Another import from the the existing "Other Waco Roads" page at Carbon-izer (as of this writing the Internet Archive is partially down so don't expect that link at press time) comes two restaurants at Richland Mall...the Red Lobster at 5925 West Waco Drive and the Olive Garden at 5921 W. Waco Drive. More accurately, the Red Lobster started out as a China Coast, and both restaurants were owned by General Mills Restaurants Inc., the restaurant division of conglomerate General Mills. In 1995, General Mills Restaurants was spun off and renamed as Darden Restaurants and one of their first goals was to close the struggling China Coast chain. A few years later it was reopened as another concept of theirs, Red Lobster, which moved from 4900 Bosque Boulevard as that place was to be redeveloped for a new H-E-B. Despite Darden divesting Red Lobster in 2014 and its eventual bankruptcy filing, both restaurants still occupy pad spaces in front of Richland Mall.
You can see both restaurants here in Street View. I'll leave you with an article about the groundbreaking of both.
Numbered Exits
Monday, October 14, 2024
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Billy Blues and Trail Dust (Houston, Texas)
This is spinning off from Carbon-izer.com and focuses on Richmond Avenue, the section west of Loop 610 which in the 1980s and 1990s was one of the city's hotspots with trendy bars and restaurants. Some of the sites I've previously covered on other sites, including the former Chick-fil-A/Marie Callender's (formerly an apartment complex), 6213 Richmond (formerly home to Ruth's Chris Steak House), and the Rusty Scupper (6367 Richmond). Today we're looking at two restaurants built in the 1990s (the ads are from the Houston Chronicle).
Opening in 1993!
The first one we'll cover is 6025 Richmond Avenue, which goes back to 1993 with the opening of "Billy Blue's Barbecue, Bar & Grill", with an unusual feature, the SmokeSax, a 70-foot tall saxophone made of old car parts. Billy Blue's closed in January 2001 and became Cabo's Mix-Mex Grill until 2004. Cabo's still had the distinct sculpture outside, and in 2009, The Horn Bar & Grill opened, taking advantage of the horn, which restored and repainted the saxophone blue (it was originally red). In the last few months of 2012 it became "Club 40", and in early 2013, it was replaced with Diablo Loco. Diablo Loco, a sports bar, had the saxophone moved to the Orange Show at 2401 Munger Street. Diablo Loco closed around 2022, with the current tenant, RockHouse Southern Kitchen, opening in March 2023.
He's holding a tie.
Next up is 6101 Richmond Avenue. The sign for the last tenant here, Wild West, is still up but the parking lot is fenced off with the main building demolished. This opened as Trail Dust Steakhouse in late 1994 (a few other Trail Dust restaurants opened around this time under the same ownership, one in the Dallas area at 2300 East Lamar Blvd. opened around the same time). Him cutting off the tie was one of the restaurant's gimmicks, according to Purpledevil of the HAIF (who has sadly been MIA since 2017), "they'd cut off your tie and nail it to the wall if you wore one inside"...but hopefully with permission!
It closed just over three years later and in the fall of 1998 became Wild West, a country-western club, which moved to that location. It shuttered permanently in July 2020 and was demolished soon after. You can see Street View of the area here.
It closed just over three years later and in the fall of 1998 became Wild West, a country-western club, which moved to that location. It shuttered permanently in July 2020 and was demolished soon after. You can see Street View of the area here.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Former Huddle House (Lockhart, Texas)
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Sunoco Franklin (Waco, Texas)
According to a Tweet Stripes had put out, the store opened in January 2014 as a self-branded Stripes. With the purchase of Stripes' parent Susser Stores by Sunoco, the gas brand was changed to Sunoco less than a year after the store's opening. Between 2021 and 2022 Stripes was rebranded as 7-Eleven after Sunoco divested their convenience stores.
Since the store's opening it has had a Laredo Taco Company inside. (This post was originally from Carbon-izer).
Friday, October 4, 2024
The Original Olive Garden of Temple (Temple, Texas)
Apologies for being gone so long. I'd like to add another Carbon-izer import prompted by an email from Myron M. of Temple. The restaurant covered today is 1902 SW H K Dodgen Loop. It opened as an Olive Garden around 1991 and closed in 2002 (it eventually reopened with a new Temple location several years later).
Courtesy Portal to Texas History Online
Its replacement, Yank Sing Chinese Restaurant, opened soon after. Yank Sing added a covered drive-up in order to closely resemble its Killeen location at 1705 East Central Texas Expressway (a former Luby's where 23 people were killed in a 1993 shooting) but the Temple location shuttered around 2019 (the last Yelp review was January 2019). Since then, it has been divided into two suites both with restaurants, Masfajitas in suite A (open 2022) Mario's Seafood in suite B (open 2023). They share common ownership (it's possible they share kitchen facilities).
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Greenspoint Mall (Houston, Texas)
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Highland 10 (Austin, Texas)
For a long time I had believed it was just another movie theater I read about but never actually been to, a recent discovery of a ticket stub from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace proved otherwise (and to think, that was in its original form). I still don't remember it, though.
There are also tenants built around the cinema with the same address, like Taj Palace (closed late 2021), which has been here since 1990 (though jumped spaces within the center).
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