It has a Roadhouse feel.: Daniel Carlson

I’m new to town, and I like to drink. For reasons I’m not stupid enough to question, 29-95 has decided to pay me (I know!) to bring both of those considerable traits to bear as I explore the city I now call home.
• Read about my first visit to Alabama Ice House.

Actually getting a drink at Alice’s Tall Texan turned out to be harder than I’d planned.

As I walked up to the rusted tin building wedged onto a triangle of land in the Heights on a Wednesday afternoon, I was met by an artificial blonde smoking a cigarette. "Lone Star?" she asked me.

"Nope," I said.

"Ah. Shiner," she replied.

"Actually, yeah," I said. I was still a little confused, and wouldn’t find out until later that, my predictable beer tastes notwithstanding, she’d hit the nail on the head that quickly because the Tall Texan only has those two brews — Shiner and Lone Star — on tap. The rest is in bottles and cans, clap your hands. Outside: Daniel Carlson

Knowing I was moments away from a cold Shiner and a happy hour crowd, I asked the woman if they accepted credit cards. No sale. So I bolted across the street to a convenience store, but as I approached the ATM, the kid behind the counter affably told me it wasn’t working. I wanted to blame him, but it’s not his job to keep cash in the machine. He just wants to sell six-packs without getting shot.

So I drove up and down a really battered section of main, passing quite a few Churches of God in Christ and a horse tied to a tree, until I found a second convenience store, this one with a working ATM. Cash in hand, I hustled back to the Tall Texan.

And that’s when I fell a little bit in love.

Instantly, I understood how the bar had developed a devoted following among neighborhood residents. It’s divey but clean enough, with small tables around the perimeter of the room and the small bar against one side. There’s a single pool table in the middle of the room, and it takes up enough space that most of the drinkers watched the action like it was a game on TV. The juke is stocked with classic country, Tejano, and blues.

Only $1.75 and it's HUGE: Daniel Carlson
The crowd was predominately Hispanic, and most of the chatter and laughter flying between patrons (who clearly knew each other well) was in Spanish. Most of the men seemed to know most of the other men, calling each other by first names as if the place was just a clubhouse they’d built together. I struck up a conversation at the bar with a lifelong Houstonian, Gilbert, grinning happily underneath his Texans hat as he welcomed me to the Tall Texan and to town.

“Good people come in here,” he said. “Not a lot of trouble.”

We talked about the city and the weather while I waited for Eva — the blonde from outside — to return and pour me another frosted pint glass of Shiner. The giant draft only cost $1.75! Did you hear me?! That’s insane, and wonderful. It’s huge! (I took a pic and held my iPhone next to it for scale. You’re welcome.)

You can sit and sip your cheap cold brew while watching a mustachioed man in a Dril-Quip shirt shoot billiards and Willie Nelson records play on the jukebox. The joint feels like a small-town roadhouse, ideal for popping in at happy hour or a weeknight to enjoy a good beer with honest people.

I don’t really live near this place, but I’m coming back. Soon.

The action at the pool table.: Daniel Carlson