THE EARLIEST DAYS:  Founded in 1870's as the Palace Saloon and later renamed The Friendly Bar, the picture on the right shows our building back then as a humble beginning.   The mirrored back bar piece dates to 1883.

The building burned in 1915 and was rebuilt with the surviving rock walls intact. 

As you can see, there are no other buildings around this structure, so the town of Johnson City literally grew around the Palace/Friendly Bar. 

Over the years there have been several owners/proprietors of this bar and we have a file of news clippings, pictures, advertisements and other memorabilia that tell something of the story of this great old place.

THE MURAL:  We have a beautiful mural painted on the South interior wall by Nathan Jensen (see www.natespace.com/murals) that many patrons think of as the symbol of our history and their shared memories of good times over the years at what was "The Friendly Bar".  The following is a recount of the history of the mural by our previous owner as she told it to me (Tom Talcott, current owner) . . .

Tom, to the best of my recollection, here are some of the thoughts and discussions as the mural was being painted in 1995.  A fee plus room and board to Nathan and it took him almost a month to complete. We had a ball, Nathan, and Tommy and Joanie and Tully and all.  It was a group creative process but mostly Nathan.

The mural was titled "Friendly Bar Customers Past Present and Future" and was meant to be very whimsical.  The two behind the bar are myself 30 years younger and Clem (cannot remember his last name right at the moment but there is a framed story of him that use to be on the wall, former owner for 40 years).  He is also painted younger and we are passing the ownership as it goes.  It was fun to get younger.  Nathan painted both from photographs.  Those photographs are actually seen sticking into the side of the mirror which is where he kept them for reference if needed while he was painting.

 

The LBJ caricature is obvious and we staged him as the old WWII "Kilroy was here" character for he was here many times or were told but there's Kilroy??  An early newspaper article said that he and his sister Ava collected the empty bottles round back when they were kids and sold them for a little cash.  Joe Weirich can tell you some stories of him being in The Friendly.

 

The Indian and aliens:  The Indian in traditional dress is Tully Little Spotted Eagle Boy, a medicine man /spiritual leader from the Micmac (Mi'kmaq) tribe in Quebec who was a guest in my home at the time.  He was here in Texas to visit with Tommy Thompson, Joe Ely and friends.  He did sweat lodges and healing ceremonies with that group and they helped raise money for a school on his reservation.  When he came to town, he was stopped by the local police and his medicine bag taken.  Authorities from Washington high up in Indian Affairs were called and they "demanded in short terms" to release this man and do not touch anything in the bag, particularly the claw or feathers."   Tully did a wonderful stage ceremony prior to our opening.  Our little joke was that he is telling the little aliens "Now, My new friends, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES tell them where your land is!"..they of course represent future customers.

 

The past is represented by the Miss Kitty type bar girl with the crooked streak and the Annie Get Your Gun type.  I wanted the women in the mural to be strong ones.

 

The little boy with the frosty mug was a local man who came into the bar while we were painting and told us that almost every day of his growin' up he and his Dad come down to Friendly and Clem would let him have a little one while he waited for his Dad and friends as they played dominoes and talked till suppertime.  His name was Paul Pennick and he passed away several years ago.  His family is still there and use to run the fruit stand out on 281.  He visited me all the years that I had the bar but only drank coffee.  We thought he deserved a tribute.

 

The present is the (don't bump me again drunk boy) Harley guy on the corner and the dancers and couple at the bar and they are composites of lots of folks we saw around town except the Harley guy.   

 

We wanted a Harley emblem but had no plan as to how we would get it in, when one day Joe Abernathy (his Dad Joe Senior and wife Kim renovated the Lumber Yard and Lil Joe owned the laundry there for awhile).  Anyway he pulled up on his Harley and asked if we needed any help. Tommy Thompson (Joe Ely's brother in law) and Tully were pounding nails at the time and he stayed and helped them till nighttime enclose the front porch.  Nathan painted at this time but was on a scaffold and paid little attention to what was going on on the front porch.

 

Several days later, Joe appeared on the stool as the irritated biker and I remarked to Nathan that he had really captured him and he looked at me blankly.  I said "Joe on the motorcycle who helped finish the porch" and Nathan still appeared stunned.  He said he "was just trying to do the Harley emblem and attitude justice and had no recollection of Joe."  Too weird, for it is Joe but I have never seen him angry, so I told Nathan I guess he really did not see Joe after all.

 

The scene in the mirror is what you see if you go up to the top of the Feed Mill tower and look out which we did when Nathan was painting the tower.  Beautiful pasture and flowers and someone was walking their horse that day and Nathan took a picture.  Course we wanted to get in some reference to his work at the tower.

 

The large faces are Tommy Thompson and his then wife Joanie as kind of guardian angels.  Tommy and Joanie did a great deal of work on the place.  He formerly owned Tommy's Place in Lubbock where "everyone" from that area played.  As I said he is Sharon Ely's brother.  He did most of the original work on the Feed Mill Fried Green Tomatoes and they were the first to run it.

FAMOUS MUSIC & MUSICIAN: Johnny Greenberg, Texas Music’s top producer for 2006, got his start at the old Friendly Bar during a "hot mike" session.  Click on Tune for a few second sound clip from his "The Too Damn Friendly Bar" song created here about us back then.  Also see www.johnmgreenberg.com.  Of course, these days we are more about wine, music and and fun in an upscale setting, but we have interesting roots!