Woodway Drive Exit Central Texas Parkway/Santa Fe Drive (Woodway, Texas)

A & JEH Food Mart before it was closed and demolished. (Google Maps). This is kind of a double dip, as I mentioned in Carbon-izer, many of these entries started out as Wikimapia entries that I added in the 2010s. This article covers the Central Texas Parkway and Santa Fe Drive exit of Woodway Drive (one road, two names on either side) and covers the 6900 through 7800 blocks. The only thing that won't be covered here is 7124 Woodway Drive, now Hillcrest Dental Care. There's a somewhat out of date page on Carbon-izer but at least it has a photo.

Starting from the 6900 block going west (on the north side) is mostly industrial usage. We have Darr Equipment Co. (6917 Woodway Drive), which does heavy machinery (inc. CAT) rentals. In the late 1980s to the mid-2000s it was Texas Kenworth but at some point changed hands to CAT. Officially, this was around 2012, but the Darr name has been on the building at least since 2008.

Next up is 6931 Woodway Drive. From 2005 to at least through 2019, the front half of this building was occupied by Med-Equip, a medical equipment store. Med-Equip moved to a new location later (and had moved from a smaller location before), and as of 2024 is Atlas Spas & Swim Spas. United Rentals is at 6935 Woodway Drive, 7003 and 7005 Woodway are three warehouses converted into medical offices (Londonderry Plaza), 7007 Woodway Drive is Motel 6 (tax records indicate this was a Ramada Inn originally--2000 to no later than 2007, then it was a Travelodge from c. 2007 to around 2011-2012.) In 2019, it became "Woodway Inn" but it has since reverted to Motel 6. Interestingly, I seem to remember one of the hotels on the south side, either 6624 Woodway (or possibly even 6908 Woodway) being known as "Woodway Inn & Suites" briefly. Sunbelt Rentals is at 7011 Woodway Drive. In 1999, NationsRent of Texas built here, and in 2006 it was acquired by Sunbelt Rentals, which rebranded it by fall 2007 with its distinctive green-colored building and construction equipment rentals. The Chevron at 7325 Woodway was a Texaco in the mid-1990s to around 2003 when it was converted to Shell. The Shell mysteriously closed up for a few years in 2013 and re-opened again for a few more years until becoming a Chevron in 2015. The actual station dates back to 1973.

Capital Title of Texas is at 7401 Woodway, I remember following the drama of this one in its last days. This house-like office building replaced a 1950s-era gas station (1956), living most of its life as Mobil (though briefly received BP brands as late as 2007), but in its sunset years had become "A & JEH Food Mart", a convenience store that no longer sold gas. A & JEH was completely demolished sometime in late 2013, with a new foundation poured by October 2014. The A & JEH branding (on a sign distinctly shaped like a Mobil sign) remained up even into late 2014, and the tenant it would have for the latter half of the 2010s and up until 2022 (when it had closed) was Interim HealthCare of Waco, a hospice agency. (I don't know the full history of the station, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the convenience store here was TETCO, a brand that by the early 2010s would be acquired by 7-Eleven.

7407 Woodway Drive, advertised as "Furniture Center and Casual Shop", with two distinct buildings and shops, "Furniture Center" legally has the address of 7405 Woodway, but both stores have been operating together as one entity since at least 1990.

The bank at the northeast corner of Woodway and Santa Fe Drive (101 Santa Fe Drive) is Cadence Bank. It was built in 2001 as "Texas First State Bank" (with the "Texas First" is emphasized as the brand name). In late 2019, Texas First State Bank was merged with BancorpSouth and eventually rebranded as BancorpSouth Bank shortly before it got rebranded again when BancorpSouth Bank purchased Cadence Bancorporation and took the Cadence Bank name.

Going a bit further along is 7609 Woodway, housing Document Solutions, Sunquest Hospitality, Sunrise Construction, Kainos Technlogies, and Spritz Hair Studio, then Tuff Shed (of Waco) located at 7705 Woodway, and finally Regent Care Center of Woodway (7801 Woodway Drive, built 2001).

Going eastbound on the southside, there's banks and restaurants predominantly. There used to be almost no restaurants on this strip (even in the mid-2010s) but that has clearly been changing. First up is 7608 Woodway Drive. This used to be Davis Coffee Company, a local Waco wholesale coffee company that has been around since at least the 1950s (probably not at this location). Around the mid-to-late 2010s it quietly closed, and in 2019, the building was renovated to include Slow Rise Slice House (a pizza restaurant), Common Grounds (a branch of a coffeehouse near Baylor), and Native Sons Coffee Roasters (local coffee roasting company). Next up is Air Control (7604 Woodway, HVAC repair), First Guaranty Bank (Synergy Bank when it was built in 2015, it assumed its current name after a few years), The First National Bank of Central Texas (7500 Woodway Drive), Texas Retina Associates (203 Archway Drive, built early 2020s), Starbucks (193 Archway Drive—opened May 2024, though I'm not sure if it occupies all of the building or not), GENCO Federal Credit Union (105 Archway), and finally 101 Archway Drive, an address that is shared between a Hat Creek Burger Company location that opened in 2018 and Christian Brothers Automotive.

Besides the former RibCrib and another medical building located in its parking lot (221 Jewell Drive, Allergy and Asthma Care of Waco) is the Regal Jewel Stadium 16 & ScreenX. The theater opened in 1997 and also known as Regal Jewel Stadium 16. It appears to have been built as Hollywood Theaters (the facade was kept until the end), which was bought by Wallace Theater in 1999 and subsequently bought by Regal Entertainment in 2013, before it closed in July 2023.

Burger-N-Wok (Valley Mills, Texas)

Own work from March 2014; I'm happy at how well this turned out. This former Dairy Queen (had a little ice cream cone on the signage, unusual for these parts) existed at least since 1980 but closed in 2008 for reasons unknown (the next closest one is in Clifton). In 2009, "Burger-N-Wok" opened, a restaurant with a varied menu (Chinese food, hamburgers, nachos). The restaurant is located at 602 Avenue C, Valley Mills, TX 76689.

Albertsons and Jim's at Oak Hill (Austin, Texas)

The empty Albertsons captured next to a former Shoney's. Own work, April 2010. (From a cell phone camera.)
I originally wrote about this in Safeway and Albertsons in Texas Blog. It is not just completely outdated, it's also wrong in several areas. I did later put more accurate information up on Carbon-izer.com but let's correct the record.

First, let's discuss Jim's at 7101 State Highway 71 West. It was not a former Shoney's as the original link suggests, that information was derived from an article where Jim's had picked up a few Shoney's restaurants in the late 1990s (Temple, San Marcos, Waco) but not Austin, because this was always Jim's.

I've never been to Jim's but it seems that Austin Chronicle was not kind to it, even in 1982 ("Don't let the smiling cowboy fool you"), the year this Jim's opened at 7101 West Highway 71.

The former Albertsons was born a Tom Thumb-Page to be exact, a few years earlier, in 1980. In 1989 it was sold to Albertsons with several other stores (curiously, the better and larger of the Austin Tom Thumb stores; while keeping older ex-Rylander stores) and after a quick reset, reopened as an Albertsons (Albertsons #4006...not its original store number), but in 2007 the store closed permanently as part of the chain's exit from Austin. This one didn't reopen as H-E-B because of their store across the street (which itself it has since closed).

By 2011, the building was divided between Planet Fitness, a vacancy, and Goodwill. Goodwill later expanded into the middle section of the former store, and by the late 2010s, Planet Fitness was gone. The store was then sub-divided further between Emler Swim School, Won's White Tiger Taekwondo, and NAPA Auto & Truck Parts.

Defunct Western Sizzlin (Arkadelphia, Arkansas)

Picture by author July 2024 Not be confused with Sizzler, another restaurant that has largely retracted is Western Sizzlin, which we'll cover today. My local one closed back in 1996, though some still remain in this part of the country. This one is/was in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, which I came across while getting coffee at a nearby McDonald's on my big trip. I had thought I arrived too early in the day to be able to check out the restaurant for myself...but it had already been permanently closed for several years.

It appears to have closed during COVID; it was still open as March 2019 and there's a YouTube video from December 2020 that has the building abandoned (this newspaper on Issuu mentions Western Sizzlin in January 2020) and based on aerials opened in the early 1990s.

Braum's had purchased the building and lot in 2021 but as of October 2023 made no promises about opening. Given the building was still there in July 2024 no progress had been made.

Pizza Inn at 1801 Mangum Road (Houston, Texas)

Street View from the early 2010s. By late 2014 they added updated logos to the signs. Note that they're Burger King sign-shaped. Over on the now-closed The Houston Files we had covered 1815 Mangum Road, now it's time to cover its more successful neighbor at 1801 Mangum.

Pizza Inn's most prominent feature is a very tall sign that was meant to be visible to Hempstead Road travelers in the mid-1970s when it was built as a Burger King back in 1974. (The sign is still there, but it's not quite as visible from Northwest Freeway). In 2004, the Burger King closed and was replaced with a Pizza Inn in 2005, now the only stand-alone Pizza Inn restaurant in the Houston area (and one of four Pizza Inn restaurants total).

This is an expanded version of what was previously posted on Carbon-izer.

Former Conroe Creosoting Company (Conroe, Texas)

The railroad spur and crossing in its original configuration (as of the early 2010s).
As far as further adventures on Highway 105 go, one of them was the intersection of Porter Road and Highway 105 east of Conroe. It was a "lost site" for a while. The former site of Conroe Creosoting Company from 1946 to 1997 (with the address of 1776 Highway 105), I remembered this site because of the unusual setup of a railroad track running through the middle of the intersection. Since around the mid-to-late 2000s it was disconnected from the mainline (but never removed from the roadway). When I first know I saw it in 2003, it was still connected, so theoretically a train could run across it, it quickly was overtaken by weeds on the other side. No trains had been on this for several years.

Despite the discontinued spur, it remained as an officially active crossing, even getting new paint at some point, and despite the rough state of the signals never had any "Tracks Out of Service" sign.

The crossing has been restored but the tracks on the other side are new.
In 2021, The Home Depot built a new distribution center (FDC/BDC 5859) re-activated the railroad spur in the middle of the intersection (with Porter Road being extended north as well), though the railroad is very different on the other side (the old set-up had the railroad continue at a sharp angle so it would parallel Highway 105). Notice that the link above refers to a "vault" where toxic waste was stored, you can see on aerials, the "vault" is still undeveloped. The distribution center has the address of 400 Porter Road. (This information previously appeared on Carbon-izer.)

Sussan Fine Furniture (Dickinson, Texas)

Sussan following closure. (Street View, c. 2013). With all the news of Walmart's new food establishments--Charleys Cheesesteaks, Mr. Gatti's, Wendy's, sushi bars, and a bunch more I've never heard of I think I've proof of Wal-Mart's oldest branded in-store eatery.

Before we get to that, it started back in 2012 when I came across what I referred to as "brown Wal-Marts" in my youth; the older, original Wal-Mart stores built in the 1970s and 1980s, which slowly disappeared as they were closed or renovated, when I saw Sussan, and was instantly reminded of what Wal-Mart stores, like my own, used to look like (probably with "Discount City" signage on the building).

For a while I believed it had been replaced with another Supercenter in the nearby area but that wasn't the case. The store (Wal-Mart #570) in fact only operated from July 1984 to September 1991. (No wonder. The store appeared to have major access issues.)

In 1992 it became Bud's Warehouse Outlet, a discount/overstock store owned by Wal-Mart that was killed as a concept a few years later because it was cutting into Wal-Mart's own stores. Sussan Fine Furniture moved in around 1997 (moving from Texas City) with almost no updates to the store's exterior.

Sussan ended up lasting longer than Wal-Mart's ventures did, closing in 2010, and even after death, signage remained up for a few years afterward. By 2016 it was fully vacant and demolition began in late 2017.

So what was unique about the eatery? In those days, Wal-Mart operated unbranded, in-house eateries but a tax entry shows that for the first year of this Wal-Mart's existence the once-ubiquitous Corn Dog 7 operated in the spot, something that would also show up in Hypermart USA a few years later.

Moseley Fuel Stop (Marshall, Texas)

I didn't take a picture myself so Google Maps Street View will have to do.
There's nothing left of "Moseley Fuel Stop" in Marshall, Texas except for the sign as seen above. It opened in the 1960s or 1970s (no further detail can be found) at the southeast corner of I-20 and Texas State Highway 43.

The truck stop closed in 1985 (seems there were deed issues that prevented reopening or redeveloping and it deteriorated for years afterwards. In 2009, a fire destroyed much of the gas station but even after the fire there were still parts of the gas station left over. Around 2014 the rest of the gas station was torn down, except for the sign.

I'm not sure what the future of the site, or the sign, is. It doesn't light up anymore and it's not protected by any historical decree.

Chevron on the Circle (Waco, Texas)

Chevron as Chevron. Courtesy McLennan Appraisal District. The "Circle Chevron" (food mart/garage/auto shop) has been here since at least 1980 (Circle Gulf in those days, converted in the late 1980s) and shut down sometime in the late 2000s or very early 2010s (the Chevron signage was gone by December 2007—likely not wanting to upgrade to the current signage).

There's a photo taken by someone else in July 2012, shortly before demolition. It was replaced with a 7-Eleven (re-entering town with several new locations) but it took down Chevron's tall sign, as well and opened in late 2012/early 2013 and shut down around January 2019, likely because of the Stripes merger. (7-Eleven now has a store a block away where Stripes was)...or because the Circle got a repaint in 2018 to meet modern traffic patterns. Either way, the gas canopy was removed and it has sat vacant since.

The old address as Chevron was 2600 La Salle Avenue but 7-Eleven changed it to 2524 La Salle Avenue.

Navasota Exit SPUR-515 / TX-105 East (Navasota, Texas)

Street View, 2016. I thought I had photos for this sort of thing but I didn't. I previously covered one of Navasota's main exits previously on this blog and mentions that it was usually the "start of something fun". Unless we were going to Houston, the main star of the show was State Texas Highway 105 East. For years, it would be something like a road trip to Baton Rouge or Florida, or even in later years something a bit closer to home, like the Renaissance Festival. (We'll get to those stories—Conroe, Baton Rouge, Florida, Renaissance Festival, etc. another day.)

Once again we'll be deriving a lot of this information from the Carbon-izer page on Navasota as it currently stands and cover, roughly, from Dove Crossing Lane to Durden Street. Starting from the north and going down south there's La Casita Mexican Food Restaurant (9416 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), Navasota Inn (9460 Highway 6 Loop, sometime between late 2016 and early 2017, this former Super 8 changed names to its current incarnation. I can't find much information on it.), a demolished site that appears to be another motel, The Western Steakhouse & Dancehall (9524 N. Hwy. 6 Loop South; in the early 2020s they added an RV park behind it), Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (9812 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), a CenturyLink facility (9852 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), T & S RV and Sport (9920 N Hwy 6 Loop, built in the late 2010s), First Hispanic Baptist Church (9970 Hwy 6, this is about where the exit lane is), WCTractor Navasota (10044 Hwy. 6), and finally, Circle T at 10200 Highway 6. Circle T replaced the 1996-built Circle H (no relation), which the gas station chronology I remember being Texaco originally, then a Diamond Shamrock in the early 2000s, then Valero by the mid-2000s, then back to Texaco again, before being demolished in 2019 for "Circle T", a new self-branded truck stop, which opened September 2020.

On the east side (going southbound), there's First National Bank Of Anderson (9501 N. Hwy 6 Loop, built in the late 2000s), MidSouth Electric Co-op (9409 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, built around 2011 with an expansion done in the early 2020s), Christ Our Light Catholic Church (9677 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, one of the few buildings here that was here back in the 1990s), United Ag & Turf (9819 Hwy. 6), Loop Self-Storage (9905 Hwy. 6), 9965 Highway 6 (former Elliott Team Ford, now just a service area), Elliott Team Ford (10059 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, their new location built circa 2023), and finally Hi-Ho. Hi-Ho is a Shell station that originally had the address of 1831 South Loop 6 but changed to 1921 Texas 105. Hi-Ho was there since 1994 but repaved and rebuilt its Shell gas canopy around 2008-2009, and then did a big expansion around 2017 (truck fueling and a store expansion) to compete with the new Stripes across the street.

Now we get to 105 itself. For years, Hi-Ho was it, that was the main sign of civilization as you went through the woods towards Plantersville (which didn't even have a stoplight until 2006). The Sunoco across the street (1930 TX-105) was built as Stripes #2492 and opened here in April 2016 with Laredo Taco Company inside. By June 2021 it had been rebranded as 7-Eleven. That wasn't all. I was somewhat shocked and saddened to see development creep along SH-105 East, noting both a Jack in the Box (2010 Highway 105 E.) opened in December 2022 and Chicken Express (1954 Highway 105 East) which had opened one month earlier (these were connected to 7-Eleven's parking lot). A Jack in the Box? In Navasota?! That was surprising, given the relatively recent arrival of Burger King and the flakiness of those two chains anyway...

Thompson Road Truck Stops (Baytown, Texas)

The sign looks a bit battered because of Hurricane Beryl. (Picture by author 7/24)
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to create a consistent rotation of what was outlined a few weeks ago especially as I have almost no information to go on for the other sites I had planned so that ordered plan is out the window beyond this post. Our first Houston-area entry (following the discontinuation of The Houston Files) covers primarily the Love's Travel Stop at 1703 I-10. Previously, this was covered on Carbon-izer, and while it is still in Harris County, the address numbering of Interstate 10 resets at the San Jacinto River.

The reason why the Love's Travel Stop sign looks a little more generic than their typical signage is because this opened in 1999 as a Pilot Travel Center with McDonald's inside. In 2010, it was sold to Love's following Pilot's purchase of Flying J Travel Plazas (not the company itself—FJ Management continued on).

The Love's features a McDonald's in addition to a store and gas pumps. I got the "$5 Meal Deal" here because the Buc-ee's down the street, through either Beryl-induced supply issues or a horrific management misstep, did not have any sandwiches to order at the kiosk.

I should mention that Thompson Road has three truck stops, one on each corner. The southwest corner has the aforementioned Flying J Travel Center (1876 East Fwy.), which you can see the sign of in the photo above. This was completed in the fall of 2005, this had previously had Conoco gasoline but by 2021 had changed over to be self-branded. It features a Denny's inside, something it has had since its opening. It sits behind "Chrome World & Truck Parts" (1880 East Fwy.).

The southeast corner has TravelCenters of America (6800 Thompson Road). This TA truck stop (built c. 2002) had a "Country Pride" restaurant but it has been non-functional since early 2020 and was replaced with an IHOP around spring 2023 (the IHOP is in fact open 24 hours despite many IHOPs no longer doing so after 2020). The gas brand here is a Shell as of 2023 but that may change (or has already changed) since BP took over the company. (I didn't check.)

The northeast corner (1901 East Fwy.) was originally built in the late 1980s and as of 2013, this was "Baytown Express Travel Center" (with Valero). It lost that name by 2015 and converted to Chevron in 2016 (with a mild renovation to the premises) and has been shut down since at least 2021. It isn't fully abandoned, a mobile building on the premises operates as "Four G's CB Shop".

Shortly after this post went to press, I got a note from Mike of Houston Historic Retail: "The building was originally a Speedway Travel Center when they attempted that in the late '90s. It originally had a combo A&W/Church's as the restaurant. Love's was across Thompson where the closed (most recently) Chevron is. When Speedway bowed out of travel centers, Pilot bought them out, and flipped the location. Also according to some Buc-ee's insiders, kiosks are on the way out. Grab and Go is now the preferred method for most items, and anything left on the kiosk will eventually be migrated there." (Bummer.)

Cactus Jack's (Temple, Texas)

Cactus Jack's in better times, October 2017 Street View Gather 'round for the tale of strange, sad tale of Cactus Jack's (300 SW H.K. Dodgen Loop in Temple, Texas): built in 1976 as "Market Street Cafe", which it was until the around 2000s, Cactus Jack's Steak House opened in 2003 (from numerous records including BBB and state taxpayer records) by a woman named Donna Passentino, but other references say 2005. Considering a reference to Market Street Cafe can be found in 2003, it's likely that Passentino bought Market Street Cafe in 2003 but closed it and renovated it into Cactus Jack's in 2005, as this article indicates.

Initially, the restaurant had a dinner menu with steaks and other entrees (it was "Cactus Jack's Steak House" after all); however, the death of Ms. Passentino in 2011 was the beginning of the end for Cactus Jack's. By 2012, the restaurant dropped the food options and was simply a bar with no mention of food. (The "Steak House" remained on the signage). Signage outside mentioned looking for a new food partner to convert it to a Mexican restaurant, and it did get a food partner—in 2013, it became Cactus Jack's Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant (that was short lived), and became Cactus Jack's Sports Cantina in 2014. A few years after that, Brody's Steakhouse moved in (from a different location) as a restaurant-within-a-bar moved in. Despite the food being an ongoing issue, it really wasn't about the food, it was a bar that locals seemed to like, the type of honky-tonk that serves up cold beer and has karaoke nights.

Served up, anyway. In November 2019, the restaurant burned to the ground from an improperly disposed cigarette, and there's video evidence to show for it. The general manager vowed to rebuild, though that never happened—Cactus Jack's is now just a memory.

(Adapted and expanded from Carbon-izer.)

McDonald's Alvarado (Alvarado, Texas)

This is a photo from 2014 Spring Break, taking a picture of this McDonald's in Alvarado, Texas. By this time, unusual and interesting McDonald's restaurants were on their way out.

This one wasn't that old (built 2002 when the company built a handful of retro-inspired restaurants) but it still got renovated out of existence in 2017.

I'm afraid I don't have memories or pictures of the interior, which is where most of the pre-2007 restaurants really shined.

Stuckey's (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)

There were a number of things I wanted to see and do on my last trip (the Grandy's was in one fact one of them) and while I couldn't do some of them there were others that I did do, like visiting a Stuckey's gas station.

The goal was a real Stuckey's, not one of these little gas stations that have some Stuckey's branded items inside (I didn't stop here; plus the nearby abandoned gas stations gave the whole corridor a bad vibe).

Pecan candy! They were expensive, though. Instead I ended up visiting the Stuckey's at 6733 Highway 49, Hattiesburg, MS 39402. While I unfortunately didn't see any coffee mugs (I'm sure I didn't look hard enough) they did have quite a selection of pecan candy and some genuine Stuckey's falsa blankets. (No food service, though.) I ended up getting Brisk Blood Orange because it was the closest thing to what I really wanted...orange sweet tea. Brisk isn't really iced tea, but it was still good anyway.

Aforementioned falsa blankets. I couldn't find the history of this one; just that it was in operation since the 1970s. I don't think I got gas there but still with a drink and my bladder emptied, I was soon on my way to Louisiana. I should also note that had I gone a bit to the east I would've come across one of Mississippi's few former Albertsons locations but unfortunately my main reason for wanting to visit the (former) store was to see if it had remnants of a mall connection to the defunct Cloverleaf Mall but it never did. Too bad. (Check out the link anyway.)

Linens-N-Things (Waco, Texas)

Courtesy McLennan Central Appraisal District Linens-N-Things first opened in September 2001 at 4809 West Waco Drive at an old motel site (Knights Inn in the late 1970s and early 1980s and later known as Sherwood Forest Inn, also the name of its restaurant...though tax records indicate it may have been cheaply converted into a strip center briefly--details are still sketchy). In any case, the current building was no longer a Linens-N-Things after December 2008 when the company went bankrupt. It sat for a few years until early 2014 when GymX Fitness moved from a nearby former Best Buy at the mall, but that too closed in September 2016. In 2019, Renovation Church moved in the right half of the building and in 2020 Waco Carpet moved from 4535 West Waco Drive, fully reoccupying the site.

Cafe de Paris (Dallas, Texas)

Google Street View from May 2014, roughly depicting the time and place I saw it as.
More Dallas-Fort Worth items is something I had been meaning to do on Carbon-izer, and this one requires going back to 2014, one of the few times I've been to Dallas-Fort Worth in the last two decades. It all began with the near-complete demolition of a strip center to construct a new Walmart Supercenter (replacing a Neighborhood Market location). One building from the old center (15757 North Coit Road, Suite 434) was fenced off, likely to be rubble soon, with the Cafe de Paris sign still on it. What kind of a restaurant was Cafe de Paris anyway? The most obvious assumption would be a French restaurant as this one Yelp review thought.

You would be wrong. After all, with a name like "Cafe de Paris" you'd assume French and be surprised that it was Mediterranean. The next question you might have is, as I did, is "how long was this here for"? Maybe it started out as a French restaurant back a long time ago but changed hands, and now was a Mediterranean restaurant under the same name (any jokes about Parisian demographics aside). You would also be wrong. The restaurant only opened in 2011 and disappeared just as quickly but the sign stayed up for a few years afterward even as the center crumbled around it. After sitting vacant for a for years, the building (now with the address of 15767 North Coit Road) was extensively modified (basically taking out all but the support beams) for Surepoint Emergency Center Richardson.

I should also mention that back in 2009-2010, it was M Cafe and Catering, and before that, Bagelstein's (2005-2008).

Kroger (Henderson, Texas)

Street View from 2018. The old Safeway "Food" and "Drug" signs were removed by 2022. Outside of Houston, Dallas, and their immediate suburbs, Kroger supermarkets become quite rare in Texas, especially heading into the East Texas/Davy Crockett Forest area. So it was a bit of a surprise to come across a Kroger in Henderson, Texas. It didn't look like a Kroger initially; my suspicions it was a Dallas Division Safeway that was sold to Kroger in 1987 were gradually confirmed. I later found out the Safeway opened in 1980, relocating from an older 1960s store at 102 Richardson Drive which in turn relocated from an even older store at 212 Van Buren.

I took a few pictures (I didn't actually buy anything initially, though I did end up buying a new and overpriced USB/Thunderbolt cable here (still overpriced) as mine in my car decided to stop working.)

The Safeway "roundel", as Houston Historic Retail would call it, was filled in with a Kroger logo (the good one that was retired a few years ago).

Ryan's (Waco, Texas)

Ryan's as a chain is no more. Sure, it could be blamed on the pandemic, but let's look at a few numbers. Ryan's Family Steakhouse opened in 1992 at 301 S. Valley Mills Drive, accessed off Franklin Drive and off of Precision Drive. In 2006 the chain was acquired by Buffets Inc., owners of Old Country Buffet, with the chain having about 260 restaurants stretching throughout much of the eastern United States, from Ohio to Florida to Texas (though it was clearly shrinking with 350 restaurants in 2003). By November 2019 (before the pandemic took hold), the entire chain was down to 67 restaurants, with Ryan's composing about 16 locations.

The demise of Ryan's came after the Waco location closed. Within a few years the Ryan's would become A-1 Buffet & Grill (a Chinese buffet) and later renamed/reopened as Ace Buffet & Grill, but it closed in fall 2016 and never reopened. This wasn't helped by construction of Franklin around 2005 that made it much more difficult to access Ryan's from the roadway (you had to go back around from Cheddar's Drive). After sitting vacant for several years, the building was torn down in early 2021. Part of the parking lot has since redeveloped as Dutch Bros Coffee, which was operating by May 2024 (with the address of 300 Precision Drive).

This is based after the Valley Mills page at Carbon-izer.com. Pictures generously provided by McLennan Central Appraisal District.

Former Luby's (Orange, Texas)

The current cycle of this blog (until one runs out of ready content) is "I-35", the "July 2024 trip", and "Random". In the "Random" category comes a particular defunct Luby's Cafeteria in Orange, Texas. I previously showed off this photo on my old Carbon-izer page, with the picture taken in November 2006. Luby's opened this location in summer 1997 but closed it in 2003, so it had been sitting for about three years at this point. I wasn't actually trying to seek out this Luby's and even back in 2006 Luby's already seemed like it was on the outs, a dated and dying chain. Would it disappear entirely anytime soon? No, that was to come.

In 2007, the Luby's Cafeteria branding on the building largely disappeared as it became Richard's Cafeteria Grill. After that failed in a matter of months, by 2013 the "Cafeteria" portions had been removed and was advertising as "Richard's Event Center".

That too bombed and in 2014 the parking lot was removed for Crawdad's Convenience Center, an Exxon gas station that shared the same address (with "Moz Grill" inside)...though the former Luby's/Richard's still stands.

Grandy's in Texarkana (Texarkana, Texas)

When I was on my July 2024 road trip, I had a number of things I wanted to do and try. Some of them I wasn't able to get, some of them I was. One of the things I wanted to do and did was eat at a Grandy's restaurant. I was a bit skeptical as I read that Broken Chains had hated it (though the location was very far away from the North Texas base, being located in Evansville, Indiana).

Like a few other sites I'll be covering in the future, Grandy's used to have a more presence locally. They closed the last of their Houston stores in the late 1990s, so I never got to try it (the local store closed even earlier).

As it turns out, it wasn't that old. It was actually built in 2010, moving from an older location at 3225 Kennedy Lane (since demolished for a dental office) but it kept its late 1980s-era charm, which can't be said for another 2010s location in Brunswick, Georgia, which is arguably nicer but is not true to the Grandy's spirit.

My experience, though, was pleasant. The fried chicken was good, if a bit greasy, but everything came out hot and fast and on a real plate instead of various boxes and bags. Perhaps that's why Grandy's suffered over the years; their competition (basically every other fast food restaurant) can stick things in a paper bag and send them on their way.