Posted on 03/18/2006 5:28:36 AM PST by texianyankee
Dixie Chicken Offering Items For Auction
The owners of the famous Dixie Chicken are giving patrons the opportunity to take home a piece of their favorite bar.
Hundreds of items, including graffiti-carved domino tables, ladder-back chairs, stuffed deer heads - even a walk-in cooler and an old upright piano - will be on sale March 25 during a "spring cleaning" auction.
Auctioneer Craig Conlee digs through some of the items from the Dixie Chicken that will be up for auction. Bidding on taxidermy items, domino tables and an assortment of chairs will take place March 25.
The sale is merely a chance to clean out what's been in storage, not an indication that the local collection of bars and restaurants run by Dixie Chicken Inc. is going out of business, owners said.
"We're not in trouble. We're just trying to get rid of some things," said Katy Jackson, vice president of Dixie Chicken Inc. "People put a lot of time and effort into The Chicken. We are just trying to give a little bit of that back."
Founder Don Ganter died in 2004. The company has since been run by his two daughters, Jackson and Jennifer Ganter.
Many of the items on sale came from Shadow Canyon and the Hole in the Wall Saloon. The two Northgate bars closed last year and since have become Midnight Rodeo and O'Bannon's Pub, respectively, under new management.
Other auction items once hung on the walls of the Dixie Chicken, the iconic Northgate beer joint. Some pieces were used as a surface to shake a hand of dominos or eat a hamburger.
Auctioneer Craig Conlee moves a domino table once used at the Dixie Chicken.
The Dixie Chicken Inc. establishments have been known for more than 30 years for their rustic decor that includes old signs and taxidermy accenting the barn-wood interiors.
"If you've ever been in one of those establishments, you look around and think, 'Where in the world did all of this stuff come from?'" said Craig Conlee of Conlee Auctions, which is presenting the sale. "Really, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of history."
Jackson said her father never sold anything or threw anything out over the years, and she and her sister have been left with several storage barns packed full of stuff ranging from rusty bear traps to old Lone Star beer pint glasses.
"It's 65 years of collecting," she said. "It's never easy getting rid of stuff. We are attached to some of the things, but really, it's all just stuff. We know it's not going to bring him back."
Conlee said Ganter was an avid collector who was constantly on the lookout for interesting items to decorate his bars and restaurants.
"He traveled the country, and everywhere he went he brought a trailer," Conlee said. "This has been like looking in someone's closet. These are some things that maybe [Ganter] wouldn't sell, but it's been tough for the girls, and they need some closure to come out of this."
Conlee said the auction has sparked widespread attention from former Texas A&M University students who hold fond memories of The Chicken.
He said some of the most popular items at the sale will likely be the wooden domino tables - the trademark furnishings of Dixie Chicken Inc. establishments. Conlee thinks the tables could fetch several hundred dollars apiece.
"But that's the fun of the auction," he said. "You never know how much something will go for."
Dixie who?
Dixie Chicken is a well known watering hole for anyone who has any connections to Texas A&M.
By they way, absolutely NO connection, whatsoever, to that group of female singers known as the dixie chicks.
LOL! No problemo! I need to learn how to do that little "strike through" option.
strikethrough is done like this < S>strikethrough< /S> without the spaces in front of the S, and the /.
I was more a Dudley's guy, but I bet there will be a lot of ol' Ags that will run the bids up.
I want to know just how deep the bottle caps are in the alley
I wonder that myself! It's been a few years since I visited the Chicken and found myself wandering along bottle cap alley! I have since moved back to the area & am tempted to drop in again for old times sake. Class of '78
Nostalgia Self-Ping!
I had a few really fun nights in College Station. Fun town.
Didn't you *have* to go there as a senior and put your ring in the bottom of the beer, then chug it? And you took 20 - $1 bills for the beers? Then when you had drunk 19 of them, each time getting a nickel back in change, you had your $.95 for the last one, all in nickels? It's an Aggie math game, I believe.
Hullabaloo caneck caneck. Saw Bevo's horns off. Short!
that's where I used to go for nickel beer night while at A&M
Class of '84.
(1) Putting the ring in a picher is a rather new tradition. Believe me, if it had to do with Aggie rings and drinking beer, I would have been in on it.
(2) "Dixie Chicken" - (for all of you heathen out there -- LOL) is a phrase taken from a very old song by Little Feat.
(3) The domino tables were used to play "42" - a version of spades - but played with dominoes. If you ever got caught playing the pre-school domino game where you connect the ends together --- wel, let's just say .... it never happened that I ever saw at the Chicken.
(4) Q: Why did the Aggie cross the road?
A: To get to the Chicken.
(5) What song was used to close down the Chicken every night? ... I'll leave that one unanswered. Someone else can fill in the blank.
(6) What is the signature burger at either the Chicken or the Chicken Oil (located down the road in Bryan)? What are the ingredients that make it great?
(7) Q: Why weren't my grades as good as they could have been in college? A: The Chicken and Duddley's.
(8) Q: Who got kicked out of the Chicken for playing his guitar by (then) owner Don Ganter?
(9) Q: I don't know about now, but how would some good old boys and girls get to the Chicken on Friday nights?
A: On horseback.
(10) Q: What would I pay good money for to get an Internet feed from? A: The music played at the Chicken. I'd love to be able to hear it over the net.
From David Allen Coe's You Never Even Called Me By My Name.
I sang it too many times there on Sunday Evenings after APO meetings.
The ring in the pitcher tradition was there when I got mine(Class of '88).
Do you remember the Cow Hop?
"Cow Hop?"
I think the ring in the pitcher started just a couple of years after I finished.
Of course.
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