The Broken Spoke is the last true Texas dance hall, and the honky-tonk every other honky-tonk is measured against. Since 1964 this low-slung wooden building on South Lamar has served cold longnecks and chicken-fried steak, taught couples to two-step, and put a stage at the back where Willie Nelson, George Strait and Dolly Parton have all played. It is not a listening room and it is not a concert hall. It is a bar you dance in, and that is exactly the point.
Where most of our list is jazz and blues, the Broken Spoke represents a different American live-music tradition entirely: country-and-western as social dance, played nightly for people who came to move to it. Under its low ceiling, past the red-checkered tablecloths and the neon, couples of every age glide around a worn wooden floor while a band plays at the far end. That living tradition, preserved almost unchanged for sixty years, is why we rank it eighth among the best live music bars in the world.
A dance hall out on the edge of town
James White opened the Broken Spoke in November 1964, when he was in his mid-twenties and fresh out of the Army, on what was then the very edge of Austin, all barbed-wire fences and pasture. He wanted a traditional Texas dance hall like the ones he had visited with his parents in the 1940s and 1950s, and he named it after wagon wheels and, by his account, the film that was on his mind at the time. It opened first as more of a cafe and bar; when patrons started dancing to the jukebox, White pushed out the pool tables, built a proper dance floor, and the Broken Spoke as we know it took shape.
White ran the place personally, in his trademark cowboy hat, until his death in January 2021 at the age of 81. The venue remains in the family: his widow Annetta White, their daughters Terri White and Ginny White-Peacock, and son-in-law Michael Peacock carry it on, with the family's stated intention to pass it down to the next generation. That continuity is a large part of why the Spoke still feels authentic rather than staged.
The stage at the back
For a room this modest, the Broken Spoke's stage has carried an extraordinary roll call of country music. Willie Nelson played here early on, in the days before he had fully become Willie Nelson, and George Strait and his Ace in the Hole Band, by White's account, played the Spoke roughly once a month from 1975 to 1982, near the start of Strait's career. Bob Wills, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Garth Brooks, Jerry Jeff Walker and many others have appeared over the decades; the state historical marker outside cites the likes of Bob Wills, Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb. The through-line is not any single genre of country so much as danceability: this is music made to be two-stepped and waltzed to, and the Spoke books it accordingly.
Chicken-fried steak, cold beer and a wooden floor
The Broken Spoke is genuinely a bar, a restaurant and a dance hall in one, which is part of what makes it such a complete night out. The kitchen's centrepiece is chicken-fried steak, which the Spoke has cheerfully proclaimed the best in Texas, alongside other Texas fare, and the bar pours cold beer to a crowd that ranges from grandparents to students. Near the entrance sits the "Tourist Trap Room," a small museum of photos, hats and autographed memorabilia from the musicians and celebrities who have passed through, including the autographed George Strait picture that James White loved to show visitors. It all reinforces the point: you come here to eat, drink and dance, not to sit quietly and watch.
Why we rank it No. 8
The Broken Spoke earns its place because nothing else on this list preserves a living American vernacular music tradition quite so completely. This is not nostalgia or a themed re-creation; it is a working dance hall where Texas still actually dances, nightly, in a building that has barely changed in sixty years. It ranks a little below the great jazz and blues institutions above it because its musical ambitions are different, this is folk tradition and social dancing rather than a stage for the genre's virtuosos, but on its own terms it is peerless. And unlike the ticketed listening rooms higher up, it is unambiguously a bar you can walk into, order a longneck, and join the dance.
It survived where almost every other true Texas dance hall did not. In recent years developers built a large apartment-and-retail complex right up against the Spoke on both sides, and yet the little honky-tonk carries on in the middle of it, a David-and-Goliath survival story that has only deepened its legend. In 2023 the Texas Historical Commission designated it a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and in November 2024 it celebrated its 60th anniversary.
Getting in: what to expect
The Broken Spoke is generally open Tuesday through Saturday from around 4pm, with music and dancing later in the evening and the venue closed Sundays and Mondays. Cover charges are low, typically a few dollars and more for bigger acts, and there is no ticketed-concert formality: you pay at the door and settle in. Two-step dance lessons, taught by the Whites' daughter Terri, are a signature of the place and are usually offered in the early evening on several nights, so beginners can learn the basics before the band gets going.
The ideal Spoke evening looks like this: arrive in time for dinner and a dance lesson, eat a chicken-fried steak, then stay for the band and join the couples circling the floor. You do not need to be a good dancer, and you do not need cowboy boots, though plenty of regulars have both. Hours, cover and lesson times shift seasonally, so it is worth checking before you go.
Drinks, food and money
This is a proper bar with a proper kitchen. Order a cold Texas longneck, get the chicken-fried steak, and you have done the Spoke correctly. Our $$ rating reflects a low cover plus honest bar-and-diner prices: this is one of the most affordable and unpretentious nights on our entire list, which is part of its charm. There are no minimum-spend games and no bottle service, just beer, good Texas food, and a dance floor that has been polished by sixty years of boots.
Who it's for
The Broken Spoke is for anyone who wants a genuine, joyful, unpretentious night out: couples, groups of friends, families, students, and music tourists who want to understand how Texas actually socialises to music. It is welcoming to complete beginners thanks to the dance lessons, and forgiving of a lively crowd in a way the listening rooms above it are not. It is not the place for a quiet, seated jazz recital, that is the point of difference, but for live country music you can dance to, in a room dripping with history, there is nowhere better.
Pair it with fellow Austin great Antone's (No. 3) for a fuller picture of the city's range, browse our Live Music Bars in Austin guide, and see where the Spoke lands worldwide on our 25 best live music bars ranking. The Austin Bar Guide has the rest.
The verdict
The Broken Spoke is a working monument to how Texas dances, and to the idea that some of the best live music is the kind you move to rather than sit and watch. Sixty years on, boxed in by new development and grieving its founder, it still opens its doors, fires up the kitchen, teaches the two-step and lets the band play. It is the last of its kind, and it is unforgettable.
What to order
- 01
A cold Texas longneck
The correct drink for a honky-tonk; simple and cold.
- 02
Chicken-fried steak
The house centrepiece, and a Texas institution in its own right.
- 03
A two-step lesson before the band
Taught in the early evening, so you can join the dance floor with confidence.
Sources
The Broken Spoke official site (brokenspokeaustintx.net); Wikipedia; Texas State Historical Commission landmark marker (2023); Texas Highways, Texas Monthly, KUT and KXAN reporting, including James White's obituary (January 2021) and the 2024 60th-anniversary coverage. Capacity, hours, cover and lesson times come partly from secondary sources and change seasonally, so confirm with the venue before visiting.
