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<\/p>\nCaf\u00e9 J will close after Texas Tech\u2019s graduation weekend December 12-13 and will be torn down to be replaced by a student housing project, restaurant owner Chris Bourne told LubbockLights.com.<\/p>\n
Caf\u00e9 J has to vacate the property at 2605 19th Street by the end of the year. Much of the property \u2013 most recently known as the Godbold Center \u2013 was demolished in February of 2024.<\/p>\n
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\t\tGodbold Center demolition in February 2024. Credit: Staff photo.<\/p>\n
In the near term, the restaurant\u2019s fate is sealed. But there are future options, said Bourne.<\/p>\n
The student housing project<\/a> is proposed to have some retail space.<\/p>\n The new owner \u201casked me to stay and do something there,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know in the scenario if \u2013 what they have designed \u2013 Caf\u00e9 J would work. But I can\u2019t say that it won\u2019t. It\u2019s just kind of everything is still in the development stages,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just would be a couple years down the road, but I think there\u2019s opportunity to possibly do something back in that location,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n LubbockLights.com asked about opening at some other location.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been approached with that probably at least half a dozen times \u2013 maybe more than that. I think Caf\u00e9 J is what Caf\u00e9 J is because of where Caf\u00e9 J was. I don\u2019t know that you can open up Caf\u00e9 J and it really be Caf\u00e9 J anywhere else,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not impossible. He cited Harrigan\u2019s as a place that closed for three years and came back at a different location.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, there\u2019s maybe a possibility of doing something like that. It\u2019s just finding an ideal situation and location,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n Caf\u00e9 J\u2019s history<\/p>\n Caf\u00e9 J had live music over the years and was in a historic location between Texas Tech and the Tech Terrace Neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was probably the atmosphere. \u2026 I just think it\u2019s a really good date-night place,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n An archive screen capture of the restaurant\u2019s website from 2008 said, \u201cCaf\u00e9 J is a direct descendant of The Grapevine Restaurant which was derived from a long-time downtown destination restaurant on the 20th floor of the Metro Tower, The Continental Room.\u201d<\/p>\n Bourne made reference to restaurateur George Mayer.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a place over there [2400 block of 20th Street] just down the street called The Grapevine. \u2026 It was a little hidden romantic spot back there. And he left there and opened up Caf\u00e9 J\u2019s,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey sold it to a friend of mine named Ed Price, who\u2019s an attorney, and a guy named Bruce Jagger, who owns Mamarita\u2019s,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n \u201cPost-COVID, they just had enough and sold it to me. I had been in the restaurant business 20 years. I originally started \u2013 used to own \u2013 Conference Cafe on 4th and Indiana. They sold it to me and I\u2019ve had it since 2021,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n \t\tScreen capture of Cafe J website from May 2008. Credit: web.archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n The Caf\u00e9 J logo says it was established in 2001.<\/p>\n \u201cThe culture and the climate of Lubbock has changed since 2001, obviously. And it just wasn\u2019t today what it was 25 years ago, understandably. But culturally, yes, it was very well received. It was just the people that were into that type of dining establishment probably had moved more south. Tech Terrace changed too. Every year, I\u2019m sure it becomes a little bit more student populated and less professor, attorney and doctor populated. And so it\u2019s just changed,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n COVID was a crushing blow<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that anybody has ever come and told me I don\u2019t like the food at Cafe J. So, I think the food was exceptional,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n COVID came along and restaurants could only serve takeout from mid-March 2020 through late April of that same year. Then they could only open to 25 percent capacity with restrictions varying until March 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability to do food just got decimated during COVID,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n Caf\u00e9 J was not well positioned, Bourne said, adding, \u201cIt was not a great takeout restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSince I\u2019ve owned it, we\u2019ve lost 70 percent of our food business\u2026 Humans are creatures of habit. \u2026 In COVID, they started going to other places and it gets off their little daily routine or weekly routine or whatever,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bar got much stronger and is what kept it in business,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n 19th Street and sale of the property<\/p>\n \u201cThe world kind of got back to normal. And right after that, the construction on 19th then just absolutely decimated it again. And, it was only by the grace of God that it stayed in business,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n A portion of the 19th Street project in front of Caf\u00e9 J started in June 2022 and wasn\u2019t finished for more than a year-and-a-half.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was \u2026 just terrible for it. We\u2019re out there negotiating with the road crew, like, \u2018Hey, can you please leave us a turn in?\u2019\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n He quoted the response from someone on the road crew, \u201cWell, they can just come around the back and go down 20th Street and then approach it from behind.\u201d<\/p>\n He did get a turn in. But then, about the same time as that portion of 19th got fully back to normal, building owner George Hardberger got an offer to sell.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t pay enough in rent to pay George\u2019s property taxes. So, George told me from the get-go he was shopping it and wanted to sell it. \u2026 I think George is a great person. George was always as forthcoming with me as he possibly could,\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n History of the building<\/p>\n Lubbock doctors Frank B. Malone, Olan Key and Sam C. Arnett built Plains Hospital and Clinic with beds for 12 patients at that location in 1937, according to the Lubbock County Historical Commission.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1939 the doctors, wanting to devote more time to their practices, approached the Catholic Church about buying the hospital. On July 15, 1939 the Sisters of Saint Joseph from Orange, California purchased the facility,\u201d the commission said in a 2015 social media post.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the late 1960s, St. Mary\u2019s had built and moved to a larger, more modern hospital at 22nd and Nashville. Today it is known as Covenant Medical Center \u2013 Lakeside,\u201d the commission said. It\u2019s now Covenant Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n It served as the Alhambra Hotel starting in late 1973, according to a document on the City of Lubbock website. From 1977 to 1989 the building served as a private venue called the University City Club.<\/p>\n In 1994, Carlton Godbold renovated the building and renamed it the Godbold Cultural Center. It was home to a business called Chrome \u2013 owned by local businessman Steven Spiegelberg.<\/p>\n In 2021, Godbold sold it to Generator I LLC (Hardberger). Pinecrest (the company turning it into a student housing development) officially took ownership in June.<\/p>\n![\"Cafe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cafe_J_history_1920x1080.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"19th](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/19th_construction_2023_oct_1920x1080.jpg\")
19th Street near Cafe J in October 2023 Credit: Staff photo.<\/p>\n
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