Big Shot Coffee Closes October 24, Years Before Old Jacksonville Highway's New Lanes Arrive

The building at 16700 FM 2493 in Gresham sits close enough to Old Jacksonville Highway that its assistant manager can describe the future road in terms of the porch. On Saturday, October 24, Big Shot Coffee House will serve its last cups there. The farewell is an all-day celebration starting at 9 a.m., with food trucks, a vendors market, live music and a birthday party for the shop's cat, who turns eight.

For anyone living in The Crossing, the shop is about 2.1 miles south of the Dueling Oaks Drive entrance on Old Jax. It closes while construction on the highway's widening is still officially four or more years away. TxDOT has been acquiring land along the corridor since 2024, and the coffee map along Old Jax is where that shows first.

Why a Shop Closes Over a Road That Hasn't Been Built

Owner Lydia Baskin gave the Tyler Morning Telegraph three reasons for closing: more competition, rising business costs, and a Texas Department of Transportation project. The road reason is the one that matters most for the rest of the corridor, and assistant manager John Hamilton explained it to KETK. He said the shop is already so close to the highway that the widening would require paving over the building:

"The new lanes would come up pretty much right up to the porch."

TxDOT's FM 2493 project page explains why a building near the pavement feels the project this early. The plan widens 5.5 miles of Old Jacksonville Highway, from Loop 323 south to FM 2813 in Gresham, from four lanes to six with raised medians. TxDOT expects to need about 27 acres of additional right-of-way, and it is using an abandoned railroad corridor to keep that number down. According to the same page, the stages run in this order:

1. Plan development and right-of-way acquisition began in spring 2024 and are both ongoing.
2. Utility relocations could begin as early as fall 2028.
3. Construction could begin as early as fall 2030.

TxDOT marks those dates "subject to change." KETK reported a construction start "by 2031." In January, KLTV reported that construction had slipped from an earlier 2028 expectation to 2030. The Tyler Area MPO director tied that delay to TxDOT's need to acquire right-of-way and move utilities. For drivers, the delay pushed the orange barrels further out. For buildings close to the road, the important stage was always the land acquisition, and that one is already under way.

The Shop That Built a Coffee Scene

Big Shot's departure is bigger than one storefront because of what the shop started. Baskin opened it in January 2021. The Tyler Morning Telegraph credits her with launching the Tyler Coffee Crawl and the East Texas School of Coffee, which made her a prominent figure in the city's coffee community. The coffee shop won't be sold or relocated. The coffee work continues as a catering business, and Baskin plans to keep organizing the Tyler Coffee Crawl, latte art competitions, coffee training and consulting.

The two news reports give the catering business different names. The Tyler Morning Telegraph calls it Big Shot: Espresso Catering, and KETK reported a rebrand to Cafe Corretto: Espresso Catering. The shop's Facebook page is the place to check which name it uses once the doors close.

Before October 24, Baskin has asked customers to use their rewards and redeem any gift cards. The shop is also selling off its coffee equipment.

The Coffee Crawl explains why the shop's loss reaches beyond Gresham. KETK's coverage of the 2025 crawl describes a wristband event on Saturday, July 12, with special menus at Big Shot, Crema, Likewise, The Foundry, Brady's and Enoch's. The crawl's founder is losing her storefront, but the event she built carries on without one. No date for the next crawl has been announced in anything we could verify.

Where the Morning Run Goes Now

The shops still open along Old Jax have one thing in common. Most of the remaining options are drive-through, built for people on their way to somewhere else.

• Likewise Coffee, 7596 Old Jacksonville Hwy. The newest stop on the corridor opened in spring 2026, with plenty of indoor seating and a drive-thru. The Tyler Morning Telegraph described it in May as locally owned, serving coffee, tea, matcha and fresh lemonade. The Likewise location page lists hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday. The May newspaper item listed a later 8 p.m. close, so the company's own page is the safer guide.
• PJ's Coffee, 6555 Old Jacksonville Hwy. A drive-through café whose menu includes cold-drip iced coffee, specialty drinks, pastries and beignets. Daily hours are on its location page.
• CowboyZ Coffee Stop, 16551 FM 2493. A small coffee stand on the Gresham end of the highway. Its order page lists locally roasted coffee, espresso drinks, lattes, blended tea, lemonade and snow cones. We couldn't confirm its fall 2026 hours, so call ahead before planning a morning around it.

Likewise's Sunday closure matters for weekend plans. Most of the shops listed above sit north of Big Shot and closer to Loop 323. CBS19 placed the Likewise site just north of Toll 49. For mornings that used to head south toward Gresham, the closest options after October 24 are now mostly in the other direction.

The Corridor Is Still Drawing New Businesses

Even with one shop leaving, businesses are still choosing Old Jax. In September, Ramsey Fritz Jewels moved its showroom to 7276 Old Jacksonville Highway and held a ribbon cutting on September 10, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph's Business Beat. Likewise opened only months earlier. Both arrived well after TxDOT's land acquisition began in spring 2024, on a road whose plans are public.

That fits a corridor with plenty of traffic to serve. TxDOT counted about 32,000 vehicles a day on FM 2493 in 2019 and projects 53,000 a day by 2045, a 65 percent increase. The agency describes the road as a parallel route to South Broadway Avenue, which it calls one of the most congested roadways in Texas. More cars mean more morning customers. A wider road also needs more land, and that land comes from the edges where older buildings sit closest to the pavement.

What the Finished Road Adds on The Crossing's Side

The finished design includes more than extra lanes. TxDOT's plan calls for a 12-foot shared-use path along the west side of the highway, connecting to Legacy Trail, and a 6-foot sidewalk on the east side. The plan also includes a Grande Boulevard overpass, a realigned Rice Road, a new signal at Capital Drive, more turn lanes, and drainage improvements along the 5.5 miles. The Crossing sits on the west side of Old Jax at Dueling Oaks Drive, which puts it on the path side.

Some intersection changes wait for the same schedule. The City of Tyler's South Tyler Mobility Study page says a traffic signal at Old Jacksonville and Loop 49 is planned as part of the FM 2493 widening. The city also says it knows of no plan to add that signal sooner.

The project has been worked on in public for years. TxDOT held public meetings in April 2019, November 2021 and March 2023, and finished its federal environmental review on July 5, 2023, finding no significant environmental effect. Questions go to TxDOT's Tyler District Advanced Project Development Office at 903-510-9100.

For now, the date to remember is Saturday, October 24, at 16700 FM 2493, starting at 9 a.m.

At Amy Egaña Group, we track the Old Jacksonville corridor the same way our neighbors do, one opening, closing and TxDOT update at a time. If you own along this stretch and want to understand how the widening schedule affects your property or a future sale, we're happy to walk through it with you, and our exclusive listings keep you informed as the corridor changes.