Main Street Crossing

I generally confine my music listenings to inner loop Houston venues (or at least venues close to major freeways) - but lucky me - I won a free night's stay the La Quinta Tomball, Texas, in a silent auction which afforded me the opportunity to check out the locally famous Main Street Crossing. No, seriously... I won a night's stay at La Quinta.

If you're in Tomball, it's pretty much impossible to miss it. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one street in town... Main Street... and it's probably also the only building that's even open after dark. Also helpful is the light up sign clearly identifying it. And if you're in Tomball in the first place, you probably live there - so this description is most likely entirely unnecessary.

I hope you're not there to eat - and if you are, I hope you're not a picky eater. You can have a burger and chips... or a salad... or a pizza. I had the burger... I wouldn't call it especially delicious, but it was good enough. For dessert I treated myself to some chips and salsa - worth noting is that the salsa is pretty good and reasonably spicy.  If there were other dessert options, I was oblivious to them.

I was feeling fancy and abandoned my standard bucket of beer with dinner and split a couple bottles of wine. I couldn't say for sure if it was good wine because it all tastes the same to me, but it wasn't awfully expensive and it effectively did its job... and it was red. The table beside me had some serious issues ordering quite a few of the beers on the menu - apparently someone drank a whole lot the night before because there was hardly anything left.

But really you're not here to eat well or drink fancy beers, you're here to listen to music - and this is a great place to do it. I would call it a Mucky Duck/Dosey Doe hybrid. It has an intimate setting like the Duck without being so obnoxiously intimate that people will be hushing you for quiet conversations. And, really, I don't know how they do it - but their artist draw is pretty amazing. This is definitely not on anyone's way that's on tour, but somehow they bring in some top notch artists... a few up and comers, a few local artists... a few legends.

Who really cares about the food when you've got Ray Wylie Hubbard on stage?

@gahteeriffico

Really cool venue that is also a Christian nonprofit which is really interesting since they sell alcohol as well. I would love to come see more shows here, very intimate and chill.

As far as local venues go, Main Street Crossing is a true listening room for songwriters. You have to appreciate that there's no competition for the audience's attention. People come to listen and enjoy original songwriting. Hearing the stores behind the songs add such a dimension in allowing us to know the artist. The quality of the experience is so much more than just listening to music. It's now at the top of my favorite places to see a singer.  Need to mention:  They serve food and have a great wine list.