Hidden on Grant Street behind an art supply store and townhomes built like shanties, Anderson Fair has survived everything Montrose has thrown at it since 1969.
One of the oldest music venues in Houston, it seats about 50 people, runs entirely on volunteers, and has been presenting folk and acoustic music since Montrose first became the city’s spunky haven where artists, activists, and anyone who didn’t fit anywhere else lived together in (mostly) peaceful communion.
The venue, small and barely noticeable in the high-end neighborhood that it’s become today, paved the way for some legendary musicians like Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams, but this historic listening room didn’t actually start off as a listening room at all.
How Anderson Fair became a Houston music hotspot
Marvin Anderson and Gray Fair opened Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant in 1969 as (guess what) a restaurant, popular with lunchgoers for its spaghetti and tacos despite literally looking like a baby-pink barn from the outside…