Texas publishes its liquor licences as a dataset refreshed daily, so every one of these five rooms was proved active and wet in one pull the day before this page was written. The stories needed more work than the licences: one beloved Tuesday belongs to a memorial now, and the most famous sit-in in Texas blues happened with a different bluesman than the one everybody names.
- 1 · The Cold Open
Scholz Garten
August Scholz opened his beer garden on 1 August 1866, and Texas has argued under these pecans ever since. Say the superlative properly: the Handbook of Texas titles it the oldest tavern in Texas, then reports the place missing from the city directory from 1927 to 1937, so the boast carries its own asterisk. The Austin Saengerrunde, a German singing club, has owned the property since 1908 and still bowls next door. The National Register listed it in 1979 for politics and performing arts, which is exactly right, because the Legislature drinks here and honoured the garden by resolution in 1966. Since 2017 the team behind Frank has run the kitchen, smoking its own wurst. Open with a pitcher under the pecan trees and a wurst board for the table.
opened 1 August 1866; the oldest tavern title is the Handbook's, asterisk included · Mon to Sat 11am till 9pm, bar till 10, Sun noon till 6pm · verified Aug 2026
- 2 · The Detour
The Continental Club
A supper club opened here in 1955, and the red curtain has framed South Congress ever since, through burlesque years and a 1987 rescue by Steve Wertheimer, whose company has held the licence since New Year's Eve of that year. There is no barrier and no real backstage, so you drink four feet from the band, which is the whole point: pay the cash cover, take a longneck to the lip of the stage. For over two decades Tuesdays belonged to Toni Price's Hippie Hour; she died on 22 November 2024, and the room threw her a tribute the following January, on a Tuesday, naturally. Ted Roddy's King Conjure Orchestra still raises Elvis every August, on the fifteenth this year. One door: the club itself, with the quieter Gallery upstairs.
a supper club of 1955, the Wertheimer era since 1987; Toni Price died 22 Nov 2024 · evenings till 2am; the club publishes no hours page, so the listings are aggregator grade · verified Aug 2026
- 3 · The Anchor
Broken Spoke
James White came home from the Army and opened the Broken Spoke on 10 November 1964, and the Texas Senate's memorial resolution for him, SR 122, tells the story from Travis High to the cover of George Strait's 2019 record. White died on 24 January 2021, and the hall passed exactly as the resolution promised, to Annetta, his wife of fifty five years, who still holds the beer licence, and to their daughters. Terri White teaches the two step at eight, Wednesday through Saturday, and the chicken fried steak before her lesson is still the order. An official Texas Historical Marker was dedicated on 12 April 2023, on what would have been James's 84th birthday, with the Governor in the room. Condos rose on three sides; the low ceiling never moved.
- 4 · The Wildcard
The White Horse
Denis O'Donnell and Nathan Hill opened the White Horse in December 2011 in what the local station politely calls a former Tejano bar of questionable repute, and the state licence still misspells the company as Whte Horse, which suits the place. It runs 3pm to 2am every single day: whiskey in a plastic cup, a cold Lone Star behind it, and tacos from the Bomb Tacos window out back. Two step lessons run Thursday to Saturday at seven, donation based, with a cover after half past. House regulars the Golden Roses cut Top Shelf Whiskey, Cold Lone Star Beer on this floor, which is the order sung out loud. The dance floor fills by midnight and stays that way until they turn the lights on you.
- 5 · The Last Call
Antone's Nightclub
Clifford Antone opened his blues room on 15 July 1975 with Clifton Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band, and when Albert King played three nights in April 1976, Antone begged him to let a twenty one year old Stevie Ray Vaughan sit in; King liked nobody, and he liked Stevie. The club moved five times and hibernated once before reopening at 305 East 5th on New Year's Eve 2015. Antone died in May 2006, but the room has just played its fifty first anniversary month, and it films its own Mondays. So order a drink at Blue Monday with Soul Man Sam, the standing residency, and stand where the house band has always outclassed the touring act. Come early for Big Henry's, the record shop inside the club, open noon till six, where the po' boys follow the 1962 recipe of Clifford's uncle Jalal, older than the room they are sold in. The name is the reason: home of the blues, still at work.
founded 15 July 1975; this address since New Year's Eve 2015 · by show, doors typically 8pm, over 21; Big Henry's noon till six daily; Jazz Room matinees on Sundays · verified Aug 2026