Actually, if I was napping in my garage and a bunch of people walked in and sat down like they were supposed to be there, I would probably just shrug and pass them a beer also. I’m from that kind of neighborhood.
Foggy’s Notion in San Diego had the craziest, most surreal decor ever. TGIF had nothing on this place. The men’s room was wallpapered with nudie pictures, Playboy, Penthouse, and others. I’m told the womens was wallpapered with Playgirl’s. There were two bars, one up and one down. They served great food – some of the best hamburgers ever. The decor was everywhere, and consisted of anything unusual. Highlights were the glass terrarium with stuffed squirrels labeled as “Fred Ware’s Orchestra”, kayaks, canoes, fun-house clowns, stamp collections – really anything and everything. There were literally thousands of items, so densely packed that you were always finding new stuff.
Sadly, Foggy’s Notion is now closed and gone. Someone from the health department probably wanted them to dust – easier to bulldoze the place.
Kind of a toss up - Blarney’s Island or a tiny little hole in the wall in Prescott, AZ - I was there with my husband and brother (and for the life of me I can’t remember WHY). It was right on the town square (you walk out and saw the courthouse) and had the original bar, the original cage where the paymaster sat and his “guard”… Anyway it was like walking right into the 1850’s. It was cool.
Re: Bird Creek’s The Birdhouse
Chef, t’was sittin’ out in it’s parking lot with a friend getting some fresh air when a pickup careened of the road into the parking lot and BLAM! plowed into another truck parked at The Birdhouse. We though geez, is he ever polluted. The guy backs up, puts it in drive and BLAM! plows into the same truck again. Then he gets out and walks straight as an arrow into the bar. That’s when we realized wrecking your vehicle into another was just the Birdhouse way of sayin’ “hello”.
Native Houstonian here. I used to have people ask me or my friends how to get to Gilleys. Our stock response was “Go to Pasadena. It’ll be the third fistfight on the left.”