http://openchoke.blogs.com/oilpatchdiners/2006/11/dives.html
Click up top to see the current compendium. We need mo' nominations!
We are distinctly missing Oklahoma and East Texas dives... need more Louisiana dives... Colorado dives.
Of course, I'll never turn down South or West Texas nominations... Maybe some Bakken nominees?
I participated in a well near Wabek, North Dakota a while back. While we were leasing, long before the Bakken came rippin' through, I happened in to a little bar in Wabek on a Sunday around 11:00 a.m. The church had shut down a few years earlier, but the bar was still going. The husband/wife team who owned it had her sister and her dad working hung over on that Sunday morning, and she would cook up a pretty tasty burger for you to help wash down the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer for 65 cents a can. The bar was interestinly stocked... beer and flavored vodkas. The other folks hanging around that morning were old, grizzly farmers from the area.
In any case, I was talking to the proprietoress about the economic doldrums that seemed to hang over Wabek in those days. I suggested that she should raise her prices to 3 bucks per can of Pabst and 3 bucks a shot for Vodka, because she was the only game for 45 miles. This got the attention of the old timers, who began grumbling about the "goddamn Texans". I asked her "what are these fellas going to do about it? Nothing! They will just drop more coin for their booze. They were clearly addicted, so going cold turkey wasn't gonna happen."
She smiled as the old timers began to get vicious... trying to fumble out an old pen knife from their dungarees and wave it vaguely towards where I sat. I told them that they would always be welcome when I did my big rollup of rural dive bars, but they would need to bring more cash.
That area is hot as hell now, and those ol' boys are probably drinking Dom Perignon, so long as it comes in a can.
La Cena taqueria, Decatur, Tx right where 51 t-bones into b. 287. I don’t think they serve beer but I’m not a beer drinker so wouldn’t know anyway. But they do have frosty strawberry Jarritos, Malta Goya (it’s an acquired taste) and cane sweetened Coca Colas. It’s not tex-mex but authentic Mexican, smaller portions and smaller prices. I always get a pollo taco, arrozo & lime, and a cold coca cola. The hard and heavy drilling has moved south but I still find excuses to get up that way. Mmmmm.
Barnanrd Street Bakery, Glen Rose, Tx (also known as the Tiger Mart) on 67 west of 144. If I am going to have to soldier through a tool failure, I need it to be near Glen Rose just so I can go to the Tiger mart and gorge myself on fresh pastries and cake! Dallas Snider plaza greats Doughmonkeys and Kubys have nothing on the pastries and Kolatchies offered at the Tiger Mart. Perhaps the only gas station in the world that also sells wedding cakes! Heaven!
The Smokehouse BBQ House near Henderson, Tx, west off of 79. I am not a big fan of vertical wells or BBQ but I did enjoy this place if only because it just owned this very atavistic attitude. Paper plates, wax paper, beef, saltine crackers, jalapenos, pickles, onions, and ice cold beer and soda with extra ice and that’s that.
The Dixie Café, Bourne, TX near college station and the Austin Chalk. 6.95 for two gigantically huge country fried steaks, 2 sides, and an ice tea. I thought it was okay but my husband who was born into the oil field, as was his father, grandfather, and great grandfather, swears by it.
The Rig Bar, Woodward, OK. Go if you dare! It is the consummate roughneck hangout; right across from a Halliburton yard which is situated in the middle of I guess an industrial park home to several other service yards. It has a little iron derrick on top and drill bit hitching posts out front, bars over the windows. Inside are a bunch of pool tables, Dallas cowboy and OU posters, and several really big, really macho, Oklahoma roughnecks tying on several dollar drafts before reporting for the graveyard tour.
The Rooster Bar, located within the Northwest Inn, Woodward, OK. Big dance floor, country music, classic rock, full bar, beautiful waitresses, ok burgers. The first thing you will notice is that it is filled with old school tool pushers who have never heard of keyView and are so mean that nobody can tell them to stay on location. You can tell they are tool pushers because they are all missing fingers, all of the wanna be worms buying them drinks and the periodic, very theatrical phone calls they make to their drillers. Anywhere you go in Woodward is going to be a bit rough and this place is not an exception, but I can tell you from experience that it’s the most civil place around up there where the wind goes stripping down the plains.
The Jaguar Club, Odessa, TX. (I think. Adults only!) Hey, it’s not Dallas, just little bitty Odessa but good talent never the less, and who doesn’t like going back to the Hilton Midland smelling like baby powder and stripper perfume watching those beautiful warning lights blink back at you from way out there in all that beautiful west Texas dark.
Posted by: pookie | August 14, 2008 at 06:46 PM