Bar Memoriam, Volume 12: Mr Gino's Lounge
Many of the taverns covered in my dive bar book have closed. Here is another.
Mr. Gino's
7306 Cullen
Now this is what it's all about -- a real-deal blues / zydeco bar where the grown folks can party and get down in hole in the wall style. Mr Gino's is just off Loop 610 in South Park, one of Houston's most dangerous hoods, but there are few places in town with a friendlier clientele. Before you get in, you know that Mr Gino has some quirk to his style -- there's a porch swing precariously placed on the roof of his bar -- and the mazelike club is better suited for conversation than seeing the stage. No matter where your table is in relation to the little stage and dance floor, it seems like there's either a support beam or box fan in the way -- maybe both.
This is one of Houston's homes of the blues, where you'll hear DJs spin Bobby Bland, Denise LaSalle and Little Milton to appreciative dancers, who never leave the floor even when the band's on a break. The songs are from a genre informally known as "grown folks music," and are all about either having fun or cheating -- and the no-tell motel with which Mr Gino's shares a parking lot would lead one to believe that life has on occasion imitated art at Mr Gino's.
As with most old-school blues bars, it's hot in there and the drinks are beer-wine and set-ups, so be ready to sweat and bring your favorite bottle of hooch. They'll bring you your mixers and a big ol' bucket of ice and some tongs to keep your drink freshened up. If you don't like domestic beers, liquor's your best option, as when my beloved -- a blues bar newbie -- discovered when she ordered a glass of house red and was brought a single-size bottle of white zin and a plastic cup of ice. (Good sport that she is, she said that it was one of her favorite glasses of wine in quite a while as it was such a perfect accompaniment for the surroundings.)
Note: If you are white and reading this and stressing on the race thing -- don't. You will be made to feel at least as much if not more welcome here than at your neighborhood bar. Trust us -- it gets a little ridiculous after a while how nice everybody is.
Sundays are big days here -- the impeccably classy blues guitarist IJ Gosey holds court at an early evening matinee. Go once and you'll wonder why you waste so much time seeing music on the other side of the tracks. People dance in these bars. There's no hipster cred, "look at how cool I am for being at this show" bullshit. The band knows it is there to entertain the patrons, so they don't play so loud they drown out your conversation and expect you to "shut up and listen." It's just fun.