press. Unfortunately, he is also now a part owner of a Tex-Mex restaurant (El Real), so that should disqualify him now as an impartial reviewer.

 

However, putting that aside, the article is divided into Tex-Mex (which supposedly Walsh didn't write, nudge-nudge, wink-wink) , Regional Mexican and Seafood. Under the Regional Mexican, Walsh did list such renowned places as Hugo's AND, believe it or not, Taqueria Buey y Vaca, which just happens to be in the food court of the Airline flea market of the same name.

 

How weird is that?!?

 

So I guess if you want great authentic Mexican food, you can either drop big bucks at Hugo's, or go slumming at an Airline flea market for the same experience at a lot less cost. LOL!

 

Here are the starting dates for the Airline flea markets (at least the ones in existence in 2008, when I last updated my list):

 

1981 - Sunny

1981 - Sin Ta

1982 - Airline

1999 - De Buey y Vaca

2001 - Mercado SabaDomingo

2004 - Day-to-Day

 

The De Buey y Vaca flea market opened in 1999, but that taqueria in the food court with that same name predates it. Exactly when it opened, I couldn't tell you, as it is part of a food court, and thus does not have its own address. But I do know seeing the name "Taqueria de Buey y Vaca" in the 1980s. For some reason, it sounded funny to me and the name always stuck in my head.

Edited by Firebird65
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