And that’s not to begrudge a dive bar for cleaning up, pouring some money into presentation and attacking a different type of clientele. The more egregious crime is a new bar pretending to be a dive bar with expensively “distressed” features aiming to trick those of us who want a little history and a thin layer of dirt with our beer. Lone Star Oyster Bar cannot be accused of that in any way, an institution with some Lubbock roots and a tendency to post $7.99 hamburger steak specials on their Facebook page. Price gouging gentrification, this is not.
Outside, a series of tin tack signs dot a small alcove around the front door and what looks to be a permanently parked food truck named the Tackle Box anchors a string of lights over the parking lot. A pretty intense-looking anchor sits atop a metal pole, leaving no mystery as to the availability of seafood within, and legitimately beautiful neon lights inscribe the name of the bar above the front door. And if the theme still wasn’t quite clear to a passerby, additional neon screams “Oysters” from the front window.
If you can sense the tone of where this review is headed, it will come as no surprise that the bar’s interior is clean, inviting and sneakily spacious with a pair or rooms that empty out into a projector screen-dominated extended bar area. The menu takes the form of a chalkboard along one of the bar’s interior walls, with a strangely-located but naturally-welcome piece of Ric Flair artwork over a slightly seafood-revised version of one of his famous ‘limousine riding’ quotes.