A Travel Guide to Longview, in East Texas

Every single city wishes to be recognized for one thing. In Texas it’s frequently a well-liked farm crop: Poteet has strawberries. Mission has citrus. Luling has watermelons. You get the notion. Longview’s railroad and oil patch record, which is equivalent to that of several other East Texas cities, does not accurately lend itself to placing imagery in shape for a T-shirt. So the metropolis of about 82,000 owes a good deal to a nearby dentist named Bill Bussey, who grew to become intrigued in incredibly hot-air balloons in the 1970s. He started competing in races throughout the region, and then in 1978 he started out the annual Good Texas Balloon Race, which now draws 15,000 to 20,000 website visitors. You are going to see the very hot-air balloon as a image of Longview delight on shirts and murals and in statues all around town.

The 2023 iteration of race weekend kicks off June 16—this year’s party also runs in conjunction with the U.S. Nationwide Very hot Air Balloon Championship, which will come to Longview June 12–18. If you are fascinated in going up at other occasions of the yr, Bussey provides rides as a result of his organization Balloon Adventures Usa. Acrophobics can happily retain each feet on the ground in the downtown spot, which has expert a constant revitalization in excess of the previous twenty yrs, specifically in its dining scene. 

Dine + Consume

Be a part of the regulars at Deb’s Downtown Cafe, where by soups and sauces are built from scratch. Barbecue fanatics are rejoicing at the spring opening of the brick-and-mortar edition of bassist turned pitmaster Bryan Bingham’s Sunbird Barbecue. At Korean fusion place Evergreen Foodstuff Factory, chefs Seajin Kim and Stella Park whip up poke bowls, Korean-type corn canines, and sushi. For a high-conclusion eating experience, travel a couple of minutes from the metropolis centre to Tomboni’s Bistro. Every single other Saturday, bring your yoga mat to Oil Horse Brewing Business, which specializes in beers crafted to take away gluten, for its “Poses and Pints” course. Get pleasure from purely natural wines and regional beers at the new Greenside Beverage Business, then select up some Creole foods next doorway from Cace’s Kitchen. At Wild Honey Creamery, regional components are stirred up into modest-batch ice creams. 

See + Do

Learn about Longview’s previous at the Gregg County Historic Museum. Due to the fact its opening 4 decades back, the Longview Arboretum and Mother nature Centre has turn into a well-known place for situations, but it is also an out of doors refuge. Ahead of a go into its new property, in 2025, the Longview Museum of Wonderful Arts is highlighting parts from its everlasting selection, which focuses on Texas regional art considering the fact that the 1930s. 

Store

You in no way know what you will locate at the 504, a six-thousand-square-foot vintage market that will get new products every single day. At Mélas Clothes Company, seem for Mexican purses manufactured out of recycled components. Peruse the hardcovers and zines at Publications & Barrels, then tummy up to its wine bar. Longview mainstay Ellie Bee’s, a women’s upscale-outfits boutique, not long ago moved to a larger sized place just north of downtown.

Keep

Chain resorts dominate the landscape, but if you push twenty minutes west to Gladewater, you can faucet into your Downton Abbey fantasies at Walker Manor Bed & Breakfast, a three-tale neoclassical mansion constructed in 1901 that is recognized for its afternoon teas.

A edition of this write-up originally appeared in the May well 2023 difficulty of Texas Monthly with the headline “Up, Up, and Absent in Longview.” Subscribe right now.