It’s a hard but necessary part of life to understand that stuff you like will not and cannot last forever. That doesn’t make the news that my favorite restaurant, Burger House on South College Avenue in Bryan, is closing any easier.

Burger House, opened in 2000 by a Korean family, announced in a late Tuesday Facebook post that it will be closing its doors at the end of the month. The post said that May 30 will be Burger House’s last day, and as its last day of service approaches many menu items will become unavailable. When I called Burger House for comment, an employee there confirmed they’d be closing, but declined to comment for this piece.

“This was not an easy decision, and we truly appreciate all the support and love you have given us over the years,” Burger House wrote on Facebook. “Thank you for every visit, every meal shared, and every kind word. We were honored to be part of so many memories with our customers, friends, and neighbors.”

Aggies and College Station residents were devastated on social media. “This breaks my heart!!” one Facebook commenter wrote. On Reddit, a Texas A&M student said the owner’s parents decided to move back to Korea to retire after working in the kitchen. 

To say that this is devastating to me would be putting it mildly. Burger House was my go to spot both when I was in high school in College Station, and when I ended up at Texas A&M. The restaurant is housed in a dumpy, weird-looking house with various pipes and AC-ducts haphazardly attached to it. The inside was similarly unassuming, with its brick floor tiling and various local newspaper reviews tacked to the walls here and there. There was a slight Korean flair, reflecting the family who founded it. The chairs felt like they were repurposed from a ’90s-era A&M classroom.  

The food was pretty good, too. In homage to the owner’s Korean roots, the menu had a Bulgogi burger that was to die for, but other than that it was standard burger joint food. The meat and buns were fresh and grilled in front of you, and the Coke was always cold. 

But what Burger House really had was heart. There was not a lot to do as an aimless teenager in College Station, Texas. The big box stores were always open and always boring. The parks got old after ninth grade, and you couldn’t smoke mids at Taylor’s house after he got the car taken away for a month. But if you didn’t mind driving a little ways out, Burger House was just on the outskirts of where most students didn’t bother to venture. It was a real “if you know, you know” spot.

My friends and I spent countless hours there as high school seniors, sipping Diet Coke and chowing down, talking over movies we had just seen or complaining about college plans. When I went to A&M, I’d still go eat there and get takeout if I was feeling nostalgic or sad. The employees’ always easy-going demeanor set me straight when I felt bent out of shape. 

Sadly, my hometown is losing a lot of these spots. Kettle, the 24-hour diner where I ate so many hungover breakfasts, closed its College Station location in 2022 and was replaced by a Salad To Go restaurant, which also closed. Now it’s a vacant lot. When I went home a few weeks ago, I noticed new chain restaurants and apartment buildings going up in the parking lots where I once sat in my car and cried to bad pop-punk music. The coffee shops I studied at in college and pretended to study at in high school are mostly gone.

These changes are inevitable, and it’s not worth losing my head over restaurants in my suburban hometown. But it still sucks the same. College Station, believe it or not, had a vibe. There was history to it, a sense you’d get at places like Burger House that this was a spot where people before you had lived and loved, where immigrants had come to build a humble restaurant, where people talked over good food and left full and happy. It was as no frills as you could ever want. Burger House’s motto really said it all:

“The Best Food for the Best People.” 

Where will all the best people eat now? I couldn’t tell you.