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Help With Name Of BBQ Chain


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My family ate at the Gabby's on North Shepherd this weekend. It was wonderful, and made me miss the days when there were more of these around.

My problem is, I think there used to be another BBQ chain that was very much like Gabby's. Gabby's, Luther's and this other place (if it really existed) all operated in the same way, with a similar layout. They had an entrace across from the counter. Customers went to the counter, ordered their meal, it was prepared immediately, they paid and took it to a table. I think all of the Luther's have been converted to Pappa's BBQ now (blech), but I could swear there was another chain like that with locations all over Houston in the 1980s and maybe early 1990s.

Anyone remember this? Am I forgetting the name or hallucinating my memory of its existence?

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My family ate at the Gabby's on North Shepherd this weekend. It was wonderful, and made me miss the days when there were more of these around.

My problem is, I think there used to be another BBQ chain that was very much like Gabby's. Gabby's, Luther's and this other place (if it really existed) all operated in the same way, with a similar layout. They had an entrace across from the counter. Customers went to the counter, ordered their meal, it was prepared immediately, they paid and took it to a table. I think all of the Luther's have been converted to Pappa's BBQ now (blech), but I could swear there was another chain like that with locations all over Houston in the 1980s and maybe early 1990s.

Anyone remember this? Am I forgetting the name or hallucinating my memory of its existence?

Maybe Demeris? One on Shepherd at Alabama and one on Hempstead Highway at Northwest Mall.

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It wasn't Brisket House, Bill Miller's or Demeris. It was almost exactly like Gabby's. The floorplan was very similar. The similar layout and operation made me think there might be some name for that, some sub-category of BBQ joint. But I could just be getting old and somehow splitting Gabby's into two different chains.

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No, I remember that too. They looked like a ripoff of Gabby's. But I can't for the life of me remember the name. It was something like "George's."

There was one on South Main near the Buffalo Speedway intersection and one in the shopping center on the east side of the Bissonnet/Weslayan intersection. I think. Both were former Gabby's.

Edited by marmer
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The Gabby's in the Montclair Center on Weslayan became a Flying Pig Pizza; if it was another bbq place in-between that and Gabby's it must've been pretty short lived.

There was a Gabby's on Gessner just north of Bissonett that I went to but never inside, just thru the drive-thru. Pretty good que as I recall but it didn't last for some reason. That was later Barnacle Bill's, I think.

How about County Line? There used to be several of those but just one now in the Houston area. It's a chain based either in Central or North Texas. I was only in one, in the old Westwood Mall. The interior was reminscent of Luther's.

Anybody besides me remember the bbq/sandwich chain downtown in the 60s called Steve's, I think. You went thru a fast line, they sliced the beef right in front of you, outside beef was the thing to ask for. There were several locations and I thought that was really good que.

Edited by brucesw
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The Gabby's in the Montclair Center on Weslayan became a Flying Pig Pizza; if it was another bbq place in-between that and Gabby's it must've been pretty short lived.

Was that one always a Gabby's? I remember when it was Gabby's, but I thought it might have been the mystery BBQ chain before that.

I'm starting to think it's just a brain malfunction. None of these other places are the chain I'm almost thinking of.

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Would Grandy's count? I used to go there when I was a kid, but they all went away a while ago.

Me too. Ribs and rolls, all you can eat. Yum. But no, it was not Grandys. They were about a mile east down Main from the one I'm thinking of.

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