Yes, we're going to deconstruct a legendary Lubbock restaurant.

The 50th Street Caboose continues to serve up great food and is a fantastic place to take kids on 50th. The Copper Caboose on Ave. Q still does a good job and contributes to the Lubbock nightlife. But let's talk about where it all began: the Copper Caboose on 4th Street.

The original Copper Caboose was almost directly across from the Lubbock Coliseum and Auditorium. There were a number of local businesses over there, and late in the game there was a very cool location of Hastings.

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The 4th Street location served wonderful family dining during the week, but on the weekends or when there was a concert in town, it was ground zero for a party. Think about this: you could actually drink cold and delicious beer before heading across the street when you got weird overpriced city beer from the concert vendors. A lot of people pre-gamed at the Copper Caboose and never even made it across the street.

It gets better. In the latter days, the Copper Caboose was the original home for the legendary Monday Night Football. I had just come back from my run in Austin and Spokane, Washington and I learned a little something about throwing major Monday night parties with field goal kicking, finger-goal kicking (yeah, we did both), squares games, end-of-game predictions and more.

I also have to mention that the original Copper Caboose had some of the best nachos. They had that great orange nacho salt that was so delicious that one of our DJs took to stealing the shakers (they told him to bring the shakers back and they'd just give him the salt).

With all that said, the Copper Caboose certainly deserves standing as one of Lubbock's Best Things Ever.

One more thing. It was fun to look back on the Copper, but seeing the picture, supplied by Topher Covarrubio and Neverending Memories Photography, was a real treat.

 

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