Tyler’s Taproom, which signed a lease in downtown Raleigh's Seaboard Station before the economic downturn took hold, now expects to open the restaurant this fall.

Construction has begun on the more than 10,00-square-foot restaurant, which will include the space previously occupied by Tookie's Grill.

The restaurant will also feature an outdoor deck and bar facing Peace Street.
 
“We are excited about finally making our Raleigh location a reality,” Tyler Huntington, president of Tyler's restaurants, said in a release.  “It took a while to get all of the pieces together, but the wait has been worth it. In the end we will have more space, room for private events, and a great patio area.”

This will be the fourth Tyler's in the Triangle.

The others are located in downtown Durham's American Tobacco Campus, in downtown Carrboro and at Beaver Creek Crossings in Apex.

Construction on the new space is expected to be completed this fall.

The original owners of Tookie's Grill, beloved by Raleigh residents for their chicken salad, have returned to the restaurant business in a time-tested venue: an Exxon gas station in Wendell.

Tookie Gullie, the owner, had sold his well-known chicken salad out of a Texaco gas station on Raleigh's Six Forks Road that he and his family owned for 45 years. The family also operates a grill at a Great Stops gas station on Falls of Neuse Rd. in N. Raleigh.

In 2007, the family opened a Tookie's Grill restaurant in Raleigh's Seaboard station but the stand-alone restaurant didn't succeed. "It was too expensive for us to stay there," Gullie said Thursday.

The new Tookie's Grill has  been open at the Wendell Mart Exxon at 2901 Wendell Blvd., across from the McDonald's, for about a month.

There is a Tookie's Grill of Garner at 1322 Fifth Ave. but it is a franchise and not owned by the Gullie family.