With all of that history out of the way, let it be said, Devil’s Backbone Tavern is an amazing dive bar, the kind of Texas dive bar that fits the very image those words bring to mind. Touted as the oldest dive bar in Texas, new ownership has certainly embraced the Devil’s Backbone past and has thankfully worked to only accentuate the dive bar’s appeal. The current owners of Devil’s Backbone Tavern have similarly renovated the bar’s web site and marketing efforts, going so far as to advertise availability for Dive Bar Weddings. Ownership and leasing agreements have shifted over the years, the reigns handed over as recently as 2018 to new ownership that executed a number of targeted renovations, including reopening the long-shuttered dancehall attached to the main building. The arrival of the 1950s coincided with the arrival of a dancehall on the premises, one step in a long and storied connection between Devil’s Backbone Tavern and the live music still found there today. The Tavern that took its name showed up a few years later, opening in 1937 to take advantage of Hays County’s “dry” status coming to an end in 1936 (some conflicting reports list 1932 as the founding date). Devil’s Backbone Tavern in Fischer may be the finest example of Texas Hill Country dive bar drinking, a dive bar cave atop one of Hill Country’s many ridges that earned its cultural institution status long ago.ĭevil’s Backbone Tavern sits along a ridge named, you guessed it, Devil’s Backbone, the result of an earthquake some thirty million years ago. The area is also well steeped in history, much of it preserved by existing outside of the kind of gentrification and rampant development that has claimed many a dive bar. Texas Hill Country is a thoroughly beautiful part of the country, rolling scenery interspersed with small towns that make for an amazing drive no matter the pace.

Devil backbone highway