Food
Vintage Vanilla
Step inside the old Sanders Drug Store, built in 1929, and you’re back in the days when a prescription came with a side of Coke. The mahogany is original, and the bench up front still carries spur marks from the cattle and oil deals made on it. Owner Betsy Parsons has deep roots here: her dad was one of the store’s first pharmacists, and her mom worked in the dress shop that shared the building. Order a malt and the chicken salad. The Southwest version, with pecans and pickles, is my pick.
Icehouse Restaurant
This was once the one building in Albany that could freeze water. Now it’s where the town gathers for cold drinks and comfort food. Owner Melissa Williams runs it with her daughter, still cooking from her mom’s original recipes. Start with the Ice House ponchos, nachos with fried jalapeños, then get a steak cooked over mesquite. Mine was one of the most tender, juicy steaks I’ve ever had. Save room for the bread pudding with vanilla caramel bourbon sauce. Trust me on this one.
Culture
The Old Jail Art Center
Albany’s old stone jail holds a collection you’d never expect in a town this size. Cousins Bill Bomar and Reilly Nail opened it as an art center in 1980, and it has grown to 2,400 pieces, from Picasso sketches to ancient Chinese tomb figures and a Paul Klee that big museums borrow. Don’t skip the walls themselves. The masons who built the jail carved their initials into the stones they laid, which earned it the nickname the alphabet jail. Art really is everywhere if you learn how to see it.
Flying A Car Club
If your art runs on four wheels, swing by the Flying A Car Club. Twin brothers Ronnie and Donnie Anderson are founding members, and local members own somewhere between 80 and 90 classic cars that rotate through the building. Ronnie’s custom 1957 El Camino is a real head scratcher, since El Caminos didn’t come along until 1959. Donnie’s 1969 Chevelle convertible is basically his daily driver. It’s about more than cars here. It’s friendships, memories and the freedom of the open road.
Fort Griffin Fandangle
Point at just about anyone in Albany and chances are they’re in the show. The Fort Griffin Fandangle is an outdoor musical first written in the 1930s by local English teacher Robert Nail, telling the story of Fort Griffin and Albany. Around 300 people take part, from kids as young as four to folks in their 90s, and roles get passed down through families. It’s known as the state play of Texas, and it runs two weekends at the end of June. Real Longhorns make an appearance, too.
Outdoors
Fort Griffin State Historic Site
Before the cars and the Fandangle, this was the frontier, and Fort Griffin sat at the center of it. Established after the Civil War and abandoned in 1881, it’s mostly ruins now with a few faithful recreations. Soldiers here, many of them freed slaves, kept the peace in conditions an inspector called unfit for human habitation. Try the baker’s paddle, then step into the recreated saloon where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday first met. The official State of Texas Longhorn herd lives here too, about 250 strong.
