brucesw

From the height of the buildings in the distance I'd say it's east of 59.  Anybody got a directory for that year?  Look up Gulf stations.  Looks like a 4 lane cross street, 2-way.

Love the gas prices.

I had noticed all the signage had been taken down from the BBVA Compass bank and there was no work going on after it flooded.

Hi JGM - Here's a research project for you.  This is Radio Discussions Retro TV Schedules board.  There are people who collect/obsess about these things.  I have posted either on this board or one of it's predecessors about Houston TV schedules.  Mostly the schedules come from TV Guides, which means they will list all TV stations in the market.

I tried the search feature (Advanced Search: Houston:Post titles only) and kept getting database errors.  You might try, otherwise you're just going to have to scroll the pages (there are only 315 of them!!!) looking for Houston schedules.  Maybe at least you can identify the station and the name of the show.

You might also try Googling for Houston Retro TV schedules with your date range, or some similar phraseology.

Do you remember if it was a weekday afternoon show or a Saturday morning show?

19 hours ago, DanH said:

 

No, I remember the Hobbit Hole as being further north, a cozy place mostly of wood (maybe a converted house?). The place I'm thinking about was directly south of Jamail's on Kirby toward Southwest Freeway (essentially right next door), was large and bright and airy, lots of glass, and it was definitely not vegetarian. You ordered and picked up your food at the counter and they gave you a quart-sized plastic tumbler for your drink. I think the drinks station was to the left of the order/pickup counter, and they had blackcurrant iced tea, which I had never had before and thought was delicious. Maybe the name of the place was something like Cafe Jardin? I'm wracking my brain and still can't come up with it for sure! They had really good soups, and my favorite sandwiches of theirs were their chicken salad and BLT's.

I think I finally figured out what you're talking about.  One of the first locations of Cafe Express was on Kirby; I remember it was the first one I went to.  Robert Del Grande of Cafe Annie was part of the ownership and they had (and still have) Black Currant tea.  According to their history they first went into business in 1984.

Correcting myself (I think) - the original Hobbit Hole was on Shepherd north of Vermont, not Welch, in an old house.  It was not right on the corner.  Best guess is the place now occupied by Who Made The Cake?

I realize 46 pages is a lot to read but probably all of the places that have been mentioned recently have been mentioned before and the HAIF search feature works pretty good.  Just confine your search to this thread and you'll get links to individual posts.  It may help to jog some memories.

And then there's this thread in the Dining, Shopping and Entertainment forum.  It's only 15 pages .

This Historic Houston forum used to be one of the most active on this board.  I miss those days.  It's good to see some activity.

There were two Jamail's groceries - the larger, better known one was on the west side of Kirby between Alabama and Richmond, near House of Pies.  A smaller one, run by a different branch of the family I was told, was on the west side of Shepherd at Indiana and is now a Petco.  There was a lot of glass on the front of the Kirby store and parking in front and to the south side of the building.  There were few windows on the Shepherd store and parking was on the north side of the building, not on the street side.

The original location of the Hobbit Hole was on the east side of Shepherd, just north of Welch, as I recall, so north of the Shepherd Jamail's.  It was originally strictly vegetarian, perhaps macrobiotic?  Years later it moved over on Richmond, between Greenbriar and Kirby, into a former gay bar called the Galleon.  The name now is Hobbit Cafe but I think the original name was Hobbit Hole.  Meat has been added to the menu, possibly long before the move. 

I remember the Red Zinger Tea from the early years, but not the Black Currant, which doesn't mean they didn't have it.  HH was table service, not counter service.

One place south of the Shepherd Jamail's on the same side of the street was Luke's Burgers but there have been many eateries on both sides of the street along there over the years.  Wish I could remember what was in Luke's place before Luke.

A little bit of Hobbit history, from the website.

Don's Seafood - on Post Oak, east side of the street, between Alabama and Hidalgo or Hidalgo and Richmond, not sure which.  That was a hot place.  Landry's was still comprised of the original four families from Opelousas.  Was that or Magnolia Bar their first place?  I went only once and got frustrated by the long wait and left.  Bad move on my part.

12 hours ago, JoJo said:

Does anyone remember a place on lower Westheimer named The Happy Buddha. I discovered tempura there and it changed my culinary life!!

Right at the corner of Westheimer and Whitney, 500?  And there was a Moroccan place there at one time,  now Dolce Vita (Pizza).  I worked a block from there but was never in the neighborhood at night by that time and never went to any of those.

ETA:  Or was Happy Buddha a Moroccan place?

There was a Christie's at 5911 Bellaire @ Renwick; according to the website in must've opened in the 1960s.  I went there a couple of times.  According to the website there also was a smaller, mostly take-out place on S. Post Oak.  That's a new one on me.

I was told back in the 70s by a native Houstonian who introduced me to Christie's that the Bellaire location was by a different branch of the family and not co-owned with the S. Main and eventual Westheimer locations.  Maybe he had it wrong since it's on the website.

Scroll down for some timeline photos and down at the bottom click on the About Us link for more history.

Cattle Rustlers Steak Buffet - mentioned earlier in this thread.  I was thinking it had the word cattle in the name but maybe it was just called Cattle Rustlers?  I went only once, really no memories.  It was right at the first entrance to the mall parking lot on the SB feeder, where the Gaylynn theater was.

There are some mentions of Jerry Irby on Wired for Sound if you haven't already seen them (use the search feature).  Interesting how numerous descendants of the musicians mentioned have commented; maybe you could too.

I'm not absolutely certain but I believe the blogger may be the person who posted here as Don Julio years ago.

A Google search pulled up a lot of references and pictures which I presume you've seen.

Wrong side of the street.  Gaido's was on the west side of Main, Baytown Seafood is on the east.  And as I recall, Gaido's was quite a bit larger than that.  The building was formerly/originally(?) a Grandy's.

Gaido's dates back to 1911 in Galveston.  Christie's is another seafood restaurant that started in Galveston and later established an outpost in Houston.  Christie's had several locations run by different family members from what I've read, I don't know about Gaido's.

There's a building on MLK just south of OST that up until August housed Sunshine's Health Food Deli.  Very nice folks and tasty food the one time I went in.  It's been bugging me for a long time what that building was before and I was thinking maybe an RR or an Arby's.  I can't remember just what the RR on 610 looked like before it became Luke's and then the porno store.  These pictures are from 2011, I think.  Looks kind of like some of the pictures you can find online of older RR restaurants.  Anybody know what it was originally?

Sunshine's has moved down on Long Drive.

Per the Chronicle - suspects escaped.

Yes. After about 10 years on Westheimer @ Mandell, the restaurant moved out on Memorial just east of Dairy Ashford, as I recall. Ca. late 70s-early 80s. I went only once. It lacked the charm of the original for me. I don't think it lasted but 4 or 5 years there.

I lived in Houston from April 1999 thru Oct. 2001, in the Cooperfield part of NW Houston off 290 & 6. There used to be a Japanese buffet right in front of the Willowbrook Mall. Is it still there, what's the name of the place? They had the best Sushi I've ever eaten. It was 21 bucks a person for all you could eat. Also there was fish place that was built in a boat on 1960 Capt. somethin anyone know the name of it and is it still in business? They served fried catfish.  

That was originally a Captain Benny's.  A guy named Tom was the manager of the Captain Benny's on 59 @ Wilcrest where I was a regular in the 80s.  He told me Benny Heileman (?) had been approached many times by investors wanting a franchise and he finally let a couple of guys open that one on 1960, but they weren't restauranteurs and the place did poorly.  Tom wanted his own place so Benny let him take it over.  There are now 3 Capt. Tom's and several Capt. Benny's still in business.  The menus are very similar but Tom always claimed his recipes for gumbo and deviled crab were better so the dishes may be a little different.

The Capt. Benny's on 59 was moved down Murphy Road about a half mile due to the widening of 59 but the berm it perched on is still there, I think, right at the intersection.

A follow-up article on the new owners and management.

Minyard was a Dallas chain; Fiesta bought some of their stores a few years ago.

I'm hoping they grow the chain instead of tear it into pieces.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2015/04/fiesta-sold-to-d-c-based-acon/#32549101=0

The family recently sold Grocers Supply so I guess this was inevitable.  Anybody know anything about the buyers or new management?

Yes, definitely.  See post # 36 above.

You may be able to answer the question about the store at Gessner @ Bellaire.  I think it was.

Yes, the Fiesta on Fondren @ W. Bellfort was a Weingarten's, then Grand Union, then Safeway, then Appletree.  I thought all the Albertson's were new construction?  Yes, the Foodtown on S. Braeswood @ Fondren was an Albertson's.

I never knew there was a Jumbo out on Bissonnet.  In the poorly maintained strip center on Fondren, running south from South Braeswood, was a Jumbo.  There was also a Jumbo out on Westheimer in the Westchase area, not sure of the cross street, that may have later become a Randall's.  I believe the original Jumbo was in West Columbia and there was also one in Alvin at one time, I think (remembering what was printed on the bags)..  The Jumbo on Fondren became a go-to grocery store for me.  After Handy Andy left the market and before the advent of Randall's Flagship and Kroger's Signature stores, it was better than your average Safeway or Weingarten's.  Except the store on Fondren was in run-down shape.  My most vivid memory is of the sagging shelves.  The store in Westchase was in better shape, almost as nice as a Handy Andy.  My relatives who lived on the east side would always go by the Jumbo on Fondren on their way home from visiting their children and grandchildren in Missouri City and First Colony; they told me about it.  Their son used to live in Maplewood.  When my parents came up to visit,they would also always make a stop at Jumbo. 

When the Jumbo on Fondren closed it became a Tuesday Morning after af few years I think.  I never went in but it must've been a huge one.

I remember all of those things very well.  I went to Lanier from 91-93 and we lived in that area when I was a kid.  Next to Academy was a Western Auto store that had glossy black glass like flooring.  

 

The car dealer was Hub Buick that moved out to 290 during the 90s because the value of the land soared.  My dad would have his car serviced at that dealer and spent $800 something once to repair the a/c which was a freakin lot of money in those days.  But he once bought OEM GM made in USA shocks for his car from there around 1986 and paid about $12-15 each which tells you how the purchasing power of the dollar has collapsed.  Chinese made struts now start at $40-50 for the cheapest quality; if you go premium OEM it's over $100 now.  I can clearly remember when the first Buick Reatta models arrived at the dealer and were on display. It was a 2 seat FWD luxury sports coupe that was expensive.  The car has all of the newest technology of the time but was a complete failure for GM and they pulled the plug only after 3-4 years.  

 

Southland Hardware is still there but I have not set foot inside in over 25 years.  The surge in land prices are what changed things in that part of town.  RMS auto care is still around down the street from Southland.  I think they still have the rotating sign that I could see from Lanier in one of my classes on the 2nd floor.  

Hub Buick was on Kirby, just north of Westheimer.  Originally DeMontrond, I believe.  When Demontrond went suburban, the service or parts manager,whose name was Hub, took over that dealership for a few years.

The dealership on Shepherd south of Westheimer was Jimmie Green Chevrolet.

Here's one old thread of old dealerships and there are several others.

Yes, I can remember we've talked about Weldon's in the past, maybe not on this thread.  Miss that one.

There was a Piccadilly at 7750 W. Bellfort also that closed in the last year or so; I think the building has already been leveled.  That would have opened ca. late 70s, early 80s (W. Bellfort didn't even go through until about that time).

In the 60s there was a Pickwick Cafeteria in Freeport.  I'm sure that must have been a chain but I don't know if they had any locations in Houston. Then there was Furr's and Albritton's.  I never went to a Furr's and went to the Albritton's on Waugh maybe 2 times but I think there were other locations.

I grew up near Hillcroft and Main Street.....

I remember an ice cream place on Hillcroft before you got to Braeswood on the corner in the same parking lot Rice used to be in...before that right past St. Thomas More Church, there was a place called Jacks Yogurt Stop that was the first place I ever tried Frozen Yogurt that was right before the Frozen Yogurt craze of the 90s...

 

Not sure why I haven't replied to this before but I can't find it - the ice cream parlor was either a Swenson's or a Carvel.  I only went once and I'm remembering old-timey ice cream parlor decor.

It's now a realtor's office, I think.