For a good time:
It may have started as just a bar, all those years ago, but it has been much more than that to many aggies. For over 40 years, we’ve been on Northgate, celebrating the big wins, knocking back a few after a tough test, reminiscing and reconnecting with friends. We’ve been there for the awkward first dates, the 20 year wedding anniversaries, the nights to remember and the nights to forget!
Sometimes, a little Chicken time can make you smile!
Still the best hire I've ever made...
In January of 1988 I was working as a Manager for the Dixie Chicken. During the week before classes started, a young woman brought her mother in to show her “The Chicken”. As they walked in the front door, her Mom noticed the “Help Wanted, Apply Upstairs” sign and told her daughter, “You need to get a job, go upstairs and apply”. So she did.
Just as she finished turning in the application, I walked upstairs. Peggy, the secretary said, “Larry, this is Beth Partheymuller, she is looking for a job”.
I asked, “Can you work Tuesday & Thursday lunch rushes?”
“Yes.”
“You’re hired, I’ll see you at 11:00 on Tuesday.”
We started dating a couple of months later, then got married in November of 1988.
It has now been 30 years and that was still the best hire I’ve ever made.
We took the family to the Chicken in January of 2018 for a “pilgrimage” to where it all started for us.
Larry Odom ’88 (actual grad ’91)
Beth Odom ’91 (actual grad ’92)
Old Milwaukee longneck beers @ 40 cents a pop
Over the years, as a UT medical educator, I like to tell my Aggie students that I attended the grand opening of the Chicken in 1974. That year I stayed in College Station after spring semester ended, to attend the summer session and the Willie Nelson Picnic in College Station. You could have a good time on Saturday nights before 1 a.m. closing, with $3 in your pocket, drinking Old Milwaukee longneck beers @ 40 cents a pop, free crackers, and shooting pool!! It was our favorite hangout with my new (at the time) girlfriend I met that summer, now wife of 40+ years!
we fell for each other...
My favorite (out of many): In the summer of 1998, I met a woman in Austin, who lived in Houston, who agreed to come up to College Station to meet me for an official first date. We went to the movies (Armageddon), to Shadow Canyon (Shiner Park today), and then to our last stop at my favorite bar, The Chicken.
We sat down, grabbed a pitcher of Shiner, and started getting to know each other. I carved my fraternity/her sorority letters into the table. While chatting, listening to the playlist that probably hadn’t changed since 1985, and constantly introducing her to people I knew, we fell for each other. Maybe it was the music, the hardwood floor, or the unique ambience, but we’ve now had 24 years together, a wedding, and 3 kids. None of that would’ve happened without that date at The Dixie Chicken.
I still remember it every time I hear Rose Colored Glasses on the radio.
– Ryan Taylor
A short story and a long relationship
To keep it short… Let’s just say that I got the complete tour. Including an escort to Don’s office. Closest I ever got to the Wild West. Many amazing times with my buddies playing pool and 42. Still stop by for a burger and Tijuana fries when I can! Met Tara Long (now Hutton) on the Fish Camp bus and have somehow got her to hang around… Still convince her to shoot a little pool there now and then.
World's First
Well, there I was, trying...
Well, there I was, trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life at the career center above the parking garage. It wasn’t called the Koldus Center yet, in 1993. So I was in the office with other Ags helping me determine my future and we realized that #1-We were all graduating next year together, #2-We were all Virgos, and #3-We all needed a drink. Already dressed in maroon (is there another color?), we agreed on a time and after work and school that Thursday evening met up at the Chicken and a few pitchers later were agitatin’ the rattlesnakes behind the thick plexiglass. Ronda Harris beat me at pool and Shelly Redelsperger, a track star at A&M dragged us to a Tracy Byrd concert at the Hall of Fame. Ahhh, I miss those foggy endless nights at College Station and the Dixie Chicken.
– Charles Reed
He's not an Aggie, but...
I am a recent Aggie grad and The Chicken is one of my favorite memories. Mainly because that’s where I met my fiancé. We met in June of 2016 and we are getting married in April 2018. We’ve had great times there ever since and always talk about going back to visit for some cold beer and cheese fries. Unfortunately, he’s not an Aggie but, thanks to me and his time visiting me in college, he has great things to say about Aggieland, especially The Dixie Chicken. The night we met is my all time favorite memory of college and I owe it you guys for making The Chicken such a fun atmosphere.
Claire Williams, ’17 and Kyle Dalton
From throwing bones to being at a wedding
A group of friends, class of ’90, met in town at the Chicken over the Christmas break. It was a Saturday afternoon and we were playing dominos. In walked a priest followed by the groom. The wedding march played over the speakers and in walked the bride. They served champagne to all in the bar and held a dance after. Of course the war hymn played following the kiss!
John Bush ’90
Kid on a mission...
My husband (’04) and I (’05) loved Aggieland so much, we moved back to College Station in 2015 to raise our family. Now that they’re old enough, we are trying to take the kids to all the Aggieland classics. So, of course we started with lunch at the Dixie Chicken before catching their first Aggie Baseball game! My youngest was so excited to see the famous rattlesnake and was on a mission to see it as soon as we walked in.
– Katie Brading ’05
on a whim, my friend and I decided to walk down to the Chicken...
My husband (class of 2001) and I met at the Dixie Chicken on July 14th, 2002. After being at Shadow Canyon most of the night, on a whim, my friend and I decided to walk down to the Chicken. There was a Gary P. Nunn concert on the back porch that hot sultry night. We came in to grab a beer and sit inside for a while. As we sat there chatting about considering a move to Houston to further my career, my future husband approached and asked if we’d like to join he and his friends. As we all sat together, we hit it off instantly. We sat there and talked like we had known each other for many years. After a game of pool he asked for my phone number. After 7 months of dating, we married on February 22, 2003 at the All Faith’s Chapel on the campus of A&M. We have been married 17 wonderful years and have 4 awesome kids (future Aggies) together. When we want to relive our younger years, we take a trip back to College Station and to The Chicken. This is where our love story began. The Dixie Chicken will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Amber Wittnebert
I noticed him immediately...
I walked in with friends in January 1986. He already knew my friends, and I was new to the Dixie Chicken scene 🙂 He was playing 42 at a table with his friends. I noticed him immediately, especially his long hair in the back LOL~ There was some chemistry and I asked him to a sorority dance. He turned me down because I had just broken up with a boyfriend and needed a date! He then asked me to a basketball game in Austin, and I turned him down because I legitimately had a fever. To this day he doesn’t believe I was sick.
Three months later, we ran into to each other in summer school, and we have been together ever since. We married February of 1989, and we have three Aggie children: two graduates and a current sophomore. We recently went back there to hang out (well we do that a lot because now we own a house 10 minutes from the Dixie Chicken) the day before our 30th wedding anniversary, and he stood up and asked a stranger to record us. He popped the question again for another 30 years!
P.S. We recently sat at the Chicken and re-learned how to play 42 on our phones before we pulled out the dominos to actually play again.