The Lone Star Cafe was a Tex/Mex cafe and club in New York City at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 13th Street, from 1976 to 1989.[1] The Texas-themed cafe opened in February 1976 and became the premier country music venue in New York and booked big names and especially acts from Texas, like Asleep at the Wheel and Roy Orbison.[2] Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman, Roy Orbison, Delbert McClinton, Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm and Jerry Jeff Walker, were among Texas musicians who frequented the Lone Star Cafe.[3] Joe Ely and Billy Joe Shaver also appeared at the cafe. The words from Billy Joe Shaver's 1973 'Old Five and Dimers Like Me' were hung on a banner in the front of the cafe: "Too Much Ain't Enough."[4] Other national acts played the cafe, including The Blues Brothers and James Brown, who recorded a live album there in 1985.[5]
In the 1970s Texas political types in New York would visit the Lone Star Cafe, including Larry King, Ann Richards, Tommy Tune, Dan Rather, John Connolly, Chet Flippo, Mark White and Linda Ellerbee.[4]
The cafe sported a unique 40-foot sculpture of a giant iguana created by artist Bob "Daddy-O" Wade on top of the building.[3] Neighboring businesses did not appreciate the sculpture and sought to have it removed. Although a court battle determined that it was art, eventually it was removed. In 1983 with the support of Mayor Ed Koch, the Iguana was restored to the roof at a ceremony with Koch and then-Texas governor Mark White.[4] The cafe was owned by Mort Cooperman.[3]
The premier country music venue in New York, the Texas-themed Lone Star Café opened in February 1976 and was recognizable for many blocks by the 40-foot sculpture of a spiny iguana (created by artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade) that sat on the roof of the building. In the narrow, rectangular interior, a winding staircase at one side of the low stage led to additional seating in the balcony where patrons craned their necks for a better view of the show.
Willie Nelson and Roy Orbison made their first New York appearance in many years at the Lone Star, in 1979 and 1981 respectively. John Belushi and Dan Akroyd debuted there as the Blues Brothers in 1977. Other Lone Star headliners included Carl Perkins, Delbert McClinton, Memphis Slim, Bobby Bare, Roy Buchanan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Albert Collins, Irma Thomas, and Ernest Tubb. Singer/songwriter and 2006 Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman was long-running attraction, and his 1987 detective novel A Case of Lone Star is set in the milieu of the club.
When the Lone Star Café closed in April 1989, owner Mort Cooperman already had opened the larger Lone Star Roadhouse at 240 West 52nd Street. The scene of Garth Brooks’ first New York appearance, it was shuttered circa 1992.