Kettle Restaurant At 9047 South Main St.

[Highrise Tower]

I was browsing the publication The Citizen dated May 12, 1976 and came across a business ad for Kettle Restaurants, alternatively named Kettle Pancake Houses. Almost like a One's A Meal situation. The actual name of the restaurant was Brooks Sandwich Shops but their signature sandwich was called One's A Meal.

Looks like the Kettle Restaurants/Kettle Pancake Houses were owned by a company called H.L.H. Enterprises, Inc.
P.O. Box 2964 Houston, Tex 77001

I'm not sure about all the Kettle restaurants.  There were also Dutch Kettle Restaurants and Kopper Kettle Cafeterias. Anyone have knowledge about these places? I believe Kettle Restaurant was a cheaper alternative to Dutch Kettle?

Kettle Restaurants had a whole bunch of locations!

10317 South Main St.
9047 South Main St.
5545 Southwest Freeway
2701 Mangum (N.W. Frwy.)
7628 Bellaire Blvd.
25115 Interstate 45
7625 Katy Freeway
337 F.M. 1960

 

[ChannelTwoNews]

I'd love to know more of the history of this chain, given how many locations they used to have around.

My family would go to the location in Galveston at 13th & Seawall Blvd. pretty frequently when we did overnight trips back in the 90s. Good, cheap breakfast. Never felt the need to venture into the dinner section as the breakfasts were good enough for me. I also remember back then they had a flip card on the tables of some of the different items they had available with brief captions - and there was one about the oatmeal or bran flakes that simply said "Morning Thunder!". The boy in me had a hard time not laughing at that!

There were a few other Kettle locations I recall going to over the years outside of the Houston area. 

The one in Victoria was on Business 59 northeast of Ben Wilson next to what used to be the Hampton Inn. I think it became a Skillet's for a number of years but I don't think it's open any more.

There was one in Lufkin on the south side of town before you hit the loop. Recall eating there once in the mid 2000s. Same breakfast that I was used to, even when I got it around 11 PM at night. 

I know there are still a couple of locations located in Bryan and College Station, both on Texas Avenue. I've wanted to try them but they usually seem to be super busy each time I've gone by when I'm in town over the past few visits to the area.

[brucesw]

The Galvani's book Lost Restaurants of Houston has an excellent chapter on BSSS/One's a Meal, based on memorabilia preserved by a descendant of the founder.  The Brooks System was invented by a man from Fort Worth, named Brooks, and was described as an early form of franchising.  A Houston man, interested, worked with Brooks in Beaumont where he was 'installing' his system, came back to Houston and started One's a Meal.  The system included emphasis on the breakfast trade, 24 hour operation, and an open kitchen, so diners could watch the food being prepared.  Sandwiches were big but I think their most famous and enduring dish was chili, served with breakfast.  The chain first started in 1920 with a location on Rusk.  The chili survived the decades and ownership changes until a couple of years ago when Theo's Greek Restaurant on Westheimer closed.  The dish was still listed on their website citing it's origin at One's a Meal.  That's enough on that for now.

I don't know much about Kettle Restaurants or whether they're related to the earlier Dutch Kettle, and there's no mention in Galvani. 

 

[brucesw]

The way we were --- pictures of Houston in 1992, courtesy of long-time HAIFER J.R. Gonzales (I hope he's still around).  Scroll through and enjoy.  Note Pop Quiz # 2 (it's quite a ways in) about a Houston restaurant chain - pics and a little snippet of information about Kettle restaurants.

 

That is very different than the Dutch Kettle I went in in the 1960s.

[brucesw]

History on Wiki

No mention of Dutch Kettle but note the founders had experience with Toddle Houses.   The one I went into in LJ had to be even before this chain was founded.  I know because of the car I was driving that caused me to go to the Sears Tire Store.

Locations

No date on the list.  There was a list of locations on the Wayback Machine at one time, and the 'About Us' from the website, but both are missing.

Facebook - College Station

There are postings online referring to the Galveston location on Seawall Blvd as a Dutch Kettle.

[ChannelTwoNews]

7 hours ago, brucesw said:

 

There are postings online referring to the Galveston location on Seawall Blvd as a Dutch Kettle.

The Dutch Kettle was located next to the Commodore on Seawall and 37th. In all the years it was there, I never had a chance to try it.

[TheGreenMeanie]

Ah, The Kettle! One of my favorite breakfast places due to their great breakfast buffet, which often was served late night as well.

I know officially the last location is the one in College Station, where I recently got to go to last year.

There was one in Conroe at 904 W. Davis but unfortunately it's been torn down and 7-Eleven has been built in it's place.

The Galveston location is still in business at 500 Harborside Dr. They've cleverly altered the building decor to go with the new name "America's Kitchen" (Kettle was known as America's Kitchen for quite a few years)

[ChannelTwoNews]

3 hours ago, TheGreenMeanie said:

Ah, The Kettle! One of my favorite breakfast places due to their great breakfast buffet, which often was served late night as well.

I know officially the last location is the one in College Station, where I recently got to go to last year.

There was one in Conroe at 904 W. Davis but unfortunately it's been torn down and 7-Eleven has been built in it's place.

The Galveston location is still in business at 500 Harborside Dr. They've cleverly altered the building decor to go with the new name "America's Kitchen" (Kettle was known as America's Kitchen for quite a few years)

I'd forgotten that one across from UTMB. Still looks like one of the originals based on Google Maps.

There also appears to be a Kettle Pancake House still open in Laredo on I-35. The road signage looks pretty ancient - can't say I've seen a version of the logo with flames.

[ChannelTwoNews]

On 10/14/2022 at 4:37 AM, TheGreenMeanie said:

I know officially the last location is the one in College Station, where I recently got to go to last year.

It's actually the one in Bryan that is still open. 

This article from KBTX, posted 6 days after the above comment, mentions that the College Station location opened in 1982 and would (then) close on November 27th of last year. The lease expired on November 30th.

The lease for the Bryan location apparently has 5 more years on it at present. I'm hoping to convince my family to go there when I'm down this upcoming weekend if but for the nostalgia. Want to see if it's indeed the "old" Kettle.

[IronTiger]

At their peak, Kettle was massive, they had dozens of stores in the Houston area and hundreds more stretching out from Arizona to Tennessee. The late 2000s and early 2010s really did a number on the two dozen they had left, and the last one in Houston closed in 2011 (at the northeast corner of JFK and Beltway 8, now known as Hot Biscuit). The Laredo and Tuscon, AZ stores are all semi-independent franchisees that disconnected, but the Bryan and College Station ones had common ownership. Bryan's Kettle was not Kettle originally (it was a Denny's until the 1980s), and unfortunately, it's not open 24 hours anymore (COVID ended that). The menu between the Bryan and College Station locations was the same but I've heard the College Station one had better pancakes.