Texarkana Tradition: Final goodbye to Bryce's Cafeteria is fast approaching

What do you say about the last days of a local landmark?

Bryce's Cafeteria has been a Texarkana institution since it's founding back in the early years of the Great Depression.

It was 1931 when Bryce Lawrence Sr. opened his restaurant on State Line in downtown Texarkana. He specialized in good home cooking in a comfortable atmosphere. Family recipes at popular prices. The place took off, and for generations of local residents, Bryce's was as much a part of their lives as church and family.

In 1989, the Lawrence family moved the cafeteria into a new building off Interstate 30. Still serving the same food and still drawing a crowd, Bryce's remained perhaps Texarkana's best-known and best-loved eatery for nearly three more decades.

But all things come to and end. Bryce Lawrence Sr. died about 20 years ago. His sons Richard and Bryce Jr. carried on, but Richard died in February of this year and the family decided it was time to bring the restaurant's run to an end.

The building was sold and Bryce's will be closing April 30. That means you have just a few days to pay them a visit and enjoy the food that has made Bryce's famous for eight decades.

John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, famously wrote "Since tis Natures Law to Change, Constancy alone is strange." That was in the 17th century and it is just as true today.

Bryce's Cafeteria has been a constant in Texarkana for 86 years. But change is nature's law, and now the time has come to say goodbye.

It will be missed.

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