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Toddle House, Steak 'n Egg and Dobb's House were all, eventually at least, under the same ownership; Toddle House was the earliest and one of the first chain restaurants. There's a lot of love for them on Roadfood.com in an old, long running thread. Here's a brief history.

Dutch Kettle was essentially a knock-off and I think may have been based here. I never saw a Dutch Kettle anywhere but in the Houston area. Up until just a few years ago there was still a Dutch Kettle on 225 in Pasadena.

Dobb's House was a more upscale brand. Wasn't the original revolving restaurant at IAH a Dobb's House?

In the late 70s, early 80s, they tried to revive the TH brand with new, larger restaurants of which there were at least three in Houston but they only lasted a couple of years. The Tacos La Balita on Beechnut @ Wilcrest was originally one of them; D'African Village on S. Gessner was another; there was one on Main in Stafford that's already been demolished and replaced by either the JitB or Church's, I forget which. Part of the charm of Toddle House for me, besides pretty good food for a small diner, was sitting at the counter, interacting with the short order cook who was often the only crew. That was lost in the larger restaurants. I loved the MasterBurgers and waffles and chocolate fudge pies.

I didn't know until I read the Wiki article that Waffle House is essentially a continuation of Toddle House.

I remembered when the one on Shepherd was My-T-Byte (that's the spelling I remember). Sliders - way before they became trendy, celebrity chef offerings.

yes, that brings back memories of sitting at the counter and watching them prepare the food; i remember at either toddle house or dobbs, they cooked the hashbrowns in a circular metal ring; right next to the burgers and eggs being cooked, and close to the waffle maker with the batter oozing out of it.

am recalling now about one's a meal restaurants and the 50s pre franchise burger places; gonna go search the

haif threads for those.

Inspired by the Houston monorail topic, I put together a little video.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=drcDfyfs7IU

Very well done; have been looking for pictures related to this for some time; don't know if they

have been recently posted to haif topics on this however.

how can I search youtube for your other houston memory videos - i saw one today about majestic/lowes.

PS if you know of any footage or pics related to the gateway swimming pool and skating rink, circa

50s or 60s, please let us know.

I remembert Gateway, both the pool and the skating rink. Had birthday party room at the rink, did the bunny hop and

the hokey pokey there.

about the "Bubble" that has indeed been a mystery; I was afraid of it and thus never went down it -- and have not

ever been able to fiigure out how it was that one could breathe inside it.

--> so if anyone knows how the bubble worked, please reply although maybe some things should just be left

as a mystery,

There was also a big tower like thing called, I think, the bobber, where you could jump on it and it would take you

down to the water and back up.

maybe 18 years ago I drove by where gateway was and walked to where the pool was - it was all closed down

but the pool was stiill there - i saw some metal objects floating in the shallow end, perhaps it was remnants of the

bubble or the bopper.

other things remembered --

the monoriail test track near smain and ost

kiddeworld on smain of course

fallout shelter store on smain near ost

playland park - i wasnt allowed to go but snuck there one time - remember a carny area like where

they guessed your weight

(maybe it was the race accident mentioned in other posts that was cause of parents not letting me go;

I always thought it was not wanting me to be around carnival folks)

saturday matinees at bellarire theater - stella link and bellaire - cartoon, serial, western and feature

kitirik - went to the show once also -- guess they wanted to get adult viewers also with the black tights and high heels

remember captain bob show also, as well as romper room - went to that once - i think channel 11 had studios

in prudential building

what about the weather eye - i'll have to see some other section of the web site for that -- anyone remember

the song in their ad about it ? (I know, but its a good quiz item)

Georg

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Every year, in the 50's & early 60's, Playland Park had "back to School" party. Houston Press had 1 coupon each day during summer, & was good for 1 free ride. We would collect coupons from anyone that would give to us, ride bus from Near North Side to Playland, & ride Roller Coaster 30 or 40 times. Used to see the Houston Wrestlers of Paul Bosch at the party every year.

There was also a Huge public swimming pool near there. Gateway Swim? Had a big bubble at bottom of deep end you could swim down to and actually breathe inside the bubble.... can't quite remember how that worked... hummmmm