May 3rd, 2010
200th Article: The Nostalgic 100 of Houston
As our 200th article rolls hot off the wire and silicon, we open up old wounds, smile fondly and shed a tear or two with the Nostalgic 100 of Houston. Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments.
100. Smoking indoors at your convenience
99. Germans in Houston as Alfred’s Restaurants
98. Schnitzel at The Alpenhaus in Conroe
97. Schezuan Empress
96. Eatzi’s fresh sandwiches and all varieties of takeout
95. The damn fine gelato at Dolce & Freddo on Kirby
94. Williams Tower being called the Transco Tower
93. The Ninfa’s drive thru in Pearland
92. Busch Gardens Houston
91. The Cosmos Cafe
90. Peppermint Park and the strange, yet genius idea of an indoor amusement park
89. Sliders (now Anvil Bar & Refuge)
88. Stephens and Pruitt and the Boner on Rock 101.1 KLOL (Facebook)
87. The Spec’s Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods on Washington
86. The Warwick Hotel
85. Chaise Lounge
84. Greenway 3 Underground Theatre and the great unknown films it featured
83. The Southmore House for being whatever it wanted to be
82. What’s Cookin’ with their Sunday jazz brunch and nearly endless beer selection
81. Mary Jane’s (now Pearl Bar)
80. The Houston Comets, Van Chancellor, and their domination of the WNBA
79. The Westheimer Block Party
78. Cafe Artiste
77. Robert Earl Keen Jr.
76. The rides at Waterworld and AstroWorld: the Texas Cyclone, the Sky Screamer, the Wave Pool, the Edge, the Terror Train during Fright Fest and endless sledding runs down the shaved ice during Holiday in the Park
75. The original Antone’s Import Company on Kirby
74. The Maxwell House sign
73. Zorba The Greek on Tuam bringing its delicious food and cheap wine to all that would venture there
72. Gringo’s Innocence
71. Meyer Brothers Department Store
70. The Oven (now Mango’s)
69. Roll-N Saloon
68. The original Gallant Knight on Holcombe (at least they reopened)
67. Public News
66. Oldies 94.5 KLDE
65. Howard Hughes
64. Sierra – The precursor to Tavern on West Gray?
63. Reliant Park Roof (half of the time… get it?)
62. Larry Dierker’s Hawaiian Shirts
61. The River Oaks Shopping Center (now a huge Barnes & Noble)
60. John Schroeter of Valhalla
59. The Daily Grind (Photo Courtesy of chuckwheat’s flickr)
58. Kemah Crab House’s cold seafood buffet
57. South Philly Steaks, as if the hoagies weren’t enough, they also had Tasty Cakes!
56. The Rockets’ Mustard and Ketchup Jerseys
55. Albertson’s Grocery Stores
54. The Houston Wranglers
53. The Mystery Files of Simon Q on KLDE
52. Warren Moon
51. KTRU actually playing “college” music
50. Luna Park
49. The Inverted Sculpture on Montrose (Photo Courtesy of jasoneppink’s flickr)
48. John Heisman coaching at Rice (Yes, as in, “the Heisman”)
47. Ming’s (now inhabited by Little Bigs)
46. The Ocean Grill
45. The old Cactus Music Store
44. Super Bowl XXXVIII
43. The Twelve Spot (Now Hearsay Gastro Lounge)
42. The Killer B’s
41. Portobello Slider at Little Bigs
40. Slime in the Ice Machine with Marvin Zindler
39. The Proletariat (Photo Courtesy of groovehouse’s flickr)
38. Rock 101.1 KLOL
37. The Veer Offense
36. The Bean Burger at Tookie’s
35. The West Alabama Theatre followed by the Book Stop
34. The Pig Stand
33. Little Woodrows on West Alabama
32. Gilley’s and all that the name implies
31. The Shamrock Hilton
30. Townes Van Zandt
29. Houston sports in the Astrodome (Photo Courtesy of nathan_malone’s flickr)
28. The OLD Cafe Brasil
27. Cafe Annie
26. The Southwest Conference
25. Phi Slamma Jamma
24. The Judys
23. Rudy T
22. The Houston Post
21. The GRAB
19. Enron (Photo Courtesy of virgil4u’s flickr)
18. Hakeem Olajuwon and this “Dream Shake”
17. The Astros’ Rainbow
16. The Run N’ Shoot
15. The Texas Terror / Houston Thunderbears
14. The Kraft House or Helios or Mausoleum (Now Avant Garden)
13. Patrick Swayze
12. Mai’s Vietnamese and Chinese Cuisine
11. KIKK FM 95.7 – Texas Country
9. Continental Airlines (Photo Courtesy of WorldOne’s flickr)
8. The Ale House and all the rumors
6. The Oldery (Saint Arnold’s OLD Brewery)
5. The Original Bibas One’s-A-Meal on West Gray
4. The Summit (yes it’s still there, even so)
3. Our Social Media Guru, Aaron
2. Both Montrose-area Diedrich’s
1. Luv Ya Blue
Comments
DMA — Monday, May 3, 2010 3:16 pm
Spazmatics Thursdays at Sammy’s…
@cougarclaws — Monday, May 3, 2010 4:31 pm
I find your lack of R & R Lounge disturbing.
50 cent you-call-its on College Nights! ;>
brian — Monday, May 3, 2010 5:56 pm
When Rockefeller’s was a club. Corky’s at Taft and Hawtorne. Griff’s when Griff still owned it. Hamburgers by Gourmet. KLOL when it was Mother’s Family. I could go on but goodness knows this is enough.
merideth Melville — Monday, May 3, 2010 7:28 pm
Hamburgers by Gourmet
Sarah — Monday, May 3, 2010 7:51 pm
i totally forgot about the greenway underground theater..that’s a good one.
@cougarclaws — Monday, May 3, 2010 10:22 pm
also, Space & Hyperia
Alisa — Monday, May 3, 2010 11:28 pm
Two Pesos!! Sorry Taco Cabana but you winning that lawsuit was SO wrong.
imelda — Wednesday, May 5, 2010 12:25 pm
I had no idea the Greenway Theatre closed. I used to work in GWP and would go watch movies after work a lot.
I would also include the Where’s Waldo art at the corner of Shepard and Alabama, where the Smoothie King is now. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imelda/448817192/
Virginia — Wednesday, May 5, 2010 12:36 pm
I’m sad Felix Mexican Resturaunt didn’t make it to the list. Or the original Avalon Drug Store!
Miranda — Wednesday, May 5, 2010 1:01 pm
Great list but what about Club Some??!!
TomPier — Saturday, May 8, 2010 1:15 pm
great post as usual!
Buddy Boo — Tuesday, May 18, 2010 10:31 am
Music and food…that’s what we appear to miss most. I agree with #51, as I remember when KTRU introduced a lot of bands to Houston music (U2, the Smiths, the Cure, etc). Now it seems to primarily play obscure chants or sitar solos as each DJ tries to prove he/she is even cooler than the previous one.
Nikki — Monday, May 24, 2010 6:39 pm
You missed a biggie…the Fabulous Satellite Lounge. Great music, great venue, greatly pissed that it’s gone. And Emo’s….sweet Emo’s.
Mandy — Sunday, May 30, 2010 12:04 pm
Charlie’s Diner (now part of Chances)
Rockefeller’s
The Abyss
The International Ballroom (The I-Ball)
Club Some/Emo’s
Club Attica
The Tower Theater
The Lonestar Amphitheater
The tattoo parlor that had the Giger mural on the side of it
Atomic Music
Taco Cabana on Montrose
mark — Tuesday, June 8, 2010 3:09 pm
Ruby Red’s on Westheimer with Hamm’s beer and peanut shells all over the floor
Peter — Wednesday, June 16, 2010 6:19 pm
The Redi Room….did I miss that?
sam — Thursday, July 8, 2010 2:17 pm
Mary’s on Westheimer and Wear It AGain Sam on Westheimer
sam — Thursday, July 8, 2010 2:22 pm
Ahhh Ruby Reds with the peanuts, The Empanada Shop on Westheimer, Dragon and the Rat on Westheimer, Mr.Peabody’s, Isadora’s on Alabama, Half Price Books on Waugh,….whoa, I could go on and on and on!!! Daiquiri Factory on Westheimer, Academy which is now Goodwill on Westheimer….I’m a Montrose person…..
L.C. — Wednesday, July 14, 2010 12:44 pm
Pino’s (used to be on Hilcroft)
cmetz — Tuesday, July 20, 2010 4:52 pm
How about the Hoagie Shop. Was on Richmond near Kirby in 1972 the moved to Shepherd near Richmond. The best cheese steaks. Had a big guy call your order a short guy ran the back. They both sang for the opera. Sold to an Asian Guy later. Don’t know if it still exists. Been in S.A. since 1990.
The British burger at H.B.G. was always my favorite.
cmetz
Eric — Monday, August 9, 2010 12:17 am
Houston Hurricanes Soccer Team
Texas Tapes and Records
Mike — Tuesday, August 10, 2010 11:41 pm
Timberwolves
The “original” Leon’s Lounge
Earl Campbell
Nolan Ryan
The Pig Stand
Astroworld
Dynomike — Wednesday, November 3, 2010 12:47 pm
Yucatan Liquor Stand
Houston Hotshots of MISL at the Summit
Richard — Wednesday, November 3, 2010 12:54 pm
Ah, the Hotshots at the Summit. Good call Dynomike.
gocoogs — Wednesday, November 17, 2010 7:29 pm
peppermint park!!! And what was that other place at 59 and 610 where you rode a mat down a giant astroturf slide…was that just a dream? Oh, and what was that place at memorial city mall with that networked tank game? And that outdoor put-put golf place on the south side of I-10 west of wilcrest.
Jojo’s
Malibu Fun Center @ 610 & I10
Bum Phillips
ma and pa and Mojo Risin’
those train-like shuttles that would take you to astroworld
hitchikers on westheimer – 99 cent/hour pool
clean(er) air
town & country 6
Houston Indoor Tennis Club
Swenson’s
Matthew Wettergreen — Thursday, November 18, 2010 11:14 am
This list tore open old wounds and packed them with sweet reminiscence. Thanks for taking all of us down memory lane.
Also, @groovehouse’s photo of Midlake from Proletariat has me in a tailspin of 2006 neo-folk.
Pam Rogers — Thursday, November 18, 2010 12:39 pm
What about the Fabulous Satellite Lounge?
Richard — Thursday, November 18, 2010 1:00 pm
Pam, I don’t know how we missed that. Based on the number of comments, maybe we’ll have to publish a Nostalgic 200 list for some other milestone in the future. Thanks for keeping us honest.
chuck — Sunday, December 19, 2010 12:27 pm
Half Price Books when it was in the old wood-frame building on Waugh, Chicken N Eggroll when Sam owned it, before he went home to Hong Kong, Mary’s on Westheimer (actually, all the sleazy bars that were in the Montrose), Gulfgate Mall (when it actually was a mall), Tower Theater, the Vietnam when it was on Main at Elgin (sorry Danny, since you are not at the new location much of the time, the quality has suffered), the original TWT,etc. So many places and memories.
heather — Wednesday, March 9, 2011 8:03 pm
The original Montrose Whole Foods where PetSmart/PetCo? used to be next to Alabama Theater.
Kristin — Sunday, March 13, 2011 9:00 pm
La Strada! best brunch place of all time.
Richard — Monday, March 14, 2011 8:36 am
Agreed Heather. This should definitely have been on the list.
James — Monday, March 21, 2011 5:25 pm
Sound Exchange when it was on Westheimer just east of Empire Cafe. Emo’s … especially in the early years when they booked some great bands for the tiny stage. The Ale House … I really miss the shaded beer garden when the weather is nice.
Pete — Tuesday, March 29, 2011 4:26 pm
Kaveh Kanes (RIP)
Thomas — Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:51 am
How ’bout 95.7 “The Way-ee-ave”? Smooth jams.
marcy — Friday, August 5, 2011 5:49 pm
The Vatican. Saw some damn good shows there.
Spud You Like
Chicken and Eggroll on S. Shepherd
Sammy — Monday, August 22, 2011 9:21 pm
Rockpile Records, The Record Rack, Gyro Gyros, Extreme Tattoo, The Oven, The Abyss, The Bomb, The Bob Marley Festival, winning sports teams, Galveston, and rain.
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