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| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Jewel-Osco #4106 / Albertsons #4405 / IMC Mortgage Company / Citi Financial Mortgage Company / Coca-Cola Enterprises / Florida Orthopedic Institute
5901 East Fowler Avenue, Temple Terrace, FL - Terrace Walk
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| Today's post is a presentation of Hillsborough County retail |
Rested, somewhat relaxed, and as caught up as I'll ever be, AFB returns for another year! To kick off 2026, we'll be completing my Temple Terrace posting series with a look at the town's first Albertsons store - one that actually operated for a little while, unlike the store we already talked about a few months ago. However, while this building actually housed an Albertsons, it wasn't for very long, with today's post completing the story of Albertsons' operational pains in Temple Terrace - a city the chain never had a good relationship with. While this building may not be the most exciting retail destination in Florida these days, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to make today's post a little more exciting than a regular ol' post about a supermarket-turned-call-center-turned-doctor's-office. There may be some photos from the 90's forthcoming, and maybe a side adventure or two, and maybe even a discussion about outdated supermarket technologies for good measure. Unfortunately the city council drama for this post was a bit lackluster compared to what went down at the other Albertsons site in town, but hopefully all that other stuff will suffice! So grab a Coke, get comfy, and let's finish up our business here in Temple Terrace:
The building we'll be primarily focused on today can trace its origins back to Jewel-Osco's short Floridian tenure. As we've discussed in the past, Jewel-Osco came to Florida with grand plans to launch massive superstores throughout Tampa Bay (and was even rumored to be looking to a much larger expansion effort). Published in December 1989, the article seen above (and continues below) chronicled the chain's expansion plans through 1992 for Tampa Bay.
I found the article above interesting as it not only mentioned the 7 Jewel-Osco stores that ended up being built, but it also touched on the chain's expansion plans for 1992 (including the planned but never-built stores at Sheldon and Waters in Tampa and at Providence and Lumsden in Brandon) and rumored site selection happening in Spring Hill and Fort Myers. Jewel-Osco had grand plans for Florida, but was taking a slow but steady approach for growth with their new format. We all know how that expansion would pan out in the end, but before we talk about that, let's get back to the specifics of Jewel-Osco's efforts to get this Temple Terrace store off the ground:
After two years of debate on what trees at the property should and should not be saved, the Temple Terrace Jewel-Osco officially began construction in late 1989 on an empty lot at the southeastern corner of Fowler Avenue and 56th Street (even if the environmentalists did not quite give the project their blessing). Part of a new complex named Terrace Walk, Jewel-Osco would be the center's star anchor, with Luria's catalog showroom serving as a secondary anchor.
After a year and 4 months of construction, the new Jewel-Osco would open for business on May 22, 1991, becoming one of the later Jewel-Osco stores to open of the bunch (although I believe the similarly ill-fated Carrolwood Jewel-Osco was officially the last new Jewel-Osco to open in Florida). As you would expect from one of Jewel-Osco's fancy Floridian stores, their new Temple Terrace location featured such frills like a soda shop, a newsstand, a pizza bar, live seafood, bulk foods, a fragrance department, and "acres of farm fresh produce" (Jewel-Osco's words, not mine - guess this store was much larger than it appeared if they were able to fit "acres" of produce in that building!)
The grand opening of this store was quite the big to-do, with activities for the day including the typical fare like a ribbon cutting and speeches, as well as some more unique fare such as a life-sized version of "Tampa Bay-opoly" shoppers could play! (It's not often you see life-sized Monopoly-knockoff games). For those who didn't get sent directly to jail, the activities continued inside with prizes, giveaways, and an assortment of other deals and specials, like these:
Jewel-Osco was really trying to be the show-stopping grocer of Florida, and I would have loved to see what one of these stores were all about in original form. Albertsons really knocked these stores down a few notches, I feel, making them just an oversized average grocer.
This article from the Tampa Tribune gives us a brief glimpse inside the short-lived Temple Terrace Jewel-Osco, with a picture of the "Luncheon Meats" department to accompany an article about how the new store was running a trial of something quite revolutionary for a supermarket in 1991 - digital price tags. While digital price tags have really taken off since the late 2010's as technologies for such systems have improved, I was surprised to learn these were being tried out over 25 years prior. If you read the article and the description of how this early 90's version of digital price tags worked, I can see why these needed another 25 years to really take off - the system was extremely complicated and involved a lot of hardware, and I'm sure cost for all of that too. These days all you need is a handheld device and Wi-Fi to make a system like this work, with relatively inexpensive e-ink screens to display the prices. It's still interesting to see retailers were trying to make such a system work back in the 1990's though, much like some of the early self-checkout systems being trialed elsewhere at the time.
While I didn't mean to go off on a tangent about 1990's technology, I primarily included that clipping because it contained a rare photo of Jewel-Osco Florida's interior. However, to flesh out this post a bit, what if I said I may have some more interior (and exterior) photos of Florida Jewel-Osco stores to show you?
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Being that I reference this album every time I write a post about a former Jewel-Osco, it shouldn't come as much of a shock that there is a Facebook album posted by Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein (a member of the family involved in Jewel-Osco's ownership in the 1990's) with a number of grand opening photos from the Florida Jewel-Osco stores. Many of the photos in that album were from the grand opening of the Temple Terrace store, which is why it's taken me until now to actually incorporate these photos into a blog post!
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
All the exterior photos you'll be seeing are of this store as it appeared on the morning of May 22, 1991 - grand opening day. Just look at all those Skaggs Company big shots who came for this event! (At least they look like pretty important people in attendance!)
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
The exterior of the Temple Terrace Jewel-Osco was of the typical design when compared to its 6 siblings - a grandiose facade with arches over the two sets of entry doors, followed by a set of doors in the center under the Jewel-Osco logo for shoppers exiting the store.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
In the background of the photo above, we get a glimpse of the remainder of the Terrace Walk shopping center, where the Luria's store and the rest of the smaller shops in the center are located.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
At 8:00am grand opening morning, the store's ribbon cutting ceremony was held, pictured here.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Here we go, we'll cut the ribbon in 3, 2, 1...
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
…and our new Jewel-Osco is open! I don't know for sure, but I'd have to presume the man in the light gray jacket was the store manager, being he was the one who cut the ribbon. Other than that I don't know who any of these other people are, but they all look happy the store is now open!
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Well, the man all the way on the left looks like he was caught on camera mid-yawn, but the rest of these folks look ready for a celebration!
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Behind these two ladies, it looks like people were beginning to enter the store, so let's follow the crowd in for a look at what a Floridian Jewel-Osco is all about:
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Before we start this interior tour, I have to note that while I was able to confirm all the exterior photos were of the Temple Terrace location, I can't say for certain if all these interior photos were too. All 7 of these stores were identical inside, and that album I referenced had photos from this location's grand opening, as well as the grand openings of the Largo Mall, Carrollwood, and Clearwater stores too. While some of these interior photos may be from those other locations, what we're about to see is what the Temple Terrace store (and its siblings) looked like in 1991.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Produce was located in the front right corner of the store, much like we've seen in the few of these buildings still standing and operating as a supermarket. Other than pulling out many of the fancy extras, Albertsons (and in turn, Publix) didn't really change the layouts of these stores all too much from how Jewel-Osco had them set up (with Largo Mall's Safeway remodel being the most dramatic rearrangement any of these building received that remained a supermarket into the 21st century).
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
The bakery was located on the right side wall, and you can't get much more of a Floridian decor than painting pink pastel palm trees on the wall!
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
The meat counter was located along the store's back wall, just outside of the grand aisle on the right side of the building.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
I have to imagine the decor we see here was designed exclusively for Jewel-Osco's Florida division, as pastel palm trees would have looked very out of place in a supermarket in Chicago! Considering how different these stores were from their Chicago-area counterparts, it was really just the name that tied the two chains together (with Skaggs having stated they only used the Jewel-Osco name in Florida to lure relocated Midwesterners into these stores).
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Some neon signage could be found at the pharmacy counter, located in the front left corner of the building.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
A cozy book nook and newsstand occupied this little alcove at the front of the store...
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
…with this other alcove looking to be the home of the soda shop.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
A soda shop with ice cream and other treats sounds like a fun addition to a supermarket - I wish this trend had caught on! Come on Publix, add some ice cream to the menu at POURS!
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Some people are standing in the way, but here's a glimpse at Jewel-Osco's front end.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
The lane lights remind me a lot of Publix's Wavy Pastel light design, which would have debuted the same year this store opened.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
At lot of check lanes to fill this monster store's front end, I think at least 20.
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
In front of the check lanes and next to the soda shop was the service desk. Like many of the other department signs, the customer service one also uses that Wavy Pastel-esque font - I guess Gill Sans was just trendy in the 90's!
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| Photo courtesy of Mindy Skaggs Benkenstein on Facebook |
Here's one final photo of Jewel-Osco's interior before we turn our attention to this building's next era: Albertsons.
After only 11 months in business as Jewel-Osco, the Temple Terrace store was sold to Albertsons alongside its 6 siblings and two undeveloped sites, Skaggs' admission of defeat and that frills aren't necessarily what it takes to run a successful supermarket. The size and complexity of these stores is attributed quite a bit to their downfall, with the lower than expected sales never quite justifying the expenses.
Unlike the other 6 stores Jewel-Osco opened, the Temple Terrace location never had a liquor store. As you can imagine, the city's liquor laws played into that, with amendments to the city's liquor laws coming up for vote in October 1992. I don't know if Jewel-Osco began the push for this change or if this fell entirely on Albertsons (who was known to be aggressive in the allowance of liquor sales in places where there was resistance), but one of those two began the push to allow for laws that would let the supermarket operate a liquor store.
Albertsons managed to get their way, with the Temple Terrace city council passing the amendments to the liquor laws in late 1992. Now in the clear, the Temple Terrace Albertsons liquor store held its grand opening in December 1992, 9 months after the main store converted to Albertsons. I'd have to imagine Jewel-Osco built this store with the space for liquor sales in place (as the liquor store opened only two months after the city's changes passed), much like Albertsons would in the few places in Florida where they had to cave to public opposition to the liquor sales.
Even though Albertsons managed to get their liquor store at Terrace Walk (unlike at the later Busch Boulevard location, where liquor controversies ended up killing those plans), the Terrace Walk store didn't have the brightest future ahead of it. Albertsons unexpectedly closed their Temple Terrace store on March 31, 1994 - just shy of two years after it converted from Jewel-Osco. Corporate never gave a clear answer as to why this store closed after only two years, although the Tampa Tribune did note that the former Carrollwood Jewel-Albertsons closed after only a year in business under the Albertsons name, with Albertsons citing unprofitability for that closure. I'd have to guess that was a large contributing factor to this store's closure as well.
Shortly after Albertsons closed at Terrace Walk, Luria's closed their store in the center too, leading to two large vacancies in this strip. Temple Terrace was facing quite the retail exodus in the mid-1990's, and that would lead the city to begin plans to revitalize many of the ailing shopping centers further south on 56th Street near the city's retail core on Busch Boulevard. Even though it was further north, the Terrace Walk vacancies were still a large mark on the city's retail scene, and the city wanted to see something take over the old Jewel-Osco/Albertsons building.
It took two additional years, but come 1997, the city was finally able to lure Industry Mortgage Company (IMC) to fill the former Albertsons space at Terrace Walk. While not retail, the city considered filling the building a win overall for the jobs IMC would bring to town, and felt the building provided ample space for offices.
Following its conversion from a supermarket to office space, this building has gone through a few different tenants through the years. After spending only two years as Industry Mortgage Company, the former Albertsons building switched hands to Citi Financial Mortgage Company in 1999.
Citi Financial closed its Temple Terrace offices in the early 2000's, leading to the building's next (and so far) longest office tenure: Coca-Cola Enterprises. Coca-Cola took over the building to open its new customer service and sales center in 2004, the building essentially becoming a large call center under Coca-Cola's tenure.
Coca-Cola retained their Temple Terrace call center until around 2022, when the property was sold to a new owner and the call center was closed. The new owners ended up being the Florida Orthopedic Center, who after a quick remodel, reopened in this building in 2024 as medical offices and occupy the building today.
I ended up visiting this property twice - once while Coca-Cola was still operating and once after Coca-Cola moved out but before Florida Orthopedic Center moved in. Above we see the building in its Coca-Cola form...
…and here it is after Coca-Cola closed. Not much of a difference besides the missing signage, but I do find it interesting to see the flag still waving in front of an empty building!
Other than the general footprint of the building, there isn't much left to see here from the Jewel-Osco or Albertsons days. The building has been pretty thoroughly rebuilt by the various office tenants through the years, and looking down the right side of the building, we can even see a second floor was added over here too - a thorough remodel for sure!
The stripes along the upper portion of the facade may actually be a holdover from Jewel-Osco (comparing the grand opening exterior photos to these modern ones), so there may be one tiny piece of the original supermarket structure still holding out here!
Coca-Cola's main entrance aligns with Jewel-Osco's center entrance/exit doors. Here you can more strongly see some of the old stucco remnants from the Jewel-Osco days.
Even as an office building, this is still quite the stately structure. These old Jewel-Osco buildings made for quite imposing supermarkets!
The liquor store was located here in the building's front left corner, but there isn't much left to denote its existence. These days, this part of the building looks to be a smoking/break area for employees.
I wonder if the parking lot was ever this full when Jewel-Osco or Albertsons were here? I'd have to guess not, considering how short-lived both of those stores were. Oh well, I guess it took a call center to get people to fill the lot at this building!
Being there isn't much left from this building's supermarket days, that's all I have left to share from Terrace Walk's former main anchor space. However, being we're here and I need to fill this post somehow, let's take a look at the rest of the center, starting with the space which once housed Terrace Walk's junior anchor, Luria's:
Luria's was one of the many regional catalog showroom chains that once dotted the country. Similar to its more famous national counterpart Service Merchandise, Luria's sold a variety of hardline goods with an emphasis on jewelry and electronics, using a showroom model. Luria's stores dotted much of Florida's Peninsula from the I-4 corridor southward, with a brief foray into Jacksonville as well.
Luria's Terrace Walk store was actually considered a relocation of the chain's Northgate Shopping Center location on North Florida Avenue in Tampa, over 6 miles away. The Northgate Luria's store closed in October 1990, with the Terrace Walk store opening shortly after (just a few months before Jewel-Osco opened).
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| I'd like to find one of those Luria's mugs at a thrift store some day |
Luria's held a big grand opening celebration in Temple Terrace, with plenty of daily giveaways, sales, and even an appearance by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Raphael! Fun fact - we actually had that same AT&T cordless phone pictured in this ad back in the day (although it was not purchased from Luria's), but I'm sure it would have been nice to stop by here to get the free phone call card to go with it!
Much like Jewel-Osco and Albertsons, Luria's tenure at Terrace Walk was short-lived as well. Luria's began to fall on hard financial times in the mid-1990's as catalog showrooms began to be squeezed out by the rise of other big-box stores at the time, and the Temple Terrace location was included in a closure round Luria's held in May 1995.
Following that closing round, Luria's only lasted another two years before eventually closing the rest of its stores, and by the time of its demise in 1997, Luria's only had a small collection of stores remaining around its South Florida home. Following its closure, the old Luria's space has been re-tenanted by Planet Fitness, although I could not find any record of anything being in this space between Luria's closure and Planet Fitness's arrival.
The center's facade appears to be original from the Luria's days, and possibly the arrangement of the doors and windows too.
From the old Luria's, here's a look back toward the old Jewel-Osco building and the rest of the Terrace Walk strip, where we see our next destination peeking out in the distance - Cici's Pizza.
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| Yes, I stole this logo from MFR - I need to dust them off occasionally! |
While not an original tenant, Cici's has been at Terrace Walk since the late 1990's, so they've had a long tenure here at Terrace Walk. Even with all the turbulence the chain has had in recent years, this location remains, and is one of two outposts Cici's still operates in Hillsborough County as of 2026 (the other being in Brandon).
The first time I passed through Terrace Walk for photos in 2019, I was here pretty early in the morning, so I just took this quick photo of Cici's exterior and moved along, as the restaurant had not yet opened for the day.
My second visit to Terrace Walk in 2022 came about as I decided to stop at this Cici's for lunch - those extra photos of the old Jewel-Osco building from after Coca-Cola moved out just serving as a bonus from this visit. As you can see, between my 2019 and 2022 visits, this Cici's remodeled from the 2000's look to the chain's more modern prototype, with the updated logo and the "Beyond Pizza" design (which was actually retired last year in favor of this design, which is the look for all new and remodeled Cici's locations going forward).
Inside was a fairly standard Cici's layout, with the cashier as you walk in and the pizza buffet following behind that. Even though the restaurant's dining room received the new design with the red walls and black ceiling, one piece of the 2000's decor and branding managed to evade the remodel crew behind the buffet over the kitchen's prep stations.
The dessert and salad bars are situated at the end of the buffet line, with the drink machine at the very end.
Say what you will about Cici's, but I like it. Even though the chain fell on hard times in the 2010's (followed by another gut punch from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020), the chain is slowly rebounding. Cici's actually opened 8 new locations in 2025 per that linked article (in addition to debuting the new prototype I mentioned before), saw an increase in same-store sales, and is actively trying to expand again (with an emphasis on the Southeastern states and Texas, the chain's home). It's not often you see a restaurant on the verge of "Broken Chain" status regain its footing! With Pizza Hut rumored to be bringing back its buffets to more of the remaining dine-in locations this year, it seems like the pizza buffet may not be a dead concept yet (unlike a different buffet concept we'll be discussing shortly...).
Absolutely stuffed now after eating all that pizza, I need to go for a walk. And walk we shall, as to finish off this post, we'll take a walk down Fowler Avenue to check out something that caught my interest as I was driving down the road toward Terrace Walk. We'll start off with this quick look at Terrace Walk's road sign as I make my way to the sidewalk before we take a look at what lies ahead:
For context, here's a map of the area and a preview of what's to come. Terrace Walk and the former Jewel-Osco/Albertsons building can be seen at the southeastern corner of Fowler Ave (SR 582) and 56th Street (SR 583). We're going to walk west from there to the former Ryan's restaurant to see what that's all about, but before we get there, we will be passing a Publix:
That Publix is store #1578 at Terrace Ridge Plaza, Temple Terrace's second Publix location. We saw the Busch Boulevard Publix previously, which got an entire write up due to its entanglement in the saga of the city's potential second Albertsons store.
Publix #1578 opened on June 25, 2020, replacing the original Publix #311 which stood on this site previously. This Publix isn't anything too out of the ordinary, a pretty average modern 54M store, Publix's slightly larger prototype. That link also includes a few photos of old #311 too, which was much more interesting (in my opinion). Publix #311 was an exact copy of to the old Gandy Boulevard Publix in South Tampa (minus the Starbucks), and I wish I had made it to Temple Terrace before this location was rebuilt! Since the new store wasn't anything out of the ordinary, I took these few exterior photos as I was walking by before arriving at my destination - the old Fowler Avenue Ryan's Buffet:
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| A new twist on this special feature! |
From one buffet to another, but don't expect to eat anything here - the only thing this place is serving up is all-you-can-eat decay! Driving by this place something jumped out at me, so I figured if I had time after my own lunch I'd head back over to check out this place in more detail, as I've always been intrigued by these old steakhouse buffet chains. Anyway (and you probably know the drill by now), before we get to the pictures, let's learn a little more about what we're going to see:
Steakhouse buffet chains were all the rage in the 1970's and 1980's with their wide variety of food at a low price - perfect for feeding large families for cheap. That era saw the expansion of chains like Golden Corral, Ryan's, Quincy's, Western Sizzlin', Bonanza, Ponderosa, Sizzler, Sirloin Stockade, and a number of other regional variants of a similar vein. Ryan's, in particular, was on a big expansion push in Florida in the 1980's, building a number of buildings like the one we're about to see across the state. The Temple Terrace Ryan's opened in the later part of 1988, as mentioned toward the end of the article above describing other development along Fowler Avenue at the time.
Ryan's eventually grew to have two locations in Hillsborough County, the other located in Tampa's Palm River neighborhood on South 78th Street. However, as we entered the 1990's, it appeared the steakhouse buffet craze had come and gone, and many of these chains began to slowly wither away as locations closed one by one (and of those chains I mentioned before, other than Golden Corral, the rest are either totally out of business or true "broken chains" - sadly, Ryan's now falls into the former case).
By the early 2000's, Ryan's was in decline. Even though the chain was slowly dwindling in location count nationwide, the chain still managed to hang onto 19 Florida locations by 2004. That same year, the franchisee of Florida's Ryan's locations, Family Steakhouses of Florida, terminated its franchise agreement with Ryan's (probably seeing the chain was faltering, as only two years later, Ryan's would be merged into Buffets, Inc. - parent company of Old County Buffet - another company with plenty of problems). Instead of joining another nationwide brand, Family Steakhouses of Florida decided to develop their own buffet concept named "Whistle Junction" as the rebrand for the majority of its former Ryan's locations.
Whistle Junction was essentially Ryan's with a train theme. The buildings got new signage and a water tower out front to add to the Hooterville-style ambiance they were going for, but other than that, the buildings and the food were basically Ryan's in everything but name.
As you can probably imagine from a rogue franchisee trying to go off on its own and make a name for itself in a dying restaurant category, Whistle Junction was a train heading for derailment, with the last stop coming in 2008. Having had dined at Whistle Junction during its run, it was never really able to live up to Ryan's, with quality and variety slipping later in the chain's very short tenure. After the chain folded, many of these buildings became home to Asian buffets, but some others fell into a variety of uses and now house churches, clinics, and an assortment of other restaurants. Not long after Whistle Junction closed in Temple Terrace in 2008, the owners of "Scoop", a popular college bar and hangout near the University of Central Florida in Orlando, decided to bring their concept to the students of University of South Florida (located just down the road from here). The plan was to remodel the building to house a bar geared toward students, with much of the dining space becoming a "hangout" with pool tables, basketball machines, televisions, etc. An interesting concept, but we all know by now about Temple Terrace and its views on businesses selling liquor...
Temple Terrace's mayor, as well as some other city council members and civic leaders, felt Scoop would become a wild party place where college students would "overindulge" in alcoholic beverages. Technically falling just outside of Temple Terrace's city limits in the City of Tampa, these individuals representing Temple Terrace presented to the Tampa City Council their concerns when the topic of approving the bar came up before the council for discussion.
Even though it was outside of its corporate limits, the Temple Terrace city council unanimously voted against the project to demonstrate to the city of Tampa their concerns. When the final vote before Tampa's city council to approve Scoop's liquor license came before them, Temple Terrace officials came out in full force to air their concerns.
Even with some amendments to his plan and pleas from Scoop's attorney, the opposition still managed to sway the council to deny Scoop's liquor license, effectively canceling the project.
With the liquor license denied, Scoop's owners were forced to sell the building, as there was no other way to bring their vision to life at this site without a liquor license. The building was sold to a new owner in 2009, and that new owner apparently had no plans to do anything with the property, as it just continued to sit vacant until 2022, when I arrived to take these pictures:
Since Scoop was never able to do anything with the property, the place has sat in its original form ever since Whistle Junction closed in 2008. That's what intrigued me so much about this building, as I was hoping to get some glimpses at that chain's past while I was here.
The main entrance was on the side of the building, through that door on the right. To the left of that was a planter built into the facade, with the logo above the planter on that blank wall rising above the roof. If you look closely at the wall, you can actually see the Ryan's labelscar.
A number of police notices and warning signs were placed above the doors, suggesting this place was attracting loiterers, and loiterers who probably weren't just retail nerds wanting a glimpse back at a dead restaurant chain...
Looking through the front doors into the lobby area, the second set of doors created a glare that prevents us from seeing much of the interior from this angle (I can make out a chair though). I can't quite tell which was which, but one of these doors was the entrance into the queue line where you would pay, and the other was the exit from the dining room.
Striking out on any interior photos from the main entrance, we'll turn the corner for a few photos of the front of the building, which faced Fowler Avenue. The majority of the dining room was in the front part of the building, with the buffet lines toward the back near the kitchen area. The entire facade is original to Ryan's minus the cupola with the clock - that was a Whistle Junction addition to give the building a train depot feel. In addition to the cupola, Whistle Junction added something else - the chain's most defining feature, peeking out at the far left of the image...
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| Come ride the little train that is rolling down the tracks to the junction...Whistle Junction |
…the water tower. If you ever drive by a restaurant in Florida and see one of these in front of it, you've arrived at the junction, a former Ryan's-turned-Whistle Junction. This water tower is purely decorative - it never once held water, but with how rough this one looks, I wouldn't have been surprised if some water began seeping into it and accumulating.
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| An idea is nothing until it is composed - it's nice to see some inspirational graffiti for a change! |
Here's the water tower shown alongside the main restaurant building, all of it looking a bit rough in the 14 years since the last
Most of the windows on the front of the building, looking into the dining room, were either boarded up or had the blinds drawn. Looking around, I did manage to find one spot where some of the blinds got bunched up, leaving me a small gap to press my camera against the glass for another try at a peek inside:
Even if Scoop was unable to successfully convert this building into a local hangout for the college kids to have a drink, it seems like some folks managed to do that on their own with all those bottles and containers strewn about the floor! While the interior overall was preserved following Whistle Junction's closure, the interior was considerably trashed by this point, with tables and chairs tossed and pushed aside, a few holes in the ceiling, and some more graffiti. The large open area we see here is the dining room, with the old buffet stations toward the back, arranged like the few other Ryan's I've dined at through the years.
Turning our attention back outside, here's what initially caught my attention as I was driving down the street this day - the perfectly preserved road sign from Whistle Junction! Knowing the chain was long defunct, I knew I had to go back after my lunch to see what else remained from the Whistle Junction days. The advertisement for "Scoop Bar & Grill Coming Soon" on the signboard was a nice touch too, even though I didn't fully understand what that was about until I did the research for this post. Still, it's quite amazing that many letters managed to stay up on the sign 14 years after the plans for Scoop fell through!
Anyway, it was a good thing I decided to check out this building when I did, as not much longer after my visit (within a year), this building was demolished and the Whistle Junction road sign was removed (although the sign did remain up for roughly another year after the demolition). Considering the building was falling apart and attracting people who were seemingly up to no good, I'm not surprised, although I do wonder if the demolition was the owner's choice or if the city ended up pushing the owner into making that decision due to piling violations and nuisance complaints. According to Google Street View, the Whistle Junction property is still sitting empty as of November 2025, so it seems there isn't much of a plan for this property (at least that I can find) at this time.
Now that we've gone on enough tangents with this post, out next and final stop of the day will take us back down the street to the old Jewel-Osco, where we'll wrap things up with some historic satellite imagery, starting off with some Bird's Eye aerial images courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front - Notice the distinctive Jewel-Osco roofline still remains after all that remodeling
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now for some historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:
Former Albertsons #4405 - 2023
Former Albertsons #4405 - 2009
Former Albertsons #4405 - 2002
Former Albertsons #4405 - 1995 - The building as it appeared before it was turned into offices
Future Jewel-Osco #4106 and Albertsons #4405 - 1984
I apologize if this post was all over the place, but when one of these former Albertsons stores isn't much to look at any more, I come up with crazy ideas like this! Until I get around to visiting the Temple Terrace Highway Winn-Dixie, that wraps up my coverage of the retail in this town. I hope everyone enjoyed this series of mine, and next time on the blog, it's off to a different part of the state to follow-up on something we've seen before. Be sure to come back in two weeks for that, as this new year of AFB is just getting started!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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