Break out the malt vinegar and start craving those crispy little crumbs at the bottom of the box: Long John Silver’s is coming back to Lufkin. And this isn’t just a return to the city. The seafood chain is rebuilding at 1112 S. Timberland Drive, the very same property where generations of Lufkin customers grabbed baskets of battered fish, chicken planks, hushpuppies and fries for more than three decades.
A new state filing calls for a $1.3 million, 2,247-square-foot Long John Silver’s at the site. Construction is scheduled to begin September 7, 2026, with completion targeted for January 19, 2027. The project has reached Review Complete status, putting a very real comeback behind what once looked like a permanently closed chapter for the longtime Lufkin restaurant.
From goodbye to a brand-new restaurant
When the old Lufkin Long John Silver’s closed in September 2022, it wasn’t exactly a quiet farewell. Local reporting at the time described employees packing up the restaurant after learning the location was closing, bringing an end to a run that had lasted more than 30 years. With the nearby Nacogdoches restaurant already gone, fans suddenly had a much longer trip ahead if a craving for battered fish and hushpuppies hit.
For years afterward, the old Timberland Drive restaurant sat vacant and was marketed for lease as a former Long John Silver’s with a drive-thru. The building itself dated to 1977. Now, instead of another restaurant simply moving into the old space, Long John Silver’s is coming back with an entirely new building on familiar ground.
Yes, the fish, hushpuppies and crumbs are coming back too
Long John Silver’s has spent decades occupying a pretty unusual lane in fast food: seafood you can grab through a drive-thru. The menu still revolves around the classics that built its following, including hand-battered fish, shrimp, chicken, fries, coleslaw and those unmistakable hushpuppies. And for the people who know, the loose pieces of fried batter hiding underneath everything may as well be their own menu item.
The brand’s return to Lufkin also comes during a period of reinvestment in Texas. Long John Silver’s recently reopened in Plainview after a six-year absence, while the company has continued modernizing restaurants and selectively opening new locations even as its overall U.S. footprint has become smaller. That makes Lufkin’s return feel less like nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake and more like a deliberate bet on a market that supported the restaurant for decades.
The comeback lands exactly where the story started
There is something fitting about the address. Long John Silver’s could have returned somewhere else in Lufkin, but the new restaurant is headed right back to 1112 S. Timberland Drive. The old building may be giving way to something new, but the location—and plenty of memories attached to it—aren’t changing.
So after roughly four years without its longtime seafood stop, Lufkin is getting another shot at the familiar combination of crispy fish, hushpuppies, fries and a pile of those famous crunchy crumbs. This time, they’ll be coming out of a brand-new $1.3 million restaurant built on the same property where the city’s Long John Silver’s story lasted for more than three decades.
Learn more about the menu and the brand at Long John Silver’s.