Photo by Deb Gau Dave Rubin cut a red tinsel garland to celebrate the grand opening of the Knight Owl in downtown Tyler on Friday evening. Besides keeping Tyler’s bowling lanes open, the new business features a bar and grill, as well as space for pool, darts and beanbags.

Tyler’s downtown area was bustling on Friday evening — and a lot of the activity was focused around the new bar and grill at the corner of North Tyler Street and Hughes Street.

“There wasn’t a parking spot anywhere,” one person said, after coming in the doors at the Knight Owl.

Tables inside were also full.

The Knight Owl, which had its grand opening Friday, includes features like a patio and indoor entertainment like arcade games. It’s also keeping Tyler’s bowling alley open.

Owner Dave Rubin said his goal for the business was to offer something to do in town, and to help encourage economic activity.

“It’s great for Tyler, and the community,” he said. “A lot of people are just happy to see it here.”

Rubin, co-owner Kaley Bolish and Knight Owl staff members took a short break from the Friday night rush for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“It’s been wild,” Rubin said of local response to the business.

The Knight Owl grand opening comes after about six months of work renovating a group of three neighboring buildings in Tyler’s downtown, Rubin said. Those buildings included the bowling alley, a former martial arts center, and the former Terry’s Electronics building.

Rubin owned one of the three properties to start with. After learning from the city of Tyler that the Terry’s Electronics building was for sale, he started coming up with an idea for a venue for different kinds of family-friendly entertainment.

“I just wanted to keep the bowling alley alive to begin with. Then I thought about kids and families,” Rubin said.

He sketched a combined layout for the buildings, and worked with local contractors to renovate the space.

The Knight Owl keeps the Tyler bowling lanes, and Rubin said Kevin Kuestermeyer will continue to run the bowling alley this year and help train staff. The Knight Owl also includes a bar and grill, a patio, space for indoor beanbag games, pool tables, darts and arcade games.

Rubin said different features of the Knight Owl launched at different times this fall. Bowling started in September, and pool and darts leagues in October, Rubin said. The Knight Owl’s grand opening came after they got a full kitchen up and running.

“It took a while to get the kitchen,” Rubin said.

It was fun to see people’s reactions to the renovations, Rubin said.

“When we put the windows in, we had like 20 people a day looking in,” he said.

Rubin said the Knight Owl will be open seven days a week. Additional information is available at the business’s Facebook page.

Tyler City Administrator Terry East said the Knight Owl was a good fit for the Tyler community, at a time when it was growing. Not only is Tyler the home of the new RTR School, but there were seven new homes built in the past year, East said. There were also plans for more home construction in the next couple of years, he said.

East and Rubin said they hoped the Knight Owl would be a chance to help draw people into Tyler.

“When you build a place like this, you get people coming from out of town. They not only come here, but they go to Maynard’s and they do some grocery shopping, they go to the gas station and get some gas,” East said.

One of the people at the Knight Owl grand opening Friday was Patty Jurrens. Jurrens was a former owner of one of the downtown buildings renovated into the Knight Owl. She said she was happy to see what was happening with the space.

“I’m really excited,” Jurrens said. “This is what I wanted it to become.”