The Sherman Square Used to Empty Out by Six. This Year It Didn't.
"I think the word has spread and, gosh, look around, people are just coming in by the droves." That was Karen Tooley, executive director of Downtown Sherman NOW, standing on the Grayson County Courthouse lawn this past May, watching the second annual Sherman Showdown food truck competition pull a crowd that organizers had not planned for.
That undersell is the whole story. When Downtown Sherman NOW filed its vendor paperwork for the inaugural Showdown in 2025, the event application put anticipated attendance at 2,000 people. More than 5,000 showed up. This year's event, held May 9, drew another wave of thousands, with more than 20 food trucks returning to the same courthouse lawn to compete for cash prizes, building on a debut year that had put up a $5,000 prize pool with a $3,000 grand prize. If you have lived in Sherman for a while, you already sense the square is busier than it used to be. The Showdown numbers are the first hard evidence that the shift is real and not just a feeling.
Sherman's downtown square has had daytime anchors for years. Kelly Square, the historic building on the old town square, has long housed Fulbelli's restaurant and bar along with boutiques like Sandi's and the Women's Gift Exchange, a gift shop that routes its proceeds to Grayson County charities. A few doors down, the Touch of Class Antique Mall occupies the historic Hall Furniture Building, dated to the 1870s or 1880s and recognized for the Art Deco facade that still faces the courthouse. Climb to the third floor and you will find the Outlaw Trails Historical Museum, a small room packed with Civil War-era weapons, antique typewriters, and a display on Teddy Roosevelt's 1905 visit to Sherman.
None of that is new. What is new is what happens once the antique mall closes and the sun goes down. 903 Brewers, the taproom on West Houston Street, just hosted the Sherman Public Library's new adult Game Night on Aug. 4, a come-and-go evening built around card and board games. The Milieu Wine Bar has become a genuine events venue on its own, hosting a stand-up comedy night and a one-off called Painting with Goats this past July. Add a run of new restaurants that have opened around Sherman this year, including Stafford House Provisions, Herb & Ember, Four Seasons, and 1836 Cafe, and the square finally has enough dinner and drink options nearby that a resident can plausibly spend a full afternoon into evening there without leaving.
For contrast, the highway corridor is growing too, just differently. An Applebee's paired with an existing IHOP on US 75 was slated to open under a new Dine Brands dual concept by mid-summer, exactly the kind of chain expansion that signals population growth without telling you anything about where people actually choose to spend a Saturday night. The square's growth looks nothing like that. It is smaller, more particular, and harder to replicate, which is part of why it is worth paying attention to.
None of this replaces what the square has always done well during the day. The Sherman Farmers Market still operates as a producer-only market, meaning what is on the table was actually grown or made by the person selling it, not resold from a regional distributor. Kelly Square's shops keep their own pace, and the antique mall crowd on a Saturday morning skews toward people who have been making this a routine stop for years, not new arrivals discovering it for the first time.
That daytime layer matters because it is what gives the evening additions somewhere to land. A brewery or wine bar opening on a dead block does not create foot traffic on its own. One opening next to a courthouse square that already draws people for antiques, lunch, and boutique shopping has a much easier job. Sherman's version of downtown revival did not require inventing a reason for people to show up. It required giving them a reason to stay past 5 p.m. once they already had.
If the Showdown numbers convinced you the square can pull a crowd, the rest of the fall calendar is where you can watch it happen in real time.
Line those up next to the Showdown's attendance growth and a pattern shows up. The events with staying power are the ones that give people something to do for three or four hours, not just a reason to walk past a booth. Sherman's newer programming, from the food truck competition to Milieu's comedy nights, is built around that same logic. It asks people to stay, not just show up.
None of this requires a plan or a strategy. It just means the square has quietly become worth building a Saturday around instead of a quick errand. A morning at the Farmers Market, lunch at Fulbelli's or one of the newer spots like Herb & Ember, an hour wandering Touch of Class or the Outlaw Trails Museum, and dinner followed by a stop at 903 Brewers or The Milieu Wine Bar is now a genuinely full day within a few blocks of the courthouse. A year ago, the evening half of that plan mostly did not exist. The daytime half did, but it emptied out by six.
That is the actual shift. Not that Sherman got a new attraction, but that the square finally has enough going on after dark to match what it has always had during the day. The Showdown crowd numbers prove people will come. The restaurant and bar openings prove they now have somewhere to go once they're there.
If you are already living near the square and have been noticing the same thing, from busier Saturday mornings at the Farmers Market to a longer wait at Fulbelli's than there used to be, you are not imagining it. The numbers from Downtown Sherman NOW back it up, and the fall calendar gives you a few more chances to see it for yourself.
If you ever want to talk about what's happening in Sherman's housing market alongside all this activity, or just want a second opinion from someone who pays close attention to this square, Rene Burchell is always glad to talk shop. Let's Connect.
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