On a quiet weekday morning in the Texas Hill Country, The Watering Hole Saloon sits in an in-between moment, empty floors, still tables and a calm that won’t last long. By nightfall, the same space will be filled with dancers, live music and a crowd that has made the New Braunfels venue a staple of local nightlife for four decades.
Owner Holly Allen moves through her morning routine before the doors open, a rhythm she has known for most of her life. At 55, Allen has spent nearly 40 years inside The Watering Hole after first arriving as a teenager when her parents moved from New York to New Braunfels. In a few days, the venue will celebrate its 40th anniversary, a milestone that traces back to her father’s dream of owning a small bar and the family business that grew around it.
“ Forty years is a long time,” Allen told MySA. “I think that’s a great accomplishment for anybody, no matter where you are. But to say that we’ve been here 40 years, I’m pretty proud of that. My parents had a nice vision of live music and dancing, and we’ve been able to make that happen and keep it going for the last 40 years.
Evolution of the Watering Hole Saloon and the family running it
Allen was 16 when her family relocated from New York to New Braunfels. Two years later, she stepped behind the bar on her 18th birthday: ”I’ve seen it all,” she laughs…