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You know what Mexican restaurant I miss?  Las Alamedas on the Katy Freeway.  Going there always seemed like a special occasion.

   Amalia's.  She had 4 locations at one time; one near the Highway 6/Longenbaugh place someone else mentioned...

   The last one was very close to where I live now; Grant and Louetta.  Unfortunately, it's long closed, and "replaced" by a place I'll never go into.

Nice fountain.

Inside of the east loop on/off of I-10.

Where was the store?

A couple of those look very familiar.  From way back when I lived a lot closer to the area...

Well I'm sorry my reporting skills are bad.

   Looked good to me.  It certainly could have been Fingers.  And the fire was closer to Fingers than to you.

That might explain why it looks a lot like Rice in the early eighties.

It isn't on the news web sites yet...

Pretty much how it looked when I went there.

If I'm not mistaken Infiniti was the first with the analog clocks, so that would have been early 1990s I think.  To me it is a bit of an affectation that became required in luxury cars.  The odd thing is that physical dials of any sort likely won't last much through this decade.  At some point they will be replaced by flexible displays like ipads.

   I think analog clocks predate Infiniti.

The Tomball Bunch.

I came across this article in the Chronicle Morgue Files with a piece on the 20 Oldest Restaurants in Houston, published in 1986.

How many of these are still in existence?

Apologies for the crappy chopped up photos -- they don't let you use anything except your phone in the Texas Room.

   Brenner's and Molina's still exist, at those same locations.

I've driven by many times too, and wondered.  I knew some of that was owned by the church, but didn't look any more.

I really don't remember seeing them in the 60s or 70s; they weren't on the usual route to/from Palm Center.

Brown Bookstore originally stocked books in all subjects before specializing in technical publications.

 

At one time, there was a medical book store on Main near the corner of Holcombe; I believe it was in the same building as a large, important-looking restaurant whose name I've forgotten.

   It was acouple of blocks north of Holcombe, in a strip center.  But I think it was Brown Books...  It was across from, or diagonally across from, what was a medical professional building and is now a Baylor faculty building; parking garage on the bottom with multi colored panels...

   I think the Baylor Clinics building is where the strip center was.

I haven't had Star in a while, but always loved their wheat deep dish. Never had any problems with soggy toppings.

 

   It isn't "soggy toppings" but wet toppings making the whole thing soggy.

I'm curious as to what kind of pizza those who consider Star overrated have had there. I've eaten pizza at a lot of places, and IMO the deep-dish Joe's at Star has very few peers. 

   Soggy from the veggies that should have been cooked before going onto the pizza.

I believe the last Bert Wheeler's is on Beltway8 by I-10, if it's still open.

   Didn't Spec's absorb Bert Wheeler's?  I know it was bought by a company in San Antonio in the 90s.  They don't seem to exist in Houston any more.

Happy's is on my list I need to try. But overall I wasn't impressed by Luigi's, Tastee, Brother's, New York Pizzeria, Pizaro, Ponzo's, Texas Pizza, Flakey's, Gotham, Capone's, Napoli, Collina's, and Star (the MOST overrated)

If you're ever in south Dallas aka woodlands gozetti's is pretty good.

   I'd certainly agree with Star being overrated.

   I may have to try Gozzetti's...

   Grimaldi's in The Woodlands is pretty good, but not worth the wait when they're busy.

Speaking of chicken fried steak, is Hickory Hollow still down there on S. Heights? Theirs was so big, it was served on a pizza pan. Glob of skin-on mashed on the sIde, and a warm dinner roll next to that. Potatoes and steak drowned in thick cream gravy. The CFS had a name for all the different sizes of it. The little one seems like it was The Cowgirl, the big one was The Wrangler or something near.

    It is, but they serve it with BROWN gravy unless you tell them otherwise.  Last time (and it was the last time, never again), I was shocked that the BROWN gravy wasn't mentioned anywhere on the menu.  What sort of heathen infidels server BROWN gravy with a chicken fried steak?

Fuzzy's.

I think her hair was too big to fit in the hat...

I remember Mexico Lindo...  I don't really remember the facade.  Maybe brick...

   Oddly enough, the same people own 4718 Hallmark Drive:

http://hcad.org/records/details.asp?crypt=%94%9A%B0%94%BFg%85%8F%80%7Bmm%8El%88tXtYW%9E%99%A2%D3%89%95%C2e%7CU%8A%80%86%C0%AB%A8%AD%86%5E&bld=1&tab=

   Which is a retirement home.

   And is the building behind 4824 San Felipe.

I said Mamacitas, and he hasn't contradicted that, so I'm right.

I think it's 4824, not 2824...  HCAD says Brazos Presbyterian Homes owns it.   High rise old folks home going in, maybe?