Boots & Heels w/ Balcones Baby Blue, courtesy of Jaret Pena at the Esquire. Photo by Justin Parr.Never mind that most of those classic, saddle soaps were filmed in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Kansas … or, for that matter, a Warner Brothers back lot. The requisite saloons, complete with swingin’ doors and struttin’ dancing girls, all seemed to be located, mythically, in the Lone Star State. True, the only such establishment this imbiber has ever seen firsthand is the lovingly restored edifice erected by Judge Roy Bean in Langtry, and it seems much too small (it’s almost cozy, really), to swing a cat in— never mind those epic, rotgut-fueled barroom brawls on the order of Dodge City or even Blazing Saddles. Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty likely would have perished from boredom—if she hadn’t first succumbed to rotgut poisoning.
Not to impugn Miss Kitty’s honor, but the whiskey served in saloons throughout the Wild West was rarely the sort to inspire contemplative sipping.
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