The Little Longhorn Saloon

Favorite bar in Austin. Chicken… Shit…Bingo. If there is anything more entertaining that watching 100 imbibing people phone cameras in tow, waiting, cheering for a chicken to get over it’s performance anxiety and laying the dime, ive yet to find it anywhere in the world. Appreciate the free Crock Pot Hot Dogs out back, but waiting for the first guy to try when hot dogs are replenished… Not trusting the hungriest bloke for my idea of food safety. Either way, a definite go back experience. Park a block away by the Dollar Tree, huge open parking.

Cool, historical joint. Beer is cold. Atmosphere is hot. Or cold, depending on the weather since it’s tiny inside and there’s no A/​C.
Chicken Shit Bingo is pretty great.
The biggest negatives for me are:
Parking. It’s impossible to park.
Hipsters. Yeah, I know. It’s Austin. But hipsters appropriating the culture of a place like this is still annoying.

schlocky tourist bar that doesn’t appreciate real music goers… go and sit and be quiet and polite and pay tips and pay for your drinks and leave… but don’t actually try to enjoy the place, as the wait staff is just your typical angry dyke Austin LEZBO types who think you are there for them… won’t go back. too uptight for a real honkey tonk… Over the top LEZBO DYKE bar with tats died hair, wife beater T-​shirts, etc. and angry mean staff and patrons… go at your own waste of money… if your a tourist… sure, go, take your pics… get it done, and fly back to wherever… as for dancing? Just fat ugly mean unapologetic dykes short haired angry dykes. Or go on Sunday when 300 people are all in line to play a game and the dance floor is filled with old drunks … NOT!!!

Great Sunday entertainment! Got there 30 minutes before it all began and had a great time socializing with our table mates waiting for the games to begin. Cold beer and warm hot dogs made it for a fun night. We were lucky sitting at the table she chose to draw from so we didn’t have to get in line for tickets. They also had brand new t-​shirts for sale. The band indoors was great, a little hard to hear but fun to listen to! Overall a pleasant Sunday afternoon!

Many people, even Texans, look past the cultural aspects in the wonderful city that is Austin. They point out the symphony in Dallas, the Kimball in Fort Worth and the museum district of Houston. While these are worthy additions to the cultural patchwork of Texas, we in Austin have an event that eclipses all others.
It was a hot Sunday in August and running a few errands with a fellow realtor named Maynard. Anyone who doesn’t know Maynard will not realize how difficult it is to describe him. He is as nice of a guy as you will ever meet but is also one of the people that help Austin with its reputation as being… unique.
Maynard is a guy that lived next to a pond for 3 months, in a tent, so as to fish every day. As you can imagine, he is a fellow that knows all of the good spots. Where we decided to go was Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon.
For those of you that have not had the pleasure, Ginny’s is, in many ways, a typical central Texas honkie tonk. A rectangular building, 25′ by 60′ maybe There was a band, someone famous, playing in the corner. No pay other than a hat passed around once an hour, and trust me, they clean up. This building, on a Sunday afternoon, was shoulder to shoulder. Well over a hundred people were crammed inside.
In addition to incredible density of the people, the diversity was also impressive. There were cowboys, retread hippies and construction workers all commingling happily. It was not just adults either. Families bring their children. One extensively tattooed women brought her newborn. There were young gorgeous women, scantily clad. Of course anywhere there are hot young women; there are young men in close pursuit. Even Realtors are welcome at Ginny’s Little Longhorn.
After a few minutes it became readily apparent that the band, while high quality, was not why folks were there. It wasn’t the water filled crock pot with hot dogs floating therein. It wasn’t even the beer. Which is, as near as I could tell, all they serve. I didn’t see any booze, no lemonade. Beer in long neck bottles. Imports or domestics three bucks.
The real reason that this diverse throng of people were at this classic honkie-​tonk was for an event unlike any other. An event that makes everyone glad that they live in Austin… or at least get to visit.
What happens is the band quiets and the patrons form a line that snakes through the bar. They shuffle up to a woman selling tickets with numbers on them. After they are all sold Ginny herself goes and fetches Red. Perhaps Red may has some Rhode Island in her heritage but I doubt it. She is the basic chicken found in the back yard of many a country folk.
A piece of plywood with a grid drawn on it is placed on the pool table. A number is in each square. An even layer of cracked corn is spread across it and low cage covers the whole thing. Red is placed inside for her to do her magic.
This is the essence of chicken shit bingo.
That’s right. The chicken wanders around on the board, eating, preening, clucking. When she drops a turd on a square, a winner is designated.
Now I have been to the National Museum of Art. I have stood in front of the Declaration of Independence. I have seen a double rainbow and a two headed tree frog. Never before have I seen a hundred people attempting telekinesis on the sphincter of a chicken. As to whether they were willing Red’s anus to loosen or tighten depended on which number it was located above. I confess that I was one of the hundred people, staring at the chicken, waiting for it to shit.
After Red did the nasty, and the gorgeous young woman who was the victor had received her cash, she was called up by the band. They wanted her to tell us her secret of success. She had no ready answer, unless a giggle is considered a response.
So, my friend, you can see the swallows of San Juan Capistrano. You can see a total eclipse of the Sun. Until you have seen chicken shit bingo at Ginny’s Little Longhorn, you are not the worldly person that you would like to think that you are.

Yeah, this place is legit!!!
Came here for the first time this n past weekend. Had a great time!!! Everyone is so friendly!!! A real taste of Texas!
Gotta come on Sunday for the bingo! It’s a great experience!!!
This place doesn’t have a liquor but plenty of beer and wine to choose from!

One of the few remaining old-​school Austin dive bars, but still good. Went here on Christmas and they had $ 1 PBRs, free food and a band playing and good customer service. Apparently on Tuesdays they have $ 1 PBRs, so not a bad deal, all considered. They also do setups, so you can bring a small bottle of liquor, AFAIK.

There are plenty of run-​down looking places in Austin to get a cold beer. In any nouveau riche boom-​town you’ll never have to look far for nice places carefully made to look run-​down in a cynical effort to evoke a feeling of otherness and discovery. San Francisco-​inspired city planners and their cigar-​chomping «interested parties» have expanded the once lean and mean oasis of yard art and fatty brisket into endless rows of dilapidated apartment complexes and future-​slum ready condominiums all offering the next crop of twenty-​somethings the Austin «lifestyle.»
In the middle of the real-​estate war of attrition that is North-​Central Austin is something genuine: Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, one of the last true honky-​tonks. The once-​thriving, region-​wide network of working-​class bars and dance halls catering to the country and western crowd has been reduced to a smattering of mostly ironic tourist traps located primarily in the parts of town that would attract the sort of person that has no qualms paying eight or nine dollars for a bottle of something.
Home of the famous Chicken-​shit bingo (which is exactly what it sounds like), and located between a futon store and an auto shop, the building itself looks like the meeting of a double-​wide trailer and a Baptist church. The place doesn’t have an aesthetic, at least not in the way the self-​proclaimed «dive bars» fifty or so blocks away on sixth street do. It’s genuine, 1980s Americana.
Coming in from the gravel parking lot peppered with classic cars in various states of disrepair, I grab a stool and order a drink. It’s beer only, but despite the décor, the draft/​bottle/​can selection is excellent. There are all the local favorites and a few good craft beers from around the country thrown in for rubberneckers and students. The Little Longhorn is the type of bar where you walk up and three people you half-​know briefly turn into your best friends. It’s about a neighborhood coming together.
The house band is between songs off in a corner out of my periphery. A large table full of enthusiastic onlookers who have at least a dozen beers and a few hours on me hoot and hollar as the song «Silver Wings» by Merle Haggard slowly lurches from the stage and drifts throughout the bar. The man to the left of me – hair slicked back into a duck-​tail – sets down his Lone Star, swivels his barstool toward the stage, and begins mouthing the lyrics while bobbing his head very slightly. The band leader and rhythm guitarist calls out for a man at the aforementioned table to join him on stage and finish singing the song.
«Come on up here, Kelly. I know you know it.» says the guitarist with a smile as Kelly’s friends at the table begin to clap and yell with excitement as he hesitates for a moment before standing straight up from his seat and marching toward the microphone. He does a damn good job. By the final chorus I’ve finished my beer and every other person in the house is quietly singing back-​up for Kelly from their seats. Singing into their cheap, cold beers in spite of a city that’s nearly forgotten they were ever there at all.

Yup – I went to Chicken Sh*t Bingo. An awesome and «only in Austin» experience. There was a live band, complimentary hotdogs, cold beer and a real, live chicken pooping on a bingo board.
This is a do-​not-​miss experience that you can write home about.

This is a great dive bar that offers an up close and personal venue for live bands.
Sundays are «bingo» days using live chickens. The game is ideally named Chicken Shit Bingo. So if you want to experience Austins «Keep it Weird» theme, then this is the place to come for some rarities.
Serves Beer & Wine only.
Don’t miss it :)

One of Austin’s best un-​kept secrets is about to get out. Yes, one of only a handful of remaining 5-​star dive bars, Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, had the Travel Channel filming here yesterday. Now everyone is gonna know about Chicken Shit Bingo :)
You need to know a few things about Ginny’s LLS before you come:
1) They only server beer
2) They have set-​ups for your BYO Booze
3) Do NOT bring beer. Support this bar by purchasing beer.
4) It gets really hot inside so be sure to drink plenty of cold beer.
5) Support the bands with TIPS from your POCKETS.
6) Playing Chicken Shit Bingo should be on your Bucket List.
7) You can sit in the parking lot on your brought-​from-​home collapsible chair.
8) Every single time I have come here, every single band BROUGHT IT!
Dale Watson did a 5-​Star job updating the inside. I’m extremely impressed.
And ladies, I’ve seen y’all use the men’s room and that’s cool. We don’t mind. No need to blush on your way out :-)

I absolutely love this place-​best day to go is Sunday for CSB, especially when Dale Watson is playing! The dance floor is a bit small-​but the beer is always cold, very reasonably priced, and the staff are very friendly. On Sunday you can treat your self to free ‘Ginny’ chili dogs! One of my favorite venues to see live music!

The Little Longhorn is a homey, historic live music saloon that preserves the feel of old Austin. They have great C&W acts most nights of the week, with primarily Austin-​based bands as well as some touring ones. They do a great job of curating the acts, and I’ve yet to see a band there I didn’t like. A lot of people from the neighborhood still hang out here, and it’s a nice mix with some tourists checking it out as well.
Beer and wine only here, but the tap selection is great, with something for everyone. Prices are great too. Protip: get the large. You can bring a bottle of booze along if you want.
I’m not a fan of chickenshit bingo, but they have that on Sundays if your a fan of bird feces and larger crowds. The vibe gets a little more communal, with lots of people hanging out in the back parking lot. It can be fun, but I prefer the nights when they are in old school saloon mode.

Best Little Alehouse in Texas!
It doesn’t get better than a sunny Sunday afternoon at Ginny’s, whether you are inside enjoying the band and cheering on your chicken bleep bingo squares or tailgating for no good reason (or game) with 30 – 60 of your newest best friends.
The fearless can enjoy the free hotdogs, while the rest of us will adopt the «sandwich in every beer» mantra.
Craft beers flow freely alongside Lone Store and Shiner, sipped equally by hipsters, hippies, rednecks and families.
If Sunday doesn’t work for you, fear not. You’ll get an equally cool, if different, experience hanging at the bar with some of the coolest wait staff you’ll find in town.

It’s hard to rate a local legend, that has now become a tourist spot. I finally came here on a Sunday for the chicken poopin bingo, and it happened to be their annual car show as well. The classic cars on view were a bonus. The place was jam packed with peeps, aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out how to get in line for the $ 2 chicken bingo. I came well ahead of 4:00pm, and ran from one random line to the next, and felt like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Even though I arrived ahead of time, I still didn’t get to give anyone my cash to get a bingo ticket, as they have only a few tickets to hand out for the day, and definitely way more people wanting them. I think the chickens probably pay money to watch us humans all acting ridiculous to see them go to the bathroom on a bingo number.
The saloon itself is a tiny space, and on a Sunday you could barely squeeze through the crowd to get a cheap beer. The live music though was great, and it was awesome to see such a random collection of people from all different walks of life taking in the sights. It is definitely a picnic like setting. Many people had brought their folding chairs and were sitting around outside eating some of the food from the local vendors on site. For many this is just a checkmark in a long list of top things to see in Austin, while others are regulars. I definitely enjoyed watching the original Ginny with her chickens, as I fought my way through the crowd to snap some shots of her. If you go, you need to read some of the stellar reviews already written about this spot and plan ahead.

So with a respite from the Memorial Day weekend deluges on Sunday we decided to get out and have some fun. First stop was Ginny’s. As luck would have it there was a car show, live music, and of course chicken shit bingo. Ginny’s was packed probably because of cabin fever and the sun was out.
Ginny’s is a classic dive bar so set your expectations appropriately don’t ask for the wine list or for a desert dry vodka martini with 2 olives ;^)
We had a blast checking out the cars, and having a few beers. Everyone was friendly even though it was so crowded you could not get through the bar area. The bar was slammed for a while but the service was spot on. A really nice way to while away a Sunday afternoon. Ginny’s has to get back on my dive bar rotation list.

Great music (I love Dale Watson!), cheap drinks, great payout considering a bingo ticket is only $ 2! I won last Sunday and walked away with $ 200+ because the previous winner didn’t claim their money!
The bar is super small but it wouldn’t be Ginny’s LITTLE Longhorn Saloon if it wasn’t! Grab a drank and head outside where there’s plenty of room to roam, grab a coozie from the merch table and play the infamous chicken shit bingo!
One of Austin’s gems!

We came for the chicken shit bingo, but we stayed for the excellent live music and the friendly, all ages crowd. As an out-​of-​towner, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a dive where I felt so welcome. This was definitely the highlight of our trip to Austin.
Sunday afternoon at Ginny’s felt more like a big family gathering than a bar. There were dogs and young children and senior citizens and everyone in between. There were people hanging out outside enjoying the nice weather at the picnic tables, and others dancing to the live band. And of course there were the chickens.
I’ll be coming back next time I’m in Austin, and telling everyone I know to do the same.

Always great music. Fun, diverse crowd. Friendly, quick bartenders. Cheap beer. And chicken shit bingo.
I had my first chicken shit bingo experience this Sunday. Here’s how it’s done. The band leader announces when and where the tickets go on sale. Could be any of the picnic tables or tents outside in the back. The crowd rushes to the table, forming a small mob, waving dollar bills in the air. Be patient and ready to get up close and personal with your fellow gamblers. The ticket seller doles out the numbers. Return to the bar, cheer on the chicken, call out your number and hope it chooses yours! Hold on to your ticket for consolation prizes!
Dance the two-​step or Texas swing. Meet some new folks. Cheer on the chicken!

Ginny’s would ordinarily be an awesome, completely unpretentious place to grab a Lone Star and watch musicians who got their start playing bars in 1962. At the end of a four-​pub mini-​crawl, however, it might just be the Greatest Place in the Universe.
So, Ginny’s is a small, old, sordid, ramshackle gin tank of a place, which is to say exactly the kind of place that I like to haunt. You walk in and half expect to see the guy who named you Sue wielding a knife in your direction. Johnny Cash’s ghost sits next to you at the bar when you order.
So, specs: Ginny’s is tiny, which either makes it a fire hazard or a great, very intimate music venue or both. The crowd is mostly older, the people of legend from the hallowed days of Weird Austin. Beer selection is okay, with several crafts and decent pricing.
But you’re not here for that. You’re here to soak up the amazing honkey-​tonk vibe, with awesomely old-​school bands playing absolutely none of that post-​1980, Garth Brooks-​era bullshit faux country music. They instead want to bring you Bob Dylan and rockabilly and zydeco and stuff that people who actually like roots music listen to. Like coming to know the Jesus, just go there and you will understand. Watching the 40-​somethings get down in the dance floor is worth the price of admission. Or it would be if there’s a cover, which there isn’t, because Ginny’s is way too cool for that. So go and be Saved.
Having only visited once, I have yet to witness the famed chicken shit bingo, but I will. Also: as is the case with the Carousel Lounge and several other area bars, you may apparently BYOB and purchase setups for $ 2.
Some outdoor seating, parking is limited.

I believe it was Shakespeare who once said, «Alas. All the world is but a stage. And tis nothing quite liketh a fair damsel who doth wear a dress and thine own boots while standing on it.»
You know, Shakespeare was right. Especially if it’s a lovely lady with an equally lovely voice, with an acoustic guitar slung on her shoulder, and a song (or ten) in her heart.
Such was the case on a drizzly April evening, at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon. When you’ve had a long day at work that can only be described as «Wacky Question Thursday», and a friend asks if you’d like to hit up happy hour and see Robynn Shayne playing at Ginny’s, you lock your workstation and go skidding out of the work parking lot. And 20 minutes later, perched on a stool, tapping your feet, with a cold beverage of your choice (assuming you choose cheap beer, wine, or soda) served by a friendly bartender, under a ceiling lined with thirteen Texas flags, the sounds of a days worth of urgent phone calls, texts, and emails arriving turn into a distant fading whisper.
It was as relaxing to me as going to the spa. Well, if your spa was decorated with neon signs and an old jukebox, had a faint (possibly imagined) aura of smoke from days gone by, and the masseuses were local legends like Alvin Crow and Dale Watson. Ginny’s is the kind of gathering place I can picture being in any of a thousand small towns in Texas. But I’m glad it’s here in Austin, and welcoming to folks who couldn’t two-​step their way out of a paper bag and normally wouldn’t go to a «honky-​tonk». Folks like me.
[POSTSCRIPT: To my friend, Heather F. (see her review) — Challenge accepted!]