Category: Restaurants

This Carl's Jr. location closed along with all other in Houston in early 2020.

Permit Roundup: A new Raising Canes, a converted Dunkin’ Donuts, and a few others

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to another permit roundup! Last week, we unfortunately had to skip our permit roundup due to lack of content! So let’s start off with the only permit I really did skip over last week. 7-Eleven had filed building plans at 10670 W Little York Rd, Houston, TX 77041, which would put it opposite Beltway 8 from a Valero/Circle K. Moving onto this week, let’s start off with another new built …

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Laynes Chicken Fingers, have we been barking up the wrong tree this whole time?

Howdy readers! Let me start off today’s tale by telling you that I am a huge fan of Raising Cane’s. In 2005, I had a summer job in the Alief area, and was introduced to the wonder that was Raising Canes. I wasn’t so much drawn in by what I now know was the second location in the state (and the oldest still open), I wasn’t drawn by the elements imported from the original Baton …

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It was a Bright day which made exterior photos very difficult, but this build doesn't much resemble a "normal" Luby's anyway

An “after-life” look at a Lubys that was originally called Romana

Cafeterias are a Southern specialty. Born out of the efficiency of self-serve prepared food, by utilizing a limited service concept, they were staples of the 20th Century. The cafeteria allowed families to quickly and cheaply feed an entire family. This was one of the major selling point early on, cafeterias were cheap. The quality of the food was below an average dine-in restaurant of the time, but still far above even the earliest incarnations of …

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The Ike's Super Mario Sandwhich. Photo Credit: Wilis Lam

Permit Roundup: Visitors abound: Mr. Potato drops in from New Orleans, and Happy Lemon from China!

Newcomers enter into Houston Howdy, folks, and welcome back to our regularly scheduled Permit Roundup! This week seems to have been relatively quiet as far as new filings go. However, we do have a few standouts, so let’s start with those. Two “out of town” restaurants have filed permits to build locations in Houston. One of these is Mr. Potato. The restaurant concept was born over in New Orleans originally as a food truck, opening …

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The Gym and a couple of other tenants had obviously gone out of business, but most everything the the former Wal-Mart is open.

Random Retail: Two out of place Big Box Retailers, and Two former Burger Joints

Welcome folks, today we’ve got another edition of Random Retail! This week we have a heavy emphasis on a former Wal-Mart, but not enough that it warrants its own post. If you’ve never experienced Random Retail before, well it’s basically a dump of photos I’ve taken that don’t really fit in with anything else I’m doing at the moment. A good portion of these Random Retail photos come from former Wal-Mart #597 at 7075 FM …

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Permit Roundup: New Retail Spaces Appear Throughout Town, Multiple Remodels, and New Restaurants

Welcome back to our second Permit Roundup, this week our post is a bit shorter than last week. It seems similarly to Demolitions Reports, the Residential/Commercial balance changes from week to week, again with an emphasis on the residential permits. Also, if you didn’t read it in yesterday’s demolition post, my server is running very slowly at the moment, but I am in the process of updating, so please bear with me in the meantime. …

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This Week in Demolition: If this is all you get, it’s all you get!

Howdy Folks, this week in Demolition we see some interesting demolitions, mixed in with a litany of technical issues! Hopefully everyone is seeing this post, as I’ve been encountering some technical issues lately. These are related to a consistent rise in traffic, which causes my server to often hit its limits. I’m trying to upgrade to a better server within a week or so, but of course I do have outside responsibilities to attend to. …

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However, To Go never seemed to catch on at Luby's despite having a separate door!

Retail News: Wait a minute.. who just bought Luby’s and Fuddruckers?!

Happy Friday to you all dear readers! Hitting the “top of the retail charts” this week has been the sale of both the Luby’s and Fuddruckers brands, in addition to multiple locations. This is joyous news as it means you can continue to stuff yourself silly with hamburgers, and Luanne Platters, and as both chains are slated to live on, it’s even possible that some co-brand locations may remain open. With all this excitement for …

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Photo Credit: /u/hindesky

Permit Roundup: 7-Eleven lands in Katy, Indoor Paintball in Spring Branch, and Speculation on Washington Ave.

Howdy folks and welcome to… what I’m hoping may become a somewhat regular feature here on Houston Historic Retail. This is what I’m calling a Permit Roundup, the majority of my information for this post is based on permits that have been filed with the City of Houston. The point of this is to provide one of the earliest possible looks at up and coming retail development throughout the Houston area, somewhat in the vein …

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Retail News: Two more Fuddruckers closer to closing, including one in a former Arbys

So, let’s start off this post with the elephant in the room, Fuddruckers as a chain is not going out of business. Luby’s Inc is in the process of liquidation, but they have yet to announce final closing dates for corporate owned stores. While the sale of any remaining Luby’s Cafeterias is low to unlikely, Fuddruckers locations have been somewhat easier to unload. With the majority going to a company named Black Titan LLC, along …

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