Where Everybody Knows Your Name
In the age of gastropubs and microbreweries, Texas still boasts a few real dive bars—where the jukebox is irreplaceable, the beer is domestic, and the patrons feel like family—if you know where to look.
John Nova Lomax was a senior editor with Texas Monthly from 2015 to 2019.
He was an oyster shucker in Tennessee, a landscape gardener and British Telecom mail clerk in Lancashire, and a field hand on a kibbutz in the Arava section of the Negev in Israel. He also authored Houston’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Bayou City, a guidebook to Houston dive bars, and coauthored Murder & Mayhem in Houston: Historic Bayou City Crime, a compilation of notorious Houston crimes.
Lomax was a full-time journalist in the Bayou City from 2001 until shortly before his death in 2023. He spent eleven years at the Houston Press as a music editor and staff writer and was proudest of helping discover Hayes Carll, helping rediscover Lil’ Joe Washington, and winning an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2008. With future Marfa city councilman and justice of the peace David Beebe, Lomax walked a total of more than two hundred miles of Houston streets on about a dozen different trips, writing about the adventures as part of the “Sole of Houston” blog series. After leaving the music beat, Lomax covered crime, courts, and culture for the Press. His work also appeared in Spin, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and LA Weekly.
In the age of gastropubs and microbreweries, Texas still boasts a few real dive bars—where the jukebox is irreplaceable, the beer is domestic, and the patrons feel like family—if you know where to look.
The results likely won't surprise you.
Long live Northwest Mall!
We've got three words on the 'Married to Medicine Houston' premiere event: Oh. Em. Gee.
Charlie Strong doesn't deserve to be fired. Yet.
The Texans' $72 million investment is going up in flames.
Who needs the playoffs? After years (and years and years) of heartache, Houston has fallen for the Astros all over again.
Is he going to come back as good as new? Is his career over? An orthopedic surgeon weighs in on the possibilities for J.J. Watt's future.
There's been a lot of hang-wringing over what could happen to one of the state's most treasured pools in the midst of the latest oil discovery, but an environmental research group is optimistic about the outcome.
Lee Ellis talks to us about why he banned guns from Pi Pizza, and what happened when gun rights activists went after him on the Internet.
Yes, a true freshman looked like the star of the Longhorns' game against Notre Dame. But Charlie Strong has coached up the dregs of Mack Brown's recruits.
It was ironic for a few reasons.
Houston, you have a problem.
Texas has long celebrated Bonnie and Clyde types, but Billy Joe and Bobby Sue don't give us much to root for.
The trade deadline presented a maddening dilemma for the Astros.
The good, the bad, and the under-spiced.
The announcement has some defense attorneys in a tizzy.
For the third time in less than a year, a Texas youth has died from a brain-eating amoeba.
Oh, and the house that comes with it too.
Do it for the children.
Houston could lose its status as the "Stolen Music Gear Capital of the World"
A restauranteur's death in 1949 was also the end of the short-lived Houston Mafia.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation demands their removal citing the First Amendment, but do the signs really make non-believers feel unwelcome?
It can be yours for a cool $6 million.
You know, when they actually get around to it.
According to this leaked email, the linguistic purity of our newscasts is at stake.
The aftermath of the recent rape scandal at Baylor is shocking, but the fallout isn't a first for the Waco school.
A church-state battle over a cross in a park has come to a close, but both sides are claiming victory.
Are these the best spots in America? Let's taco 'bout it.
It gets even worse than her belief that the Democrats had JFK killed.
Memories from childhood encounters with Guy Clark.
Why one of Houston's former mayors might not be a good replacement for Sidney Lanier.
You've heard about it, but how much do you know about one of Texas's most famous "ranches"?
Beyoncé's latest album has it all, from Brill Building to Dirty South pioneers.
In March, Texas Monthly‘s Christian Wallace excoriated the fact that the unloved “Texas, Our Texas” remained our state song in spite of hundreds of worthier alternatives. You had a lot of thoughts on that critique, both good and bad. But after some reflection, we’ve decided that it’s not fair to
There are lot of big questions, but no definitive solution.
Thrillist named four Texas 'burbs as the coolest in the state, and we weighed in on the picks.
Did Led Zeppelin borrow the iconic opening lick?
John Nova Lomax waded around his Houston neighborhood to check out the aftermath of flooding.
As North Carolina gets blowback for recent legislation, we examine the lack of response from the business community.
Finding love through the pain.
A hello (and goodbye) from Osceola County Stadium.
Sure, he's the golden child. But there's nothing but blue skies ahead for the Astros.
Is sweet tea a thing in Texas, or not?
Two Texas trial attorneys have been sued in connection to identity theft.
It sounds like a sweet deal, but it doesn't make sense for the Bayou City.
What that means for the NFL, the NCAA, and Texas football fans.
The Aggie trademark battles, the legend of the 12th Man, and one man's fight to take it down.
Plus other news from Texas teams on one of college football's most anticipated days.
How the recent SAG Lifetime Achievement Award winner and San Antonio native captured Southern life through her work.