Nov 25, 2009
Gallery Art Cafe Closing
By: Kevin Buchanan
It saddens us to report that Gallery Art Cafe, the tasty little coffee shop/cafe at Jennings & Pennsylvania on the Near Southside, will be closing its doors after Thanksgiving. We have a message from Ross at Gallery Art Cafe, asking to see if there is anybody out there who might want to buy the place and keep it open:
It pains us to inform everyone that Gallery Art Café will be closing after Thanksgiving November 26th 2009. We want to thank all our patrons, our friends, our artists, our musicians and regular customers. We did our best to bring you the freshest foods and coffees in an atmosphere that was both comfortable and relaxing and at the same time provide the artwork and music from talented local artists. We have loved being a part of this community we will dearly miss each and every one of you.
Our lease expires at the end of this month. We have desperately searched for someone to come in and keep this little coffee shop going, but this economy has prevented us from finding any serious offers. The coffee shop has been a part of this community since 2003 and it would be a tragedy to see it close or change venues after all these years so if there might be anyone interested in keeping this coffee shop going please contact Ross at 817-456-6000.
So incredibly sorry to see this one go. Ross and the Gallery Art Cafe staff were a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. Southsiders, this is a lesson to remember. If we like eclectic, artful dining WE HAVE TO SUPPORT IT. That means dropping in to buy a coffe or sandwich. Let’s put our money where our mouth is and not lose any more of these great Near South gems…
This makes me sad . . .
Megan is right though. If we don’t support these awesome places, they can’t stay around. So forgo the Chili’s and Starbucks every now and then and support a local business.
Well, when I went there and ordered a sandwhich they gave me a dry hamburger. When I waited in line, hamburger in hand, the owner wasn’t attentive to me and the employee just offered me condiments. I wasn’t impressed.
I personally never found their service to be very accomodating. I am sorry if that offends anyone, but it is an honest observation from my experiences there.
I’m a bit surprised by some of the comments – we never had anything but great experiences at Gallery Art Cafe, and we stopped by quite often.
This saddens me as well. Every time I stopped by I got great coffee and really good service. Ross always went above and beyond trying to make my coffee just the way I wanted. The downfall was every time I dropped by I was the only customer. I think the only trouble for this great business is the location. It really is the only game in town at that corner other than the lounges and those are two different crowd destinations. Move this sucker close to Magnolia and the hospitals and we have a Wiiinnaaahhh. Good luck Ross, I wish you the best and hope you will reopen again soon.
No offense to the current owner/manager but it has opened & closed several times over the years with no notice, no signs, nothing. We would get gift certificates to give away, and people would go to use them and find them closed temporarily for no reason or closed permanently – only to find them open again in a few months. This incarnation had a lady running it. She would be after us to bring in business, and we ate there a couple of times but were unimpressed. Seemed like every time we tried breakfast, it was closed – again. So I can understand how its flakiness drove people away. Maybe if the latest incarnation had had a new name, people would have realized the flake was gone?
I’ve only been going for the last year or so and never had any problems. I liked the food (and the coffee), especially since they had a good number of vegetarian options.
It is a shame but their hours of operation were a bit odd. I wish I had the $$ to jump into a venture like this. We need something local that has that Spiderhouse in Austin / Four Star Coffee Bar(the original one off 7th st)feel to it.
I loved that place but didn’t visit often because I found it to be a bit pricey…two coffees and two breakfast sandwiches ran us more than $20. It was good though.
I dearly miss the 7th St. 4 Star. The one downtown has terrible hours. If they actually stayed open, I’d definitely go more. How is it we can support 5 Starbucks downtown, but the indie coffee shops keep dying off? And why don’t we have one on Magnolia?
When I went the employee working was super pissed we ruined his smoke break (audibly). The food wasn’t stellar enough to forgo the atitude. I really loved the concept though andsome ofthe art was great!
First impressions are everything. I visited the coffee shop once. There was a potent and foul odor throughout the whole place, the service was average and the coffee was run of the mill. I could not find any reason to give it another chance.
Kevin, take note that now that this blog is as popular as it is you can expect top notch service wherever you happen to go that they recognize you.
I’ve always enjoyed the service, the food, and the art at Gallery Art Cafe. Too bad I’m not in that area anymore.
The staff at Gallery Art Cafe was not familiar with Fort Worthology when we first starting visiting, and as several of these other comments indicate, we are clearly not the only ones who had positive experiences with the place.
I have always had good experiences there. However, I haven’t been in since 05 or something like that. I have tried to go several times in the past year and it was closed every single time. I just gave up on trying to visit the place.
I am very sorry to see them go. I think the location definitely hurt them as did the hangover from the previous owner’s erratic hours. I visited the GAC regularly and always had a positive experience. I guess everyone’s experiences and expectations are different, but I was always met with a smile, kind words and great food.
i am sorry to see them close. went there with my wife for breakfast several times .always had a good experience.the owner was always nice and friendly .and the place always looked nice and neat
Location location location. My experiences at the Gallery Art Café were always adequate. The reason I did not stop by more often was the location. It was kinda in the middle of nowhere. A similar concept located somewhere on Magnolia between 8th and Hemphill would do well.
Ack.
This was on my list of places to go but I never got around to it. This just sucks.
FYI– Spotted this in the star-telegram–
http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1792533.html
I was shocked when I read the article. I can’t believe that the coffee shop owners would blame the bar that is next door. If there was trash outside of his coffee shop when he opened in the morning, he should have cleaned it. I don’t blame my neighbors for trash that may have blown in my yard or a beer bottle left by someone walking down the street. I just clean it up. Jeez, I don’t think it was the people who hung out in the neighborhood that ran it to the ground, I think it was management. If anything, they should have been trying to get those people into the coffee shop since they already hang out there.
This makes me so sad. Gallery Art was my favorite place to go. Doris was always super sweet to me. I loved their tomato basil soup. I’m surprised at the negative comments- I thought their coffee was great, especially the breakfast blend. I’ll miss this place. There’s officially no good coffee shop in the entire city of fort worth now
Sara, you should try Cafe di Angeli. Its right there on Rosedale not far from the Gallery Art Cafe. Of course the best coffee in the metroplex is Buon Giorno in Grapevine. If they ever close, I’ll move.