Dixie Chicken is more than a landmark
Despite Wednesday night roof collapse, the Northgate fixture serves as rallying point for Texas A&M faithful
COLLEGE STATION — Rusty Burson thanks
God, former Texas A&M kicker Terry Venetoulias and the Dixie Chicken for a fabulous wife of 26 years and three upstanding kids, two of whom currently are enrolled at A&M.
“When people say it doesn’t really matter who wins a football game, I call bull,” said Burson, an author and membership director at Miramont Country Club in Bryan. “If the Aggies don’t win that game against Texas Tech in 1992 … I never meet Vannessa at the Chicken.”
Venetoulias drilled a gamewinning field goal as time expired to lift the Aggies to a 19-17 victory. Burson, visiting from Galveston, chose to celebrate with a couple of friends that night at College Station’s most celebrated watering hole. So did Vannessa Blasingame and friends, and the rest is Dixie Chicken history.
“‘Pretty Woman’ had come out a couple of years earlier, and I wanted to meet someone who looked like Julia Roberts,” Burson said. “Vannessa walked through the back door of the Chicken, be-bopping to the music, and I just reached out and grabbed her hand. I spun her around like you would on a dance floor, except this was in the middle of a crowded Dixie Chicken after a football win.
“Then I said, ‘What’s your name?’ ”
That phrase has been uttered thousands of times, mostly minus Burson’s ultimate triumph, over nearly 50 years at the world-famous Chicken. The romantic tale arises because the roof of the Chicken partially collapsed late Wednesday night following a long day of rain and two rounds of hailstorms. No one was hurt, not even the resident rattlesnake “Sneaky Snake” behind glass and near the collapse.
News of the roof ’s collapse spread like fire in the Aggies’ community, with some patrons fearful the rustic centerpiece of the Northgate bar district was wiped out. It wasn’t, and the Chicken even intends to reopen soon.
Late Wednesday night, firefighters from Bryan and College Station united on University Drive in front of the Chicken in a mist, building support beams out of wood to give the old ceiling a lift — and a relieved A&M community a boost.
What does an old wood structure best known for cold beer, old country music, dominoes, perpetual ice in the pee trough and Tijuana Fries mean to Aggies? Loads, which is why the roof ’s partial collapse has been the most scrutinized story in Brazos County this week.
The official Twitter feed of Texas A&M even posted late Wednesday: “Thinking of our neighbors at (the Chicken) tonight. We know this won’t be the last time we hear, ‘Goodnight Irene.’ ”
The Chicken and its Northgate counterparts reside right across the street from A&M and are an easy stroll to and from Kyle Field — depending on one’s timing. Don Ganter, who died in 2004, opened the beer joint in 1974, and Playboy magazine later dubbed it the best college bar in America.
Two of Ganter’s daughters, Jennifer Ganter and Katy Jackson, have run the self-described
“real Texas honky tonk” since.
“We’ve read all of the tweets, Facebook messages and more and feel truly humbled by all of those who care so much about our family’s restaurant,” Jennifer Ganter said.
The Chicken has a distinctive smell and isn’t for everyone, but outside of Kyle Field and baseball’s Blue Bell Park, it might be the most nostalgia-drenched structure in the vicinity.
“Going to the Chicken allows me to travel back in time,” said Randal Matcek, a 1996 A&M graduate and longtime football season ticket holder. “It’s like I’m walking through a time portal and into a land of beer and dominoes.”
The Chicken had been at no more than 25 percent capacity since reopening this month during the novel coronavirus pandemic, and that was a fortunate thing on Wednesday. Rusty and Vannessa Burson were watching the news late Wednesday night when they learned of the collapse.
“We both said, ‘Thank God no one was hurt,’ ” Rusty said. “You think about how many nights it can be shoulder-to-shoulder in the Chicken, so it’s really a blessing it happened when it did.”
Ten years and a day and about 10 feet away from Rusty’s fateful spin of an unsuspecting Vannessa, I was wandering through the Chicken the night before A&M again hosted Texas Tech, this time in 2002. A friend introduced me to Crystal Galny, an Aggie and KBTX-TV anchor and reporter, so in this case, a “what’s your name” was not necessary.
The result was the same, however: A happy marriage and three mostly good kids, all of whom said they’d like to visit the historic landmark (to Aggies and locals anyway) where their mom and dad met. Might be time to finally introduce them to Tijuana Fries, but the cold beer will have to wait.