Henderson, Texas – Little did I know what a gem of a small East Texas town this would be.  We enjoyed great shopping, good food, and fantastic hospitality.

Historic Henderson the signs read. The downtown shopping area is listed in the National Register Downtown Historic Square.  The Henderson tourism website claims that this “downtown shopping area is the most picturesque in East Texas”.  Sweet Mother of Pearl.  The shopping area is beautiful, and the shops are awesome.

The first stop was a shop called Not So Shabby.

Cute, cute, cute.  Almost every inch of this darling shop was filled with goodies, and they were pricing new merchandise.  The owners were delightful.

 

Love the exposed bricks on the wall.

Not So Shabby also decorates for weddings.  They do have a flair.

The Santos now lives in Dallas.  Isn’t she wonderful?  Shopping in Not So Shabby was great fun.

A few doors down was Donovan’s Unique Gift Shop, Floral Designs, Candles and Accessories.  Be still my heart.  The upscale florals and gifts were beautiful.

The ferns and greenery were realistic and made wonderful arrangements – Very high quality.

We were told – Donovan closes his store the week before the first weekend in November.  Brown paper is put over the windows, and for that week, Donovan prepares for a Christmas Open House.  On the night before the opening of the open house, the staff works late into the night.  When they finish and remove the brown paper, there will be cars parked in front of Donovan’s.  Some people can’t wait until morning to see how Donovan transforms his shop each year.  I know it would be unbelievably beautiful, and I hope one day to visit Donovan’s Christmas Open House.

The Mustard Seed is an antique mall worth visiting.  Love the aluminum ice bucket I bought.  Prices were good.

As you can see through the window, they have very nice items.

Then it was time for lunch.  We were told to eat at The Nook which is a restaurant inside Heritage.

Heritage has unusual gifts, stationery, and baby gifts.  My favorite items in this shop were the Southern Posters.   Did I take a picture?  No!  Sorry.  Just know they are clever and well done.

More than one person – In fact, I think it was everyone we met – told us to eat at The Nook Sweets & Eats.  Here were the instructions.  First order the strawberry cupcake.  Then order your meal.  When the nice lady from Not So Shabby found out we had not eaten by 12:30 p.m., she feared all the strawberry cupcakes would be gone, and she offered her sympathy.  Lemon bars were suggested as an alternative.

Guess what?  They still had strawberry cupcakes.  Be still my heart.  They were gorgeous, scrumptious, yummy, delicious, and all-around fantastic.  Now I understand why we were told to order dessert first.  We took home a lemon and a coconut cupcake, and a lemon bar.  All were very good, but the strawberry cupcake was our favorite.  Wish I knew how to make that icing.

See the pretty girl on the right.  She makes all the sweets for The Nook.  (This girl can bake!)  Standing by her is her sweet grandmother who was our waitress.  As you can see, The Nook is a family affair.  I think they have open a second location in Longview.

All of the food – even the  bread – at The Nook is house made and wonderful.  This is the chicken salad sandwich which was filled with chicken, grapes, nuts and just the right amount of mayo.  Yummy!   I ordered a side of fruit.

Pimento cheese on jalapeño cheese bread would definitely be on my short list for best pimento cheese sandwich ever.  I could not determine if it was the jalapeño bread or the pimento cheese that made it so good.  I think it was the combination.  On my next trip to Henderson, guess what I am going to order.  Honestly, food this good could be reason for a road trip.

Can you believe this name?  Strong-Hurt Pharmacy?  Too funny.  Yes, they are growing tomatoes in the pharmacy window.  It might work if they had more soil covering the roots.

Remember fine dress shops?  Henderson has them.  B.J. Taylor & Co. has unique upscale clothing and accessories.  There were several other fine clothing shops in this area.  It is hard to believe.  Henderson, a small town in East Texas, has the most remarkable shops.

Margaret and Opelia’s was my favorite antique shop of the day.  Souvenirs of English royalty always gets my attention.

The little English cupboard caught my eye.  Love it.

One of the prizes of the day was the English chimney pot found at Margaret and Opelia’s.  Wow!

Sweet Pickins was also another cute shop with booths.

As you can tell, I am enthusiastic about our visit to Henderson and look forward to returning.  The shops are amazing.  The food was delicious, and the people are friendly.  Life is good.

There are many more things to do in Henderson.   Next time maybe we will have time to visit the museums, see a musical, visit Jordan’s Plant Farm, or ….  I would like that.

Blessings to you and yours,

Go to Henderson.  You will not be sorry.  Click HERE for Henderson Tourist Information.

Looking forward to sharing pictures of the McNee House where we were guest.  It is wonderful.