A night of music and drinking at Bend General Store.
Highland Lakes general stores: They’re not just places to buy bait, beer, and gas. We’re talking about borderline-magical locales where strangers become friends, winning lottery tickets are scratched, roosters are venerated, and music fills the air. These rustic rest stops are hubs and hangouts for locals, but if you’re willing to take a few back roads, cut loose, and open your mind, you can get in on the good times.
General stores were once the beating hearts of rural communities, but by the 1920s, they were on their way out as paved roads came in, along with big city conveniences.
Some survived, however, and found their niche in a modern American ecosystem.
A handful of these historical holdouts are tucked away in the Hill Country hinterlands. I witnessed these podunk palaces in all their glory firsthand. Each had its own charm, culture, and traditions, but they all seemed to follow the same playbook.
What makes a good general store? Fun taxidermy on the walls, a gradient of products ranging from “useless” to “essential,” and a friendly face behind the counter. Once those conditions are met, everything else is gravy.
Here are a few of the best general stores in the Highland Lakes.
Castell General Store
19522 RR 152 West in Castell
It’s big, it’s yellow, and it’s possibly the greatest place on Earth if you’re talking to a regular. Castell General Store is part bar, part barbecue joint, part concert venue, part “yee yee!” and completely wild, but totally laid-back. It’s one of the few places outside of a courtroom that you can run into a one percenter and a district attorney on the same day. The store is a mystical merging of rural rebellion and wholesome country living, a conundrum that makes sense once you see it for yourself.
The Llano River town of Castell has 12 actual residents, but the population explodes on any given weekend thanks to the platter of events served up by the general store’s enigmatic proprietor, Randy Leifeste.
“If you want to have fun, we create fun,” he told me amid the bustle of the Big Cock Chili Cook-off in February.
To better understand Leifeste, the store, and the absurd names of almost every Castell event, you have to understand Cockaroo, the bass-humping rooster. Don’t worry: They’re not actual fish, just wall-mounted animatronic ones.
Castell was a sleepy Llano County town before Leifeste took over the general store in 2010, and with him came Cockaroo, a feisty rooster that had a thing for robo-bass that sang “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” As Leifeste built out the store to serve grub and drinks, it became a local hangout and Cockaroo a community fixture. Legend of the rooster spread, and with it the reputation of Castell General Store as a place to have a good time.
By 2017, Cockaroo made the cover of Texas Highways magazine. Leifeste credits the rooster with putting his business on the map. Cockaroo has passed on, but he is forever remembered in taxidermy form, mounted on top of his beloved bass in the store.
The chili cook-off is just one of dozens of events held at Castell General Store throughout the year. You can attend the biggest banger of them all, the Testicle Festival on the third Saturday in May, as well as Cocktoberfest in October or the more tamely named Castell Polar Plunge on New Year’s Day. The town even hosts DWJ church services every first and third Sunday. When you inevitably ask Leifeste what “DWJ” stands for, he smiles and says, “Drinking With Jesus” and pitches you the concept of combining a passionate sermon with bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys.
Castell’s colorful calendar of events grew organically. Many of them started as small get-togethers between Leifeste and his friends. Those eventually turned into full-on parties and festivals but maintained a backyard cookout atmosphere. Even if you’re a total stranger, you’re going to feel like one of the gang.
“Every time you come out, you’ve got your core of regulars, but there is always somebody different, and that is the fun part,” said Keith Sauer, a Castell regular and chili cook-off contestant. “This reminds me of a bunch of 1968 hippies out here. Just good people, no debauchery. Just everybody having a cold beer, visiting, making friends.”
Sauer was one of many who took the time to chat and share their love for Castell. Jody Patton and Kristy Schulenberg showed me around town and introduced me to a ton of folks.
“It’s the hotspot of the Hill Country,” Patton said. “We have live music, kayaking, fishing, burgers, everything you need in Texas. If you just like kicking back on the river, watching chickens peck, cowboys, cows, country, you know, it’s nice.”
He’s right, too. For an authentic good time, it’s hard to beat a Saturday at Castell General Store.
Bend General Store
115 CR 438 in Bend
What do you get when a globe-trotting renaissance man with a mind for marketing, an ear for music, and a love for dogs decides to settle and buy a rundown shop in the wilds of San Saba County?
“The whole place has probably taken on my personality,” said Bend General Store owner Bret Cali.
Cali grew up in Temple but spent most of his young life on ranches in Colorado. He was a commercial fisherman in Alaska and traveled the world in the off-seasons. He lived in Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and England for years, hustling his way through life and overstaying his visas before returning to the States.
Cali snagged a degree in broadcasting and spent years working in marketing while living on a sailboat in San Francisco and tooling around in a Volkswagen Bus.
He taught wilderness survival courses in Utah, became a leather-working hermit on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, and ran another general store in Sisterdale before buying Bend General Store for $59,000 six years ago.
He’s spent the years molding the store into a venue with a vibe that is worldly, welcoming, and down-home all at once.
“If I had had millions of dollars when I first bought it and fixed it up, it would have lost all of its charm,” he said.
Cali seems to have nurtured that charm, bringing new life to the hamlet of Bend.
The store is an outpost for travelers going to Colorado Bend State Park, one of the most breathtaking locations in the Hill Country. It also brings in a steady stream of musical acts that are nothing to sneeze at.
Live music is one of the store’s strong suits. By Cali’s estimation, he’s had about 12 Grammy Awards’ worth of performers at the store, including outlaw country legends Gary P. Nunn and Ray Wylie Hubbard.
The storefront is adorned with hanging guitars and posters signed by the legion of musicians who have taken the stage in Bend.
The venue itself is one of a kind. The trunk of a massive oak tree pokes through the roof and acts as support for the bar. Everything seems to be a patchwork of old barn finds, inside jokes, outside jokes, bright lights, and gritty tin.
The bar’s menu doesn’t take itself too seriously. It even has a “white trash” section for the Kid Rock fan in all of us, complete with fried bologna and spam sandwiches.
I could feel the store’s good vibes as I listened to Ryan Glen do outlaw country covers and watched the staff mingle with patrons as Cali’s dogs, Baxter and Hemi, roamed freely.
The store’s logo is the silhouette of a Labrador retriever, an ode to one of Cali’s past companions, Stick Dog, who was named after the simple mutts of Alaska that would swim out to sea chasing sticks and have to be rescued by commercial fisherman.
Bend General Store isn’t just a venue; you can stay the night. A cluster of cabins on the property are the perfect home base to sleep off an evening at the bar or a launchpad for an excursion into Colorado Bend.
Hoover’s Valley Country Store and Cafe
7203 Park Road 4 West in Burnet
Wondering if you’re in the country? Just ask yourself, “Is there a place nearby where I can get all-you-can-eat catfish?”
Hoover’s Valley Country Store and Cafe satisfies all country criteria and is a true-blue general store for residents and visitors in a scenic stretch of Burnet County along the Colorado River below Buchanan Dam.
You’re going to see a friendly face behind the counter, you’re probably going to be called “sweetie” or “honey,” and you’re going to be told to have a blessed day.
“(The store) is a big part of the community,” said Zoie Youngblood from behind the register. “People tell us every day, even our regulars that come in every day, ‘Thank you for being here.’ Even new people will come in and just be amazed by our little store. You go to some places and you’re getting ignored or snapped at. I try to make ’em want to come back.”
While I was talking to Zoie, she sold a lotto ticket to Hoover Valley local Michael Givens, who promptly won $10, bought a Red Bull, and plugged his business, El Gringos Trucking.
Zoie was running the store side of the establishment, which has everything from fishing poles to cold beer and a surprisingly robust collection of wines.
The store’s location is one of its greatest assets. Directly across Park Road 4 is Perissos, a classy vineyard and winery that caters to connoisseurs from around the state. Just down the way is Inks Lake State Park, Longhorn Cavern State Park, and Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery.
Park Road 4 is worth a trip by itself as one of the most scenic drives in the Highland Lakes. It offers the best view of Hoover Valley and a good look at Falkenstein Castle, an actual Bavarian castle nestled among cedar- and oak-covered hills.
The country store is practical for those living nearby: Grab a cup of coffee, a gallon of gas, or a snack. It’s at least a 10- to 15-minute drive to the next gas station or convenience store.
The cafe is where things really get cooking. After chatting with Zoie, I ordered a country-fried steak and sat in the diner.
One of the cafe’s traditions is offering a free bowl of beans while you wait for your food. This was started by owner Lou Ada Wells, who grew up on communal beans served at family reunions on the land where the store now stands. She comes from the Norris-Williams families, which have owned huge swathes of Hoover Valley and the surrounding hills since the 1800s.
Her husband, Frank, worked for Coca-Cola for decades, and much of the cafe is decked out in the red-and-white memorabilia from the soda company. The whole place is an ode to retro-America, and it isn’t a Johnny Rockets put-on but a nostalgic homage to the childhoods of Lou Ada and Frank.
“The ’50s is our genre,” Lou Ada said over the phone. I spoke to her while I was waiting on lunch.
Unfortunately, all-you-can-eat fried catfish is only on Fridays, but the country-fried steak was worth the wait.
You can tell the quality of a CFS by its crust. A soggy crust will succumb to the gravy before you have a chance to dig in. This was a crisp fry, and I savored each bite.
Country stores hold a special place in my heart, and old-time diners like Hoover’s Valley Cafe are fast fading. Take the time to see these gems before they’re gone and have a blessed day.
OTHER GENERAL STORES
- Spicewood General Store, 9418 Texas 71, Spicewood
- Buchanan General Store, 10240 Texas 29, Burnet
- Pedernales Country Store, 910 Pace Bend Road South, Spicewood
- Hohmann’s General Store, 2571 RM 1323, Willow City
- Cherokee Corner Cafe, 101 N. Indian Ave., Cherokee
