Bryan & College Station, Texas

Mid July, 2008 is when the new Target is going to open. Now, I thought for sure it was going to be a Super Target, but it’s not. Apparently, it’s going to be an “Extended” Target. I don’t wuite know what that means, but I was told by the Info Person at the Target on Texas Avenue that the new Target would have more dry goods that a regular store, but not as much as a Super Target.

I’m wondering if that means no produce, meats and bakery. Well, I know my wife was hoping for a Super Target so she could have another store to use her coupons in, but no. She’ll be OK.

I guess with the Kroger right down the street and the “Plethora” of grocery stores in town (Albertson’s (2), Kroger’s (3), Super Wal-Mart, HEB (2), Apple Tree(2), plus the Asian Market and the Mexican Michoacana), maybe Target thought they couldn’t make the money back.

They’ve put up a Traffic light on Briarcrest, and it looks like it’s going to be quite a big shopping center. Here’s a quote from the Eagle in June of 2007:

The retail center will be anchored by the 127,000-square-foot Target store, and will feature five junior anchor spaces, eight free-standing shops and 100,000-square-foot of shop space.

This means more restaurants and the potential for maybe…just maybe, another Freebirds.

—

Well, no Freebirds is planned. Here is a list of planned stores to occupy the retail spaces (the list is from Chris Tesch’s Real Estate blog):

Shipley’s Doughnuts
Baskin Robbins
Eyemart Express
Citifinancial
E-Nail Topia
Dollar Tree
rue21
Rack Room Shoes
Maurices
Logan ’s Steakhouse
Anytime Fitness
Salt Grass Steakhouse
IHOP
Burlington Coat Factory

If you’ve been here for any amount of time, someone has probably mentioned JJ’s SnoCones. And if you haven’t gone out there yet, go do it. They open for the year some time in March and I’ll have to find out, but I think they close up in September.

When we first got here, it was one of the places that many of the people we met recommended. We were not and have not been disappointed.

I grew up eating these things in Puerto Rico, they were called “piraguas” or “Raspados”, (translates to “scraped”). They would literally have a block of ice and scrape the top or side of the ice with a hand plane, you know, the kind you scrape wood with and produce those little curls of wood. I don’t know if it was a plane or not, but it looked like it. I found the picture to the left here of the actual instrument used.

Anyway, JJ’s is one of the only places whose ice is “shaved” around here, and it’s reminiscent of what I experienced in Puerto Rico.

So, I go and ask if they have Guava, they don’t. Tamarindo? No. But you know what they did? They got some. Man, Guava/Tamarindo is so yummy.

OK, so they told me that Pickle Juice is one of the biggest sellers. That’s crazy. I have not tried that and I’m not sure I will.

This week I tried the Snozberry…that was really good. My wife tried the Yellow Cake Batter with cream and it was like eating frozen yellow cake batter.

We’ve tried the Wedding Cake, Bahama Breeze, Coffee, Chocolate, Tutti Frutti, bubble gum, and others.

I was told the Charlie Brown is a good one, but haven’t gotten around to that one yet.

You can add cream, Ice Cream, a gum ball and even buy a pickle if that’s what you want. My suggestion is to try flavors with the kiddie, then graduate. Like I said, so far, all the flavors have been excellent.

Kiddie: 8 oz. - ¢.75
Shorty: 10 oz. - $1.25
Small: 12 oz. - $1.75
Medium: 16 oz. - $2.00
Large: 20 oz. - $2.25
Jumbo: 24 oz. - $2.75

They are on the corner of Villa Maria and Carter Creek, right next to the Blockbuster Video. That little shack with the funky spray paint all over it and usually a line of people.

The owners and workers are really great people.

They are open every day from 12:30 - 8:00pm except Sunday, they’re open from 1:00 - 7:00pm.

Enjoy

jorge

We have a prayer meeting at our house on Monday nights where around 5 families get together, each bringing some dish or side or dessert. We eat, then hang out, then pray and sing songs. It’s a perfect way to start the week. We all look forward to getting together.

Well, this last week, we were blessed to have our desert supplied by Delicious Moments, and Husband and Wife team who caters small parties in the College Station and Bryan area.

They brought us a whole bunch of really yummy mini cheesecakes. They were so good. Everyone commented on them and wanted to know where they came from. I was happy to tell them that Zack and Lauren from Delicious Moments brought them over.

Being the first time we used a catering service, I was not sure what to expect, but let me assure you, Delicious Moments has set the bar pretty high, at least in our eyes.

They emailed me in the morning asking me what time would be good for them to drop off the food, then in the afternoon (way before people started to arrive), I got a call from them telling me they were on their way.

They brought the cheesecakes in cute little pink boxes, and they looked just perfect. They brought us original and peanut butter cheesecakes. Wow, they were good. In fact, there were way more than we needed, and were looking forward to having some the next day, but at the end of the night, while my wife and I were cleaning up after everyone left, we looked in the boxes and they were all gone. Bummer. They were obviously very good, maybe even the best in town!

We were all very impressed with these guys, and will definitely be the first company we call.

They also offer a personal chef service and in home cooking classes.

They even offer to go to the grocery store for you. Here a quote from the Delicious Moments website:

How many people hate grocery shopping? Either it takes too long, you have little kids who seem to always throw a tantrum once you get to the store or who just want to load the cart up on candy and cookies, you’re too busy to find time to grocery shop, you hate waiting in long lines, crowded aisles, finding a close parking spot, etc. Well, if you just want someone to do your grocery shopping for you, call us up and let us know! We would be happy to be of assistance! Just send us your list and we’ll do the grocery shopping for you! Simple as that.

Call these guys soon, even if your event is later this year. Visit their website for more catering, personal chef and cooking class information.

jorge

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