It's not every day you drive down the street in Lubbock and see a completely gutted building. It happened to me yesterday when I was driving down 50th Street and saw this empty storefront at 4637 50th Street. It was so jarring because I couldn't for the life of me remember what the building had even been.

Then, it finally dawned on me that it was the legendary Tokyo Steakhouse that had been open in Lubbock for 25 years before shutting in January 2020 after the sudden passing of owner Diep Truong. Tokyo's final day of business was January 5th, 2020. Since then, it's been sitting empty, waiting for a facelift.

Here's what the building looked like before the renovations started for comparison's sake.

Justin Massoud
Justin Massoud, Townsquare Media Lubbock
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So the next question is, what's going on and what is the next business coming into the location?

I talked with the building's new owner Chris Chisolm, who said the 12,000-square-foot building will be a couple of things moving forward. He's been in contact with a few businesses to rent some space, but the main attraction of new-look building will be Chisolm's coffee shop/bar hybrid.

The currently unnamed coffee shop will be a friendly environment to come and drink coffee all afternoon while you study, then whenever you're done studying or just feeling a little overwhelmed, your friends Jim and Jack will be there for you.

The coffee shop/bar will be on the western corner of the former Tokyo building and will keep the patio intact. Chisolm told me there will be some food options, but that won't be a focus. Instead, he's hoping to have a space for local food trucks to come and park to satisfy his customers' hunger pangs while he satisfies their caffeine cravings.

Lubbock's only coffee/bar hybrid will hopefully be open by the beginning of next year, but there's no firm date as of now.

I would like to submit my name for the new shop: '806 Brews. It's coffee. It's beer. It's everything.'

It could work. Keep an eye out for the progress on 50th as the location transforms in the next few months.

Tokyo in Lubbock Is Being Gutted & Turned Into Something New

The familiar lettering of a bygone Lubbock restaurant is gone as the building begins its transformation into a coffee house/bar.

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