Arts and Entertainment
Back-to-School Edition
The Battalion/Monday, August27, 1984/Page IB
Pigging out — an Aggie tradition
By RENEE HARRELL
Reporter
If you’re looking for a good res
taurant with new and different en
trees you might have overlooked
some restaurants that have been
around for a while. Bryan-College
Station’s finer eating places are add
ing new entrees and changing some
of the old ones on their fall menus.
Hoffbrau Steaks, 317 South Col
lege Avenue in College Station, has
been in business for two years. This
fall Hoffbrau has added a few new
items to its menu. One is the ‘soon-
to-be-famous’ enchiladas. They are
stuffed with marinated ftyita meat,
covered with gaucamole and sell for
54.95.
“We’ve got some super appeti
zers,” says owner/manager Jack
Miesch. “We have a new item called
fajita skins for $4.25. Its potato skins
filled with fajita meat. Of course we
have our chicken fried steaks for
54.95, but we are trying to convince
people that we’re expanding. We are
going to have a Sunday brunch with
E rime rib and champagne. We also
ave individual deep dish pies.”
Hoffbrau Steaks is open Sunday
through Wednesday from 1 1 a.m. to
10 p.m. and Thursday until 12 p.m.
Friday and Saturday it closes at 1
a.m.
Fish Richard’s Half Century
House, 801 Welborn Road., special
izes in steaks and seafood. Prime rib
is $10.95 and a lunch entree with a
vegetable and salad costs $3.95.
Owner/manager Bill Perry says Fish
Richard’s is an old remodeled house
with early 1900 deacor. He says the
seven-dining room restaurant also
has an extensive wine list.
The well-established College Sta
tion restaurant is open for lunch
Monday through Friday from 1 1:30
a.m. until 2:30 p.m. and for dinner
Monday through Saturday from 5
p.m. until 10:30 p.m.
Another College Station restau
rant is Interurban Eating House,
505 Universitv Drive. Steaks range
from $6 to $12 and burgers and
sandwiches range from $3.75 to
$5.25. Interurban is open from 1 1
a.m. until 12 p.m. weekdays and un
til 1 a.m. on weekends.
New restaurants in the area also
could be possibilities if you’re
looking for something new and dif
ferent.
JJ. Muggs Restaurant Bar and
Grill, which opened in mid-August,
is one of the newest dining places in
College Station. One house special is
the baby-back pork ribs which are
slowly cooked for about eight hours.
The cost — $6.95. Another JJ.
Muggs specialty is the philly cheese
steak, which is thinly sliced steak,
Thursday 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. and
until 12 p.m. on Friday and Satur
day.
Freddie Fuddrucker’s, 2206
Texas Avenue South in College Sta
tion, is a unique restaurant specializ
ing in self-service hamburgers. Cus
tomers line up to create their own
hamburgers at the condiment bar.
sauteed mushrooms, cheese and a
hilly-style roll for $4.25. Manager
teve Whitis says everything is
homemade. He says the casual atmo
sphere of JJ. Muggs makes it a “fun
type place” that plays vintage rock ’n’
roll from the late ’60’s to the mid
’70’s.
“The enthusiasm of our staff is
what makes us stand apart from the
rest,” Whitis says.
JJ. Muggs, 1704 Kyle Avenue
South, is open Sunday through
“We grind our own beef here,”
manager Gene Rouner says. “We
have a glass-encased butcher shop
where the customers can watch. Ev
eryday we make our own buns. We
have hamburgers, red wurst hick
ory-smoked sausage, hotdogs, sau
teed onions, a bowl of pinto beans
and jalepenos. That’s our entire
menu. We also have a bar here with
all call drinks for $ 1.50.”
Fuddruckers is open Monday
through Saturday 11 a.m. until 11
p.m. and Sunday, 12 a.m. until 10
p.m.
If you’re hungry for Chinese food,
one of the options in College Station
is Hunan Chinese Restaurant, 913-G
Harvey Road.
Manager Howard Chiu says Hun-
ans uses the Hunan cooking styles
from midwest China to make their
Chinese food unique.
“It makes a spicey hot dish, sau
teed with hot peppers,” Chiu says.
“We have 14 new dishes out right
now.”
King crab legs with scallops cost
$7.95. The Hunan smoked duck
half is $9.25. Hunans also serves
“shrimp crystal,” a lightly fried
shrimp dish.
Business hours during the week
are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to
10 p.m. Weekend hours are 12 a.m.
to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.
The China Restaurant, 803 South
Main in Bryan, serves the “aggie
special” for $3.95. This includes,
wonton soup, sweet and sour pork
or chicken, chicken chow mein, fried
rice and an egg roll. ‘Precious
shrimp’ is another specialty at The
China Restaurant. The shrimp are
fried and cooked with Chinese vege
tables and sell for $5.75. This
Chinese restaurant is open everyday
for supper from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
and everyday except Tuesday and
Saturday for lunch from 11:30 a.m.
to 2:30 p.m.
If you’re in the mood for seafood,
Padre Cafe, 1601 Texas Avenue
South in College Station, is open da
ily from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. Al
though Padre Cafe is known for its
fajitas, the fresh seafood is also a
specialty.
“We get fresh seafood everyday
from Shreveport, Louisianna,” man
ager Ricky Martinez says. “It’s very
nutritious too.”
The baked haddock with vegeta
bles sauteed in butter and wine sauce
is $4.55. Shrimp and oysters are big
sellers too, Martinez says. He says ev
erything is made fresh daily at Padre
Cafe.
“We have a pretty lively atmo
sphere,” Martinez says. “We play
’50’s and ’60’s music and occasionally
somejazz.”
The specialty at Pelican’s Wharf,
2500 Texas Avenue South in Col
lege Station, is mesquite broiled
fresh fish. The cost of this with a
baked potato, a salad, ice tea and a
bar drink is $9.95. Pelican’s Wharf
has homemade desserts such as
cheesecake and black russian cake.
Prime rib is also a house specialty.
Pelican’s Wharf is open from 5 p.m.
until 10:30 p.m. Sunday through
Thursday and until 11:30 p.m. Fri
day and Saturday.
In Bryan, Maxi’s, 112 South Main,
specializes in crepes. Ranging in
price from about $2.75 to $3.50, the
crepe entrees include, creamy
chicken, country beef, broccoli
cream sauce and mushroom. Two
dessert crepes are ‘crepe suzette,’
which is oranges, cinnamon and
brandy for $3.25 and ‘bananas fos
ter’ for $2.75.
This restaurant has live mellow
music, says Diane Thornton, assis
tant manager. Maxi’s is open from
11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Tuesday
through Saturday and 11 a.m. until
3 p.m. on Sunday.
J.T. McCords, 2232 Texas Ave
nue South in College Station, serves
seven different burgers. The price
range is from $3.75 to $4.25. J.T.
McCords is also known for its fried
vegetable basket. Rib eye steak and
potato skins are other specialties at
J.T. McCords. Happy hour is 11
a.m. to 7 p m. everyday. Business
hours are from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Sunday through Thursday and 11
a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
With the abundance of fine eating
places in Bryan-College Station, resi
dents shouldn’t have a problem find
ing a restaurant to suit their taste.
...or the more affordable Charlie’s grocery on University
Drive, where a scoop of Bluebell ice cream is always served
with a friendly smile.
Cafe lost in time warp
Cookie companies battle
over America’s sweet tooth
By ROBIN BLACK
Senior Staff Writer
The clock with the blue neon
halo around its face reads 12:28
— lunchtime. People shuffle in
and out of the restaurant while
over in the corner the old Wur-
litzer jukebox cranks out strains
of Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller
doing “Moonlight Cocktail.”
In another corner, an aquar
ium full of goldfish gurgles away
as groups, couples and loners are
led to tables by menu-toting wait
resses.
Beer coasters line the floures-
cent lights. Three ceiling fans
whim overhead and a lighted
sign by a cooler full of beer tells
the crowd that Hires Rootbeer is
the best in the world.
What seems like a scene from a
1950s B-movie is just everyday
traffic in the Deluxe Burger Bar.
The Deluxe is a semi-fast-food
restaurant with a flavor of some
decade past, although it’s hard to
tell if that decade is supposed to
be the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s or ’70s.
By KAREN GILES
Reporter
It’s easy to miss, but well worth
noticing.
It was renamed the Hempstead
Inn 50 years ago, but it’s not an inn
at all.
The dark blue, white trimmed,
wooden framed two-story structure
was once a country boarding house
until about two years ago. Now it is
noted for its country style cooking.
In 1901, the Hempstead Inn,
originally named the Pecan Inn, was
built facing the railroad tracks.
The locals say the town of Hemp
stead was nicknamed Six-Shooter
Junction, because whenever the
train approached, the conductor
would insist that the passengers
duck down since residents at the inn
liked to lean over the balcony and
shoot at the train windows.
Since then the inn has been
moved to a nearby location in
Hempstead, but assistant manager,
Holly Joy, says it looks just the same.
With a little imagination, you can
The song list in the old Wur-
litzer — no quarters, please, all
plays are free — boasts a reper
toire of selections spanning half a
century: Glenn Miller and the
Andrews Sisters representing the
40s; Sam Cooke and Elvis Presley
from the 50s; Sam the Sham and
Bob Dylan bringing back the 60s;
Bruce Springsteen for the 70s
and Cyndi Lauper and the
Thompson Twins for the 80s-
minded crowd.
The customers, too, seem to
range in variety as much as the
music.
Two old men sit at a table by
the pink neon-bordered win
dows, one sporting a new-looking
straw cowboy hat, looking quite
the part of the rancher or some
facsimile thereof.
Over at the fountain counter, a
young couple is oblivious to ev
erything but each other and their
cherry cokes.
At another table a group of
five Young Urban Professionals
enjoy their lunch hour and each
other’s company.
picture yourself approaching a
home right out of Huckleberry Finn,
but don’t take the front walkway be
cause it drops off onto U.S Highway
6. The entrance is easier to reach
from the small worn dirt path lead
ing from the parking lot around the
side. There are vines entertwining
the rungs of the little white picket
fence that frames the front porch.
Within the two whitewashed
wooden front doors, there’s a wait
ing room-gift shop available for
guests to browse in if the tables are
filled. The shop includes a postcard
stand featuring various sites in
nearby towns, shelves filled with ce
ramic and fabric hens, wire and
wicker baskets, colorful canisters,
and bears, bears, bears- ceramic,
plastic, big, and little, dozens and
dozens of teddy bears.
Visitors can also catch up on their
history reading since there’s an
enormous book resting heavily on
the coffee table in the center of the
room, filled with yellowed N.Y
Times newspapers from 1949.
Still other people dash hur
riedly in and out, taking advan
tage of the take-out counter.
An old wooden Richardson
Rootbeer barrel squats on the
take-out counter by the compute
rized cash register, which seems
alien to all other decor save the vi
deo games that sit unplayed,
beeping to no one in particular.
Sitting under the menu on the
counter by the computerized cash
register is a glass case displaying
the endless variety of English,
German, Argentinian, Australian
and other exotic beers.
The bottles are laid out on a
bed of ice cubes reminiscent of
the way fresh fish are displayed in
the seafood section of a super
market.
Things start to slow down a
little and the take-out counter
waits for business as the wait
resses catch their breath.
As the blue-haloed clock points
out that it’s almost 1:30 p.m., the
crowd thins noticeably as the
Beatles echo “Nowhere Man”
from the old jukebox.
A red carpeted staircase leads up
to eight unoccupied bedrooms, but
Issa Ghazi, the owner, says that
sometimes he likes to stay overnight.
The seating arrangement at din
ner is family style. Tables accommo
date from 12 to 16 people, and the
menu features country cooking, all
you can eat, and you can shop while
you eat, since the walls are decorated
with prints that are for sale.
Once you’ve had your fill, a cash
ier will be waiting for you near the
front door, under a mirrored sign
that reads “No smoking, spitting or
cussing.”
You’ll find that the meal will not
pinch your pocketbook too much.
Lunch is $6, dinner $8. Children un
der 10 eat for half price.
A faded plaster frog sits patiently
by the two front doors, just as the
regular customers do on the two
whitewashed swinging chairs and
the two benches.
“After eating, it’s sort of a ritual
for customers to sit out here one the
benches and enjoy the breeze,” Joy
said.
By RENEE HARRELL
Reporter
Soft cookies — chocolate chip, al
mond fudge, butterscotch, mint
chocolate chip, peanut butter ’n
fudge, coconut, iced oatmeal...
You may have tried one or all of
the chewy homemade-tasting coo
kies that are finding their way into
Bryan-College Station supermar
kets. You also may have noticed the
increasing shelf space the new soft
cookies are getting. It looks as if
three consumer product giants are
bringing a cookie war to Bryan-Col
lege Station.
Soft cookie manufacturers fight
ing for shelf space are the Keebler
Co., which makes Soft Batch cookies,
Nabisco Brands Inc., which makes
Almost Home cookies and Procter &
Gamble Co., which makes Duncan
Hines cookies.
P&G has filed suit against
Keebler, Nabisco and the Dallas-
based Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo.
Frito-Lay does not distribute its
Grandma’s Rich ’n Chewy line of
cookies in Bryan-College Station.
P&G is charging its three rivals with
stealing the patented secrets of its
Duncan Hines cookies.
“The secret behind our soft coo
kie is the crispy outside and chewy
inside,” says Linda Appleby, public
relations manager for P&G. “It’s a
mixture of two different sugars.
They form two slightly different
doughs and one is wrapped around
the other. The outer dough turns
crispy while the inner dough stays
soft and chewy.”
Appleby says P&G filed the law
suit last June.
“We filed suit for a patent in
fringement immediately upon rec
eipt of the patent,” Appleby says.
“We’ve had a patent pending since
1979, but just received the patent in
June.”
A spokesman for Nabisco says a
denial of the charge was filed on July
19.
“We have denied all of the allega
tions in the law suit brought by
P&G,” says Caroline See, a Nabisco
public relations manager. “We filed
a denial concerning the patent in
fringement and unfair competetion
on July 19.”
Keebler has not yet filed a denial.
“We’ve been served with a copy of
the complaint,” says Craig Stevens,
general counselor and secretary for
Keebler. “We find it backs no merit,
therefore, we’ll defend it vigorous-
iy-”
A Keebler spokesman tells Keebl-
er’s baking secret.
“They are made with Elfin mag
ic,” the Keebler spokesman says.
“You know they’re made by Elves.
We have eight soft cookies out right
now. I think our experience with the
product is just too brief at this time
to be expanding. The soft cookies
are a rather new phenomenon.”
A Safeway assistant manager says
the three rivals have been strongly
promoting their products.
“All of them have been promoting
their soft cookies,” says K.C. Mitch-
Soft cookie manufacturers
fighting for shelf space
are the Keebler Co., which
makes Soft Batch cookies,
Nabisco Brands Inc.,
which makes Almost
Home cookies and Procter
& Gamble Co., which
makes Duncan Hines coo
kies.
ell, assistant manager of the College
Station Safeway on South Texas
Avenue. “All of the soft cookies have
been on sale at different times the
last three or four weeks. They’re giv
ing us in-store specials to put up
somewhere else in the store, not just
in the cookie section. Keebler has
made a successful attempt at getting
their stuff on the shelf. Archway is
starting to get pushed out, but I
don’t think they will. We put up an
Archway display last week.”
Some of the traditional “hard”
cookies are loosing shelf space. Con
sumers may have noticed that Moth
ers Cake and Cookie Co. cookies and
Archway cookies have lost shelf
space in most local grocery stores.
A Bryan Safeway assistant man
ager, Dan Feldman, says all tradi
tional cookies have been cut back in
his store.
The Kroger Family Center on
South Texas Avenue has removed
the Mothers line of cookies. At a
Bryan Safeway that carries all three
of the soft cookie brands, manager
Rick Colby says Mothers and Arch
way have both lost shelf space.
“We recently re-did our cookie
section,” Colby says. “Archway is just
about down to nothing. The Safeway
brand cookie has lost a lot of space.
We only have one shelf left for Arch
way. Just looking at the prices and
shelf, I bet Duncan Hines is the best
seller here.”
Archway has begun the fight for
more shelf space too. It has started
putting up separate displays in some
locg.1 stores where it isn’t able to to
get shelf space.
While Duncan Hines and Almost
Home cookies go through distribu
tors, Keebler is a “store-door” dis
tributor for itself. Local distributors
say they haven’t stopped carrying
any of the traditional cookies yet.
Brenham Wholesale, which serves
areas of Bryan-College Station,
hasn’t discontinued any traditional
cookies. Head buyer John Schaer
says some stores have just added to
their cookie sections. Brenham
Wholesale has been carrying Dun
can Hines about two months and Al
most Home about two weeks.
“They were new products so I
went ahead and got them,” Schaer
says. “We’re real successful with the
Duncan Hines. We really can’t tell
with the Nabisco yet because we’ve
just been carrying them about two
weeks. The movement has been
more than I thought it would be.
They’re ordering every week. I
know my sales have tripled on the
Duncan Hines.”
Promotional measures being
taken by Nabisco, Keebler and P&G
include coupons and free mailing
samples. All three are putting out
coupons. Duncan Hines is the only
one of the three that has sent out
free samples.
“We have a sampling 2.3 ounce
box of plain chocolate chip cookies
that have been sent to a percentage
of homes,” Appleby of P&G says.
In most Bryan-College Station su
permarkets, soft cookies cost be
tween $1.49 and $1.79 for a 12
ounce bag. Soft Batch is presently
having a special for $1.49, Duncan
Hines’ regular price is $1.69 and Al
most Homes’ regualar price is $1.79.
Nearby inn has down-home food,
down-home service for small cost