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Old 10-08-2013, 02:15 PM
 
693 posts, read 1,099,009 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisrock View Post
I didn't see any mention of Blue Planet.
Definitely used fake ID to get in Blue Planet and got hooked up from friend who had older bro's ID for booze.
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Old 10-09-2013, 06:20 PM
 
5,976 posts, read 15,183,395 times
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Default Went downhill fast...

Quote:
Originally Posted by texasroots77 View Post
what about Shepherd Plaza???? 8-O's, Cabo, Rhino Room, Strict 9
I used to hang out at Shepherd Plaza and those clubs... and also variants of the clubs there like The Ballroom, Metroplex and Voo Doo Lounge. Speaking of the Voo Doo Lounge, last time I was there, they were having a Swing night... Swing dancing that is! that tells you how long ago that was.

We used to cap the night off at Cabo's, I loved the fish tacos with that hot habanero sauce. MMM! Snapper throats too. Anyone remember the blonde at the door at The Bighorn? Hot blonde... BUT... she was missing an arm. Clock-Arm we called her... not to her face of course.

Shepherd Plaza was losing clients to the downtown scene, which began to thrive before the arrival of the Metro Rail. Also, the clientele of Shepherd Plaza started to change... anyone who hung out there knows what I am referring to. Things went down hill because of those two things, in my opinion.
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Old 10-10-2013, 11:58 PM
 
21,381 posts, read 10,427,328 times
Reputation: 14044
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheryjohns View Post
Bonaparte's retreat was actually located in the middle of a huge apartment complex called Napoleon Square. People could just walk to it from their apartment, rather than get on the road and drive. With a huge number of those apartments being occupied by young adults, they had a built-in group of customers.
Oh, that's awesome! Love the idea of a bar inside an apartment complex, and not just some fancy apartment in a town square setting that costs a fortune.

I remember those adult apartments, but my mom could never live in them because we were just kids. We were the ones forced to live in the family apartments, which were never very nice. My husband's dad used to live in an adult complex, and he wouldn't let the kids go to the pool when they visited because many went topless.
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Old 10-11-2013, 12:01 AM
 
21,381 posts, read 10,427,328 times
Reputation: 14044
Quote:
Originally Posted by TXDungeonMaster View Post
Here is my recollection of the "evolution" of the last twenty years or so in H-town from a dance club/bar point-of-view:

In the early 90's, the 'Richmond Strip" was pretty popular when Sam's Boat, Yucatan Liquor Stand, and then City Streets were in their heyday. Bayou Mama's was also popular out by Gessner/Westheimer. Though not in the same area, places like Lizard Lounge, Power Tools, DV8, 6400, and D2R were crossing over from the 80's for the dance set.

Around the mid 90's, with the opening of Cabo on Greenbriar, the nexus of Cabo/Live Bait/8.0 awakened the Greenbriar/Shepherd area as the "it" upscale spot. Other spots sprung up including The Ballroom (beautiful pool club), Q Cafe (the latin crowd lived here), and 2826 (which became Revere and then Peccavi). You also had the Mucky Duck and Mc Elroy's around the corner, and then Davenport and Guava Lamp opened up. These places appear to be the only survivors of this period. While not in that area, Crystal (at Hillcroft/59) made a name for itself during this time with disco and ethnic nights. For those interested in the checking out the shadows of yesterday in a different city, in Fort Worth, 8.0 still exists and Cabo spawned Cabo Grande. Both of these places are in the Sundance Square area. Also, the original 2826 (from Dallas) re-opens on and off again in Deep Ellum. Interestingly, I've been inside the place and it's modeled quite closely to the one in Houston (which is now sadly a car service shop). During this time the Richmond Strip remained quite active, and you had places like Blue Planet, Pete's Wild Life, and Tantra open. Also, random hot spots opened like Roxy and Sempers near Westheimer and Velvet Elvis on Richmond. This time period was especially cool for nightlife since the Houston Rockets won the finals in 1994-1995 and that made for some great times!

In the late 90's, downtown got a jumpstart when Jones Bar, Solero (tapas bar), and Spy launched alongside the larger version of Cabo. And then you had Prague (later M Bar), Tonic, The Mercury Room, State Bar, and Dean's near Main/Prairie/Travis. A bunch of bigger "corporate" money places opened: Sambuca, the bar at the Hotel Icon, Flying Saucer, etc.. You also had a slew of places like Hyperia, Club 808, etc. that catered to the electronica club crowd.

At the turn of the century, due mostly to street construction, downtown was effectively shut down. The landscaped shifted to Midtown. Midtown benefited from having been designated a TIRZ (basically, a tax shelter for redevelopment) and was sprouting residences (townhomes and apartments) at warp speed so you had a high density of singles. The spots here include(d) Bond Lounge, Escobar, Pub Fiction, Rich's (been there before Midtown was cool), Reef, etc.

Since then, there was a changing of the guard from Midtown to the now "it" Washington Avenue. Of some note, the new Uptown area has also progressed as a secondary destination with Belverde and The Tasting Room. Hopefully, for downtown and Midtown, given their strategic locations, they will never truly "die" but rather find a way to reinvent themselves.

Throughout all of this were some places that have been around forever. "Institutions" include the Black Lab, Blanco's, Ginger Man, Gallant Knight, Kay's, Marfreless, Marquis, Numbers, Rich's, Roxy, Sam's Boat, and Volcano. Too bad Emo's/Some closed and was converted to residences - that's the way it goes...

Of the eras above, I probably enjoyed the Greenbriar/Shepherd one the best followed by the early downtown scene. I liked these the most since they were the most walkable to go from one spot to the next and that made it really easy to go club/bar hopping!

Last, not necessarily "nightlife" related, but House of Pies, Katz's, Mai's (she's rebuilding), Tan Tan, and others have been staples of late-night dining. Oh, yeah, and we can't forget La Strada for brunch!!
What about Red Square?
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Old 10-11-2013, 09:31 AM
 
2,004 posts, read 3,395,653 times
Reputation: 3774
Quote:
Originally Posted by 124c41 View Post
I didn't read all the posts, but does anyone remember the Cellar down at Allen's landing? Or, does anyone remember Love Street Light Circus ( what a name)? A hotel taken over by folks that blared music for their enjoyment, and everyone else's I suppose. I remember it being very loud. Allen's Landing wasn't a place you would take your date, but it was an interesting place. I think I went there maybe two or three times with my buddies. When they refused to go back, I called it quits as well.
The Cellar was at Market Square. Love Street was across the street from Houston Blacklight where I was a manager of the head shop for almost two years. Another manager that I worked with had a band that played at Love Street.

How bout the Texas Rose Cafe near downtown? When I was still living in Montrose on Portsmouth street there was a club nearby called Slugs. I went there once. Too disco for me.

It's funny to me that you wouldn't take a date to Allen's Landing. That's where I met my present wife, in 1971.

Last edited by slingshot; 10-11-2013 at 10:09 AM..
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Old 01-15-2014, 03:31 PM
 
Location: Denver, CO
21 posts, read 41,921 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp View Post
The bar immediately to the east was Baby-O's... a strip club. But futher down was the former Agora Ballroom, then called Faces. After Faces, it became City Streets.
Back in the late 80's, just to the east of Cooters was the strip club, like Brother mentioned, then about halfway down was, in my opinion, the best 80's dance club Xcess. They were the most "underground" industrial venue and even had a few good live bands every once in awhile (Fishbone, The Judys, Faith no More, Living Colour). Then further down on the far east end of the strip center was City Streets, which if I'm not mistaken was Avalon for a minute in the tail end of the 80's and bleeding into 90-91ish. Spent pretty much every Thurs/Sat night at Xcess from about 17 yrs old (usually snuck in the back door when the ol' fake ID failed). Wednesday & Friday nights were for Limelight/Red Square (hip hop downstairs, dance upstairs), even hung out with Depeche Mode for a couple hours there after their July 5th 1990 show.

Then in early 90's we braved the sketchy downtown riff raff for Power Tools, which was about the only thing there other than the Magnolia Ballroom next door and La Carafe a couple blocks over and the only true dance club in the area. They piped in gangsta rap for the white masses on Thursday & Saturdays. Good times.

Many other memories reading thru this site, too many to mention now but maybe one day I'll timeline it with stories. Between 1986 & 1996 if I didn't personally work at one of these places my buddies worked, managed, or owned them and we frequented pretty much all of them on the Richmond Strip & W. Alabama (Yucatan Liquor Stand, Sam's Boat, 6400/Back Alley, Xcess, Avalon, Lizard Lounge, Shark Dance, Roxy, Velvet Elvis), up & down Westheimer (Cardi's, Ocean Club, Club No Minor, Decadance/Clubland, Numbers, Rich's on Wednesday's "straight night"), further down Westheimer to Elgin in "midtown" (Emo's/Club SOME, Magic Bus), downtown (Limelight, Red Square, Power Tools, Therapy), & Greenbriar-Shepherd (8.0, Live Bait, Metropolis) . Of course there are tons more out on the fringes of these areas (NRG was a regular stop until it closed in '88, Clear Lake Hilton pool parties on Sundays we weren't in Galveston) that we bounced around to from time to time when either nothing was going on at these places or something special was happening at another.

And don't even get me started on the road trips to Austin & Dallas...that's a whole 'nuther thread! (Starck Club in Dallas, anyone??? http://themoviebox.net/3668 )

Last edited by ThatKasper; 01-15-2014 at 04:53 PM..
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Old 01-15-2014, 10:34 PM
 
2,047 posts, read 2,959,033 times
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N U M B E R S!!!!! This was when Montrose was the only "alternative" part of houston so it was always cool to drive down there.

I did read somewhere the owner past away recently.
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Old 01-15-2014, 11:21 PM
 
Location: Denver, CO
21 posts, read 41,921 times
Reputation: 41
Quote:
Originally Posted by ipuck View Post
N U M B E R S!!!!! This was when Montrose was the only "alternative" part of houston so it was always cool to drive down there.

I did read somewhere the owner past away recently.
Nope, unlike #'s, Bruce Godwin is still alive & well. He was also the owner of The Record Rack, which was the only place you could get any of the music they played there. Alas, RIP Record Rack as well. The end of one hell of an era.
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Old 01-16-2014, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX
8,891 posts, read 19,870,300 times
Reputation: 6360
Yeah I thought I read somewhere that original owner if numbers had died as well. Maybe it was someone closely associated but not the owner. Does anyone remember the pig located on Richmond just off shepherd? They always had the big guy at the door who did his job usually sprawled out in the doorway.
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Old 01-16-2014, 09:27 AM
 
2,047 posts, read 2,959,033 times
Reputation: 2373
Oh I remember Record Rack..my buddy use to drag me down there every week. It was like the only place to get "alternative" records. He would then go home and play "The Cure" non-stop while getting high. Weird guy but good memories.
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