Old Town Temecula

While I was out in Temecula I thought I would stop by its “Old Town Front Street” to see what is new. For those of you that don’t know much about Temecula’s front street, it was established way back in 1859. Even today there are buildings that stand from a hundred years ago. If you are ever in the area and you like good food and antique shops I would say this is the place for you.
One of my favorite restaurants is the Swing Inn. This place is like a truck stop out of the 1970’s but their food is amazing. I have been going here for years and their gigantic $1.99 biscuits and gravy can’t be beaten. They also have a great selection of pies.

Another great stop is The Bank. In my opinion this place has the best Mexican food in all of the Temecula Valley and its surrounding cities. The Bank has a wide selection of dishes all at a reasonable cost. If you like Mexican food this is your place.

Across from The Bank is another Mexican food restaurant, Rosas Cantina. It’s not quite as good as The Bank but its ok. A fair comparison of these two would be Bj’s Pizza (The Bank) and Pizza Hut (Rosas). On a positive side Rosas is cheaper.

One of the other popular places to eat in Old Town Temecula is Sweet and Lumpy’s. This is a Bbq type of a place and in my opinion this is not a great place to eat. Be WARNED this is not a good place for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
And of course Old Town wouldn’t be great without a Starbucks.

The best part of Front street for me is Old Town Records. This is a used record store that has anything you could ever want, and subsequently, some things you would never want. They have it all. from The Beatles to the Bee Gees. For the most part they have good prices but once you find the rare records (Jimi Hendrix and The Who bootlegs) the prices get high.
It’s a small store but they have records from wall to ceiling…………….literally.

For those of you that enjoy antique stores there are plenty of them here. For example check this one out. Its like the Costco of antiques.
I must say they have a good selection of old, vintage books. They have much more (jewelry, plates, tables, chairs, cabinets, trading cards, pictures, frames, etc) but it was this section that caught my eye.


The Chaparral Center is another great vintage store. I can remember a while back they had a bunch of old WWII memorabilia. Full blown GI outfits and medals. Those are gone now and they have a great deal of things.

Here is a wall of old gas station advertisement signs for sale.

One of their specialties is china and old furniture.

Nowadays the Old Town area is being modernized. New businesses are coming in and putting in new buildings. The whole look is changing from a small western town to a modern business district.

Developers are even coming in and building apartment buildings. They are pretty nice and affordable but they are taking away from the old town feel. This area is getting much bigger and there are probably going to be a lot more restaurants and stores being opened in the near future. If you are ever down the 15 freeway and have the time to stop by Old Town Temecula I defiantly recommend you stop by. It’s a great place.

Rating: 4 out of 5: