Texas Venue Directory
The White Horse
Modern honky-tonk and dance venue · Austin
East Austin honky-tonk with nightly music, dance lessons, and a dedicated social-dance floor.
About this room
Nathan Hill and Denis O'Donnell both managed the Hole in the Wall before they opened their own room at 500 Comal, and they brought the network of local players with them. The White Horse hosted its first show on December 9, 2011, on a quiet East Austin corner, with a stated ambition to give the Broken Spoke's claim on the city's honky-tonk crown some actual competition. It worked. The room built itself on residencies rather than touring bookings - Mike & the Moonpies, Leo Rondeau, and Conjunto Los Pinkys on Sundays - and inside fifteen years became a venue people name alongside rooms three and four times its age.
History sources checked August 29, 2026.
Things you may not know
- It opened without a liquor license and did it anyway. The license was still pending on opening night, and rather than cancel a show booked with every friend they had, they ran it dry. By O'Donnell's account the bar next door ran out of liquor, because the crowd kept walking over for shots and coming back for the music. Source
- The goal was explicitly to take on the Broken Spoke - not a retrospective framing but how the venture was described from the start. Source
- They found their opening in what the established rooms could not book. The Continental Club and the Broken Spoke were locked into long-term residencies serving people who wanted a night of Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell, which left the louder, less reverent end of roots music with nowhere to go. Source
- Sunday belongs to Conjunto Los Pinkys and has for years: a conjunto residency in an Anglo honky-tonk, on the East Side. Source
- The floor is worn linoleum and bare cement. Source
- It is cash only and the whole cover goes to the bands. Source
- On opening night the co-owner worked the door of his own bar in a cowboy hat, shaking hands with everyone who came in. Source
Venue details
Plan your night
Official sources
Dance lessons
This venue has a current or repeatedly documented lesson program in Dance Lessons in the Halls. Open the official lesson source there and confirm final details before traveling.
Around this room
Culture, craft & learning
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