Downtown Tyler Square, What Does it Offer?

December 7th, 2010

Tyler Texas Square

The downtown Tyler Texas square used to offer Jack King Jr. screaming “downtown Tyler” but he is no longer there and people would prefer to impersonate him now rather then hear him do that anymore.

But beyond Jack King Jr.’s TV commercial memorable pitch downtown Tyler has quite a bit more to offer. When I go downtown I usually am stopping at Don Juan’s Mexican Restaurant or I am taking my wife on a fancy date to Jake’s.

When going into Jake’s be sure to let the hostess know you want to go sit up on the roof top. If the weather is good the roof top offers the best experience while eating here. The food at Jake’s is very good and they have a finer dinner menu selection to choose from compared to Chili’s or even Outback.

Jake’s offers an experience of local Tyler Texas dining in one of the many old buildings that still have survived the square.

Just about one year ago a few of these old buildings were destroyed in a fire. In fact a remodeled store converted to a coffee shop/ music venue was taken out as well as a law firm and architecture business. This area is now being turned into a park thanks to the generosity of Brookshire’s grocery store company.

When in downtown during Christmas be sure to stretch your legs by walking in the square. The city of Tyler lights up the square with Christmas lights although any sign of a cross, nativity scene and so on is unfortunately missing. Times do change and political correctness is what you will see now during Christmas. The square is still very pretty and enjoyable and worth a stroll around.

The square also offers Tyler Citizens a fun place for kids as the Discovery Science Place is in walking distance. This place provides something along the lines of a interactive science center for kids in the age range of 2 – 9 and will easily take up a good 3 hours if you decide to experience everything there they have to offer.

Official Tyler Texas Downtown Square Christmas Tree

You can also find the very large First Place building at the Tyler Square. The First Place building houses Regions Bank and offers the best commercial real estate offices in town. Many businesses would not accept anything less than the premier facilities you get in this building.

If you are looking for commercial real estate in Tyler I definitely recommend riding the elevators and checking out the offices in this building first hand. Both the view, looks, and spaciousness in these commercial offices can’t be found anywhere else in Tyler.

Finally consider that the Tyler downtown square has several unique antique shops as well as a few very old traditional churches. You can find Marvin United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, and Christ Episcopal Church all in downtown Tyler and very close to the square.

Tags: Chili S, Christmas Lights, City Of Tyler, Coffee Shop, Dinner Menu, Discovery Science Place, Don Juan, Downtown Square Tyler Texas, Fun Place, Grocery Store, Interactive Science, Jack King, Menu Selection, Music Venue, Old Buildings, Political Correctness, S Tv, Science Center, Shop Music, Square in Downtown Tyler Texas, Tyler Square, Tyler Texas, Tyler Texas Downtown Square
Posted in Attractions | 6 Comments »

The Brewtones Galaxy in Tyler Texas

May 27th, 2010

The search for Tyler area activities to write about has led me to the part time coffee bar, part time church, known to patrons and parishioners respectively as the Brewtones Galaxy, or the Vineyard Church of Tyler. The Brewtones coffee shop has become a well known venue for local artists, musicians, modern-day beatniks, and twenty-somethings in general, to gather for a cup of Joe and an “unplugged” musical performance by area indie bands that are usually quietly Christian. The venue is not large but it provides a slightly bigger than intimate setting, for area young people to gather and take in various musical performances.

The primary mission of the café is to provide a place for local and out of town bands often on the cusp of real commercial success, to play to a somewhat more, but not exclusively religious crowd. The Vineyard Church has always had as part of its mission to reach out to younger, more under-churched people. Given this focus, the Brewtones Galaxy is a sort of natural partnership. Attendees are not likely to hear any kind of homily or gospel reading, but it is an opportunity to mix with other college aged youth in an environment they may or may not be otherwise interested in. Past performances have come from artists like Eisley, Sleeping at last, Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot fame) The Rocketboys, Christi Dupree and others. If most of the names are not immediately familiar that’s not surprising. But many area young people cooler than I would recognize these bands in short order.

On May twenty eight, the band entitled Moving Castles, (apparently a reference to the novel and film by the same name), will be performing at Brewtones in Tyler, in honor of the release of their new CD. The doors open at seven and admission is ten dollars a person. For more information see the Brewtones website at http://www.myspace.com/brewtones. They are located at 5201 S. Broadway Ave., in Tyler. For more on the band Moving Castles, visit http://movingcastles.com/. To read more about The Vineyard Church in Tyler go to www.tylervineyard.com, or look for the article entitled The Vineyard Church of Tyler located elsewhere on this site.

Tags: Beatniks, Brewtones, Brewtones Galaxy, Brewtones Music Venue, Broadway Ave, Coffee Bar, Coffee Shop, Commercial Success, Cup Of Joe, Cusp, Dupree, Gospel Reading, Homily, Jon Foreman, Musical Performance, Musical Performances, Natural Partnership, The Vineyard, The Vineyard Church, The Vineyard Church in Tyler TX, Time Church, Time Coffee, Town Bands, Tyler Area, Tyler Texas, Vineyard Church
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Caffe Tazza in Tyler Texas

March 23rd, 2010

Caffé Tazza

4815 Old Bullard Road
Tyler, TX 75703-1214
(903) 581-6601

Tyler’s small Italian style café, Caffe Tazza, has caught the eye of many artists and musicians. The small café is a great place to grab a decent priced coffee beverage or a great pastry, or even a light meal.

Besides having the usually light sandwiches and coffee house drinks, Caffe Tazza allows local musicians and artists to show off their talents. The café holds shows for all different artist, painters, and photographers and all types of artists. It is great for Tyler to have place that local artists can be noticed for their talents. These shows are held Thursday nights from 5pm until 9pm.

The small coffee shop is a nice quiet atmosphere and as you walk into the café you feel relaxed. It is a great place to do work or homework, because you can focus and concentrate on your work. It is nice to have a place like this available for anyone.

Really the off putting thing about the café is the fact that the sandwiches that are served to you just sit behind glass. I don’t know how long they have been sitting there, but it is unappetizing to see the tuna salad sandwich sitting there and the bread getting soggy from the juices of the meat. The whole idea makes me turned off to the food.

Caffe Tazza in Tyler may be a great place to hang out, drink a hot cup of coffee, and to get in touch with the local art community, but I would not go there expecting a great meal, just a great time.

Tags: Bullard, Cafe Tazza, Coffee Beverage, Coffee Drinks, Coffee House, Coffee Shop, Cup Of Coffee, Italian Style, Juices, Local Art, Local Artists, Local Musicians, Painters, Pastry, Quiet Atmosphere, Sandwiches, Tazza, Thursday Nights, Tuna Salad Sandwich, Tyler Texas, Tyler TX
Posted in Restaurants | No Comments »

Chez Bazan

March 1st, 2010

Chez Bazan Bakery and Coffee Shop

Chez Bazan

5930 Old Bullard
Tyler
75703
903 561 9644

Chez Bazan is just what it’s name suggests – a fancy bakery and coffee shop with a French flavor. It is quite upmarket and the prices, whilst not outrageous, reflect that.

The atmosphere is very nice –Chez Bazan is spacious and well lit with flagstone floors and brick walls. The wooden tables and chairs are arranged neatly with plenty of space between them. Music plays quietly in the background.

On the left is the bakery section. I have never seen such a variety of cakes, pies, cookies and pastries as they have here! The cakes look delicious, if not sinful – they are 4 layer cakes and with flavours such as Boston cream, carrot, German Chocolate and cheesecake there is something for everyone. You can order a slice for around $3.50 or a whole cake/gateaux for between $20-40. They will even supply a ‘party kit’ with forks and napkins (for a fee) in case you wish to take a cake to the office for someone’s special occasion.

The pastries, croissants and pigs in blankets are pretty good and the pastries are fairly authentic (I am European) but quite expensive. I thought $2.15 was a lot to shell out for one pain au chocolate. Chez Bazan also has specialty breads which are around $4 a loaf and genuine baguettes at $2.95 – which are nothing like the so-called French bread sold in supermarkets here. The cookie selection will blow you away. 20 different types are available here and you can buy them singly or by the half dozen. Most are just under a dollar each but are French, rather than American super-sized.

Chez Bazan can provide catering packs to suit your needs. They are quite used to making breakfast trays, box lunches and party trays of sweets and have a menu for each of these services. They are also accustomed to hosting parties and baby showers on the premises. There is a lovely party room which seats around 30 and this can be hired for $25 plus a food order of $125. It can be decorated to suit your needs. They will obviously make your cake too if you want. Wedding cakes can also be made by the staff at Chez Bazan – these are custom made and can be as simple or exotic as you want them to be.

The Café is open for lunch between 11am and 2pm and for just drinks until 5pm – in fact drinks are $1 off the usual price after 3 pm. Specialty coffees and teas and fruit smoothies are available plus salads, soup and sandwiches. The sandwiches are slightly exotic and include smoked turkey and avocado or Jamaican chicken. There is also quiche and wonderful Chicken Florentine crepes, served with salad. Lunch will set you back around $10.

Chez Bazan is a rare find in Tyler – a unique place to eat with gourmet food. As I have already mentioned though, the experience does come at a cost. I hope that it is popular enough to remain in business and prosper as it would if it was located in Dallas.

Tags: Baby Showers, Baguettes, bakeries, Box Lunches, Breakfast Trays, Brick Walls, Bullard, Chez Bazan, Coffee Shop, Croissants, Flagstone Floors, French Bread, French Flavor, Gateaux, German Chocolate, Layer Cakes, Party Trays, Pastries, Pigs In Blankets, Tables And Chairs, Wooden Tables
Posted in Coffee | No Comments »

Starbucks Coffee Shop

February 8th, 2010

Starbucks Locations

1817 East SE Loop 323, Tyler
(903) 939-8941

4925 South Broadway Avenue, Tyler
(903) 581-0072

113 Texas 323 Loop, Tyler
(903) 595-3748

On South Broadway and Rice in Tyler, TX there rests a Starbucks. I love Starbucks. I’m not really sure why, but I do, I follow suit with most everyone else. And usually everyone is nice and inviting. No problems, easy come and go visit. But there was one occasion this past Halloween that didn’t meet my expectations. My friends and I had decided to dress up as the 12 disciples and Jesus and pose as the Last Supper painting that Da Vinci painted. We had a table, a huge picture frame and all were dressed for the part. It was quite wonderful and everyone thought it was great. WE have a reputation for doing things lavishly.

The year before we had dressed up as Noah’s Ark. 22 people, just as many different animals and HUGE cardboard Ark, painted and cut out. We had made up a song and everything. The year before that we were the nativity scene. Anyways… So here we are as The Last Supper. I guess the weekend before that part of out group had been at this Starbucks doing a pumpkin carving contest and everyone was dressed in costume. It was quite wonderful and fun. So these same friends thought it would be great to visit them again in our group costume.

Well… we drove up, got out of our cars, I must admit this might have looked scary with three cars pulling up and 14 Jesus looking people with boxes (our table) and a huge picture frame walking toward the door. But as we approached someone from the store met us at the door and told us we couldn’t come in, that we couldn’t bring boxes into the building. We were so confused because it was so random and they had just had a huge costume party basically so what was different about today? She kept saying it was company policy, no boxes could be brought in. All we could do was turn around and leave, we were so confused.

Well there is another Starbucks location on the way home and we had already told our friends working there that we would come in to show them our costume. So we headed over there. We went in, planted our selves in front of the registers and sang our song and everyone clapped and cheered. They loved it, customers and all. We asked them if there was such a rule as the other store so adamantly proclaimed but they had no idea about it, so we laughed it off.

I must say that every time I’ve been in the first location since I’ve had a guilty a conscience. I haven’t even done anything wrong, but I feel like they will make up another excuse to kick me out or something. Even though I know that isn’t true. The second Starbucks remains my favorite, they are the most easy going.

Unfortunately next year I’m not going to be living here anymore and I won’t be able to be in another group costume. I’m a bit sad about that. But I can’t wait to see the pictures! We rock Tyler.

Tags: 12 Disciples, Boxes, Cardboard, Coffee Shop, Costume Party, Da Vinci, Halloween, Jesus, Last Supper Painting, Love, Nativity Scene, Noah S Ark, Picture Frame, Pumpkin Carving Contest, Reputation, South Broadway, Starbucks, Starbucks Coffee, Starbucks Locations, Tyler TX
Posted in Coffee | No Comments »

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