Hungry Farmer Barbecue on East Crosstimbers

Picture by Lauren Meyers (sevfiv), 2015. Creative Commons license.
Our post today covers what is now and what has been Hungry Farmer Barbecue at 40 East Crosstimbers Street since around 1975 (I believe this is the first location), but what was once a location of Roy Rogers Restaurants, opened under Ram-Hart Systems in 1969 and surviving several years after the failure of the franchisee. (The Bryan store wasn't one of the lucky ones). Some additional information can be found here. At the time, we (I mean "SpaceGhost" and I, not the royal we) weren't aware of the whole Ram-Hart Systems debacle, so that thread only reflects what was known at the time.

Guest Quarters Post Oak

This ad appeared January 9, 1979 in the Houston Chronicle.
Guest Quarters, an all-suite hotel concept with a focus on customer service, opened in December 1978 at 2929 South Post Oak Road (2929 Post Oak Boulevard today). Featuring sixteen floors, 200 one-bedroom suites and 10 two-bedroom suites, it was the talk of the town when it opened (at least the Uptown area, then called the "Magic Circle") and while it didn't have an in-house restaurant it did offer room service though it had a full kitchen equipped with cookware, so if you wanted to cook something yourself, you could...they did grocery delivery and had more basic items on hand. It was the sixth location in the entire chain and was a big enough success that a second location (taller and more rooms) opened off of Westheimer (see my Westheimer page, under 5353 Westheimer Road) at which point, this hotel became known as "Guest Quarters - Post Oak".

In July 1984, it closed due to an ongoing recession and planned to become a luxury apartment complex, though that fell through, and in July 1986 reopened as "The Hampton", a retirement community after a renovation. It only had 196 rooms, but some rooms were converted to common areas, including a lending library and barber shop, and in 1986 a a 45-bed nursing home annex was built on top of the parking garage. In 2015 it became Brookdale Galleria (on the outside of the building it reads Brookdale Senior Living Solutions), possibly due to a complaint from Hilton (which owned the Hampton Inn name). According to state records, the nursing facility began to wind down operations in July 2026.

Luby's Cafeteria Town & Country

I dislike using Google Maps Street View photos because they're blurry or have weird stitching artifacts, but it will have to do today.
Among the businesses in the original, pre-1983 Town & Country Village was Luby's Cafeteria (opened in 1974 as Romana Cafeteria). The address was 825 Town & Country Village, but I've also seen 825 Town & Country Lane or even 12867 Town & Country Way for the address. The history is tied to Town & Country Mall. It initially faced the Town & Country Village shopping center, but when the Town & Country Mall was built, the front of the Luby's faced the mall's parking garage, the back was toward the street, making the Luby's essentially face backwards, which no other Luby's did. It advertised with Town & Country Mall's directories and advertising as if it was a restaurant in the mall, but it was still located outside, and outlasted the mall itself by about eight years (I believe this restaurant closed in 2012). A few years later it was torn down for CITYCENTRE Five, an office building that was part of the CityCentre development that itself replaced Town & Country Mall. As of this writing and according to the CityCentre website, the building is home to City Bank (suite 100) on street level and LifeTime Work (suite 1200) above, as well as others.

Tennis World Apartments

1985 ad with logo and features (Houston Chronicle, 9/15/85)
New apartment complexes are a dime a dozen these days and not much to distinguish between them, but there a few to try to break that mold and offer stuff that your average apartment complex couldn't, case in point, Tennis World, located at 2101 Hayes Road.

I came across it doing research for when updating another page on this site, and while Tennis World had the usual trappings of other communities oriented toward adults and young professionals (including multiple swimming pools), it featured eight lighted tennis courts, as well as a pro shop and a "resident [tennis] pro will be available to residents for complimentary lessons", with the complex itself featuring seven floorplans ranging to three-bedroom units. (source).

Lots of wood siding here. (Houston Chronicle, 6/16/1984)
From what I can tell, Tennis World maintained its popularity through the 1980s when other late 1970s builds weren't doing so hot, with 1985 adding a fitness center on the premises, though by that time they had family sections.

In 1995 the apartments were renamed to Courtside at Olympia Apartment and by 2002 Westchase Ranch Resort, and despite being renamed twice, still carried all of Tennis World's features, such as the free lessons by a tennis professional on staff. During this era, however, changes were made to the apartment's foundation. I'm not sure when the tennis pro was sacked, but the tennis courts remained up until the mid-2010s when renovations were done, and within a few years, all but three were gone (and I'm not sure if the remaining three are even still operational). Not too long after the apartments changed names again to Westside Flats before changing hands again to The Quinn at Westchase.

One other thing regarding this apartment complex is like many complexes it was later cut in half. I've seen over 700 units for quoted for this apartment complex, and that appears to be the units at 11201 Olympia Drive, which were split off in the late 2010s (it was Olympia Flats in 2018, likely resulting from the splitting of Westchase Ranch Resort and now The Corridor at Westchase).

The Redevelopment of Pinebrook Apartments

Ad for Pinebrook Apartments shortly after opening. From Houston Chronicle, 1973.
Welcome back to The Houston Files! For the last few years I've been adding Houston-related entries to Numbered Exits but there were so many Houston-related entries (especially as they've gotten taken off Carbon-izer) that I decided to revive this site again.

While I've discussed on my Northwest Freeway page in the past, 5201 West 34th Street currently houses a Jimmy John's and Origin Bank these days, but it wasn't always like that. It was originally a much larger lot with Northwest Freeway frontage and housed Pinebrook Apartments (stylized as "PineBrook", at least in the early days of the apartment complex) was a 232-unit apartment complex built in 1971 (and started advertising in 1972) as one of the many apartment complexes with clubhouses, swimming pools, and shag carpeting in the early 1970s, though PineBrook was always open to families (and pets).

The apartment complex suffered issues leading up to its official closure in November 1990 (transients moving into vacant apartments and starting fires), with (apparently) another fire happening after it was closed before the city tore it down in early 1992. By early 1995 it had been redeveloped into new sites, a new building housing a stand-alone Payless ShoeSource (using the old address, 5201 West 34th Street) and the Pine Hollow Shopping Center at 5215 West 34th Street, which was also near Northwest Freeway.

From what I can find, there was Jason's Deli in suite A (1995 to eviction in the early 2010s), Pro-Cuts in suite B (might've changed its name before closing/eviction), and Blockbuster in suite D (1995-2008). (If there was anything in Suite C I couldn't find it). I did get a bit of the Street View here.

In 1996, Boston Market was built at 5195 West 34th Street, and in 2005¹, another building was built next to it (5185 West 34th Street) with Lenny's Sub Shop, a vacancy, First Cash Advance, and RadioShack (which moved from across the street). 5175 West 34th Street was developed as a Wells Fargo in 2008.

Of course, all of these have changed over the years. Pine Hollow was demolished with the widening of the freeway, with Jason's Deli (which was closest to West 34th) going last². Payless ShoeSource closed in 2006 and was replaced with Purpose Money (later Check into Cash, by 2011) but only in half of the building. By late 2014, Jimmy John's opened in the other half but the west half was empty, and finally filled in 2016 with Verizon, though that only operated for around four years. By summer 2024 it was replaced with Origin Bank.

Boston Market closed around 2000 and was replaced by Sonic Drive-In (featuring an eat-in area) in 2001 which closed around 2026 (though the sign had been smashed out for a few years at that point).

The strip center next door had tenants come and go, with Lenny's Sub Shop getting replaced by a Little Caesars and the RadioShack becoming a Sprint RadioShack, then converting to a regular Sprint store before closing entirely. Tenants as of January 2026, from east to west (left to right) include Little Caesars (100), Fred Loya Insurance, Total by Verizon (200), Studio 34 Barbershop, and Wingstop.

Wells Fargo closed between 2024 and January 2026.

Additionally, here's an adver-article from 12/31/1972 from the Houston Chronicle that talks more about the apartments.

1. It appears the tenants moved in proper around 2006.
2. Presumably waiting until their new location on Northwest Freeway could be completed.

Leo's Coffee Shop

In 1973, Leo Kalantzakis opened a 24-hour coffee shop at the ground floor of 1203 Fannin (below a parking garage), where, according to the Houston Chronicle, "he'll offer platters of seafood, steaks cooked to order, specialty salads, and a magnificent sandwich selection. Two midnight breakfasts, steaks and the traditional ham 'n eggs are ranking high, says manager Jerry Erwin."

The signage looks big and gaudy and probably was outdated even by 1970s standards (certainly with energy requirements coming in soon) but the reason why Leo's can still be talked about today is a rather scathing report by Marvin Zindler's "Rat & Roach Report" from 1982. That's where the pictures in this post come from, the current A dingy downtown diner that never closes has issues, with health inspectors finding two dead mice in a storage area and "roaches crawling on the condiment cooler" (as Zindler relished the alliteration). By 1984 Leo's was gone.

The current site is now home to McCormick & Schmick's Seafood & Steaks; the building was demolished and rebuilt in the late 2000s.

Railhead

Postcard from the early days. (Source unknown).

The first reference to 6400 Richmond appears in 1974 as the Railhead, a steakhouse themed to the golden era of American railroads. From what I've heard it had two portions of the restaurants, one focusing on steakhouse dining (serving a menu of prime rib and seafood) and the other toward live shows, which got increasingly more nightclubby as time went on. A January 1983 show with Dan Berry of Jan & Dean invited women to come in a bikini (and get their first drink free). Later that year it closed and the building received a large expansion to become Fizz, a popular nightclub, opening in spring 1986.

Fizz closed in October 1986 for a renovation, with a new theme and name, Hippo, opening in December. Hippo featured "a pseudo-artsy decor" where "abstract acrylics, animal murals and bad Picasso-esque paintings line the walls". By June 1988, however, the location had transitioned into a new concept, simply called "6400 Richmond" with alternative music (the new slogan - "Top 40 - We Ain't Playing It!"). This was done slowly, with some nights as Hippo and some as 6400 Richmond with black plastic covering the walls. You can see some of what was the nightclub in this video. It mentions a private club-within-a-nightclub (Wolfgang) with a quieter, more discreet atmosphere (this was likely the old Railhead portion) and you can see guests dance on the floor (note the very drunk man at five minutes) to Dead Or Alive's "My Heart Goes Bang" (Live in Japan).

"6400 Club" as it was known by late 1988, was destroyed in a fire in January 1989 and appears to not have reopened. The most extensive damage was at the former Railhead building, which was essentially rebuilt as a covered patio. The rest of the building was repaired/rebuilt and reopened as Back Alley in August 1991. Just over a year later, the club was closed and reopened around December 1992 as Texas Live, a new country western club, but it closed after four months, citing an oversaturated C&W nightclub scene. In mid-1993 it reopened as Rockefeller's West, a spin-off of Rockefeller's in the Rice Military area and designed to be primarily a performance hall rather than a dance club. Operations changed hands and eventually the "original" Rockefeller's managed to get exclusivity rights to the name back and Rockefeller's West was changed to Bayou City Theater (aka Bayou City Theatre) in December 1993.

In July 1994, Peter's Wildlife opened, turning it back into a nightclub. In November, the club faced some bad publicity with "Slash 'N Dash", to feature "was to feature a straw poll on [O.J.] Simpson's guilt or innocence; free valet parking for customers driving white Ford Broncos; free Simpson masks and a gift certificate for a hunting knife as a grand prize". Not only was the grand prize a knife but the winner was to "win an O.J. Simpson 'Slash N' Dash' night on the town to include dinner at McDonald's, a black stocking cap, a gift certificate for a hunting knife, a pair of sunglasses and a limousine ride to the airport". After there was an outcry from local womens' shelters about this, the club announced that the party would instead be "An Evening of Extremely Poor Taste" and "did not mention prizes". At some point around this time, there was a club-within-a-club, Florida Keys. Peter's Wildlife closed in mid-1997 shortly after a lawsuit was filed by a woman claiming she "almost choked to death" in a hot dog eating contest Peter's Wildlife had hosted in 1995. T-Town 2000, a Latino-themed nightclub opened in September 1998, not long after 6400 Sports Cafe made a brief appearance in the building. T-Town 2000 was successful enough to last seven years (something that every club, dating back to Fizz, couldn't manage) before closing/changing to Planeta Bar-Rio around 2005 (probably because "2000" anything became quickly dated after the year 2000). Around 2010 it was reformatted once more to Stereo Live, a live performance venue, which has remained since.

The billboard-esque sign for the club dates back to the days of the Railhead.

This post is researched through Houston Chronicle and Houston Post archives and expanded from what originally appeared on Carbon-izer.com at this page.

Jack in the Box in The Heights

Photo by author, March 2019
Built in 1977 but replacing an older restaurant dating back to at least the mid-1960s, this Jack in the Box closed September 2018. The restaurant was poorly run, with employees actually refusing to serve hamburgers after around 7 pm citing the grill being shut off (likely a reason for its demise, as Jack in the Box stores usually thrive on night traffic). After a major renovation inside and out, it reopened as Velvet Taco in January 2021, their third location in Houston at the time but the first with a drive-through. Jack in the Box's "box" signage was kept and reused, however.

UPDATE 08-25-2026: Article touched up for better integration with Carbon-izer

Crain's Garden Center

4511 Highway 6 North

Today, this is a Discount Tire, with Discount Tire's store being built in 1989. Based on aerials, the original garden center dates back to the 1970s. From The Houston Post, June 12, 1985.

17030-17050 Imperial Valley Drive

Woodvalley Apartments in its original form. (Houston Post, 6/1979) Our story starts in the present day, at least, present day as of this writing, when Biscayne at CityView (17050 Imperial Valley Drive), an apartment complex, was demolished in late 2025 and concluded in early 2026, with the former apartments to become greenspace. They had been flooded out in the 2016 Tax Day Floods and in Hurricane Harvey over a year later, and was bought by the Harris County Flood Control District, which condemned the property, with the last residents moving out in 2022. They were long seen as blight and slums representative of post-1980s Greenspoint.

But it wasn't always like this.

Woodvalley Apartments first opened in 1977 with 316 units and located at 17050 Imperial Valley Drive (the north side of the current property). It was typical of suburban apartments at the time, with this one in particular offering the perk of Channel Z. This wasn't a misspelling of Los Angeles-based Z Channel but rather a Houston-based channel for movies and only available at apartment complexes.

The apartment glut in Houston wreaked havoc on Greenspoint in particular (and Gulfton), and to help combat this, Woodvalley, which was considered to be "deteriorating" by this time, fought back. In 1985, it received a significant upgrade where it became "The Hollywood" and even in 1989 (according to the Houston Post article "Latest marketing ploy? A poolside beach") had 90% occupancy. This was more than a name change and a repaint, the new name came with "lush California landscaping", with other amenities including "fountains, reflecting pools, an outdoor poolside amphitheater, waterfalls, sand volleyball, lighted tennis courts and even an imposing entry gate". Even after hard freezes and the demolition of the apartment complex, those palm trees are still there.

The Hollywood ad, c. 1985 (Houston Post)
When I first wrote this post, there was a government document still online that had Section 8 apartments circa 1994-1996, and this was one of them under the name of Summerlin, which it adopted shortly after it changed hands in 1993.

By 2007 it adopted the Biscayne at CityView name, though I can't figure out when that happened.

Early Sunlight Apartments advertisement
The second apartment complex that was incorporated into Biscayne at CityView was Sunlight Apartments, opened in 1978, located at 17030 Imperial Valley Drive, and featuring 214 units (though one article mentions it having 244 units, still not sure about that). Sunlight Apartments had its first murder while the apartments were still under construction. Other than that, they had similar issues to Woodvalley (by 1982 it was already advertising remodeled units) and still had the Sunlight name until at least 1995. At some point it was incorporated into Biscayne at CityView, informally "Biscayne at CityView II".

Of course, there are still some gaps...when did the apartments really take a turn for the worse? When did Sunlight change names? But...at least we know some of the history.

UPDATE 06-30-2026: Overhauled article with new name (from "The Hollywood"). This had previously not seen updates since 2018.

Ruth's Chris Steak House on Richmond

6213 Richmond Avenue

The current Ruth's Chris Steak House in Houston is at 5433 Westheimer, when a renovation of an office building built it into a former bank lobby, but the original was located here on Richmond. The original restaurant here, "PTI Restaurant" opened in 1975. It then Zachary's before closing altogether in less than two years, and from 1977 to 2013 was the home of Ruth's Chris Steak House, which despite being a chain offered some of the best steaks in Houston (dry-aged, well seasoned, with a pat of butter added to the steak just moments after being pulled off the grill). Afterwards, by fall 2014, it was V Live (despite signs of "Vintage Steak & Seafood", it was a strip club). Newspaper articles say that V Live was closed in November 2016 due to not paying taxes, and it later became Karma Houston 6213 (which did not last long) and Draise Houston (also similarly fly-by-night looking). The most recent strip club here, Bunny's Gentlemens Club, operated here from 2020 to 2022. In late 2024 it became Selfish Hookah Lounge. Image picture above is from a Houston tour guide from the 1980s and the bottom is from Loopnet.com.

UPDATE 07-07-2026: Updated as part of the new Richmond Avenue page, of which this is fully independent. Title of post changed from "Ruth's Chris Steak House" to "Ruth's Chris Steak House on Richmond".

Former Kroger #174

641 West Crosstimbers Road This former Kroger (#174 in the Houston division) store was built in 1979, likely built as a grocery companion to the now-defunct 1950s-era Sears store next door (much like how the Midtown Fiesta Mart was built), and it connected with its parking lot. It is an unusual building that doesn't quite match with Kroger prototypes (similar to the "Superstore" designs but with significant modifications), likely to fit into lot requirements.

In 1982 it closed due to union problems. After a short run as Rainbow Home Town Foods around 1984-1985 (part of a short-lived affiliation of stores run by the now-defunct Schepp's Grocery), Kroger continued to own the empty store but it remained empty until it was sold to Charles Bertani, who moved his "Family Bingo Center" here in 1999 from its old location at 1275 Pinemont.

In October 2021, Family Bingo Center shuttered without much notice despite owning the facility, and demolition plans for the building were filed soon after. In its place is being built Modera Garden Oaks, ready for move-in late 2023. The two pictures are the author's, taken July 2018, but a day apart.

UPDATE 07-08-2026: As of July 2026, Modera Garden Oaks is now known as The Brighton Garden Oaks. It looks like it might've changed hands in mid-2025. The above link for Modera Garden Oaks has been replaced with an an archived version.
UPDATE 07-29-2026: Renamed post to "Former Kroger #174" as part of updates and integration into Carbon-izer.

Marriott Hotel Brookhollow

3000 North Loop West

The above appeared in The Eagle originally but I've previously posted it on the original Northwest Freeway page. Today known as the Sheraton Houston Brookhollow Hotel, the hotel opened (built) in 1979 as Marriott Hotel Brookhollow, part of the big building boom of hotels during that time (before the crash and several ended up closing, and the ones that did not close had severely reduced rents, like the 1985 ad above). Despite premiering a new restaurant called Cimarron in early 1992 (New Southwestern food, buffet), in May 1992, new ownership (Medallion Hotels of New York, which bought it from Aetna Insurance in 1990), renamed the hotel as Houston Medallion Hotel. In 1998, the hotel became Sheraton Houston Brookhollow, and as of 2018 means that it has been that name longer than the previous two combined. (The hotel was Medallion in fall 1997 and Sheraton in January 1999, and the hotel had changed hands again in 1998). This is the current Google Street View showing the hotel as-is.

Comfort Inn Houston Downtown

Common publicity shot of lobby, sourced from TotsAndTravel.com, which still has photos
5820 Katy Freeway

Last operating as the Comfort Inn Houston Downtown (the name is a definite misnomer, as it is four miles out from downtown and just inside the Loop; it's closer to Uptown at that rate) was closed in late 2011 and wrecked by early 2012 to be a new-build Hampton Inn & Suites. It opened in 1970 (not 1960 as previously reported) as a Rodeway Inn. It became a Days Inn between 1999 and 2000 ("Days Inn & Suites Near the Galleria") but by January 2004 (per Erik Slotboom's video) it had become a Comfort Inn. The room count is 80 on 2 stories, and while it was directly next to a major railroad corridor, I still enjoyed myself when I stayed there in March 2008.

Google Street View from 2011