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Historic Houston Restaurants


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Mueller's is now on Holcombe/Bellaire just east of the RRtracks near the Palace Bowling Lanes. It is in a building that originally was a Howard Johnson's in the 50s and early 60s. It was several other incarnations including a vet office in the years between the HoJo and Bakery.

Okay, I have been around a long time. On our 9th grade, Sr. Skip Day from Pershing, in 1956, a group of us hung out at Howard Johnson's there on Bellaire. During that era they had an all you could eat seafood fry every Friday night, good stuff.

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Okay, I have been around a long time. On our 9th grade, Sr. Skip Day from Pershing, in 1956, a group of us hung out at Howard Johnson's there on Bellaire. During that era they had an all you could eat seafood fry every Friday night, good stuff.

Good grief...I was treated to Howard Johnson's on Bellaire long about that same time...it was a terrific outing to be taken there. I spent one strange year at Pershing in 1958 (7th grade) It was my fist exposure to lots of odd people.

Another great restaurant from the 50s & 60s was Vallian's ... Holcomb @ S. Main. Undeniably the best pizza on earth :-)

Did that one make the pages here?

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Does anyone remember the original Corral Cafe in Madisonville?

We used to stop there for lunch on the way to my grandmother's house

in Mart, Texas. They had a neat Texas souvenir area next to the main

dining room.

I see the present location is for sale--hope it'll still be a Corral. :(

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I remember eating breakfast at some restaurant called "Champ's" as a child. I liked the little train that would go around near the ceiling, and it would pass through some shelves filled with stuff. I think they closed down a few years back(I think there were multiple locations).

Oh, and yes, I also remember this place called JoJo's, which was pretty good(This was near the Fondren area, I think, where i used to live). I don't know if they are still open, though.

I remember that train, too.

There was a Champ's at West Bellfort & Fondren.

There was also a Champ's at Bingle & 290.

There was also a Champ's near the Southwest Freeway...Hillcroft or Chimney Rock.

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"I" is my middle initial. J.I.G.

joe

I went to high school with a guy named Joe Indeli... and he was one of the ones that went with us to Texas Steak Ranch. Guess it wasn't you, though you may have been at the next table.

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There was a restaurant, now defunct but the name escapes me. Someone here is bound to remember it.

It was on the NE corner of the Katy Frwy and Beltway 8. It is now a Murphys Deli. It was Tex-Mex and the patio had a tiki-hut type roof. It was just north of the parking lot of Builders Square (now HCC).

Very early 90's.

Excellent food, by the way. If I could only remember the name. :unsure:

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I remember that train, too.

There was a Champ's at West Bellfort & Fondren.

There was also a Champ's at Bingle & 290.

There was also a Champ's near the Southwest Freeway...Hillcroft or Chimney Rock.

There was also a Champs at I-10 East & Federal, which is a Burger King now. Several blocks up on Federal there was also a Del Taco, which is now a pawn shop. That particular stretch of road is all run down and very dangerous now.

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1708 N. Main@Harrington. Appears to have been a restaurant and/or bar. Anyone recall what this used to be?

Neat facade - it used to be Los Magueyes bar and restaurant, a record shop, and a paint store in the 1970s. From the painting on the inside it might be an old incarnation of Los Pericos Mexican restaurant which is a few miles up Main St. now (or the Pericos on Mangum).

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Also came across this 1953 advertisement for the downtown Maxim's:

1pwlzr.jpg

Sev, I will take one of each and like, right now! Also downtown in this era was The Normandie, elegant, cool and dark with gorgeous food and the best Eclairs in the world, before or since.

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Sev, I will take one of each and like, right now! Also downtown in this era was The Normandie, elegant, cool and dark with gorgeous food and the best Eclairs in the world, before or since.

Ahhh, Maxim's. My father took me there for my birthday lunch from age 6 - 14. They had the best chocolate mousse. Camille Berman had quite a checkered reputation.

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Also came across this 1953 advertisement for the downtown Maxim's:

1pwlzr.jpg

Maxims downtown was originally the Peacock Dining Room. Bermann, (Salvador Dali's former roommate) assumed the lease in 1950 and converted it to French cuisine. At the time it was reported that he had gone so far as to banish steak from the menu, but that was considered a bit over the top for Texas at the time, so as you can see the steak was reinstated. The Fannin location was demolished in 1960, and I believe Maxims moved next to the Foley's garage building.

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Sev, I will take one of each and like, right now! Also downtown in this era was The Normandie, elegant, cool and dark with gorgeous food and the best Eclairs in the world, before or since.

Were you at the Main Street location or the Milam one? The interior of the Normandie Supper Club was supposed to evoke the ocean liner Normandie. Their specialty was "flaming dishes".

normandie242.jpg

Edited by Subdude
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Neat facade - it used to be Los Magueyes bar and restaurant, a record shop, and a paint store in the 1970s. From the painting on the inside it might be an old incarnation of Los Pericos Mexican restaurant which is a few miles up Main St. now (or the Pericos on Mangum).

You're the best :) Thanks.

Looks like the building isn't really in that bad of shape.

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Were you at the Main Street location or the Milam one? The interior of the Normandie Supper Club was supposed to evoke the ocean liner Normandie. Their specialty was "flaming dishes".

normandie242.jpg

Thank you for the pictures! Where do you get these things? As my visits were in my pre-driving years, I don't know which location, but the Dining Room on your postcard is the one!

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a few places from my early days:

thornhill cafeteria in palm center, where my dad's record store "harmony hut" was located

albrittan's cafeteria

sky terrace (sakowitz where my mom worked, we would go as a treat)

warwick hotel (few rare dinners with my dad's business associates)

youngbloods (fried chicken family place, now aunt beas on the northside)

gee's (airline @ crosstimbers, chinese my mom & sibs loved where i could get a cheeseburger & jukeboxes on the table:)

princess hamburgers downtown, eat in the car (as a teen drink orange tommy's with my mom)

shakey's pizza by northline mall

piccadily cafeteria in northline mall

windmill dinner theater

howard johnson's I45 & crosstimbers (waitressed as a teen, they made saltwater taffy) its now something of a crackhouse

monterrey house - they put candy at the bottom of the bowl of chips!

antione's on taft

santa anita's (downtown, an elderly gentleman served us who also served my parents in the late 50's)

gallagher's steakhouse (served great bread & wisconsin cheese spread)

mr. bake-a-tater (around the westheimer curve, late 70's)

one's a meal (next to river oaks theater) now by katz's deli

sam's bbq on airline, late 70's, great food & they sponsored my softball team

bennigins (late 80's, my kids loved it, took my son to 59 location every st. patricks on his birthday

old san francisco steakhouse on westheimer

boston sea party also on westheimer

never been here but my parents met at a place called the "buccaneer drive-in, 1955, currently 2016 main residential & sammys

my mom had 4 kids in tow & liked cafeteria dining. we also drove to the country to visit my grandparents often down I45 north outside centerville, stopping at stuckeys in conroe, madisonville & centerville. the corral cafe in madisonville was so good my grandparents drove there many sundays from marquez where they lived, a considerable distance!

Edited by debmartin
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Yep, and it became Garden in the Heights.

And then became a bunch of townhomes.

Both Bavarian Gardens & Garden in the Heights were lovely places for shows. I'm sure I saw Brave Combo at an Oktoberfest or two. After the Germans sold it, some Irish folks ran it for a while; pretty good folk & Celtic rock shows, with lovely live oaks to shade the pale folk. And beer!

And I seem to remember a Pacifica benefit, at which a full grown billy goat was auctioned off to some fool....

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Another great restaurant from the 50s & 60s was Vallian's ... Holcomb @ S. Main. Undeniably the best pizza on earth :-)

Did that one make the pages here?

Oh man... I remember Valian's, across the street from the Shamrock Hotel. Ate there many, many times. Definitely was the best pizza in the world.

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Anybody remember Raffles? It was on Loop 610, near Buffalo Bayou, in an office building. They had GREAT Bananas Foster!

Other notables that are long gone:

San Jacinto Inn

Old Hickory Stick on Telephone Road

Bat & Steve's Oggero's Italian Restaurant on Bellfort near Mykawa

Sonny Look's on South Main

The Driftwood Inn in San Leon

The Log Cabin Inn on 59 North, near Humble

Youngbloods Fried Chicken at Mykawa and Griggs

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price's hamburgers were on wirt road just below long point...

the mexican restaurant was panchos mexican buffet...they opened in the mid-60's next to palais royal...the buffet was $1.49

monterrey house was on wirt road next to fed-mart...

western kitchen just around the corner from fed-mart had the BEST bbq...you could watch the meat being sliced for plates and sandwiches and they had the biggest baked potatoes... rolleyes.gif

There was another Price's Hamburgers at the NW corner of South Park Blvd. (Now MLK) and Bellfort.

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Oh man... I remember Valian's, across the street from the Shamrock Hotel. Ate there many, many times. Definitely was the best pizza in the world.

Well, people...you all have superb taste in Pizza. Vallian's was undoubtedly the very best! I am bias...it was also the first Pizza Pie I ever tasted...I can remember asking my mom when she surprised me with Itallian food, what all that stuff was.. One bite into an anchovie on a Vallian's Pizza and I was hooked. One other fellow I remember well who could make great Pizza was Mr. Leonard Pearlman (Leonardo's) I had tasted his recipe from the only other location he had. It was in Pasadena and had a bright neon sign. I think it was all take out there in Pasadena...then he opened up on So. Post Oak...liked his Pizza so much I went to work for him. When I asked my boss about Vallian's pizza, he just growled "crap!" I laughed...Leonardo's pizza was really great...but I have never tasted anything to compare with a Vallian's deluxe w/anchovies in about 40 years now :-(

Vallian's was also the perfect dinner date...then head on downtown to the theaters. They made a dish called veal scallopine a la` pizza...also had cozy partitioned seating...candle light. Darla!! are you out there?? Where's my blue-jean baby queen, Darla from Nov.6, 1963?...oh...'scuse me..flashback....

I remember Vallian's having an un-adorned, exterior side right up to the sidewalk along Main St. starting just a few steps south of Holcomb...with their sign spelling out VALLIAN'S in large 4-5' lettering set at almost ground level...running across a large length of the facade.

Sure would like to see a photo of Vallian's

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Does anyone remember the original Corral Cafe in Madisonville?

We used to stop there for lunch on the way to my grandmother's house

in Mart, Texas. They had a neat Texas souvenir area next to the main

dining room.

I see the present location is for sale--hope it'll still be a Corral. :(

My goodness, yes. My cousin still lives in Madisonville. When I visited her as a teenager, we ran in and out of that place a lot. We mostly hung out at the drug store, but sometimes we'd head for the Corral for a coke or maybe for breakfast.

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Several from long ago in my childhood when we used to come to Houston to see my grandparents:

-Kapan's on South Main at Kirby (where the Eckerd's is now), our usual Sunday after church lunch place - good steaks and seafood, and those excellent crab ball appetizers that the guy in the white suit used to bring around to all the tables

-Angelo's, another long gone seafood restuarant

-The Strawberry Patch on Westheimer, the Pappas family's country/home cooking concept (Pappas Bros. Steakhouse is there now)

-Tokyo Gardens, the first place I ever had Japanese

I loved the Strawberry Patch!

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