Bar Memoriam, Volume 4: Blanco's
Many of the taverns covered in my dive bar book have closed. Here is another of them.
Blanco’s
3406 W. Alabama
Sprawling over a couple of acres of prime River Oaks real estate is this anomaly -- a bona fide if tiny Texas dance hall, right in the middle of cosmopolitan Inner Loop Houston. (The joint belongs to descendants of famed late heart surgeon Doctor Michael DeBakey.)
Thursday and Friday (another oddity about Blanco’s is that it’s always closed on Saturday), the rustic-looking room is transformed into a sea of Stetsons, under which rowdy, back-slapping Shiner- and Lone Star-fueled locals can be found getting their boot-scoot on. Don’t expect to hear any Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney clones here -- in fact, don’t even mention their names unless you attach an expletive. This place is as Texas-centric as the Alamo gift shop, so you will get plenty of Waylon and Willie and the boys who followed their trail. Onstage, expect the likes of Texas country acts such as Dale Watson and Gary P. Nunn. (Also, don’t miss lesser-known locals like Johnny Falstaff, Miss Leslie and John Evans.)
It’s odd. Blanco’s is the kind of place you take out-of-towners who want to see “the real Texas” while they are in Houston, and it’s also one of the most atypical bars in the Inner Loop. In fact, it increasingly feels like a theme park for all things Good Ol’ Boy and Gone. But you cave and you take them and they go back wherever they came from and tell everybody how everyone in Houston listens to honky-tonk, drinks Lone Star longnecks, and wears a cowboy hat and boots, and a stereotype is preserved for another decade.
2021 Epilogue: Demolished to make way for St. John’s school campus expansion.