SpaceGhost

On 8/27/2016 at 4:52 PM, RudyU said:

Holy cow. I am really feeling guilty for waiting over a year to log back in and continue with my modeling work! I will be posting more soon once I get photographs made and ready. I hope all of you are doing well, and talk to you soon! 

Awesome, looking forward to seeing more pictures!

I've been a bit underwhelmed by the ROD. Everything in it is way too overpriced. Even down the street in Highland Village I can get P.F. Changs during lunch once in a while, and occasionally save up for a $4 cupcake.. ROD almost seems to be just for rich folks from out of town.. hey maybe that's they're target demographic. I dunno.

On 9/3/2016 at 2:01 PM, gregpet said:

Just checked HCAD. Owned by Harris County Flood control district.  Probably not a good sign for redevelopment!

Did it flood during Tax Day? All my classes at UHD were canceled so I stayed clear of that area for a few days..

On 9/3/2016 at 2:33 PM, IronTiger said:

Question on the Kirby location: it's named Goode Co. Taqueria today  (since 2011 at least), but a lot of references have it as "Goode Co. Hamburgers & Taqueria". Did it change names at some point twice to transition to the current name it is now?

Okay that took longer than I expected... anyways, it seems to me that it was probably always Hamburgers and Taqueria. Maybe someone with an old phonebook can verify. The earliest mention I found in the Chronicle was 1986, its referred to just "Goode Co. Hamburgers" in the article, but only receives a one line mention. In an article published less than a month later it's called "Goode Co. Hamburgers and Taqueria". However the author notes that the Goodes just called it "burgers" for simplicity's sake. So I wonder if the author of the first article was misinformed/or trying to seem more hip.

Also an interesting side note, the old railroad car used at Goode Co. Seafood was brought by a locomotive from Dallas, and hoisted right off the rails onto the lot. I wonder if the spur that ran South of Westpark towards the Coca-Cola bottling plant (right next to the current home of Goode Co. Seafood) was still active at this point?

4 hours ago, IronTiger said:

Question on the Kirby location: it's named Goode Co. Taqueria today  (since 2011 at least), but a lot of references have it as "Goode Co. Hamburgers & Taqueria". Did it change names at some point twice to transition to the current name it is now?

It was Hamburgers and Taqueria by 1989, I'll try to research it a bit more later tonight to see what I can find, but I suspect it may have always been Hamburgers and Taqueria. FYI They do still sell Hamburgers (very good ones), but their main focus is definitely Tex-Mex.

11 hours ago, IronTiger said:

The roofline is integrated into the stores. The former Voss store had that apparent from the front (Randalls' physical expansion of the store occurred on the sides of the store), and from what I can tell, all of them were gourmet-leaning, something I read from the article (presumably Handy Andy became a "normal" grocery store after the bankruptcy, which is why Arlan's Market was able to take over without much change). The fancy roof either seems to have been reserved for their "best" and largest stores, which is probably why Randalls bought those in particular and the ones that everyone remembers. It was also a pretty safe purchase, as over three and a half decades later, those stores have held their value in the areas they were located in (I can't say the same for the others), and all remained open (except the Voss store, which wasn't closed due to lack of business), with Safeway even rebuilding the Westheimer/Gessner store (afaik, the "newest" Randalls in Houston).

Yup this seems to be the case. I was briefly transferred to Westheimer/Gessner to help prep the store for the grand opening and assist with the actual process. It was incredible how much went into that store! Especially compared to others of that time. It was made clear by the management that this location was one of the biggest, if not the biggest money maker for Randalls.

18 hours ago, IronTiger said:

By the way, the same article also states that in 1979, HA pulled OUT of Houston (and again, not sure how long they spent vacant before reopening as Randalls). Interesting though that there do appear to be more than the four purchased by Randalls, and the other ones do look different.

 

One thing is true though, they are in areas in the 1970s where I'd expect them to be.

I wonder if the roofline was only added to the later gourmet stores?

I don't really have any info on Handy Andy.. so let the speculation begin! Either the rest of the stores were planned, or possibly opened under another name?

22 hours ago, bob lorino said:

I tried that , but couldn't get singed up. 

Abe and Pappy's (2).tif

Just click and drag the file onto the site. You don't need to sign up.

Here's the image you attached, uploaded to Imgur. http://imgur.com/a/aXYk6

13 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

richmond at Chimney Rock was leveled a few years ago, Richmond at Fondren is still there

Yup Richmond at Chimney Rock is now a Starbucks, which moved from across the street. Starbucks even installed a very nice looking lit intersection/street sign on the corner.

Did Shipley's ever bake "normal bread"? I found a sign at Six Flags in San Antonio with the name "Shipley's Holsum Bread" on it. I took a picture but I'm having a hard time finding it. It was very similar to this patch. So my question is, was the Shipley's on the sign, related to the modern day Do-nut chain at all?

Does anyone know what the Foodarama at 5665 Beechnut St, Houston, TX 77096 was originally built as? I've tried checking HCAD but there's no listing for the building, just the whole shopping center which doesn't help.

Indeed it did, it originally opened as an A&W Root Beer stand and would have looked something like this. The dining room was added and some of the bottom of the barrel was removed, but you could see where the original walk up windows were.

So to answer your question yes the barrel was original, and everything else was an addon.

I hit up the Rosenberg one yesterday, the Canyon Gate location has been open just as long afaik. I know for sure it was open in early June.

16 hours ago, iliketurtles said:

When was that supposed to happen?

I don't think dates were ever revealed other than the first store. IIRC they were supposed to be open within 5 years? Maybe less..

Loved that article by the way! I unfortunately wasn't around the first time Del Taco was, and was only around for the tail end of Two Pesos. I had always wondered why they looked like they had a dual drive-thru setup, now I know!

Edit: Found the article I was quoting.

Quote

Del Taco had fast-food restaurants throughout Texas in the early 1980s but pulled out of the state later that decade. Paul Murphy, CEO of the Lake Forest, Calif.-based chain, said he has updated the Del Taco concept.

In March, Del Taco opened at 8910 Westheimer. Murphy plans to open more than 40 restaurants in Houston.

Kaplan, David. "Economy - Familiar brands stage revivals." Houston Chronicle (TX) 13 Aug. 2012, 3 STAR, A: 1. NewsBank. Web. 29 Jul. 2016.

On 7/6/2016 at 5:59 AM, ANDROID 26 said:

Youre right  there were Two Pesos and Purple!  Wow that comment brought some memories back.  They were still opened when I moved to Houston and had no idea what happened to them.  What were some of their locations?   I really liked TC,  back whenbi worked in the Galleria area used to stop by the one on Richmond / Chimneyrock and bring in dozens of breakfast tacos to the office.   Good days.

Two Pesos locations have always been difficult to find. If anyone can supply any definite Two Pesos locations it would be much appreciated!

So what did the restaurant currently known as Baytown Seafood at 9205 S Main St. originally start as? The Shipleys next door was a Mc Donalds and there is a Burger King right down the road so I doubt it was either. Any ideas?

KHUT Has produced a documentary on the history of the Post Oak/Uptown Park area of town. It's in depth, and very well down. It is definitely worth a watch!

2 hours ago, IronTiger said:

I would have said no before, since from what I've heard they were primarily a northern chain. Is it possible the Humble location wasn't part of the chain but rather a similarly named one-off?

Based on the Humble and Wok Bo building designs I would wager that they were part of the same chain.

Thank you! I had seen the Olive Garden before (had it come up here on HAIF?) and remarked on the similarity to the former Wokbo.

So I'm trying to find the history of a particular building. It was once known as Wok Bo. The address is 12270 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77077, or should I say was. It's been out of business for around 5 years now! One of the Yelp reviews the place got before it closed was to ignore the fact that it was painted pink, as it had been a Mexican restaurant in a previous life. The only Mexican place I can think of that resembles this was Chi Chi's, who closed all their locations around 2004. So if they were in Houston it had to have been earlier than that.

Also if I'm not mistaken there are some other similarly shaped buildings around town.

Ended up putting them all on Flickr! Check them out!

The building on the left was not actually a Safeway, sign definitely looks like it though! It was a home improvement store, I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but I think it may have been a Handy Dan. The building on the right which looks like a department store was a Kroger. Here's one in Cleveland with the same building design.

12 hours ago, djrage said:

S Braeswood & Hillcroft (became a Shipleys)

Edgebrook near Theta (closed for a long time, now a Mexican restaurant)

 

While the Edgebrook location may have started as a Del Taco in terms of chain restaurants it was definitely most recently a KFC. They could have knocked down the whole building, but the layout and size doesn't really look like a Del Taco to me.

On 5/21/2016 at 5:18 PM, IronTiger said:

Bealls (Texas) used to be in Houston too, I believe they closed their stores by 1996. I think they only operate Palais Royal in Houston, Bealls in the rest of Texas, and Stage elsewhere, but all have pretty much the same offerings.

On 5/22/2016 at 8:54 PM, Ross said:

Stage Stores is the corporate name, and the headquarters are here in Houston at 2425 West Loop South.

Yup it's still the same company, just under a new name. I've been busy with work, but pictures will return shortly!

Edit: Outside of External hosting, is there anything that can be done to increase file size limits? It's a piddly 0.69MB for me!