Burger King / Shell at W. 18th Street

Picture from Google Maps (Gregston Chu, 2025). The Burger King logo on the road side was already changed.
Continuing with the theme of Burger King restaurants I've eaten at (see Burger King at 7406 Fondren Road), this one is at 4401 West 18th Street and combined with a Shell station, opening in late 2007. My main memories of it were from the first time I drove to Houston by myself to visit a friend in Pearland, and after driving on Hempstead Road (partly to avoid the 290 construction) stopped here for lunch. After I bought my hamburger, I drove to the Northwest Mall parking lot directly next to it (at the time, the parking lots connected) and ate some of it in the car. While the Northwest Mall's parking lot resembled driving on the surface of the Moon, I sat in my car and looked out at the big Pizza Inn sign in the distance and imagined it as the old, classic Burger King logo (the new one isn't actually the same) atop it.

It replaced a Texaco which operated from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, and I'm not sure if it operated as a Shell in the early to mid 2000s or as some other automobile-adjacent business.

This is an expanded version of what once appeared on Carbon-izer on the Northwest Freeway page (removed as of Version 8.0).

Former Barry's Pizza

In 2001, they only had their original and a short-lived Stafford location.
This used to be on Carbon-izer.com under "Other Houston Roads - Outer Loop", well, as of this writing anyway, as it got eliminated during the rewrite of the page to the new Richmond Avenue page (which will go live within 24 hours of this post going to press, so unless you're subscribed to the blog it's up).

In 1983, Carlos'n Charlies opened at 6003 Richmond Avenue, though perhaps due to issues with the parent company became Carlos'n Lefties Del Norte within a year, likely taking inspiration from the country song. After it closed in 1985, Crocodile (a seafood restaurant) opened in 1987, and was described in a restaurant review as "Bennigan's meets Banana Republic" and "everything about it [was] derivative of one restaurant theme or another" (For a brief time, Crocodile was just a few blocks away from Hippo). By 1990, the restaurant was just the "Pappas Party Room", with the defunct restaurant now being rented out as event space, and in early 1992 became the new home of Barry's Pizza, which had multiple locations in Houston at the time.

By 1997, the restaurant, also known as "Barry's Pizza & Italian Diner" was referred to as the "original" location and by 2019, Barry's Pizza was down to this one location, closing in 2020 (one of Houston's COVID-19 victims). A similar restaurant, Parma Pizza, opened in 2021, but it closed after a relatively short run, and by August 2024 the building was being torn down.

Replacing it was a gas station (Spark) with the address of 3222 Fountain View, featuring "Kare Market" and "Spark Laundry". Pictures can be seen at HoustonArchitecture.com.

Georgia's Farm to Market

For years, at the intersection of the Katy Freeway frontage road and Piney Point Road sat two converted gas stations. Tall Plants at 9191 Katy Freeway is still there but the other one at 9201 Katy Freeway, is not.

Georgia's Farm to Market was the last tenant at 9201 Katy Freeway before its demolition for a new location of Rice Box. I first became aware of it back in spring 2016, which looked like an interesting farmer's market-type store, despite its small size. Alas, at the time, I was too poor, too pressed for time, and wasn't even on the right side of the road (Blalock was my exit, but I would have to circle around twice). When I returned in February 2020, the store was clearly closed, yet the parking lot was full of cars, and really nice cars at that. Hoping I wasn't stumbling onto something illegal, I poked my head inside to see a small class of people doing painting lessons in the gutted building. I didn't interact with them, I had completed my purpose, and I don't think they even noticed me. As for Georgia's, it moved and renamed in early 2018.

Georgia's had occupied the spot since 2013, when it was moved from a location at a former Kmart further down Katy Freeway. (It was only supposed to be a temporary move but ended up being permanent). Prior to Georgia's, it was a granite and flooring store (officially Floors & Beyond Trading), and was an Enco station (originally Humble) in 1967. (The station was built between 1957 and 1962). This seems to have continued up until around 1994, when it closed (as an Exxon) and became Robert's Auto Works (mid to late 1990s), then a Just Brakes (2000-2004). The two pictures were taken in February 2021 by myself. In 2021 the canopy was demolished followed by the rest of the building soon after.

The building's current use is listed on the Katy Freeway page at Carbon-izer.