If you've lived in Kaufman for more than a few years, the Downtown Square probably lives in your head as a daytime place. Latham's for a kolache, Especially For You for a birthday gift, courthouse business, and home before dinner. That map is out of date.
The block on the northwest corner of Mulberry and Washington has been quietly filling in since 2022, and the pace picked up again this spring. What used to be a short list of anchors is now a working merchant district with restaurants that stay open into the evening, and the city has been paying to make that happen.
The merchant mix that changed while nobody was counting
The historic downtown buildings now host more than 35 businesses, spanning restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, salons, and professional services. A partial roster of what's actually there right now, for residents who haven't done a slow lap in a while:
- B&B Steakhouse and Market on the Square, working from a menu that leans on grilled sandwiches and gluten-free options as much as steaks
- Morita's Brunch, currently the top-rated food destination on the Kaufman Yelp list alongside IGrill Lechon, Jesse's Fajitas & Rita's, Taco Loco, Cotton Gin, PIZZA PAISAN, Kaufman Burgers, DT's Off The Hook, and Roma's Italian Restaurant
- Jesse's Fajitas & Rita's at 101 W. Mulberry St., the tex-mex anchor that opened after the space sat empty
- Latham's Bakery and Especially For You Tea Room at 100 W. Grove Street, both housed in the Historic First National Bank Building, built in 1908
- The Charter Room in the historic Greenslade Drug building, running as a trading co. and shared space
- Sour Sisters at 108 E. Grove Street and Eleanor's Coffee Shop at 303 W. Mulberry
That's a lineup that reads differently at 7 p.m. than it did in 2021.
The $25,000 line item nobody talks about
Here's the mechanism most residents have never heard of. The Kaufman Economic Development Corporation has been running an incentive tool aimed specifically at the gap Kaufman had for most of the last decade: there was nothing to do on the Square after dark.
EDC director Stewart McGregor has said the program is "up to a $25,000 matching grant, and part of the grant is used as a tool to help businesses that are interested to stay open a little bit later, too—so we can grow our nightlife scene here in Kaufman as well." The stated targets are destination-type businesses: restaurants, specialty retail, entertainment, and breweries. McGregor has been explicit that Kaufman County does not currently have a brewery, and the Square is where he wants that to change.
Read that as a policy signal. When a Latham's-adjacent storefront gets picked up next, odds are it will operate closer to a Friday-night model than a lunch-counter model. That changes what a weekend on the Square looks like for someone already living here.
A calendar you can actually plan around
Kaufman's late-summer weekend rhythm runs on a handful of fixed dates. Two of them matter more than most residents realize because they shift what's practical in the same week.
| Date | What changes |
|---|---|
| Through Sept 7, 2026 | Texas Zoofari Park stays open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, with last vehicle out by 6:30 p.m. |
| Sept 8, 2026 | Zoofari drops to 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., last vehicle 5:30 p.m. A morning trip out to FM 429 and back to the Square for lunch stops being an all-day option |
| Oct 17, 2026 | Kaufman Harvest Fest, parade at 9 a.m., family activities and vendors on the Downtown Square from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the parade traditionally including more than 100 entries |
| Oct 26, 2026 | Zoofari shifts again to 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., last vehicle 4 p.m. |
The Sept 7 cutover is the one to plan around. The drive-thru safari runs six miles along a gravel loop, with animals coming to the window for feed, and the park itself suggests allowing at least four hours to feed animals and explore the Safari Village. When the schedule tightens by an hour after Labor Day, the practical version of that afternoon flips from "Zoofari, then dinner on the Square" to "Zoofari or dinner on the Square," not both.
The Fresh Market you can only catch on the right Saturday
The other thing worth marking is the bimonthly market that operates outside the city's official event calendar. Glee Pugh, a longtime Kaufman resident with a working knowledge of the craftsman-era houses on Houston Street, organizes a bimonthly Fresh Market on the corner of Grove Street where local farmers and artisans sell. It rotates on a two-week cadence, so if you want to hit it you have to know when it's on. Ask at Latham's on your next visit and you'll get the current schedule.
The Fresh Market is a good tell for how the Square works now. It isn't run by the city, it isn't sponsored by a chamber committee, and it exists because one resident decided the block should have it. That's the operating logic of most of what's happening downtown in 2026.
The building at 112 S. Jackson
If you drive past the old City Hall and fire station property and wonder what's going on there, this is the story worth knowing.
Tony Collins Art, a custom lighting and metalwork studio that previously operated out of the Cedars neighborhood in Dallas, bought the former Kaufman City Hall, fire station, and senior center property to relocate its headquarters to 112 S. Jackson St. The company's most recognizable public commission is the rotating structure that displays Dallas's original 1934 ExxonMobil Pegasus at the Omni Dallas Hotel.
That's a working design and fabrication shop taking over a block that has been dark for years. The city has framed the move as part of an emerging design district. For a resident, the near-term effect is simpler: the last dead corner on the south side of the Square isn't going to be dead much longer, and the type of foot traffic it draws will be different from Saturday shoppers.
Where the Square fits between Zoofari and Canton
One reason the Square has taken time to fill in is that Kaufman's weekend geography pulls in two directions. Kaufman's tourism has historically depended on visitors passing through on their way to or from First Monday Trade Days in Canton, and Zoofari has been drawing local families out to FM 429 since 2023. Both of those pull people past the Square rather than to it.
The merchants who've done well on the Square in the last two years figured out how to grab the pass-through traffic on the way home, not on the way out. B&B and Jesse's both work as a stop between Zoofari and the drive back into Forney or east into Terrell. If you live in Kaufman, that means the same routing tricks work in reverse: leave the Square for a mid-morning Zoofari run, be back by 2 p.m. through the summer schedule, and the block is set up to hold you through dinner.
A short list before your next Saturday
If you haven't walked the Square in the last six months, a few things are worth knowing before you go:
- Parking on Mulberry between Washington and Jackson turns over faster than the Grove Street side. Aim there first.
- Latham's tends to sell out of the popular kolaches and pastries by mid-morning on weekends. Go early or plan for a coffee-only visit.
- The Charter Room and Especially For You keep different hours than the restaurants. If you're building a loop that includes both retail and a meal, do retail first.
- The Fresh Market on Grove is bimonthly, not weekly. Confirm the date before you plan around it.
- If you're heading to Harvest Fest on Oct 17, the parade runs first thing at 9 a.m. and the vendor market on the Square runs through 5 p.m. The middle of the day is the crush; the last two hours are the calmest.
The Square isn't finished. The EDC has been open about wanting a brewery, a later-hours restaurant tenant, and additional retail in the vacant footprints, and the grant money is still on the table for the businesses willing to try. What's already there is enough to fill a weekend. What's coming is worth watching from your own front porch.
If you're thinking about your own home this year, whether that means selling into a stronger local market or looking at what's opening up on the Square-adjacent streets, the team at The Cole Home Team knows this block, these merchants, and how the neighborhood is changing house by house. Request a free home valuation when you're ready to talk numbers.
