Bryan & College Station, Texas

Are you wanting to go out to eat or call in a to go order, but you can’t find the restaurant’s website, and you don’t know what to order? Well, College Station and Bryan restaurant menus can be viewed at a website called “Aggieland Menus”.

Aggieland menus is a cool website that lists many (if not all) of the restaurants in town, and links to a pdf of the restaurant’s menu. So even if the restaurant doesn’t have a website, chances are, the menu is posted at AggielandMenus.info.

It’s a free service, so if you are a restaurant owner, contact them. And if you are a restaurant owner and need a website, contact me…it’s what I do.

Here’s what they have to say about their service:

Aggieland Menus is a guide serving the restaurants and consumers of Bryan-College Station, Texas. We are a free service that provides the most information about your restaurant to the most important person… your customers!

They have a rating system on the site, a place to write a review on the restaurant’s own page. It’s very well organized, and a great resource.

We just recently downloaded Spice Bowl’s menu for my wife’s parents. They wanted to try something different, and have another look at the prices.

I also downloaded the Pho John’s menu to see if they served Bubble Smoothies…they do.

It’s just a great idea to serve the restaurants in town.

You can even subscribe to the site with a syndication reader and get Aggieland Menus news as soon as it’s posted on the site. Nice. (click on the little orange RSS button in the corner).

And by the way, don’t you think the best menus are the ones with beautiful pictures of food items on them? I love those.

You should call in an order and eat in! Or order from Freebirds and go eat at Central Park.

jorge

Freebirds is a wonderful place. They make these gigantic burritos that are so wonderfully tasty and filling and just awesome.

The first time I had one of these was back around 1992 when my older brother (who was attending A&M at the time) invited me to come and play my guitar for some of his friends. My songs back then were mostly geared toward Junior High, chock full of body function humor and other things that most people wouldn’t necessarily like.

Well, It was great then, and it’s great now. In fact, other companies have imitated them, like Habanero’s Grill in San Antonio, and Chipotle’s.

Although those other restaurants are good, Freebirds is really the best. They have 4 tortilla choices (flour, whole wheat, spinach and cayenne). Chipotle’s only offers white tortillas and Habanero’s in San antonio at least offers Whole Wheat.

Freebirds has 4 sizes, and although ‘ve seend them make one, I’ve never ordered a “Super Monster”. It’s really big. Like 1 and a half pounds.

The Freebirds Restaurants are on University and Hwy 6, down in Northgate (across from the A&M campus, one on Rock Prairie over by Kroger’s, and one next to Old Navy.

They offer a punch card where you can get a free burrito after you’ve bought 10, and they don’t limit it to the cheapest burrito…you can order it however you want it, and it’s free. Totally worth it.

One of the fun things about Freebirds is the tradition to make a foil sculpture with the foil you peel off the burrito. There are some really creative sculptures up on the walls. I’ve left a few.

They’ve got quesadillas, salads, chips, guac…just a great place.

A “regular” Freebird chicken Burrito will run you $5.75. They’ve included tax into the price, so “no chump change”. Nice.

Now, it can be a little daunting your first time, but just tell the server it’s your first time. Y’ll choose a tortilla size and flavor, they’ll steam it and ask you if you want rice, cheese, and what kind of meat…you can even chose dark or white meat. Choose from three kinds of beans, cilantro, onions, hot sauce, etc. Then you keep moving down the line and get all your other stuff in there piled high. Some items are extra, but they’ll tell you first. Then the’ll ask you if it looks good, and take it off the line and wrap it in foil.

I suggest you stand the bird on one end, then unwrap it a couple of inches at a time, eating it down toward the table.

Oh, the “death sauce” is pretty hot, and their BBQ sauce is really tasty.

Looks like there might be some Freebirds outside of Texas in the future. That’s fun. There’s 4in College Station, 4 in Austin, 4 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, 3 in Houston, 1 in San Marcos, 1 in San Antonio, 2 in Lubock, 1 in Norman Oklahoma, and I believe there’s on in Santa Barbara, California…the original.

Go eat one.

jorge

We recently went to Central Park in College Station. The grounds are very nice, and although the playground is fairly small, there were other things to do.

There’s a basketball court, pavillions, baseball fields, picnic tables, paved trails, a pond and ducks.

Lots of ducks. And geese. We took peanut butter and honey sandwiches, goldfish crackers and granola bars, and those ducks ate almost everything we threw at them. I mean toward them.

My kids don’t eat the crust of their sandwiches. My mom always made us eat ours, and for the most part we make our kids eat theirs, but not when there are ducks around.

There is one goose in particular that is pretty big, and apparently the scout, well, at least not afraid to come right up to you.

In fact, at one point, I found our 4 year old (who we call the “Bug Whisperer”) petting it…practically hugging it.

I’m not convinced ducks like peanut butter, but they ate just about everything we threw at them.

The pond was very pretty and well kept. Looks like it’s stocked with fish and you can actually catch them, so bring your rod. The regular Texas Parks and Wildlife limits for bagging apply to this pond. The Central Park pond has Trout and Catfish in it.

Here are some tips on releasing fish:

Quickly play and release fish.
Keep fish in water as much as possible.
Remove hook with pliers or cut line.
Gently place fish back into water.
Revive fish by holding upright in water and moving back and forth, gently forcing water through gills.

Enjoy

jorge

You know the kind of jeans I’m talking about. The kind that some of us wore (or parents wouldn’t buy for us) in the 80s. You know, the kind your father-in-law wears to cut down trees and work under the car.

Well, those jeans don’t look like they’re worth much, but in fact, you can buy them at Abercrombie and Fitch for around $80.

Well, you don’t need to pay that much anymore. There’s a place in town called “The Exchange”. It’s been there for a while (on Harvey across from Shivers) and has recently (2007) changed management, and even what they do. As of this writing, the signs are still up that say otherwise, but they don’t sell stuff on ebay, and they don’t buy used clothes (they used to).

I’ve been told they are changing the name to “The Alternative,” I’ll let you know when that happens.

They are now a Brand Name Retail Store, selling brand new items of clothing like Abercrombie, Hollister, American Eagle, Aeropostal and more.

Nothing in the store is over $20.00. That’s right, brand new jeans for less than $20.00. I’d say that’s something to go and check out.

They’ve actually been having issues with people thinking they are the same shop they used to be…even with all the new signs stating “new management” and “brand name clothes” etc. So go in and check it out, but don’t take your used clothing.

I had family come from England looking for Abercrombie stuff and were completely amazed at what they found. They told me the same jeans in England were selling for $200.00. In fact, the same jeans at the Abercrombie and Fitch in the mall ran about $80.00 - $100.00.

The General Manager told me that they get 2000 pounds of product in the store every 2 weeks. They get the stuff that doesn’t go to the outlet stores, overstock and other items. They pick through the stuff they get, pull out the good stuff, iron and steam them and put them on the racks.

This is brand new stuff, it’s just gets to the store a little wrinkled. The staff here takes very good care of making the clothing look perfect.

Apparently they get other things in the shipment, like a pogo stick, framed art, clocks, signs…and they sell those things too.

The store is clean, the dressing rooms are very nice, and there’s a waiting area/lounge that’s even stocked with children’s books. Nice touch.

There’s also a Post Office branch in the corner of the store, so no more waiting in line at the post office.

The staff is very friendly and know what’s in the store at any time, so you can always call and ask to see if they have what you are looking for: (979) 985-5151.

Go check it out.

jorge

If you haven’t seen the College Station City-Data site, check it out.

City-Data is a site that has compiled information from several different sources on just about anything you want to know about a city. The city page includes maps, stats like race, income, education, employment and unemployment, geographical data, crime data, sex offenders, weather, schools, radio and TV stations, zip codes and area codes among other things. It’s a great site to check out if you are considering moving to an area.

Below, I’ve list some stuff from the College Station page that I think is of interest.

Population (without students): approx 75,000

Zip Codes: 77840 and 77845

Estimated median household income in 2005: $24,218 (it was $21,180 in 2000)

College Station	$24,218
Texas:	$42,139

Estimated median house/condo value in 2005: $144,500 (it was $119,500 in 2000)

College Station	$144,500
Texas:	$106,000

Median gross rent in 2005: $681.
Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2005: 39.2%

Races in College Station:

• White Non-Hispanic (75.7%)
• Hispanic (10.0%)
• Black (5.4%)
• Other race (4.5%)
• Chinese (2.3%)
• Asian Indian (1.9%)
• Two or more races (1.9%)
• Korean (1.5%)
• Other Asian (0.8%)
• American Indian (0.7%)

(Total can be greater than 100% because Hispanics could be counted in other races)

Unemployment in September 2007:

Here:	3.7%
Texas:	4.4%

Percipitation highs: May and October

Percipitation lows: February and July

Hospital/medical center in College Station:
COLLEGE STATION MEDICAL CENTER (1604 ROCK PRAIRIE ROAD)

Average household size:

This city:	2.3 people
Texas:	2.7 people

Average Travel time to Work: 15 Minutes

There’s a whole lot more info on the City-Data page. Interesting stuff.

Jorge