Houston Dives
Houston has been losing some of its great dive bars in recent years.
First there was the Blue Iguana, which has been remade into some sort of retail shop.
And then the Aquarium Lounge, whose owner died on the venerable institution's last day of business.
Lately I see that the Mausoleum has been remade into something entirely different.
And before I became a Montrose resident, the neighborhood lost Dennis Marshman's Boat Yard (which always sounded like a cool place -- scroll towards the bottom for the story). Lately it's been resurrected on Greenbriar (just south of Richmond). Sort of.
When I first dropped by the place yesterday, Marshman (whom I've seen around the Icehouse forever) had yet to show to let his bartender in. But at some point later in the evening, the place got open and even had some live music. John Nova Lomax is right -- the sign outside says the place is called Live Bait, but inside everything points to the name the old Boat Yard name. And it has a musty, boat yard smell inside matched by a divey decor (right down to the Texas flag painted on the ceiling, above the live music stage). It doesn't have the seedy feel of, say, Cecil's, but it's certainly a dive.
Strangely, the place is surviving as a complete charity right now -- BECAUSE IT DOESN'T YET HAVE ITS LIQUOR LICENSE. That means all the booze is technically and legally free. To serve booze at all, they have to give it away.
We left a reasonable enough "contribution" when we were done, although as I looked around the room, I'm not sure that many of the patrons were as kind.
And here's the part that seals the deal that Live Bait/Boat Yard is officially a dive. Remember how I commented recently that I probably wouldn't be seeing much of Drunk Dude, the fellow who knocked over a brick wall in a drunken driving mishap? Well, who but Drunk Dude stumbles into Live Bait/Boat Yard!? On foot, thankfully, instead of driving, but it was Drunk Dude, who stumbled over and nearly passed out on one of the couches before enjoying a drink, moving to another part of the room where he nearly passed out, and then stumbling out. Have I mentioned stumbling? There was quite a bit of that.
How bizarre, I thought, that I'm sitting in a dive that Drunk Dude visits. Ah, Montrose. And Montrose dive bars. Maybe the neighborhood still has a little life left, despite the ongoing gentrification.
[Posted at 18:43 CST on 06/08/02] [Link]
