Texas Venue Directory
Southern Junction — Royse City
Country dance hall and steakhouse · Royse City
Royse City country dance hall combining live music, dancing, dining, and special events.
About this room
Southern Junction opened in 1985 on Highway 276 outside Royse City, about thirty miles east of downtown Dallas, and came into its own in 1987 when Paul Morelan took it over and used his restaurant background to build a real menu alongside the music. The result is a hybrid without many parallels: a working country dance hall with a 2,000-square-foot floor and a mechanical bull, attached to a full steakhouse where you can either have the chef cook your steak or select your own cut, season it and grill it yourself over a long hickory-fired communal grill. Bands play Wednesday through Saturday. Over the years the stage has held Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Robert Earl Keen, the Randy Rogers Band and Cody Johnson.
History sources checked August 29, 2026.
Things you may not know
- You cook your own steak on a communal grill: pick your cut, season it, and put it on a long hickory-fired grill alongside everyone else's. Source
- The dress code says 'No spurs.' Lone Star Music called that proof-in-writing of the club's honky-tonk bona fides. Source
- It is in a dry county and says so plainly: everyone over 21 needs a membership, good for one year, to get in - and the venue prints a free membership coupon on its own website that you bring to the door. Source
- Under-17s are allowed in until 11pm, which makes it a family restaurant early and a honky-tonk late. Source
- Wednesday is two-for-one steaks. Source
- The main room is lined with long tables framing the dance floor - a communal layout rather than a bar-and-stage one. Source
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