We enjoyed a girls birthday shopping trip to Longview this week. We needed a little pick me up and Silver Grizzly Espresso has been on my list to try for a while now. I love how businesses like this one are helping bring more foot traffic to downtown Longview. It was busy when we walked in around 2 p.m. Fortunately we spotted 4 comfy chairs towards the back, grabbed a couple menus and settled in to figure out what we all wanted.
Since it was warm outside I opted for an iced coffee with lavender syrup. It’s listed under their seasonal syrups along with gin & honey. Both sounded delicious but I love, love, love lavender and have to get it when I can. My Mom ordered an iced latte with house syrup maple bourbon. My step-daughter got an iced coffee with caramel syrup. My 5 year old tried to convince me she needed hot chocolate, which I’m sure is tasty but I negotiated ice water and 2 cookies to share between the 4 of us.
Both cookies were certainly big enough to split. We tried one lemon crinkle and one chocolate chip. The very nice barista offered to heat them up, we may try that next time but they were soft and perfect just the way they were. I was really pleased with the amount of syrup to coffee ratio. So often coffee places overdo it (Starbucks I’m looking at you) and you can’t even taste the coffee. The lavender was delicate and provided just the right amount of sweetness. I used a dash of heavy cream and was pleasantly surprised that their coffee was smooth, not acidic at all but still full bodied enough that it stood out on it’s own despite having melting ice in my cup. All around we agreed the quality was there and the prices were reasonable.
They don’t have a big food selection. They offer some premade granola type bars, oatmeal, quiche and a frittata, a few pastries and cookies. To be fair we came in late in the afternoon so they are probably more heavily stocked in the morning. There is a nice selection of tea, sodas, cold pressed bottled juice and kombucha. They also have beer on tap which surprised me. I didn’t get a chance to ask more questions about that but it looks like their beer menu is seasonal as well and a couple that stood out include, Locust Cider Mojito, ETX Berry Souress Rex – Strawberry Lemonade and Manhattan Project Beer Raspberry Bikini Atoll. The last two listed are from Texas.
It looks like Silver Grizzly tries to source their ingredients locally which I appreciate. The honey in the gin & honey seasonal syrup was noted to be local. Our barista was warm and friendly, even answering my questions about his super cool pine cone tattoo. The space itself is big and you don’t feel crowded. There is also a meeting room you can rent hourly. Aside from the painting of the silver grizzly on the wall it is rather sparse inside. It definitely has a clean, minimalist modern vibe which is great from the standpoint of not having any distractions if you are studying or using Silver Grizzly as a work space but I would have liked seeing some local artwork or photographs displayed.
If you are looking for a solid coffee experience, a place to meet before going out for the evening or just a cool location to study or catch up on work they offer something for everyone. We will definitely be back to try something different next time.
100 West Tyler Ave. Longview, TX 75601
