Day Trips

Rick and Donna Wilson have reopened what was once the oldest honky tonk in Texas. After a four-year absence, the new Riley's Tavern is a combination of the old and the new.

After Prohibition in 1933, J.C. Riley was first in line to get a beer license for his little saloon in Hunter halfway between Austin and San Antonio. For 57 years, Riley's place was the social center for the rural community south of San Marcos. The bar closed in 1990, and he died two years later.

Three years after that, the Wilsons found the old building weather-beaten but still sound. The couple bought the bar and house next door in June. After four months of rebuilding, cleaning, and painting, the husband and wife team reopened the legendary bar.

The new Riley's is part honky tonk, part convenience store, and part music hall, with a beer garden out back. Much of the decor is recycled from when J.C. held court at the roadside tavern.

For example, when the Wilsons bought the building, the bar was adequate, but the counter top had to be replaced. At the same time, they were replacing the floor in the house next door. Under the layers of linoleum the Wilsons found a time capsule of old newspapers and magazines. "They used the magazines for insulation," Donna says. She clipped some of the photos and ads to give the counter a new decoupage top.

What was once the back room where Riley kept an unofficial private club now holds essential grocery items and a deli. Behind the tavern is a beer garden surrounded by a cedar fence and shaded by a centuries-old oak tree. The outhouses are original.

The building originally housed a saloon in the 1850s. Tables bathed in neon light still fill the front room, and on the wall next to the juke box are photographs of Riley and some of the bartenders who worked for him over the years.

Hunter itself refuses to become a ghost town. It was a watering hole for cattle and cowboys on the Chisholm Trail, and then the railroads came and laid tracks on either side of town. (Bands in the beer garden incorporate the sound of passing trains into their music.)

Hunter prospered with a cotton gin and depot, and after Prohibition San Marcos remained dry, sending thirsty folks from San Marcos, including Lyndon Johnson and George Strait, to saloons in Hunter until 1980.

Riley's Tavern is south of San Marcos on FM1102, one mile west of I-35 (take the FM1102/York Creek exit). They are open 10am-10pm daily and have live music Thursday-Sunday, 4-9pm. For more information, call
512/392-3132.

Coming up...

Las Posadas, a candle-light procession from the Goliad courthouse to La Bahia, includes a piñata and hot chocolate, Dec. 2 at dusk. 512/645-3752.

'Twas a 19th Century Christmas brings a festival to the Washington-on-the-Brazos Historical Park, Dec.1-2. 409/878-2214.

Day Trips Vol.1, the first 100 Day Trips columns updated and expanded, is available for $6.95 plus $3.50 for shipping and tax. Send your order to: Day Trips, 1712 E. Riverside Dr. #156, Austin 78741.

Christmas Lights Kreische Brewery State Park, LaGrange, Dec. 2,8,14; 409/968-5658. Hill Country Tour: Blanco, Bulverde, Burnet, Fredericksburg, Johnson City, Lampasas, Llano, Marble Falls, Mason, and Round Mountain, Dec.1-Jan.1, 210/997-8515. n