Former Albertsons #2773 (Houston, Texas)

I tried to get a good picture of this store except a combination of dangerous traffic patterns and the whole thing being fenced in have forced me to do differently, so I had to use Bing for this one.
As you may know, I used to run "Safeway and Albertsons in Texas", a short-lived blog describing former and current Albertsons and Safeway stores in Texas, sort of a local version of Acme Style (which recently came back to life!) or Albertsons Florida Blog. Well, it never really took off, to make it "good" would require resources and photos that I really didn't have. Today's post is the Carbon-izer friendly updated version of Former Albertsons #2773 - Houston, TX at 1770 East T.C. Jester Parkway.

In that original post, I talked about a lot about why Albertsons failed in Houston, and most of that, I believe, is accurate, but not really relating well as to why that store failed. (I had been told by someone who worked as a merchandiser for Frito-Lay that traffic count was not one of the things Albertsons looked at—some managers also had this particularly bizarre-like obsession with paperwork at the exact same time and signed by the right people, hearing him describe it brought to mind the film Brazil).

Albertsons #2773 got the worst of it as it was extremely short-lived, even for Houston Albertsons standards, opening around August 2000 (based on an advertisement on IBC opening inside and lack of listings before) before announcing closing in February 2002 (along with a store at 5620 West Tidwell, which was another awkwardly-located store in a working-class neighborhood).

When I first visited the neighborhood (other than a brief drive-through in the area around 2011) in 2015, I was struck at how difficult it was to navigate the area, between the four-way stop, easy-to-miss driveways, and spending several minutes stopped at one of the nearby roads for a truck to wriggle itself into a company that delivered flowers to florists. The four-way stop suggested the roads didn't see a lot of vehicular traffic, and the Albertsons was built shortly after T.C. Jester was extended between Wynnwood and 18th Street as part of a developer project that also built the apartment complex to the south of the store, meaning that there was almost no data on traffic count before Albertsons went in. There was also the issue of demographics; from 1993 to 1998 you couldn't even get around with side streets as there was a gate between Wynnwood Street and Dian Street due to the differences in the two neighborhoods, citing crime issues. It's very likely that the store took in water during Tropical Storm Allison as well (the nearby Eckerd flooded out and was abandoned for years).

A diagram of Albertsons and its neighbors, both of which have since closed. Kmart is on the upper right.
After it closed, a large part of the parking lot was removed for a retention pond (likely to prevent flooding) and it became a self storage facility called Heights Self Storage. In spring 2016, this changed to LifeStorage, which later merged with Extra Space Storage, so within a few years it was rebranded to Extra Space Storage.

Days Inn Slidell (Slidell, Louisiana)

I had to resort to using a (cropped) picture from the hotel's official website. It looked like this in 2024 and still does currently.
One of my original intentions of Numbered Exits was to catalog stuff I'd seen on my 2024 road trip to Tennessee, and the last "true" item of that respect, as of this writing, was Piccadilly back in May 2025. One of the things I wanted to cover from the same trip was the Days Inn I stayed at in Slidell.

My stay in Slidell wasn't great as this is where a piece of metal punctured my tire and the hotel wasn't so great either (the door couldn't close all the way and the AC wasn't working correctly as it had to also fight the humidity). From the sky it looks like one large building, it's really two separated by a covered walkway.

Because I don't have many resources afforded to me when it comes to Slidell, the only thing I do know is that this didn't start out as a Days Inn. The 2002 Days Inn hotel directory I have puts Days Inn's Slidell location as it existed circa 2001 was at 1645 Gause, which has since been demolished (around 2006-2007); meanwhile the motel here has been around in the late 1980s and became Days Inn in 2011 (previously "America's Best Inn & Suites), which also came with a minor variation (altering the facade). Beyond that, however, I know nothing about it. It has 57 rooms according to multiple online sources, and here's the current website. A large part of this is the fact that my subscription to Newspapers.com doesn't cover the New Orleans paper (or the Baton Rouge paper, for that matter) so I'm in the dark unless you want to help reach out and solve the mystery...

Caligula XXI (Houston, Texas)

This particular scan is from a 1987 Houston tourism guide I scanned in over a decade ago.
Note: While nothing explicit appears on this page, this post discusses an adult entertainment venue.

I used to have on my big Westheimer Road page a few items that were "close enough" to Westheimer to consider them for inclusion on the page, with one of these items being 2618 Winrock Boulevard. While I also had it later listed on the "Houston Outer Loop" page, this is an expanded version of anything that previously appeared on Carbon-izer.

2618 Winrock is today a strip club (these types of things are soft-banned from Google Maps these days) but the earliest reference I can find is what it actually appears to have been built for, a restaurant called "The Spaghetti Store", an Italian restaurant that opened with a 5-cent beer promotion. Within a few years it closed and reopened in 1978 as Five to Five, a restaurant specializing in late hours (dinner served from 5 pm to 1 am, then breakfast from 1 am to 5 am). In 1979, this was replaced with Maceo's, which soon gave way to Gufini's Italian Restaurant, and in 1980 became "The Long Branch Saloon & Steakhouse", with its themed names for menu items.

"Yes, I'll have the Miss Kitty and the Feed Bag for four." (Houston Chronicle, 05/22/1980)
This closed around the end of 1980. In early 1981, it became what it was (mostly) known for over the course of the next twenty years, Caligula XXI. Even to this day, still holds some architectural features of its original tenant (false embedded columns on the side of the building, originally colored bronze), statues, etc.

I originally posted this ad to a HAIF thread about similar establishments, but the fact that it was endorsed by Penthouse suggests a connection to a film Penthouse founder Bob Guccione produced, Caligula, an erotic film on the eponymous Roman Emperor, notorious for both his unmatched hedonism and cruelty (as well as nearly bankrupting the Roman Empire). When the Houston Chronicle first started running ads for Caligula XXI, it mentioned that it featured "authentic Greek delicacies" to "make your lunch a true culinary delight".

In the summer of 1981, they ran a schedule of what was going on all week. This is verbatim.

Monday is the toga party. Tuesday is sexy western day and Wednesday is the pajama party (wow, what pajamas). Thursday is oldies but goodies with those naughty but nice costumes of the 50's along with 50's music. Friday is kinky day (just imagine what happens this day). Saturday is the all night go go and Sunday is burlesque night.

In 2002 Caligula XXI was replaced with "The Penthouse Club" (another Penthouse connection!) was here from 2002 to 2012, and Vivid Gentlemen's Club operated from 2012 to 2025. The current operator is "The Vault" since late 2025.

Plantation Foods (Waco, Texas)

1998 photo from the Waco Tribune Herald (link to where this appears)
The last big update (Version 10.0) to Valley Mills Drive in Waco stripped out a number of entries that weren't on Valley Mills Drive (they were sort of on the road, but it was a different part of the road that wasn't covered) and today one of them is returning (and in true Numbered Exits fashion, expanded).

Today we talk turkey with the initial facility built in 1965 at what was originally 3130 Gholson Road (later 2510 East Lake Shore Drive) by Plantation Foods, a Waco-based turkey processor that was designed to process 750,000 turkeys a year with 150 employees. Over time, Plantation Foods grew, opening a second plant for "prepared food products" to the west (at what is now 2500 E. Lake Shore Drive) sometime in the 1980s. By 1985 it was an $80 million company that made a variety of products, from prepared lunch meat to whole turkeys for the holidays. From a 1989 recall notice, they had also produced under other brand names, with the turkey franks going as "Plantation Turkey Franks", "Nifda Turkey Franks", "Code Turkey Franks", and "Nugget Turkey Franks".

Plantation Foods was gobbled up by Cargill in 1998, at which point Plantation Foods employed 1,850 and were doing 2 million turkeys a year. This ruffled some feathers in the Waco area as Plantation Foods was local for years and affected local businesses that had contracts with Plantation Foods. In 1999, Cargill downscaled the plant by selling the newer facility (at 2500 E. Lake Shore) to Pilgrim's Pride, and that's how things are still today. (Okay, enough with the puns).

Keller's Cactus Jack's (Dallas, Texas)

What luck! Loopnet has a picture of it as Cactus Jack's (the original exterior).
4341 Lemmon Avenue in Dallas was originally built as Del Taco, which operated from 1979 to 1981 (I believe Del Taco pulled out of Dallas first, then Houston...it's a long story), and then became Cactus Jack's, also known as Keller's Cactus Jack's, a local hamburger restaurant that also served beer, hot dogs, and other types of sandwiches including grilled cheese. In 2010 they closed after 28 years to be leased to Carl's Jr. when CKE Restaurants an ambitious plan to add 170 Carl's Jr. restaurants to Texas (that was a lofty number, I don't think they got anywhere close to that and all but a small handful have closed), which opened in late 2010. By spring 2014 it was already gone and replaced with a Taco Bell.

I'm not sure what exactly was the difference between "Cactus Jack's" and "Keller's Cactus Jack's", which tax records show. As this was still owned by Keller prior to 1990, I assume it was differentiate from independent establishments with similar names.

Restaurants of 4527 Lomitas Street (Houston, Texas)

The original 4527 Lomitas Street was this apartment building. (Houston Chronicle, 09/23/1951).
I've updated Carbon-izer.com again. Most of the action in Houston focuses on North Freeway and Gulf Freeway, but Southwest Freeway still received an update.

Among the many restaurants facing Southwest Freeway, we have what is currently a Twin Peaks; however, it doesn't have a Southwest Freeway address and is currently ineligible to be added to that list. Instead, it's Lomitas Drive, a small street functioning as an alley to the nearby restaurants.

4527 Lomitas Street has served as a variety of restaurants (with one exception) over the years. After replacing the circa-1951 apartment building that sat in the lot, the first restaurant to be in the spot was a Cajun restaurant named Gator's (opened 1987), but in 1991 it closed and was replaced by a new location of Pico's Mexican Restaurant (better known as Pico's Mex-Mex). Around 1996-1997 it closed and became Scottsdale's Restaurant in 1998. Scottsdale's retooled in early 2000 as "The Field House Restaurant & Bar" By 2000 Scottsdale's had closed and reopened as The Field House Restaurant & Bar, a more sports bar-style establishment (with some changes, such as discarding the notorious practice of charging for bread...but that only operated for less than two months. El Buen Bife Grill ("Argentine Steak House & Tango Bar") opened in October 2001. This renamed to simply "Argentina Grill" in late 2002 and closing around the end of 2004. Oddly, in the mid-2000s (to the late 2000s) this was Fish Gallery (fish and aquarium supplies—not a restaurant!) before a renovation to Twin Peaks around 2011-2012, which has been here since, and surviving the bankruptcy of parent company FAT Brands, which had acquired it in 2020.

Here's Google Street View, and below are some of the advertisements of the restaurants that called 4527 Lomitas home over the years.

Holiday Inn & Suites Owatanna (Owatanna, Minnesota)

Not the greatest picture. It seems it was supplied by the hotel to Yelp back in 2010 (cropped)
Back a few years ago when we covered the Grand Rios Indoor Water Park Hotel in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, I had linked to an article mentioning another Minnesota hotel that was built a waterpark hotel in 1999, not trying to retrofit one onto a struggling hotel as part of an attempted turnaround attempt. What happened to that hotel?

Well, we know that this waterpark was far more modest than the more elaborate (outdoor) one in the Lake Buena Vista area (even before the partnership with Nickelodeon). It's also very isolated, between a Cabela's (now Bass Pro Shops) and a mostly-failed outlet mall.

Up until 2019 this remained a Holiday Inn & Suites with the waterpark (yes, before COVID) when it closed for a reason I'm not sure of (see article here). Within short order the hotel became Motel 6 and at the time I wrote the post on (I assume the waterpark never opened after COVID) and at the time I wrote about the Brooklyn Park hotel, it was closed. From what I remember reading of some of the reviews was that the waterpark may have been open in some capacity, but not to its full extent.

HotelPlanner.com currently has a description of the hotel when it was a Holiday Inn.

The Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Owatonna home of the Great Serengeti Indoor Water Park! Come experience the adventure! Our award winning hotel, located just 40 minutes south of Mpls/St Paul and next to Cabela's, features 130 guest rooms and suites, including Kidsuites. We offer amenities for business or pleasure. The Great Serengeti Indoor Water Park features the exciting Kilimanjaro Tube Slide, Python Body Slide, The Relaxing Lazy Zambezi River, Zero Depth Entry activity pool, Water Basketball and relaxing waterfall spa. Our African Serengeti themed water park is decorated with trees, life-size giraffe, hippopotamus kids slide, spraying elephant and a mischievous monkey. The park features Café Zanzibar, our pool side café for snacks, drinks and even dinner. The Lion's Den features a large selection of the latest video games, as well as interactive games for adults and children of all ages. For the business traveler our guest rooms feature a spacious work desk, we offer complimentary high speed wireless internet, and a business center. Our Meeting/Banquet facility features 5 meeting rooms with multiple room combinations for up to 400 people. Events at the Holiday Inn Owatonna feature personalized menu planning with a wide range of food and beverage selections available. We have banquet and meeting specialists, as well as support service, on staff to assist with your event. For shopping, we're located adjacent to Cabela's – MN 2nd largest tourist attraction, and the Medford Outlet Mall is only 2 minutes away featuring several new stores, including Old Navy.

In June 2025 it reopened as DoubleTree by Hilton Owatonna with the waterpark apparently scheduled to reopen in January, from reading elsewhere. Unfortunately, if you go to their website (as of this writing), there's a message that "The swimming pool will be closed January 16, 2026 - September 30, 2026 for maintenance purposes. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Well, I guess that's that. Here's the scan of my 2002 Six Continents directory for this particular hotel (located at 2365 43rd Street NW, Owatonna, Minnesota) during better times.