Days Inn & Suites - Galleria (Houston, Texas)

Above is a 2002 Days Inn Directory listing for one of their motels at 3333 Fountain View Drive in Houston, Texas. The motel was built and opened in 1997 as Gallery Inn but by the early 2000s was a Days Inn. I don't know when the motel changed names to its current name, Grand Villa Inn, other than being sometime between January 2021 and June 2022) it disconnected from the Days Inn chain. It features 40 units on two floors. Shortly after the rebranding it was repainted (white with dark blue trim) and enclosed with a big fence around the property for security reasons.

The directory listing above is a little misleading, the diner icon means there's restaurants nearby (which for all but rural locations would qualify), same as tennis and golf facilities. It does have an exercise room and a coin laundry (that's the camera-looking thing).

China Coast at Richland Mall (Waco, Texas)

1995 ad as seen in the Waco Tribune Herald. Despite being a menu-based restaurant, China Coast did have buffets.
Another import from the the existing "Other Waco Roads" page at Carbon-izer comes China Coast (the original post featured Olive Garden). China Coast opened in December 1994 next to an Olive Garden at 5925 West Waco Drive (both were part of General Mills Restaurants) and closed in August 1995 shortly after General Mills spun off their restaurant division as Darden Restaurants. 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 the current Red Lobster here in Street View. I'll leave you with an article about the groundbreaking of China Coast.

UPDATE 07-11-2026: Revived post, but focuses exclusively on China Coast.

Billy Blue's Barbecue, Bar & Grill (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! Today 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.

UPDATE 07-06-2026: 6101 Richmond Avenue has been removed in preparation of adding it for August 1, 2026 to Carbon-izer. [demolished] removed but [Carbon-izer.com] added with a rename as well. It appears that RockHouse as closed as well (sometime in the end of 2025, probably).

Former Huddle House (Lockhart, Texas)

From Loopnet
Another import from Carbon-izer, 1801 S. Colorado Street opened as Huddle House (#747), operating from 2011 to 2016 (operating 24/7!). In 2018 it was Kaze Grill House, though this only lasted about six months. This was later replaced by Pho Hong, but it closed by 2022. Soon after it was reopened as HTeaO.

Sunoco Franklin (Waco, Texas)

Rough-looking buildings. (Google Street View). This is a 7-Eleven which I've been to a few times, gotten a plate of Tex-Mex for lunch (surprisingly decent) and located at 2500 Franklin Avenue. As of March 2013, the block had contained some rough-looking buildings, including Edwards Machine & Tool Company (2504 Franklin), Diamond M Automotive Group (2512 Franklin), and Inmon Motorcycle Sales & Service (2500 Franklin Avenue), before they all came down for a Stripes.

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).

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).