Restaurants from your childhood that don’t exist anymore

[Deej 76701]

Wasn't there a Hamburgers by Gourmet on Anderson Lane where Enchiladas Y Mas currently resides?

[jettrink 40]

Christie's Seafood on Broadway

Youngbloods Fried Chicken-also on Broadway

The original Teka Molina on St Marys

The original El Rancho on first street

[DoobieWah 1426]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Another Houston one -- The Strawberry Patch.  Had a kickass CFS the size of home plate.

 

I remember both Yamin's and Strawberry Patch.

You're old.

Like me.

[TwiceHorn 31393]

2 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

Axed myself "the fuck is weck?" Googled it.

Buffalo Vild Vings und Veck.

Yeah me too.  The pic on wikipedia looks kick ass.

[Brisketexan 104842]

1 hour ago, Bojack said:

From Southeast Texas during my childhood, Channel Inn, Dorothy's Front Porch, Boondocks, Shep's.

From my early adulthood in Austin, I used to love Cafe Spiazzo in the little strip mall by 2222 and Mopac. It was a great place to bring dates.  

They made a chocolate chipotle tort that remains my wife's favorite dessert of all time.

[Smax 3800]

14 hours ago, deadshank said:

Wasn't  that where Molina's on Westheimer is now located.  Went there a few times. 

yes they are a great buffet all you can eat crab and lobster and right up the road old san francisco steakhouse had that chick on the swing

Ruby Reds off i-10, loved being allowed to throw peanut shells on the floor

Vargos and their swans

Charlies Hamburgers

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

 

When they opened on 6th street in Austin, they were Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck -- I distinctly remember reading the description of their name and "weck" on the menu.  Now, that was 20 years ago or so, and they became BW-3 shortly thereafter, but when they opened, weck was a thing.

Im pretty sure the one in West U was originally a weck as I distinctly remember wondering wtf was a weck 

Edited August 16, 2018 by Smax

[Underdog 28529]

There was a K-Bob’s in RR and another in Lockhart if memory serves me right.  

Stuckey’s

 

[Stunns38 3457]

Ponderosa in the Chicago area. I was a kid so I didn’t have standards but it was good.

The old El Original on the river walk had the best fajitas. Not sure if it’s still there but it went to shit 15 years ago.

[3adays 454]

Was it called DIllo Burger? It was in the parking lot of the HEB at Lamar/Rundberg. I crushed many $1.00 hamburgers from that place in the early 90’s. 

[conVINCEd 21468]

There was a little Italian place at Steck & Mesa when I was in college (mid-90’s).  At lunch, for $5, you got a pasta entree, soup, salad, and bread.  Not hard to turn that into two meals.  I have no idea if it’s still there, but I miss the fuck out of that place.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11811]

57 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

There was a little Italian place at Steck & Mesa when I was in college (mid-90’s).  At lunch, for $5, you got a pasta entree, soup, salad, and bread.  Not hard to turn that into two meals.  I have no idea if it’s still there, but I miss the fuck out of that place.

Little Italy.  It was great.  Next to Wallys.   

[utee94 15757]

Ate at Little Italy all the time in high school (Trojans holla).  It's been gone for years now.

[RDCanecutter 26351]

3 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah me too.  The pic on wikipedia looks kick ass.

Me too. I cannot imagine BWW serving anything 1/10 as good now.

[elfenix 34208]

Im pretty sure the one in West U was originally a weck as I distinctly remember wondering wtf was a weck 

Charlie's hamburgers, there's a blast from the past. Think there's still one in fountainview but it was ass a few years ago.

That west U bw3 is danny goeb's place.

[Bender Bending Rodriguez 1678]

Black Eyed Pea seems to have disappeared from Texas.

Are Captain D's still around?

[relapse98 634]

23 minutes ago, Bender Bending Rodriguez said:

 

Are Captain D's still around?

Yes. There's definitely one in Bossier City.

[relapse98 634]

Looks like it may still be around in Florida, if the same chain, PoFolks. We used to eat at one it seemed like every week. They had a folksy hillbilly schtick in the way they wrote the menu. Drinks came in a Mason jar. Miss that place 

[Judge Roybeanbag 11811]

DIdn't live in Houston as a kid but met my grandparents there a lot.

Bill Williams (fried chicken)

Felix

Boston Sea Party

[Steamboat1874 4039]

14 hours ago, Underdog said:

There was a K-Bob’s in RR and another in Lockhart if memory serves me right.  

Stuckey’s

 

Pretty sure there was a K-Bobs on 183 just south of Anderson Mill at one time.

[Felix 600]

K-Bob's definitely kicks ass.

[Brisketexan 104842]

3 hours ago, Bender Bending Rodriguez said:

Black Eyed Pea seems to have disappeared from Texas.

Are Captain D's still around?

There's one right off of 635 in Balch Springs.

How do I know this?

Because in a fit of what was clearly self-loathing, I stopped there and picked up road food heading home from a client meeting.  Batter dipped fish, hush puppies and fried okra.  Eaten with my free hand, seasoned with shame.

[formermav43 4606]

3 hours ago, Bender Bending Rodriguez said:

Black Eyed Pea seems to have disappeared from Texas.

Are Captain D's still around?

There’s a Black Eyed Pea in SA on Fredericksburg Rd.

I passed a Captain Ds just the other day, I think it was in Baytown.

Edited August 17, 2018 by formermav43

[Zepol87 9176]

There's one right off of 635 in Balch Springs.
How do I know this?
Because in a fit of what was clearly self-loathing, I stopped there and picked up road food heading home from a client meeting.  Batter dipped fish, hush puppies and fried okra.  Eaten with my free hand, seasoned with shame.

Yep 635 and Elam. I worked there a bit in high school

[G650 14164]

3 hours ago, relapse98 said:

Looks like it may still be around in Florida, if the same chain, PoFolks. We used to eat at one it seemed like every week. They had a folksy hillbilly schtick in the way they wrote the menu. Drinks came in a Mason jar. Miss that place 

Holy shit. There's still a Po' Folks???

[HouTex 1860]

Another Houston one -- The Strawberry Patch.  Had a kickass CFS the size of home plate.

One of the early Pappas restaurants.

[RDCanecutter 26351]

5 hours ago, relapse98 said:

Looks like it may still be around in Florida, if the same chain, PoFolks. We used to eat at one it seemed like every week. They had a folksy hillbilly schtick in the way they wrote the menu. Drinks came in a Mason jar. Miss that place 

I learned from Wikipedia that Po' Folks has shrunk from an empire of 102 restaurants to a remnant of 8, almost all of them owned by one guy in the Baja Alabama part of Florida.

As a broke ute I used to survive off their red beans and rice and cornbread. If you left the sausage out of it, you could get a meal for couch change.

[PRONG HORN 3117]

15 hours ago, elfenix said:

Charlie's hamburgers
 

 

Yes!  From the late seventies on. 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2018 by PRONG HORN

[dcbc 14450]

23 hours ago, Smax said:

Vargos and their swans

My dad loved Vargo's.  Took my mom there on their first date. 

[dcbc 14450]

19 hours ago, elfenix said:

 

 

Charlie's hamburgers, there's a blast from the past. Think there's still one in fountainview but it was ass a few years ago.

That west U bw3 is danny goeb's place.

 

Cliff's is on Fountainview and it was amazing back in the day.  I've heard it's gone downhill.

Charlies was on Bunker Hill and I-10.  "Over 2 Dozen served."

[dcbc 14450]

Joy Luck in Carillon Center on Westheimer West of Gessner.  Chinese food was average at best, but they sure did love serving us 16 year old kids cocktails.  I remember 20+ of us going there once with that many fake IDs (all of which were one of 3 of which we had made color copies and had a buddy at Blockbuster laminate for us).  Waiter comes out and says, "Who wants Zombie!"  20 hands shoot up.

[Gale Snoats 242]

There was a Giovanni's in the Brazos mall in lake Jackson when I was growing up. It was mall pizza but it was awesome - much better than the standard food court stuff. At least that's how I remember it. I always assumed it was a chain but I've searched and searched on the Internet and can't find any mention of it. My search is complicated by the fact that Giovanni's is probably the most common name for a pizza place.

[Mr.Hovis 70]

Didn't see Leslie's Chicken Shack mentioned. We would stop there on all trips from Ft. Worth heading to the coast or any where in south Texas. I thought it was great as a kid, hell even until they went of business. I know they had a few other locations but only ate at the one in Waco. How I did the locals not support that place? Oh, and I'm not a fan of gizzards but damn my Mom loved theirs. Insert your mom/gizzard joke here cause I know you want to.

[Stunns38 3457]

Black Eyed Pea seems to have disappeared from Texas.
Are Captain D's still around?

There’s a Black Eyed Pea in Arlington off of 20.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

My first job was at the GW Jr’s on Southcross Blvd near Goliad Rd in SA. Pretty tasty bacon cheeseburgers and footlong chili dogs, if I say so myself. They were owned by Church’s Fried Chicken and went away after about 5 years when CFC declared bankruptcy circa 1980. 

Edited August 18, 2018 by ImissWallyPryor

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

When I was a kid, we used to stop by The Barn restaurant in Huron, SD. There was a carhop there named Cheryl Stoppelmoor who became Cheryl Ladd. I was too young to appreciate her level of talent, but my dad always claimed he remembered. This photo was after they expanded and did away with the carhops.

R.I.P. 1962-2002ish

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

On 8/16/2018 at 2:13 PM, Brisketexan said:

I can go Houston old-school here.

Yamin's pizza on Gessner just north of the SW fwy -- owned by a family of one of my long-time school-mates.  Pretty good damned pizza, first place that I put away a whole (small) pizza by myself, as a growing boy.

Ludy's pizza -- damned sure nobody knows about this one.  It was at the entrance of my neighborhood -- Braeburn Valley West -- when we moved in, circa 1974.  It was great, in a strip center next to Sunny's food mart, and was the first restaurant that I remember being upset about it closing.

Danver's hamburgers on Gessner just before the SW fwy -- think Fuddruckers before Fuddruckers.  Good, thick burgers, and a huge fixings bar so you could make it the way you liked it.  My dad LOVED that place, as did my wife's dad -- we didn't know each other back then, but we can guarantee that we were there on the same Saturday night at least once, probably much more than once.

Mr. Steak -- a cheap steak joint.  Really cheap.  But when I was little, my family was pretty po, and my dad liked steak.  So, we went there a good bit.  I think it was on Fondren, between Westpark and Westheimer.

Holy shit we grew up in the same neighborhood.  Haven’t thought about Yamin’s in decades.  Ludy’s. My God.  I lived on the other end, right by where they later put Scoops N Games.

Speaking of SW Houston pizza you ever go to Lalo’s, the Argentinian pizza place farther up West Bellfort - past Fondren?  I was there the day that Argentina won the World Cup and they fave me a glass of wine. Fucking great pizza. 

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

On 8/16/2018 at 3:51 PM, Brisketexan said:

Another Houston one -- The Strawberry Patch.  Had a kickass CFS the size of home plate.

That place sponsored my little league team. 

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

On 8/16/2018 at 6:32 PM, Smax said:

yes they are a great buffet all you can eat crab and lobster and right up the road old san francisco steakhouse had that chick on the swing

Ruby Reds off i-10, loved being allowed to throw peanut shells on the floor

Vargos and their swans

Charlies Hamburgers

Im pretty sure the one in West U was originally a weck as I distinctly remember wondering wtf was a weck 

It was. IIRC, it took over the old Dan & Nick’s - the bar owned by Dan Patrick when he was Channel 11’s sports guy. And the one on 6th was a bw-3 for sure.  The one time I was there I kept asking what the “3” was for and I joked about how it stood for their rating on a 1-10 scale. 

[TwiceHorn 31393]

13 hours ago, dcbc said:

Joy Luck in Carillon Center on Westheimer West of Gessner.  Chinese food was average at best, but they sure did love serving us 16 year old kids cocktails.  I remember 20+ of us going there once with that many fake IDs (all of which were one of 3 of which we had made color copies and had a buddy at Blockbuster laminate for us).  Waiter comes out and says, "Who wants Zombie!"  20 hands shoot up.

August Moon in Dallas. 

[PilotsError 2286]

...

[AustinMT 952]

Night Hawk

[Guest]

Mander’s Pizza on Federal.

Denver/ Westminster

has been out of business for quite some time, but it was easily our favorite place to go when it was our vote as kids

[Whitman 694]

On 8/15/2018 at 8:53 AM, Onboard 2.0 said:

Shoneys Big Boy restaurants.

I think there are still about 5 or 6 of them off of 95 around the Richmond area .  I know one is down on the NC line in Emporia.  Friends and I would tempt fate and do their breakfast buffet years ago and then within an hour have to stop again for what we called "The Shoney's Shove".    

[Brisketexan 104842]

Holy shit we grew up in the same neighborhood.  Haven’t thought about Yamin’s in decades.  Ludy’s. My God.  I lived on the other end, right by where they later put Scoops N Games.
Speaking of SW Houston pizza you ever go to Lalo’s, the Argentinian pizza place farther up West Bellfort - past Fondren?  I was there the day that Argentina won the World Cup and they fave me a glass of wine. Fucking great pizza. 

My childhood best friend lived at that end of the neighborhood, at the dead end of Spellman. Blew through a lotta quarters at Scoops and Games.

As for Lalo’s, that was the first place I had linguini al pesto....and I went to high school with the son of the family that owned it, the Portos.

[cactusflinthead 27596]

Pancho's. No shame. I only know of two still in existence. 

I remember a Boston Sea Party on Preston, just north of LBJ sort of across from Valley View. First time I had a whole lobster.

There was a Feed Bag on Forest Lane near Central. Hamburger steak and big slab cut ranch fries.

Big Boy used to be everywhere it seemed. Vanished from me in an instant. 

There was a place called Olympic Pizza on Greenville at Walnut Hill. I miss the lunch buffet slam.

[C-Man 27146]

I moved from Houston to SA before first grade and the two restaurants I remembered us going to in the 70’s were Los Tios and Pipe Organ Pizza.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

2 hours ago, PilotsError said:

...

The San Antonio location is still there, I think. 

Another campus area restaurant we used to go to for a late night drunken CFS was the Lazy Daisy. 

Unless I missed it, no one has mentioned Mad Dog and Beans. The name Mad Dog was later co-opted and corrupted. Thanks, Mack. 

Edited August 18, 2018 by ImissWallyPryor

[WhatTheBuck 28743]

On August 16, 2018 at 4:36 PM, RDCanecutter said:

Axed myself "the fuck is weck?" Googled it.

Buffalo Vild Vings und Veck.

Short for Kimmelweck, it's basically a kaiser roll topped with sea salt and caraway seeds. Beef on Weck was a roast beef sandwich but I always thought it made a great bun for a burger. And they used to make great burgers at bw-3. 

What really sucks is that I found a local market that made Weck rolls in their bakery but they closed down last year. Their rolls were really good. Not as good as the ones at bw-3 but really good and more photogenic. It's Imgur so you'll have to click the link. 

https://imgur.com/a/2DEjE

I don't know if that's going to show up as a clickable link or not. (Have they not fixed their Imgur conflict yet?) Anyway, I need to find another source for Weck rolls. I don't want to drive all the way down to German Village but I will if I have to. 

[Underdog 28529]

9 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

My first job was at the GW Jr’s on Southcross Blvd near Goliad Rd in SA. Pretty tasty bacon cheeseburgers and footlong chili dogs, if I say so myself. They were owned by Church’s Fried Chicken and went away after about 5 years when CFC declared bankruptcy circa 1980. 

Worked at the Church's on Wm. Cannon and there was a GWs next door, IIRC, they set a record for being built although it was a modular building.  We always swapped out goodies between us.  

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

Our location won a sales contest the summer of ‘77. We stayed open later than we were supposed to ensure the win that earned us each a $50 Best Products gift certicate. Mine went to buying a set of headphones I had been eyeing. Good times.