Ok, so this is a primarily a Tyler business / culture site first and foremost. And while the subject matter we discuss here tends run the gambit (and hopefully proves amusing from time to time), I have a few actual businesses to blog about today. I’ll start with a couple of new restaurants, well new to me anyway.
The first is a restaurant with a past, or at least the location has a past. I remember spending a good portion of my late teens and early to mid-twenties reading, hanging out, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes until all hours of the morning at the Denny’s on the southwest loop in Tyler. I can’t imagine that what we had to talk about was even remotely that important, but that’s what we did. Well thankfully, Denny’s is no longer there, and the walls have kept their secrets to themselves. No the entire place has undergone a face lift recently, including the menu. It’s now Athena Greek and American family Restaurant.
Athena is a locally family owned establishment that deserves to become a local staple. The food is fresh and authentic, probably prepared by an actual Greek grandmother, or at least that is how it tastes, and it’s moderately priced. This is the kind of place our city needs. While it may not be the type of regional cuisine we are used to seeing here, there’s nothing corporate about Athena. It’s all hand- made goodness. It also adds some much needed variety to our local diets. In a city that always seem to gravitate toward the latest trending chain restaurant, It’s been really encouraging to see some great locally owned culinary diversity start to settle in of late, (I apologize for my use of the word diversity. I promise to do my best to avoid using such clichés in the future). But from regional favs like Don Juan’s and Stanley’s to recent transplants like Taj Mahal’s and Athens, local family eateries are on the rise in Tyler. Athena Greek and American family Restaurant is located at 1593 West Southwest Loop 323 in Tyler.