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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.

I don't think the city has any of that; property records are, I think, all county.  You'd start with the county clerks' office and look at the plat; you can probably find most of that information on HCAD.

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.

Grocery store shrimp is (usually?) "previously frozen"; I doubt that Hillman's (and hopefully the places in Kemah, if they own their own boats) freezes what they sell in their own store. 

Kemah (there are many places...) or Dickinson.  Hillman's in Dickinson has been there forever, and own their own boats.

http://hillmansseafoodmarket.com/

They do oysters too, in season.  Last week, they had live crab, live crawfish (I don't think they caught those...), a couple of kinds of fish, shrimp (~$8/pound for the biggest (whole), I think), crab ($1 each).

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.

My own view is that it was doomed the very minute they adopted the inane "iFest" name.

   I was thinking exactly that, then scrolled down to see your comment...

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 toured it when the data center was just getting started.  The jail cells and operating room were still there.  It had several large diesel tanks, at least two generators, two wells, and an escape tunnel that came out in a gully.  There were machine gun nests in the pagodas.

The office building was just as well built; heavy concrete and bullet proof glass.

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.

The big store across from Oshmans name escapes me, possibly Service Merchandising?

   Service Merchandise.   I don't remember one at Almeda Mall (there was one at Gulfgate), but since they were a Best competitor, maybe there was one at Almeda Mall.

Yeah it looks like that could be a Whataburger logo. Checking out streetview there's a side door on the building which would be indicative of a restaurant.

   I think it's in the north end of that strip center; zooming in, it looks like it even says "Whataburger" on the facade.  I remember that there was something odd about that location; I don't think I ever went in.  "Odd" is probably that it was in a strip center.

I clearly see a Whataburger sign in the lower left hand corner but can't place where it's located. Is/was it in the shopping strip directly in front of the sign?

   I remember it being there, but I'm not sure if it was in the strip center or a separate building.

I remember that building...  With canopies, from the late 60s/early 70s.  We used to drive past on the way to Sears.

Was the one in Tomball at the corner of 2920 and 2978? If so it has since been demolished.

   The one I'm talking about is still there.  It's on 2920 (Main Street) near Alma and Buvinghausen. (Just east of business 249.)

There was an "Exxon Express" at Kuykendahl and FM 1960, here is a picture I found (West Houston Archives) of it from 2008, in its since-closed state link

It has since been demo'd.

   I remember that one.  I think there was a gas station there before the unmanned one...