One of the local businesses we recommend across North Texas and the Texoma region.
Plenty of restaurants claim history. Few can back it up with a newspaper clipping. City Limits is one of the oldest restaurants in Sherman TX still operating, and its origin story is documented all the way back to a February 1982 review in the Austin College Observer — published six weeks after brothers Denny and Kip Callahan opened the doors on January 4, 1982. The building had previously been George and Ellie's Village Inn Cafe, an all-night spot where Austin College students crammed for finals over bottomless coffee, and the brothers bought it in their twenties with their father's blessing and a loan from a Sherman banker who ate at their other restaurant every week.
What happened next is the kind of story that explains a restaurant's whole identity: a mall broke ground across the highway not long after City Limits opened, and the construction crews started walking over for a cold beer when their shift ended at 4:30. The restaurant has run on word of mouth ever since, never placing a traditional ad. Along the way it also produced the denny-rita — a margarita with Grand Marnier floated on top, invented by Denny Callahan and served in a coffee cup — which is now a registered trademark and the most-ordered drink at the bar.
The full history covers all of it, from the sheetrock the family stripped off the ceiling beams to make the front room feel taller, to the family members — five of eight siblings — who have worked there over the decades. City Limits is located at 4521 Texoma Pkwy in Sherman, open Sunday through Thursday 11 AM to 10 PM and Friday and Saturday until 11 PM. See the current menu or call (903) 893-9117.
