Places We Miss: J. Patrick O’Malleys

There was a time when "across from Tech" was open to every one.

Sure, everything across from Texas Tech is technically still available and open to everyone, but congestion has taken a lot of that area off our radar. I recently went down there for lunch, and trust me when I tell you that I just don’t want to deal with that again.

Flash back to a time when you went across from Texas Tech—not because you were looking for any possible interaction with students, but because all the good stuff was there. You had Ralph’s original location, Buffalo Beano’s and a weird little bar called J. Patrick O’Malley’s. It was Lubbock central!

J. Pat’s, as it was known to locals, was a bar that was much longer than it was wide. I’m not sure how many people it could hold, but it certainly wasn’t a ton. It was a place for happy hour or a place to grab a drink before heading over to the Lubbock Auditorium and Coliseum for a show.

J. Pat’s was located at 1211 University Avenue, facing the front of the Texas Tech campus. Meanwhile, the Copper Caboose took care of folks around the side at 4th Street and Boston Avenue, in an area that has now been swallowed up by the Marsha Sharp Freeway.

A Bar That Was Barely Irish

The bar had a barely Irish motif, with dark wood throughout, and it seemed to thrive on the energy of Texas Tech and the surrounding area without really being what I would describe as a college bar. I’m sure it had its share of college students, but it was certainly an all-ages hangout when I went there.

The bar opened around 1975 and made it until sometime in the late 1990s. Research shows that it did a decent lunch business too, but I have to admit that I always had drinks on my mind when I visited. I can’t even bring up a mental picture of the menu.

Most of all, I remember the radio “jingle.” It wasn’t really a traditional jingle. The ad simply borrowed the hook, “At a bar called O’Malley’s, where we’ll plan our escape,” from “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes.

Damn. Now I can’t get the bar or the song out of my mind.

I guess that’s why J. Patrick O’Malley’s will go down as one of those great Lubbock “Places We Miss.”