House Of Pies Third Location

[SpaceGhost]

So I was at The House of Pies on Kirby today, when I noticed they got a new sign to replace giant spinning wooden board that had Seat Yourself, and Wait to be Seated on it. On the back of the new sign they had taped up what looked like an old menu folded inside out. It had pictures of pies on one side and the logo covering them, on the left side it had a list of locations. It have previously said 3 locations but someone had covered it with Sharpie, along with the info for the third location.

 

So does anyone remember where this third location was? Were there any other locations in Houston other than these three, as I know House of Pies was a pretty big chain up until the early 80s. So it's possible that others didn't survive to exist as part of the Houston owned chain.

[IronTiger]

I'm on it!

[IronTiger]

It looks like from an article, by 1986, there were two Houston locations (Kirby and Westheimer), and a location in Denver. These were the only ones outside of California by that time, and they did own the Denver location (but like the Westheimer location, franchisee operated).

Edit: A 1987 article does say that they were planning one in the FM 1960 area, but it appears to have never opened.

Edited April 27, 2015 by IronTiger

[cspwal]

There's a location on Westheimer?  This is valuable information!

[asubrt]

The other location was 6314 Antoine.

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/house-of-pies-houston

[UtterlyUrban]

There was a house of pies on the southwest freeway 20 years ago.... Just past sharpstown but before the beltway.. . It's now a scooter store.

[SpaceGhost]

It looks like from an article, by 1986, there were two Houston locations (Kirby and Westheimer), and a location in Denver. These were the only ones outside of California by that time, and they did own the Denver location (but like the Westheimer location, franchisee operated).

Edit: A 1987 article does say that they were planning one in the FM 1960 area, but it appears to have never opened.

 

Ah okay so the Antoine location would have been opened by the Houston owners and not franchised from the original company. I wonder what happened with the 1960 location. Also by that time it would of been the local company and not the franchise I presume.

 

The other location was 6314 Antoine.

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/house-of-pies-houston

 

Yeah I would assume that's what was on the menu. I found a Grease Trap inspection log that lists the House of Pies Antoine trap was last inspected in 2006 does that correlate with when they closed, also does anyone know when they opened?

 

There was a house of pies on the southwest freeway 20 years ago.... Just past sharpstown but before the beltway.. . It's now a scooter store.

 

I remember that particular restaurant operating as a "Kettle" right before is became the Scooter Store but I think previous to that it was an IHOP. I could be wrong but I don't remember it ever being a House of Pies.

[UtterlyUrban]

I remember that particular restaurant operating as a "Kettle" right before is became the Scooter Store but I think previous to that it was an IHOP. I could be wrong but I don't remember it ever being a House of Pies.

It is now a "Scooter Max" 9882 SW freeway.

Memories fade and there is a good chance that I have it wrong but I could swear that it was a House Of Pies at one point about 25 years ago.... Let me see if I can find anything....

[SpaceGhost]

Did some more digging and checked out House of Pie's website on Archive.org

 

There's absolutely no mention of the Antoine location until 2007. When the homepage says Sorry, Antione location is closed. (misspelling is how it appeared on the website.) This noticed stayed up for about a year. I also found a LoopNet listing stating that they had to close the location due to "Health Issues". A post from here on HAIF in 2006 mentions the location. Finally I found a thread on reddit which references the location on 59 that UtterlyUrban was talking about. They confirm that it was indeed a House of Pies. Also one of the redditors called House of Pies and asked about the third location and that they were told that it was owned by a different person than the two current locations.

[IronTiger]

There's only one mention of the FM 1960 location (FM 1960 area, actually), and that was when House of Pies (Houston-based) filed for bankruptcy in 1987 (I don't think it ever opened). The Denver location also appears to have been gone for many years as well. If the menu doesn't appear to be 20+ years old, I'll bet it's the short-lived Antoine location.

Edited April 28, 2015 by IronTiger

[SpaceGhost]

There's only one mention of the FM 1960 location (FM 1960 area, actually), and that was when House of Pies (Houston-based) filed for bankruptcy in 1987. The Denver location also appears to have been gone for many years as well. If it doesn't appear to be 20+ years old, I'll bet it's the short-lived Antoine location.

 

Yup definitely was the Antoine one. Which leads to questions about the Southwest Freeway location. Obviously that's not an Al Lapin Jr building design (even the LA House of Pies look like the one on Kirby) so who ran it, and when did it close? I tried checking HCAD but couldn't find it in the database.. I'll ask my parents later as our church at the time was right down Bissonnet. I do remember going to breakfast after church somewhere in the area with a train that ran around right below the ceiling inside the building. Although if I recall correctly that was a Champs off of Gessner..

[FilioScotia]

Back in the 70s there was a Marie Callender's House of Pies on Bellaire across from Sharpstown Mall.

 

There are now only two Marie Callender's in Texas, neither is in Houston, and the name is now Marie Callender's Restaurant and Bakery.

[IronTiger]

A bit of an old bump, but the Antoine location seemed to exist in the mid-1990s, given that it is listed in my "Mariner's Guide" list. The fact that they list Daddy Did It, a West Houston seafood restaurant and many others seem to date it to the mid-1990s. Same address.