Kreuz Market / 619 N. Colorado Street
Kreuz Market has been part of Lockhart for over a century and its current building opened in 1999 looks like a modern, tourist-friendly location, looking more like a Rudy's rather than a "real" barbecue joint. The new location opened with much fanfare, notably with the publicity stunt of physically dragging a bucket of the hot coals of the old location to the new location.
When I first visited it in the late 2000s, it famously bragged that unlike most barbecue joints, it had no sauce and no forks...which was, okay I guess. On the forks issue, sure they didn't have forks when they started way back when but they didn't have proper sanitation either, so it's a bit of a wash. But forks are necessary when eating. You can't do it with plastic knives and spoons (which were provided, no metal utensils). The sauce? You could make, say, a great hamburger or French fries without any condiments, but to say that there's no sauce implies that your food is that good. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.
In the end, Kreuz Market did change its long-standing policy. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. On one hand, it was poorly implemented and quite pretentious, on the other hand, it did give it a bit of uniqueness.
They mention the Bryan location and its decision to have no sauce or forks (before reversing the position), which I have actually previously covered on the site here.
Schlotzsky's / 111 North Colorado Street
This Schlotzsky's opened in 2018 at the site of a former Philips 66 gas station. The signage for the restaurant (branded as "Schlotzsky's Austin Eatery") is very gas stationesque.
Walgreens / 200 S. Colorado St.
The Walgreens occupies a full block and opened around 2007 (completely redeveloped).
H-E-B / 403 South Colorado Street
H-E-B (#445) is the only full-line supermarket in the Lockhart area. The relatively modern store at 45,000 square feet was opened in 1997. Prior to this a much smaller H-E-B faced east on the same lot (about 25k square feet, sharing the building with another tenant). While they were closed, they apparently temporarily occupied the space of Super S Foods at 1220 S. Colorado Street.
Family Dollar / 1118 S. Colorado Street
Family Dollar opened a new store in Lockhart in 2004 (a previous store in Lockhart had closed in 1997). In 2005, the company introduced a more modern logo based on the old 1970s-era one with a little logo of a family and a new color scheme, while retaining the original typeface. The logo here was updated in early 2011.
Dairy Queen / 1125 South Colorado Street
I wrote about the Lockhart Dairy Queen over a decade ago...the Lockhart Dairy Queen was built in 1987 (though Lockhart had a Dairy Queen for decades prior) and although the restaurant style wasn't unique in and of itself, it was certainly very different from the rest of the Texas Dairy Queen restaurants with red roofs and fairly limited seating. It also had a playground, which for Dairy Queen was quite rare. The inside of the store wasn't particularly interesting but at least was quirky, with a "Medicare Corner" inside, but sometime between August 2010 and July 2011, it went from this to this...in other words, into a generic DQ model that so many restaurants were being built or remodeled into. No playground, no Medicare Corner.
Whataburger / 100 State Park Road
The origins of this "Oddaburger" are shrouded in mystery, opening in 2005. It's certainly a strange-looking store, with some records indicating it was "Bumpers Drive-In" of Texas, but it's not known if it's related to Bumpers Drive-In in Mississippi. We reached out but they haven't called back.
Lockhart Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Q / 1323 S. Colorado Street
This barbecue restaurant has been here since 1978 and is one of the main barbecue restaurants that calls Lockhart home.
I've had Chisholm Trail about once a year for roughly a decade now; I should know how it tastes (and that's more than I can say about most restaurants). It's probably not the best barbecue I've had but it's better than most.
While Fearless Critics (a restaurant guide I have) savagely ripped apart a number of well-liked restaurants in Houston, Chisholm Trail was not spared either, ranking quite poorly. While it's not entirely a hit piece (the sides are indeed weak), they didn't even mention the homemade bread Chisholm Trail often has available (not sure how "homemade" it is but it at least is different). I know white bread is "classic" for barbecue but the bread they have is good too.
Fresh Donuts / 910 S. Colorado Street
This generic-looking donut shop was built new (as "Fresh Donuts") in 2016.
McDonald's / 1330 South Colorado Street
McDonald's has been here since 1993, and sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s a Playplace was haphazardly built onto the side. In 2014, the restaurant was demolished and rebuilt without an indoor playground.
Caldwell County Justice Center / 1703 South Colorado Street
This operated as a Walmart discount store (#292) from 1980 to 2012, and it survived long enough to get the modern circa 2009 "Walmart" logo. The renovation to a county government building came a few years later. It also has the county clerk's office.
Exxon / 1706 US-183
This goes back to the 1980s as a Diamond Shamrock/Corner Store and was still a Diamond Shamrock as of spring 2008 (it was a Valero by late 2009). Unfortunately, Circle K, the successor to Corner Store, decided not to do a full rebrand on this store and pulled out by late 2019 and it became an Exxon a few years later. The convenience store is unbranded, you can still see the scar of the old Diamond Shamrock-era Corner Store logo.
Verizon / 1712 S. Colorado Street
This Verizon store opened in 2011. From 2003 to around 2010 it was a Jack in the Box restaurant.
This Jack in the Box closed around 2010 and is now a Verizon store.
1801 S. Colorado Street
This opened as Huddle House (#747), operating from 2011 to 2016 (operating 24/7!). In 2018 it was Kaze Grill House, though this only lasted about six months. This was later replaced by Pho Hong, but it closed by 2022.
Walmart / 1904 South Colorado Street
This store opened in May 2012 to replace the aforementioned smaller Walmart.
At the junction of Magnolia Avenue and Pierce Street, US-183 is carried on by Pierce Street east toward I-10 while Highway 80 (which joins at East Austin Street) continues south. There, it ends at Karnes City southeast of San Antonio.
Vista at Plum Creek Apartments / 4925 Cromwell Drive
There are over half a dozen apartments on Cromwell Drive these days but this was the first, completed in 2010. There's also The Overlook at Plum Creek (4850 Cromwell Drive, completed 2013), The Green at Plum Creek (4300 Cromwell Drive, completed 2016), Provenza at Plum Creek (5020 Cromwell Drive, completed 2016), Ariza Plum Creek (4700 Cromwell, completed 2018), Ventana at Plum Creek (4624 Cromwell Drive—this was known as Plum Creek Vue prior to March 2022), Cromwell Plum Creek (1050 Wittenburg, completed in 2020—garages face Ratcliffe Drive, which functions as an alley), and Sage Plum Creek (1075 Vaughn, completed late 2022 or early 2023).
Additionally, there is also the assisted living facility Orchard Park of Kyle at 4701 Ratcliffe Drive (completed ~2013).
LifeStorage / 5141 Cromwell Drive
This LifeStorage also has office space (and very visible from FM 1626) and was built in 2015 as a CubeSmart, rebranding on October 20, 2022.
Exxon / 4640 FM 1626
This Exxon is estimated to have opened in 2017 with Foodbox as the convenience store and Chevron as the gas station brand (it switched brands to Exxon in late May 2023). The gas station also has a connected Which Wich sandwich shop.
4520 FM 1626
Shipley Do-Nuts anchors this small shopping center building (at suite 100). It opened March 28th, 2022 according to Community Impact. In December of that year, Country Life Wine & Spirits opened in suite 200.
Buck's Backyard / 1750 FM 1626
This venue is a bar with restaurant and live music facilities. Before it transitioned to Buck's Backyard in late 2016, it was "Painted Horse Pavilion", an events center. It was built in 1999, though it isn't clear if Painted Horse goes back that far.
Starbucks / 230 FM 1626
The Starbucks at FM 1626 and FM 967 opened in December 2019. Just north of here is FM 967, where the addresses reset going north.
Valero / 401 FM 1626
This Valero opened in 2020. The store, Petro Park, features Chesters fried chicken. There's also a subleased tenant, Nails 4 U.
Earth Burger / 656 E. Hopkins Street
This was a Church's Chicken (originally with the address with 604 Bugg Lane until the mid-1990s, a remnant of a time before Bugg got sliced in half by I-35) built in 1981. It closed in the mid-2010s (Google Street View shows the building gutted to a skeleton in late 2017), and in August 2018, San Antonio-based vegetarian hamburger restaurant Earth Burger opened in the rebuilt building.
H-E-B / 641 E. Hopkins Street
This store opened in 1989 to replace a store at Comal (now MLK) and Guadalupe. After a minor expansion in the 1990s and a repainting by the mid-2000s it was expanded in 2012 with a large new physical footprint and a new Flaming Bird in-store restaurant.
H-E-B / 200 W. Hopkins Street
The second H-E-B near the downtown San Marcos area opened as Safeway in 1984. This Safeway was built in 1984 (to replace the original 1972 Safeway, which faced south and occupied 3/4 of the block including the parking lot, but was never a Marina). It was part of the Houston division of the chain and became AppleTree in 1989 following the spin-off of the division. In 1994 it closed and reopened as Randalls. Three years later Randalls sold it to H-E-B.
Valero / 204 Moore Street
From approx. 1972 to 2015 this was a Sac-N-Pac store. It was not converted to Stripes and sold to Fast Break instead. The gas brand is Valero but probably used to be Diamond Shamrock prior to the mid-2000s.
H-E-B Distribution Center / 2301 Hunter Road
This was originally built as a Kroger distribution center in 1982 for their San Antonio stores but was leased to H-E-B in 1991. It outright purchased it in 2008 after numerous expansions. In 2016, a new accessway was built to Wonder World Drive.
Conn's HomePlus / 917 State Highway 80
The west anchor of San Mar Plaza, this building operated as Kroger from 1982 to 1993 (when Kroger closed their San Antonio-area stores; this was the furthest north location), and became "Texans' Warehouse Foods" after that as California-based Megafoods tried to make it stand in the area after buying the San Antonio-area stores. Megafoods would rebrand the store to Handy Andy before it closed in 1995. Afterwards, it became a Hastings, a store that sold music, movies, and video games until it closed in fall 2016 after its parent company went out of business. The current tenant, Conn's HomePlus, opened in March 2018, but the distinctive Kroger "Greenhouse" facade was demolished.
Dairy Queen / 900 State Highway 80
This Dairy Queen replaced an older, Dairy Queen-signed location from 1973. In 2016, the Dairy Queen was gutted to little more than a roof and columns and left like that for several months, promising "renovations" before it was completely demolished to build a replacement restaurant.
CVS/pharmacy / 920 State Highway 80
Former site of Fuschak's Pit Bar-B-Q (1984-2006) which CVS helped relocate to 1701 South IH 35 (though that closed in 2019). CVS opened by 2007.
There was another restaurant space that CVS took over but had been closed and demolished for years, with Fajita Junction (a defunct Mexican chain) being here from 1987 to 1993. It was later replaced by "Country Chicken" and by 1997 it was demolished.
Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers / 928 State Highway 80
This Raising Cane's (#207) opened in October 2015. It replaced an Arby's restaurant that closed a year or two prior and had originally opened around 1987.
Goodwill Industries / 1005 State Highway 80
Formerly the site of Staples office supplies from 1999 to 2002, Goodwill has moved from across from the outlet mall to this location in 2008.
Walmart / 1015 Highway 80
This Walmart (store #404) opened in March 1996 as a Wal-Mart Supercenter. This moved from the east anchor space of San-Mar Plaza (the old Wal-Mart space is split between Hobby Lobby and Tractor Supply Company today).
Valero / 1002 State Highway 80
This Valero had a Sac-N-Pac convenience store as of 2008, but after the acquisition of Sac-N-Pac by Susser Stores, this store ended up becoming "Food Basket" c. 2016 instead of Stripes, which the other Sac-N-Pac stores got rebranded as.
Sunoco / 1200 State Highway 80
The Sunoco gas pumps (changed from Shell between October 2017 and August 2018, likely early '18) are at the far end of this dated strip center, where a 7-Eleven anchors it. This was originally Sac-N-Pac (though without their logo, just as the generic Shell Food Mart text) and became Stripes around 2016 as Sac-N-Pac was acquired, and eventually became 7-Eleven several years later.
The rest of the strip center predates the canopy (added sometime between 1995 and 1997) and contains a few dated shops and services.
Dollar General / 16885 San Marcos Hwy.
This is a 9,000 square foot Dollar General built and opened in 2009.
Fentress Airpark / 517 Airfield Road
This private airfield (the address refers to the little road that extends out from Highway 80) was built in 1991. Not much goes on here beyond some private flights. This is where Skydive Spaceland is (look for the crashed plane!)
This was also where Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides operated before a tragic disaster took the lives of the pilot and fifteen passengers.
Valero / 9111 San Marcos Highway
This is believed to have been a Diamond Shamrock until the mid-2000s, but Sac-N-Pac opened here in 1998. In 2015 it was rebranded to Stripes, and rebranded to 7-Eleven about five years later.
Community Coffee - Buda Location / 98 Dupree Drive
Community Coffee used to operate CC's Coffee House in Texas, which has been covered on this website but pulled out of the state years ago. However, since but still maintains distribution in Texas, with this location servicing Austin-area grocery stores. It has been in this location since approximately since 2008.
270 Old San Antonio Road
This opened as an Arby's in late 2008 but in mid-2022 it was purchased by Texas Sausage Company and shut down, quickly reopening as Big's Meat Market (on July 1, 2022). Based on the article previously linked there wasn't much of a gap between purchase of the building and the opening of Big's Meat Market. Big's Meat Market permanently closed in late March 2023 following a "sudden and unexpected loss in staffing".
Poco Loco Supermercado / 1819 Robert S. Light Blvd.
Bannered as "Poco Loco Market" (also "Poco Loco Market #3"), this gas station and convenience store opened in 2018 at what was the end of Robert S. Light Boulevard. On June 6, 2023, Robert S. Light was extended beyond Loop 4 to FM 1626.
Dollar Tree / 575 FM 150 East
This opened as a Family Dollar around December 2006 but in 2019 it was closed and converted to a Dollar Tree.
Ascension Seton Hays Hospital / 6001 Kyle Pkwy.
This hospital opened as Seton Medical Center Hays on October 1, 2009 with 112 beds. Following a 2017 merger with Ascension it was rebranded as Ascension Seton Hays in 2019.
Tom Green Elementary School / 1301 Old Goforth Road
One of Hays County's older elementary schools, this school opened in 1986 (Pre-K through Fifth Grade) and is named after a landowner that had previously owned it...not this guy.
Vertical Chapel / 400 Old Post Road
This church was built in 2016. It was originally the home of Eikon Church.
Vertical Chapel acquired the church in 2020 after Eikon vacated it and later purchased it outright. (Carbon-izer avoids controversial topics, but for the full story of how and why Eikon disintegrated, you can read up here.)
Dollar General / 850 Veterans Drive
Dollar General built a store on Rebel Drive in 2004 (renamed in 2020 for political reasons), and in 2006 a Golden Chick (830 Rebel Drive) was built off of Dollar General's parking lot.
Office Depot / 201 Springtown Way
Office Depot has been in this building since 1998. It has not been anything else.
