Lone Star Oyster Bar

Lubbock, Texas

Field Note

There are dive bars that look truly gentrified from the outside that reveal their true, grimy colors within. And then there are bars that show great promise with a dive-friendly exterior, only to reveal some kind of overhauled interior, a space with dive bar roots that has, shudder at the thought, put some money into the presentation inside. Lone Star Oystery Bar falls into the latter category, a spot with a beautifully Texan façade surprisingly nice within.

Researching Lubbock dive bars consistently landed upon, very specifically, the 34th Street Lone Star Oyster Bar location (there are two), which made sense given its weathered wood and neon sign façade. Arriving in the parking lot, a modern-looking logo painted on the outside of the building and what looked to be either replaced or thoroughly cleaned wooden planks around along the front wall signaled that a few changes may have been made.

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.

Exposed brick dominates the interior space, the type of exposed brick that looks like it might actually be exposed from the original walls rather than ornamental and after-the-fact. A long wooden bar dotted with high-top cushioned chairs runs the full length of one side of the space, a type and age of wood that hints at some of Lone Star’s more dive bar-friendly roots. Christmas lights hang over the main room and a pleasing amount of neon beer signs complete the look.

No, Lone Star Oyster Bar (on 34th) isn’t the diviest bar in all of Lubbock, but the unassuming roots of what makes a dive bar compelling do exist amid some clear time and energy put into raising the quality of the bar’s interior space. And any bar that chooses to devote an entire interior wall to a lightly altered Ric Flair quote deserves its credit due.