Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Fredericksburg: shopping center, foods)

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by Dwangle

There is an old stone tower at Highway 90 and 1604 up on a hill on the way to Castroville. The way they are building out there I bet it won't be there much longer.

Dwangle

Is it north of 90 just before Grosenbacher? If not, can you provide the general location? I can't recall seeing anything like that, but I would like to if possible!

Cheers! M2

[Dwangle]

Originally Posted by majormadmax

Dwangle

Is it north of 90 just before Grosenbacher? If not, can you provide the general location? I can't recall seeing anything like that, but I would like to if possible!

Cheers! M2

Yes thats it. I am not sure what it is exactly but it is on the top of a hill near some big power lines close to that location.

[HillCountryHotRodMan]

Wow, I was thinking of something I could post in here and I remembered something. Does anyone remember back in the 80s there used to be a Las Palapas at the corner of I-10 and Callaghan and they used to sell beer through the drive-thru? This would be on the corner where the Sun Harvest is.

[Willsatx]

If I recall the Las Palapas was a whopper burger?

[Dwangle]

Everyone was talking about Indians so I thought this might fit in. This marker is about 10 miles west of 1604.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by Willsatx

If I recall the Las Palapas was a whopper burger?

There is still a Las Palapas there to this day. The structure it occupies used to be a "Royal Burger" when it was first built. Behind it, where the Subway is now, used to be a Waffle House.

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

There is still a Las Palapas there to this day. The structure it occupies used to be a "Royal Burger" when it was first built. Behind it, where the Subway is now, used to be a Waffle House.

Thanks GW was trying to remember what it was.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by Willsatx

Thanks GW was trying to remember what it was.

Willsatx,
Thought you might enjoy this. Did a little snooping in the Newspaper Archives and found this tidbit. I remember the Pioneer House, it lasted there for a long time. I don't remember where the Cedric's Fish and Chips was. I don't remember the Nature's Way Health food store, I alway thought it was always PEN Foods. Do you remember differently? Maybe they changed the name or got bought out before the mall was finished being constructed.

[GWhopper]

Did a little more research on Royal Burger. I always thought it was a national chain, and was frustrated I couldn't find any more info on it on the internet. Going through the Newspaper Archives, I've found out it was a local chain started by the Meisner family. They opened the first two in San Antonio, one on Callaghan and I-10, the other at Callaghan and Culebra. The same family then went on to open the Burger Time chain, one on Valley High and another in Kerrville. They then opened two more Burger Times on Broadway and Loop 410 (Why can't I recall this on at all) and one on Fredricksburg and Callaghan.

Its that last location that leaves me intrigued, because that has to be the same building where the Bejing express is now, and I always used to remember as being a Whopper Burger. That building has the same architecture as all the other Whopper Burgers I remember from the late 70's and early 80's. There is still one near Huebner and Bandera (Now a Schlotzkey's) and another on on San Pedro (which I think is a Subway now). And there used to be one on Wurzbach and I-10 which was torn down. Did all the Burger Time's get converted to Whopper Burgers? I wonder if this is how Whopper Burger evolved into Bates Burger Boy (owned by the original Bate's family) and Murf's Better Burger which I never could find out is owned by whom, but maybe its the Meisner's?

[GWhopper]

Sometimes I disappear from this thread for months at a time, and then my interest gets all reonvigorated again. In looking for stuff on the Bates Family, I stumbled upon the answer to a mystery that's been bothering me for years: what was name of the restaurant in the middle of North Star Mall in the 60's and 70's, that had had kind of a country and western theme?

It was the Branding Iron. Originally opened as a steak house, Tom Taso's latter aquired it and served a diverse seafood-based menu, but kept the original name and country theme. Surely Tom Tasos is related to Bill Tasos who used to own Barn Door