When someone says Paris, Texas, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Perhaps, it’s the Eiffel Tower with a giant red cowboy hat or maybe it’s the many musicians and athletes who grew up here and have gone on to be professionals in their fields.
While some may think Paris is just a small country town in east Texas, our hometown is more “famous” than you think.
It’s rumored the notorious Bonnie and Clyde once stopped in Paris to get gas while on the run and the King himself, Elvis Presley once played here before becoming a household name.
Did you know the first half of the blockbuster hit, Transformers: Age of Extinction was set around Paris, Texas (although it was filmed in Austin, TX) and of course, there was the 1984 movie titled “Paris, Texas”.
In fact, it was that movie that inspired a bar in Ireland to name themselves after us.
Yes…IRELAND.
Paris Texas Bar & Restaurant is a new concept in food that offers the fusion of traditional American southwest favorites with the sophistication of New Orleans French Quarter.
The history of Paris Texas dates back to 1996 when Pat Crotty, the owner of Paris Texas, set out to create a bar that would serve American BBQ food and play American country rock and blues music.
“When picking the name, we used the music link – esoteric as it may seem at first,” said Pat. “Ry Cooder had written the soundtrack for a movie that had a cult status among music lovers, Paris Texas directed by Wim Wenders.”
In fact, the original poster for the movie from 1985 is on the wall in Paris Texas.
“Back then we didn’t have Spotify or any other universal music source, so we used friends and visits to the US to find new music,” said Pat.
Many of their customers came to love musicians like Lyle Lovett, John Prine, John Hiatt and many more by hearing them first in Paris Texas, Kilkenny.
“Many others have actually played in our bar during the 20+ years of our music festival called Kilkenny Roots.”
While the music draws visitors from near and far, Pat explained a lot of their food is based on genuine American recipes and even produced by an American Chef.
“Our chef is a genuine American chef,” laughed Pat. “We have had to temper the spice and heat a little for the Irish market, but we do have a few items like our ‘loco Caliente’ wing sauce that is the real deal.”
For those from our hometown, the original Paris Texas, who want to explore Paris Texas, Kilkenny, they can do a 360-walkthrough tour on the gallery tab on their website paristexas.ie
“We’ve actually had quite a few visitors from Paris, Texas and have kept all the memorabilia gifted to us.”
So next time you’re in Ireland…make sure you stop by Paris, Texas for a pint!
