https://houstonhistoricretail.com/restaurants/luthers-bar-b-q/ Luther’s Bar-B-Q was a Houston staple for over 30 years. The restaurant was founded as the third venture of an entrepreneur who went by “Chandler” (His family name). A stockbroker by trade, Chandler’s first venture into food service was The Great Mining Company a Colorado/Gold Mining themed steakhouse. Which seems to have been inspired by the popular Aspen Mining Company in San Diego. The unofficial Houston counterpart was located at 2626 Tanglewilde. Positioned in the rear of the Woodlake Square Shopping Center, the new restaurant was in quite a hip area, and had a price tag to reflect this. The dining room included huge rocks hoisted in by crane prior to construction, support timbers, antiques, and mining equipment, all delivered from Colorado. The exterior of the building made it look almost like you were entering a mountain. The landscaping was filled in using mature East Texas pine trees. The detailed thought Chandler put into planning The Great Mining Company helped it to become a great success. Riding high on this success in 1975 Chandler decided to expand his restaurant ventures with a new bar named “The Park” located on Richmond at Fountain View. The Park sported a 1920s theme and included an antique bar flown in from California along with multiple 1920s Tiffany lamps, it was an early example of a fern bar. While hip, the bar was not as exclusive as Chandler’s previous establishment. To compliment the bar, Chandler envisioned a simple restaurant directly across from the street. This restaurant would specialize in hamburgers, BBQ, and beer. This simple start would give birth to Luther’s. The first location was designed to resemble an old General Store with a wide front porch, and polished wood floors. Inside the restaurant Chandler used a cafeteria line to serve BBQ, and a separate counter to order hamburgers from. Both lines ended with beer and a cash register in the center. The exterior landscape was left open giving a courtyard feel between The Park and Luther’s. Similar to his previous restaurant Chandler planted mature Texas pine trees to help accent this location. All of these design features would be present in the later franchised versions of Luther’s. As Chandler developed his knowledge of running a BBQ restaurant, he wanted to expand on the concept. Being quoted as saying that he wanted to take Bar-B-Q and apply the Ray Kroc formula to it. At the time most BBQ restaurants in Houston were smaller family owned operations. It wasn’t really seen as a chain affair, and that was something he decided he wanted to change. One of the first changes for the new chain Luther’s locations would be that they were given Drive-Thru’s. While drive-thru BBQ was not a brand new it was quite the novelty. In September 1981 high-end steakhouse chain Chart House acquired Luther’s. During this move Chandler left Luther’s taking a position to help develop failed Chili’s competitor, Spoon’s. Chart House maintained a steady cash flow by franchising hundreds of Burger King units, the company realized with a concept they owned the rights to they could easily increase their returns. This began a period of rapid expansion for Luther’s opening multiple locations in Dallas, Louisiana, and Colorado. An expansion into Phoenix was planned with Chandler acting as franchisee, but as far as I can tell it never happened. A single location was also constructed, and almost opened in Charleston, South Carolina. Although this was stopped due to the 1985 purchase of parent company Chart House by Pillsbury. Throughout the years Luther’s would continue to be passed through different sets of ownership. While business hadn’t slowed in their home market of Houston, external forces caused the locations outside the Houston to close. First in the 1990s the Dallas locations became Colter’s BBQ, a clever re-imagining of the name to reuse as many letters as possible. The Colorado locations were removed from the website in 2003, leaving Louisiana and the original Houston market. Hurricane Katrina would destroy all the remaining out-of-state locations, forcing Luther’s to accept a purchase offer from competitor Pappa’s BBQ in 2005. The Luther’s name would last through most of 2006, with the final stores transitioning to Pappa’s by 2007. A sad and slow end to what had once been a bright and vibrant star, this still leaves one question. Who the hell was Luther?!
menil and orange show are obscure museums. Dean's has live music and is a bar. dont know the other two
This guy gets it. Art Car Parade La Carafe Bama Icehouse Gallant Knight Etta's Bar/Club at the Omni on Woodway (don't remember what it was actually called) Marfreles Soundwaves Alabama Theater River Oaks Theater Frenchy's all kinds of other stuff...I'm watching the World Series yet again...Yordan is up
Having lived everywhere after growing up in Houston… I can say that Houston is a very unique city, especially for Texas. First, Houston is the largest small town I have ever been to. People in Houston have some degree of innocence and wonder that doesn’t exist in any other large city. Second, Houston is the most small business friendly town I have ever been to. If you want to make a lot of money in Houston and are willing to work hard, you have a better shot in Houston than anywhere in the World I have been. There is a lot of optimism that doesn’t exist inherently like it does in Houston. Third, Houston is the Wild West. The government isn’t going to help or protect you like a city on the West coast or Chicago. Also there are no real hard set social rules or classes. It is constantly changing. Fourth, Houston is crazy. There is always some crazy **** going on with the cartels, drugs and people being transported through Houston. Fifth, no place is THAT dangerous or THAT safe. People from different parts of Houston intermingle well. Sixth, the girls in Houston are world class and the restaurant and food scene is probably the best in the USA. It’s at worst an equal to Chicago and Los Angeles.
In addition to what Mr. Pringles said, the Big Bubble was a button you could push that would make a big bubble of water come out of the bayou. Warren's is a bar downtown stuck in the 70s and pours the stiffest drinks.
Lola's House of Pies Cabaret Voltaire (when it was at 22 N. Chenevert in the building that now houses Irma's) Lankford Grocery Christian's Tailgate La Jalicience (RIP) The Summit (Really, 4 pages and no mention?) Jim Parsons Clyde Drexler Bum Phillips
This. I have moved around a lot and spent the better part of 15 years on the East Coast based in Virginia, so I have a good idea of major cities from Charlotte to Boston and I would not trade any of them for Houston. Richmond is the closest thing to Houston but not as much diversity and some big distinctions among races and classes.
When I lived in Alaska in the 80's, Cal Worthington had dealerships and his crazy assed commercials on up there.
Agree with a lot of it except for the small town feel of Houston. I think Minneapolis has a much more small town feel compared to Houston. Part of that is that Minneapolisnis walkable and easy to get around whereas it’s hard to really walk to things like grocery stores, coffee shops and bars. What Houston feels like and is a suburb grown to the size of a metropolis.
