[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 8, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TEXAS TAVERN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB GOODLATTE

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 8, 2005

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to recognize the Texas 
Tavern restaurant in Roanoke, Virginia on its 75th anniversary. Texas 
Tavern opened for business on February 13, 1930. It's known as 
``Roanoke's Millionaires Club'' and for seating ``1,000 people--10 at a 
time.'' From breakfast to hot dogs, hamburgers, and chile, Texas 
Tavern's menu is as much an institution as the eatery itself.
  The founder of the Texas Tavern was Nick Bullington, an advance man 
for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, who also hoped 
to open a small, short order restaurant in one of the cities he visited 
on the circus route around the United States. Bullington recognized 
that the railroad was making Roanoke a major city. He located a vacant 
lot on Church Avenue in downtown Roanoke for the restaurant. 
Construction began and a short five months later, the Texas Tavern was 
open for business.
  Texas Tavern has been a family operation from day one. Nick 
Bullington's son, James G. Bullington, became owner and operator of the 
restaurant when his father passed away in 1942. In 1966, James N. 
Bullington became a night manager for his father and in 1983, he 
purchased the business and property on which the restaurant sits, 
ensuring that the Texas Tavern would remain in the small, whitewashed 
brick building it's always called home. Matt Bullington--Nick 
Bullington's great grandson--worked at the restaurant throughout 
college in the mid-1990s and then took over for his dad, serving today 
as the man at the helm of one of Roanoke's favorite gathering places.
  To visit Texas Tavern is to visit a slice of Americana. The Cheesy 
Western and chile are the signature dishes that have kept diners--
famous and otherwise--coming back for 75 years. Glen Miller, Debbie 
Reynolds, and even former Sixth District Congressman Caldwell Butler 
are on the roster of Texas Tavern aficionados, and so are Gerald 
Williams and Bill Ammons--two of the original customers who still eat 
there today. Estimates are that nine and a half million hot dogs and 
1,100 tons of pinto beans have been served to those who've sat at the 
small counter--rubbing elbows with friends and foes alike but never 
leaving the restaurant unsatisfied.
  The Texas Tavern has operated in the best spirit of American 
enterprise in Roanoke--the Star City of Virginia--for three-quarters of 
a century. I offer my congratulations to the Bullington family for 
helping show us that the American dream remains alive and well all 
these years later.

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