brucesw

When the Duke of Windsor, nee King Edward VIII, was at the Med Ctr for open heart surgery, the Brit press corps lived at the Red Lion and raved about it. Wallis stayed at the Warwick, I think. I never got to go.

The JoJo's on S. Braeswood, 1 block w. of Hillcroft, has been vacant for about 15 years now and you can hardly see the building for the overgrown shrubbery. The JoJos on Wilcrest @ 59 became a Champs and is now an Exxon station. I don't know what ever happened to the Champs - they always seemed to do a good business but the food wasn't anything special. I only ate at one a couple of times. I think a lot of the JoJos went into former Sambo's locations.

Steak and Shake was here in the late 70s; the James Coney Island on Westheimer across from the Jungman Library was a Steak and Shake; they're back in TX in the DFW area; hope they'll get back down here, but Culver's, which now has a location out in the Woodlands, is actually better as far as chains go. Houston had it's own sliders (mini-burgers) - My-T-Byte, on Sheperd between Alabama and Richmond, in a former Toddle House. Didn't last long, unfortunately.

Former Del Taco locations: Shipley's, Richmond @ 527; KD Grill, S. Braeswood west of Hillcroft; Taqueria Guadalaja, Wilcrest n. of 59.

Hardee's was here very briefly, I want to say mid 70s. The Whataburger on Westheimer between Edloe and Weslayan was originally a Hardee's. I ate there once. I think most of the Hardee's were taken over by Whataburger, which wasn't that big back then. I don't think Carl's Jr. was ever here.

Homer's - a DIY place like Handy Dan Meyer Brothers Levy's - a big competitor of Foley's, in fact, at one time larger than Foley's; I think Levy's stuck with clothing and never got into appliances, etc., like Foley's. Zindler's Men's and Boy's Wear - yes, that Zindler. Maybe Zindler's Big and Tall is still around. Mosk's for Men - a big 3 or 4 story men's store downtown in the 50s, right next to the downtown Battlestein's as I recall. Wrestling promoter Paul Boesch did their TV commercials, so it was kind of like Harold's in the Heights. Here's one that goes waaaay back: W. C. Munn Co., also a dry goods merchant downtown. Haverty's and Stower's furniture stores. More recently, Suniland. 7-11, after all! and U-Totem, Circle K, even Stop'n Go, which was formerly U-Totem. Weingarten's - the few remaining stores were Grand Union for a while, then most became Safeway I think. When Safeway pulled out of Houston, they became the shortlived Appletree. Super-Valu (grocery) - I think Randall's started as a Super-Valu. Handy Andy - a somewhat upscale grocer from San Antonio; the Randall's Flagship on Voss was a Handy Andy. IGA Supermarkets Remember Magnolia Gas - their symbol was Pegasus, the winged horse from Greek mythology; some stations, like the one on W. Gray @ Shepherd had a 3-D Pegasus revolving on a pole for their sign, others had just a 2-D representation. Magnolia merged with Socony-Mobil in the 50s to become Mobil. Sinclair Gas - still in business elsewhere - with Dino the Dinosaur. Okay, I confess, I've been working on a research project and reading a lot of old newspapers, dating back to the 20s. But I remember all of the above except W. C. Munn, which goes back to the 20s. Zindler's had a huge, 3 or 4 story store downtown in the 20s.

The Nabisco plant fronted on Almeda which was Texas 288 then. I bet every school child within a hundred miles of Houston made a class field trip to Nabisco to see the crackers being made. I think I remember when they closed it was stated they never made Oreos there, but they did make Ritz. I remember when I was about in the fifth grade, looking down on the huge production area from a glassed-in walkway above and seeing the huge stainless tub of Ritz crackers that they said had broken in the process and wouldn't be packaged. Such a waste. Remember Gebhardt's Potted Chili Meat? (Not a Nabisco product).