Originally focusing just on Highway 21 in Brazos County (and only until Highway 6), this page covers other spots in Bryan that is not otherwise covered in these pages (FM 2818, Texas Avenue, FM 1179, Highway 6). It trades out Citgo (Smetana Grocery) and El Dorado Chemical to the Caldwell page for a total of 14 new entries: Exxon/Burger King, Village Foods & Pharmacy, 3231 East 29th Street (former Ken Martin's), Taco Bell, Center for Regional Services (former Winn-Dixie), Valero (near Carter Creek), ReconMR, Mobil, Sunoco (Boonville and Copperfield), Christopher's World Grille, Sodolak's, Zip'N, 3204 S. College Avenue (former The Texan/Tobacco & More), and Chicken Oil Company. There's also a minor update to Don Chente Mexican & Seafood Restaurant and Motel 6 (formerly titled as "Brazos Inn").

EAST 29TH STREET

Exxon/Burger King / 2411 East 29th Street
This opened in 2007. The convenience store here used to be a Rattlers', but the sale of the stores to 7-Eleven meant that the Rattlers' stores eventually disappeared (the convenience store is now "Rustlers' Den"). The Burger King, despite being attached to the station, has a different address (2401 E. 29th) and a complete story can be seen here.

Village Foods & Pharmacy / 3030 E. 29th Street
Anchoring 29th Street Medical Plaza as suite 100, this drug store opened in February 2016, a week before the original Village Foods closed. It has a different logo but kept the pharmacy (instead of selling off the records) and sells natural foods in lieu of the more typical drug store mix.

3231 East 29th Street
This has been vacant since December 2011 since Ken Martin's Safari Grille (formerly Ken Martin's Steakhouse) closed after about 25 years at this location.

Taco Bell / 3501 E. 29th Street
This Taco Bell opened in 1996. It was opened in 1983 as an Arby's, then became "D'Lite Bites" around 1989, then became an Arby's for a few years again (1993-1996) before becoming a Taco Bell.

Center for Regional Services / 3991 E. 29th Street
From 1985 to 2002, this building (addressed as 4001 E. 29th Street) was Winn-Dixie #2433. Today this holds two suites, one being Brazos Valley Council of Governments and one being Workforce Solutions (also having other government assistance offices like WIC or Child Care Management Services).

Valero / 4609 E. 29th Street
This Valero/Circle K gas station and convenience store started out as "Ol' J.W.'s Country Store" with a Philips 66. See the accompanying blog post.

EAST VILLA MARIA ROAD

ReconMR / 2504 Kent Street
Also known as "Reconnaissance Market Research", this call center (market research/surveys) started out as Lester's, a smal locally-based junior department store. See the blog post for more information. (This faces Kent Street, but is part of the Villa Maria Road corridor).

EAST WILLIAM JOEL BRYAN PARKWAY / BOONVILLE ROAD

Mobil / 2105 E. Willliam J. Bryan Pkwy.
This was opened as a RaceWay gas station and convenience store in 2014. In January 2021 it was sold to Mobil and after a brief period of being a generic food mart (during this time, the taqueria RaceWay operated was ripped out and not replaced) and was later officially converted to a full 7-Eleven.

Sunoco / 4300 Boonville Road
This gas station was the area's third Stripes store, but the first Stripes in town to actually be built as a Stripes, and the first to use the Sunoco branding. It features a Laredo Taco Company inside.

By spring 2021 the convenience store had been rebranded as 7-Eleven.

Christopher's World Grille / 5001 Boonville Road
This high-end restaurant opened in 1999 as one of the fanciest restaurants in town. It still has cachet, but from a time when the city could only support ONE nice restaurant (previously this was held by the Texan, with the Texan closing within a year of Christopher's opening). The restaurant is made out of a converted house. (Link to their website).

HIGHWAY 21 (EAST OF FM 2818)

Exxon / 2909 Hwy. 21 W.
The "Get-N-Go" convenience store as part of this Exxon gas station (at the southeast corner of Highway 21 and 2818) existed for years, going back to 1989, though briefly it became a Diamond Shamrock (I vaguely remember this and thought I was confusing with it with the Highway 6/21 location but another source seems to confirm it) in the mid-2000s. In 2016 it was torn down and rebuilt (still an Exxon) and features Aurora, a new local convenience store chain (this was the first location, more have been opened or in the works).

Texaco / 2714 Texas State Highway 21
This gas station dates back to the 1980s and is currently called "Hwy 21 Truck Stop" as it has been since around 2007. Between 2016 and late 2019 it transitioned to a Texaco from a Philips 66. It also has a taqueria inside.

Brazos County Juvenile Detention Center / 1904 Texas Highway 21
This facility was originally built in the late 1990s/early 2000s but recently almost doubled in size. Next door is the Brazos County Office of the Sheriff that connects, via parking lot, to the main county jail, which has been around for decades (but expanded).

A-1 Towing / 108 San Jacinto Lane
This long-running towing/wrecker service (since 1959, and has been here since at least the mid-1960s) is about where the "San Jacinto Lane" designation starts. Before a reconfiguration in the late 1990s or early 2000s changed it into a traditional intersection, the road split between Sandy Point Road (going southeast, the only remnant is a long driveway near Bryan Church of Christ) and "San Jacinto Lane", Highway 21 as it went through Bryan (which was two lanes prior to the re-work).

Chevron / 1500 W. William Joel Bryan Pkwy.
This Chevron station opened in 2010. It has a convenience store, "Super Donuts", and a washateria.

Shannon's Cafe / 601 San Jacinto Lane
Shannon's Bar-B-Que (the "Cafe" name came later) moved into a converted house in the mid-1980s at the corner of Peale Street and Highway 21 in the mid-1980s from 1111 W. 19th. In 2015 or 2016 a new, more modern building was built directly next to the old one (the original building still does catering). The restaurant has soul food like fried chicken and oxtails.

Dollar General / 1201 W. Martin Luther King Jr. St.
This Dollar General opened back in 2012 and faces MLK Jr. Street which turns back northwest and intersects with Highway 21 despite being parallel with it going east.

Taqueria El Mundo Del Taco / 710 San Jacinto Lane
This was originally a Shell station and converted to Summit in the early 2000s. By 2017 the pumps had been removed, and by 2021 this restaurant had replaced the former Lone Star Grocery, the convenience store portion. While it still has the Summit logos up on the gas canopy (as well as a price indicator, bearing the original yellow-and-red from Shell), the larger road sign has been replaced. Additionally, West Side Liquor Store is open at 708 San Jacinto Lane, having opened in 2021.

BCS Fish & Ribs / 800 San Jacinto Lane
Until the very early 2000s this was a Fina gas station with a convenience store. After being abandoned for several years, it became "West Side BBQ" in December 2008 before closing after 2012. BCS Fish & Ribs has been here since 2013.

El Charro Mexican Grill / 1411 San Jacinto Lane
This Mexican restaurant opened in 2020 and is the same building where a rotating cast of almost exclusively Mexican restaurants have occupied the spot since the early 1970s. This was the location of the first Mi Cocina Restaurant in town (not to be confused with any larger chain) in 1991 which expanded to about four restaurants before dissolving. In 2014, the location became Pepper's Cocina (the others became Polly's Cocina), before closing in 2018. Polly's Cocina is still at the intersection of Rock Prairie Road and FM 2154.

After the railroad underpass, Highway 21 intersects with Texas Avenue.

CULPEPPER NORTH

Shell / 2300 E. Highway 21
This Shell features "Hwy Express" and features a Krispy Krunchy chicken restaurant inside (as well as taqueria). Fatty's Smoke Shop takes up residence in one of the leased spaces adjacent.

Don Chente Mexican & Seafood Restaurant / 2701 E. State Highway 21
Bush's Chicken had a pretty rough run in Bryan-College Station and this location opened in late 2016 as the third and last local restaurant. By 2018, however, it was the only one left as the other two closed down. After sitting abandoned for a few years, it was rehabilitated and reopened as the second location of Don Chente Mexican & Seafood Restaurant, which opened in September 2021.

Wings 'N More Express / 2612 E. Highway 21
This fast casual version of Wings 'N More opened in 2001 with a slightly trimmed & modified menu.

The Bait Barn Fisheries / 2704 East Highway 21
This converted house has operated as this shop since the late 1970s. In addition to bait, beer, and fishing supplies, it also offers fish stocking services.

Burger King / 2802 E. State Highway 21
This Burger King opened in 2008 during an ill-conceived push by a new franchisee to open more Burger King restaurants in Bryan-College Station. Shiloh Foods, the franchisee at the time, had intended to open more restaurants but failed and sold the stores that were open (which included the four in Bryan-College Station, including this one, plus a Chappell Hill location). The Downtown Bryan one had not made it, closing after a run of just a few years.

Palm Harbor Village / 2901 State Hwy. 21 E.

While this place is a franchise of manufacutred homes, it can't of course be "Palm Harbor" without some palm trees, and I took this picture because it was one of the only palm trees in the area that wasn't killed by a particularly bad winter storm in February 2021, sprouting new fronds. (Picture from May 2021).

McDonald's / 2930 E. Hwy. 21
One of the earlier McDonald's restaurants in the area, opening in 1984. A blog post is planned for it is in the future. Unfortunately, it had been rebuilt in the early 2000s.

Dairy Queen / 3003 E. Highway 21
This Dairy Queen has been here since at least the late 1970s. It seems that originally it had 3000 Highway 21 East erroneously until the mid-1990s.

Motel 6 / 3113 Highway 21 E.
Due to the removal of the dedicated Highway 21 in Bryan page, this opened sometime around 1983 as Brazos Inn, this became Motel 6 in 2013. It originally had a full-service restaurant where the hotel offices are currently.

It is not accessible directly off the highway frontage roads, exits are at Highway 21 or Old Kurten Road. At this point, Highway 21 continues across Highway 6 (the page is here). About 36 miles to the northeast from this point is Madisonville, where the highway meets I-45. The road comes to an end just west of Crockett 70 miles from this point where it meets Highway 7, though the 21 designation continues to the Louisiana border at Hemphill, where it becomes Louisiana State Highway 6 (no relation).

Sodolak's / 3500 East Highway 21
This local restaurant has been here since the mid-2000s, replacing a similar restaurant called the Red Bandana.

SOUTH COLLEGE AVENUE

Zip'N / 3201 S. College Avenue
This opened as 7-Eleven in 1979 with gas (Citgo by the 1980s, as 7-Eleven partnered with them) but in 1993 7-Eleven exited the area and sold their stores to E-Z Mart, which in turn flipped this around 2003 to Zip'N. In 2022, the gas pumps were removed, leaving an unpaved patch in the parking lot. (I want to say this spent at least some time as a Shell in the 1990s and early 2000s, though I have no proof of this)

3204 S. College Ave.
Before it closed permanently in 2000, this used to have an upscale restaurant, the Texan, which started back in 1948 as The Ice Burgh drive-in. Later it served as a convenience store ("Tobacco & More") which has since closed. Read up on the restaurant here.

Chicken Oil Company / 3600 S. College Avenue
This popular hamburger restaurant has been "temporarily" closed since a fire in April 2022. More on the blog here.

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