The Home Plate Bar and Grill

What do you do when you have arrived two hours early? That is the question that we asked as we parked our car near Minute Maid Stadium. It was only 3:30 pm. The Saint Louis Cardinals were going to meet the Houston Astros for the second of three games, but the doors would not be open until 5:30 pm. 

Our first thought was to walk around and take pictures, but September afternoons are still pretty warm in Texas, and we did not want to get all hot and sweaty. So, we walked toward the Stadium entrance, looking for a shady place to sit. That is when we spied the Home Plate Bar and Grill, conveniently located across the street from the ball park. 

I have to say that Richard and I are "good Baptists" who do not drink any alcoholic beverages, so we don't usually patronize "bar and grill" types of places. However, we were hungry, and it is possible to order water with lemon in a "bar and grill" establishment, so we went inside. 

I was a little wary, since Richard was wearing his red Cardinals T-shirt and a Cardinals baseball cap. What if the Home Plate Bar and Grill was strictly for Astros fans??? What if the Astros fans take exception to strangers wearing the visiting team's colors? 

I was happy to see that the bar was practically empty when we got inside. So, we got a table, ordered our water with lemon, and looked around. 

There was a lot of sports memorabilia on display, some of it for sale...for instance, there was a baseball signed by Nolan Ryan, beloved Hall of Fame pitcher who played for both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. For only $99, Richard could have taken it home and set it on his desk as a souvenir of our trip. He decided not to purchase it (whew!).

We ordered a couple of burgers, which were very reasonably priced (around $6.50 each), which gave us an excuse to sit at our table in an air conditioned room with a view of the ticket booths and front doors to the stadium.

I asked our server if I could take her picture for the blog, and she grinned and said she loved to have her picture taken (she is the second girl from the right). Several of the other servers smiled and laughed and told me they love to have their picture taken, also, so they all posed for me behind the bar. At the time, the gentleman on the stool was one of the very few patrons in the place.

As the afternoon passed and it got closer to game time, more and more folks came in to sit in a cool place while they waited. Surprisingly, most of them were wearing Cardinals jerseys and T-shirts, so there was lots of chit chat between tables. Once, a couple of Astros fans opened the door to walk in, looked around and saw all the Cardinals fans, and turned and walked back out. How funny.

Finally, a line started to form across the street, so we walked over to the home plate entrance and got in line.

Once again, we were surprised to see a lot of red shirts...there must be a lot more Saint Louis Cardinals fans in Texas besides just Richard. Whoo-hoo!

Tomorrow....pix from the game!