Ownership and leasing agreements have shifted over the years, the reigns handed over as recently as 2018 to new ownership that executed a number of targeted renovations, including reopening the long-shuttered dancehall attached to the main building. The current owners of Devil’s Backbone Tavern have similarly renovated the bar’s web site and marketing efforts, going so far as to advertise availability for Dive Bar Weddings. Touted as the oldest dive bar in Texas, new ownership has certainly embraced the Devil’s Backbone past and has thankfully worked to only accentuate the dive bar’s appeal.
With all of that history out of the way, let it be said, Devil’s Backbone Tavern is an amazing dive bar, the kind of Texas dive bar that fits the very image those words bring to mind. Outside, along a semi-barren stretch of road tracing the Devil’s Backbone Ridge, the Tavern comes into view in the form of what looks to be a short, wide homestead. The large white sign over the door is inscribed with the name of the dive bar and its best feature “BEER,” a sign that can be seen in one state or another in some of the faded photographs associated with Devil’s Backbone Tavern. A large plastic, yellow sign complements the classic signage, illuminated at night and adorned with skeletons, a nod to the reportedly haunted nature of the dive bar.
Walking inside is like walking into a bank vault that happens to serve Lone Star, the curved ceiling and rock walls creating a subterranean effect. And this is no run-of-the-mill let’s staple a dollar bill here and there style dive bar. The dollar bills that adorn nearly every surface inside of Devil’s Backbone might as well double as wallpaper, the uncharacteristically uniform distribution of each dollar creating a mind binding optical effect. The space, accordingly, feels both suffocatingly small and immensely long, each dollar pointed further in the dive bar to keep the eye line moving.
And as that eye line moves, it hits vintage items like reportedly one of the oldest shuffleboards in Texas and a jukebox that can’t be too far behind when it comes to post-vinyl options. Everything is well illuminated by the Texas sun, by the vintage shuffleboard table, by the Christmas lights that dot the space, all of it creating that low dive bar glow that makes the beer taste better. The menu board behind the bar conjures up images of diner counter from the 1950s, beer prices tiered out in simple declarations of domestic, exotic and throwback options.