Hey everyone!
There was a time when Celebration Station, Astral World and Club Roxy were popping at the
same time in Htown, but those days are now gone, and so are some of the historic places
many of us grew up with.
Lead producer Dina Kessba and Houston Sports Radio Legend Land Zirline joined me on one
of my favorite episodes from earlier this year to reminisce about legendary Htown Places.
It's Thursday, September 14th, 2023.
I'm Raheel Rumsonaly, and here's what Houston is talking about.
Oh my God!
Land Zirline is on CityCast, Houston.
I'm so excited to have one of my longtime friends on, and we also have Lead producer Dina
Kessba.
Lance, how are you?
I'm doing great!
How are we doing?
How are you, Dina?
I'm doing great.
How are you all?
Doing all right.
So we're going to be talking about things that no longer exist, places, restaurants, malls,
so many different things, but before we get into that, what current place today would
wreck you if it closed down?
Oh, man.
You know what?
I'm going to make it a brand name, basically, the Papas Restaurants.
If the Papas Restaurants, and I'll go specifically, let's say Papacitos, right?
I think that would be the one, because that one speaks to, like, when I was, you know,
like in college, that was the hotspot for Tex Max.
It was, like, there's a lot of memories tied to Papacitos, and Papas Company has been,
you know, such a name brand here in the city of Houston.
Like, it'd be sad to see a big name kind of go, and that was sucked for me.
Yeah.
Well, you can actually experience that feeling if you just go to a hobby airport because
they just get Papas out.
That's right.
How about you, Dita?
It's going to be finitia deli.
It's grown significantly since I was a kid, but now they've got their own restaurant,
everything.
And if that was ever to just completely poof disappear, I would be so heartbroken.
Yeah.
That's a good one right there.
For me, it would be, it's not like I'd go to this place, but it's such a, like, it's
such an anchor of driving down 59, but if Colorado strip club closed, I'd be like,
what?
Whatever happened to that place because the bright lights, like, I was like, what is this
place?
This is, I would always ask my dad, like, what is this place?
Like, it looks so cool.
So let's jump into this.
We've got a lot of different categories.
We've got entertainment.
We've got department stores, restaurants, iconic places.
I think the first one I want to bring to the table is the most obvious one, Astro World.
Right.
It's no longer there.
It's a pretty much a field for the Houston rodeo stalls that just sit there all year long.
But Astro World is an iconic Houston place, but I just want to get a memory from everyone
about Astro World.
What sticks out about Astro World to you, Lance?
Well, so for me, I did not go a ton.
My parents didn't take me, but I went with my friend, you know, if I went, I would go
with friends.
And so I only went like three times.
But the one that sticks out to me is my friend, Michael.
He wanted to go see his girlfriend.
And so me and another guy named Todd, who was an older kid who drove us into Astro World.
And then Michael, who was afraid of heights, got up on a ride and just had the worst experience
of his life, just a horrific experience.
And I was standing in line next to Todd and I was just thinking, I just don't know if I
want to do this.
He kept staring at it and staring at it.
And he goes, bleep this bleep and just got out of line.
We've been waiting in line like 40 minutes.
We were almost at the front and we had to back out.
And I've never been happier to walk through a line.
It should have been a walk of shame, but it was a walk of complete joy that I didn't have
to take this horrific ride where it was just one of those things that just dropped you
from the sky, you know, 150,000 feet until you almost threw up.
That would be great.
My big memory is being able to get off of that ride out of the line before it ruined my
whole day.
So other people have great memories.
I just have the only memory I can think of as, thank God, I almost died that day.
How about you, Deena?
So mine isn't necessarily something that happens like rides in Astro World.
It has to be the prep part.
My family would get up super early in the morning.
My mom would make a bunch of sandwiches and you know, you're not allowed to bring food
from the outside world in.
And we'd somehow maneuver ways on like, okay, let's hide the sandwich here.
Let's hide it under this scarf in our bag.
Hide the water.
Like that is like elite memory is for me anytime we go anywhere where you have to pay for
food as an immigrant into like a baby park, we're sneaking it all in.
How you got to make a paper for our water?
Like hell no.
Absolutely.
My mom used to get us the season pass and we would go all the time.
Like that was our place to be.
And I remember one October when they used to have a fright fest, I think it was called.
We went into the haunted house and I was probably, you know, nine or 10 years old.
So I go in with my older brother and I start crying.
I got so scared.
I started crying.
And a bunch of dudes from A-Leaf were like, come on, let's go.
You roll with us.
And they actually punched one of the characters in the haunted house.
That's an A-Leaf right there.
That's what we do.
They literally punched the guy.
They're like, you ain't scared of it.
I just punched him.
So I'll never forget that crying and then laughing so hard.
That story could be told anywhere though if it's A-Leaf for sure.
That's how they would forget a time that I was going into a burger king.
Such a guy, you know, it was by the bathroom and somebody from A-Leaf punched him.
Like that could be anywhere.
Anywhere, anywhere.
All right, Lance, you start.
What do you got for us for the entertainment side?
Oh, I love this one, Fame City.
So that was the spot, like a Dave and Busters before there were Dave and Busters.
There was Fame City.
And so it was a water world or water complex or funplex.
But you just went and it was like a giant mall basically with all kinds of games and things
to do.
Like kids from different schools would go there and that's where you kind of kicked it
with other kids.
You try to meet friends.
You try to meet girls or guys.
That was the first hookup.
Before you had people were really going to malls, Fame City was where you really hung out
because you actually had fun back there.
Absolutely.
And it's now called funplex.
It's still around, water works isn't around anymore, which was the water park connected
to Fame City slash funplex.
But funplex is still there.
Actually on Mo, the Netflix show with Mo Mar, you know, Showcase, the city of Houston,
they actually went to funplex.
Now he did drink lean on a Ferris wheel, which I don't know, which should be promoting.
But funplex was featured and it's open.
I drive by it all the time.
So it's still there.
That's cool.
How about you, Deena?
It was going to be the shows that funplex used to have.
You know how to have that that stage back then with like the weird random little palace
on the stage built.
They used to have really fun little princess shows.
It doesn't really exist anymore.
That's something that really happened for a short period in the 90s when I was a kid.
Now they don't exist anymore, which I'm sad about.
They don't.
Do you remember celebration station?
It's no longer there.
And for the longest time, it was holding on like in the early 2000s, but it got closed
down and then it was just like we're feedied up and now it's just a grass field celebration
station one going down 59 in Hillcroft.
That's so iconic.
Wow.
It's grass now.
Yeah.
I would say there's also, and I don't know if it fits into this category necessarily,
like historically Houston was at the forefront of like a 90s, late 80s and into the early
to mid 90s dance music scene.
There was all these dance clubs that popped up, but power tools was one that was a really
huge spot.
Like it was on par in terms of being at the forefront with New York in terms of that type
of that type of scene and people who are involved in that scene, the record rack which was you
know, a dance music store that was in the Montrose area as well.
It's not like the fun little kid place like we're talking about, but that was like a major,
major subculture here in the city of Houston.
It was really, really big for people, for gin exers at one particular time.
Do you remember Coco Loco?
No.
Oh, yeah.
I remember.
I still live by Coco Loco.
Well, actually, there've been multiple Coco, there's, I think there's been different locations
for Coco Loco.
Hmm.
I always remember hearing it on the radio and I was like, Oh, man, Coco Loco is the place
to be.
That is cool.
What is Coco Loco?
I'm trying to remember it, but I have zero memory of this place.
It was like a Latin club off of Hillcroft, right, Lance?
Yeah.
Coco Loco's right down the street from me still, though, it's no longer Coco Loco.
It's like a church now.
Oh, wow.
So, yeah.
It went from being Coco Loco to a church, but yeah.
It's right down Hillcroft before you get to West Park.
And then club Roxy was one that you and I are familiar with, Lance, because our first
jobs together, when I worked at Lance at 1560, the game, our studio used to be above club
Roxy and on random Friday and Saturday nights when we were working, club Roxy was popping.
And then all of a sudden, they just shut down one day.
Oh, wow.
Did you know, so they opened it back up, Rehealed, they, they want to turn it into a food
court.
And it smelled terrible and B, like they started pulling out mattresses, they were pulling
out.
They were trying to gut the entire thing and I'm like, Oh my God, mattresses, what happened
in here?
You all have some like PG 13 R rated memories, like I have no clue what these clubs are.
Maybe I was too young at that time.
And then what's the deal with church is taking over our famous places, right?
You mentioned Coco Loco is now a church.
How about the summit?
Of course, that's the most popular spot and it's now Lakewood Church, like churches are
taking over.
Yeah.
I didn't think about that.
Funplex, when is funplex going to become a church?
Oh, man.
It's hanging in.
It's going in.
I guess it won't go anywhere.
I don't think it's going anywhere.
Anyone comes to add or maybe room for a top golf.
Oh, no.
I hope not.
Not in our neighborhood.
Please.
No.
Let's go to restaurants.
I kind of restaurants that are no longer around that you remember Lance, you want to go
first on this one?
Princes.
Princes, it used to be on 59.
Princes is around forever.
And I used to go there after doing me and John, but he shows 6, 10.
We would go over there.
We get our burgers at like 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock.
They would be open.
But princes, burgers were an old school Houston institution that shut down quite a few years
ago.
Yeah.
How about you, Deena?
It's going to be Cece's on Memorial in Dairy Ashford that used to be the largest one from
my memory as a kid because they used to have like three stories and they're like different
sections.
Wow.
And the bottom floor was an eye arcade.
It was like all a bunch of these retro games that used to like put a quarter in to play.
And that was like my favorite memory, honestly, the Cece's.
And then Ryan's, okay, listen.
That's the one I was going to play.
Ryan's on Highway 6 had the best hands down butter rolls and like honey butter dip thing
that used to get with your rolls, those to this day.
Oh, yeah.
I had to find it.
Like I'm like, can I buy this somewhere?
This butter was amazing.
How do I get my hands on it?
Man.
Ryan's buffet.
How about Black Eyed Peas, by the way?
Black Eyed Peas is disappeared.
Black Eyed Peas is going.
Black Eyed Peas is disappeared.
Black Eyed Peas is going.
Black Eyed Peas is going.
Yeah.
Benagans used to be around in Houston.
Oh, yeah.
That's a really good one, actually.
My favorite was ponchos on 15.
Oh, ponchos.
I know.
There's still a ponchos around somewhere on the north side.
Everyone keeps telling me.
But the one on 15, nothing was the one that you would go to.
If you got straight A's, you would always get a gift certificate and you'd go there.
My mom would come with me, but she would never eat.
She would just watch me eat because it was free for me.
So we were here.
Hey, can we talk about how like Chuck E. Cheese?
How does Chuck E. Cheese still open?
How is somebody not done that concept, but better with these machines and actually work
and better games and better food?
I was in Westauk's mall at the Chuck E. Cheese because that was the spot if you lived
to be congrove.
And some little girls started pulling on Chuck E's tail and Chuck E turned and smacked
her.
I'm like, all the kids backed off.
They were all hassling Chuck E. It was like lights out then.
Everyone shut it down.
I'm telling you, Lance, I think Chuck E. Cheese, the rat is connected.
He has mob ties because he got pistol peets removed from the city of Houston.
pistol peets used to be a big institution here and all of a sudden Chuck E. Cheese came
in and took over.
All right.
Let's stick with malls since you brought up Westauk's mall.
I think that's one that we all remember.
Dina, you go first.
What mall do you remember that's no longer around or has changed?
Westauk's has changed dramatically from when I was a kid.
That was the mall that we would go to.
There was a sax with avenue in that mall.
You look at it today.
It was a nice mall.
It was a nice mall.
That's where we all used to go to hang out.
We eat the mall food there.
I mean, now it's just gone downhill so bad.
I know the main part of the mall has completely shut off.
It's closed.
A lot of places have vacated.
Now it's like kind of sort of an outlet in a way.
The dealer's there is an outlet style, which is great, by the way.
I still go there despite everyone saying, oh my God, if you go there, you're going to
get shot in the parking lot.
But I mean, it's not that bad.
People I feel like are dramatic.
They just judge it because of it looks run down, which it does.
So when I was working at ESPN, Lance, I would come in from Westheimer's.
I would go by Westauk's mall and there used to be a macy's there and I would go to that
macy's all the time.
And now the parking lot is like a motorcycle training school or driving school like you'll
just see people.
Yeah.
That's so strange.
That's so strange.
Yeah.
The one I remember is Westwood mall and that used to be next to Sharp's Town while Westwood
was on 59 in Bisonette.
It's now like an IT tech school or something, but you guys remember Westwood mall?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Westwood.
You either went to Westwood or West Notes when I was a kid.
So it was like the nicer one.
So you could go into Houston further and then that's where you would go watch movies.
Yeah.
Is you go see movies maybe at Westwood?
They had a better selection.
Yeah.
And then of course, Sharp's Town mall, it's still there, but it's now called Plaza America's.
But the OG Sharp's Town was the best.
Yeah.
It's not the same either.
Yeah.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Okay.
I want to keep this moving because the next one is one that kind of sparked this conversation
from an earlier episode of CityCast Houston, when we had the chef and fat eatery on it,
we were talking about grocery stores that no longer exist.
And O'Shawn came up and that was like, oh my God, O'Shawn, that was so much fun to talk
about.
Dina, you remember O'Shawns, right?
O'Shawn is like, it has a special place in my heart.
I don't know why, but every time I hear that word, it takes me back to the memory of like
school shopping because right when you entered, it was massive warehouse.
And all you see are all your school uniforms lined up, like insane amount of uniforms and
backpack.
And school supply kits.
And school supply kits.
That was my memory.
Was it kind of like a Costco in a way or like, what was it like?
No.
It was like Costco meets Randall's camearts, like Target, like it was everything.
And they also have like a live seafood place in there.
Yeah.
It was crazy.
Massive.
By the way, is Randall's going to be featured on CityCast in like six years because they
really taken a, they've really taken a dive over the years.
I remember when Randall's came in and they were the store like, wow, this is, and then
H.E.B.
smoked them and Kroger tried to upgrade and like, I almost never go to Randall's, gives
me the blues now when I go into Randall's.
Is there only one Randall's left and that's in West of you because the one in Sugarland
closed down?
Dang.
What about the one in Galveston?
I don't know if that one's there.
I don't remember seeing it.
Oh, no.
Albertsons used to be part of the Randall's family, right?
And they tried for a hot minute to get into the Houston market, but then they got kicked
out as well.
That's sad.
Yeah.
Last one, department stores that we grew up with that are no longer around.
Do you remember any Lance?
Oh, yeah, for sure.
So when I was young, we had a Wieners and we would go there.
Yes.
Either they're a favor, was there was another place called favor, but Wieners was one that
you would go to and they had everything like from a department store standpoint.
That was the spot that you went to get everything that you need to you need to church clothes,
you need school clothes, your mom would try to get you tennis shoes and you're like,
I don't know if these shoes are going to make me run fast.
You got everything in Wieners.
Do you remember Mervins?
Mervins.
Yes.
Oh my goodness.
Uh huh.
Mervins was the spot.
That one was cool.
And I think it's now just a marshals, right off of 59 next to August.
Yeah.
It used to be right there and it's just a marshals now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just a marshals.
Damn.
How about you, Deena?
Do you remember any department stores?
Mervins was the one I was going to mention.
Yeah.
That was when my dad would always take us too.
He'd like, let's go to Mervins and it's like a whole field trip.
That's so awesome.
Lance, do you remember just for feet on West Timer and one in Sugarland?
Oh, yeah.
No, I remember that.
That one was cool.
I don't want to have like a half-cord basketball court.
You could go try on the shoes and hoop in and then we would just roll up there and just
play basketball all the time.
But now it's like a recruiting center.
You know, it does kind of suck.
I mean, it's just the way capitalism works.
But I remember when Walmart came in to where I was living and that's like a really big
deal.
But then, you know, the mom and pop start shutting down when you have Walmart.
So now you have Amazon.
Yeah.
You have everything.
And it does kind of take away all these memories that we have.
When you think about it in 20 years, this conversation will kind of be obsolete because
they won't have any of the small mom and pop or the very small chains.
I don't even know if they can exist in today's climate in terms of malls or grocery stores,
department stores.
But it's going to be a lot harder just because of where we are in terms of society.
It's everything's much more in bulk and it's much more centralized.
Okay.
Wild card.
Before we get out of here, one place that we haven't talked about, Lance, anything come
to mind?
Yeah.
The computer store.
Oh.
I don't know.
Talking about circuit city.
Circuit city.
That's it.
That was the jam.
You would go to circuit city for everything.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, man.
Circuit city.
And I know that was a national brand that shut down, but circuit city would be the one that
I was thinking of.
That's really good.
How about you, Deena?
What's your wild card?
It's going to be so hot off.
That was on Belair and Highway 6th.
They used to make fresh baked bread every Sunday morning, like thousands of them.
And they were the pita breads.
And my dad used to go in and pick up like the rotted ones, the ones that you can't eat.
And he would feed it to the ducks in a neighborhood, granted.
You shouldn't be given bread to ducks.
We only learned that years later.
But that place was amazing.
It was family owned.
They'd always have the freshest, most delicious bread.
And it's just not there anymore.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
My wild card is, well, there's two of them.
There are two South Asian restaurants, like the original ones.
There's a place called Shake Chilly.
I don't know if you ever went there, Deena.
Do you remember the name?
No.
I don't know.
And then there was another one called Silver Spoon.
And that was like one of the OG South Asian places that eventually disappeared.
And I think that was a location that August bought that, you know, like their first location.
So yeah, those two are my wild card.
What a trip down memory lane.
It was a fun conversation.
Lance, thank you so much for joining us.
That was a lot of fun, man.
Thanks for having me, guys.
It's been a fun time.
That was awesome.
Thanks, y'all.
That was Deena Caspa and Lance Irline.
You can listen to Lance every week day morning on ESPN Houston and read his work on NFL.com.
So who else do you want to hear on CityCast Houston?
From your favorite riders to radio hosts and news anchors, let us know by contacting
us with the info in our show notes.
That will do it for today.
Thank you for listening.
And I hope you learned something new.
Elite when I was younger was the boogey man of areas in Houston.
Were you always heard about, oh man, crazy stuff goes, I don't even want to say it on
CityCast because I don't know what we can say, but I would hear wild stuff about Elite.