Alabama Ice House At 1919 West Alabama St.

[terrbo]

Anyone... how long has the Alabama Ice House been around?? I hear astronauts used to hang there?

[native_Houstonian]

I think their T-shirts say "Since 1928" but I'm not positive.

[tmariar]

I did some research on the place recently. The info I found is here.

See also the oldest bar in Houston thread.

[thefensk]

I did some research on the place recently. The info I found is here.

See also the oldest bar in Houston thread.

I lived around the corner from this place for most of the 1970s, on Hazard Street. Thanks for your research -- as I did not remember the "ice house" designation, but do now remember it being West Alabama Drive In.

I think I bought some beer to go from that place a couple of times but it did not seem conducive to my "long hair" image of the time. We'll just have to chalk it up as another local treasure I stupidly skipped.

A true time warp sort of place I guess. I can easily remember it from the 70s ... there was a Stop N Go almost right next door ... and it was not far from ChopStix Chinese take out restaurant, like just a half a block.

[57Tbird]

I used to go to that place as a kid in the late-40's. After a game of 25 cent miniature golf across the street, I would go over to the ice house and down a cold, 5 cent RC with a 5 cent bag of Tom's peanuts that I had just poured into it.

[kristiw]

Now it's a popular stop for bikes. Nice people!

[Kasper]

Flashback! This was the first place I had a (publicly legal) beer on my 21st birthday. 1989. 

[august948]

On 1/27/2020 at 4:08 PM, Kasper said:

Flashback! This was the first place I had a (publicly legal) beer on my 21st birthday. 1989. 

 

Let's hear it for 1989!  My first legal beer also, though mine was in Waco at a place called Pico's.

[Kasper]

Cheers!

[MartiMoser]

Can anybody guide or help me with information on old (really old) ice houses on the Northside. 

My dad had an ice route in the late 1930s and from what I understand he serviced the ice houses and beer joints on Airline, Tidwell, Jensen and Parker. He was only around 11 when he went to work. Hoping to find one of the old joints still in existence. Thought they might want a picture on the walls of way back when. 

[FilioScotia]

Per Terrbo's original post:  As a retired broadcast journalist who covered NASA projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, I don't believe very many astronauts, if any, ever found their way from the Space Center area to the Alabama Ice House. They were all too busy training for upcoming missions. It is remotely possible however, that one astronaut - Alan Shepard - MIGHT have stopped there for a brew or two because he lived in River Oaks, not very far from the Ice House.

 

"Smilin' Al" was a famous party animal who never saw a good time he could resist, especially the feminine gender. (Source: The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe) Incidentally, Shepard was the inspiration for the retired astronaut character played by Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment.