The Lone Star family lost a good friend recently with the passing of Niel Hancock. Niel loved to ride his motorcycles and he was a very frequent visitor to our Lone Star store. In fact, he spent so much time here that when we remodeled our customer lounge area, we had to build the coffee bar around Niel. It seemed only fitting that we name our coffee bar "Niel's". We will miss seeing our friend but we are comforted in the knowledge that Niel was doing what he loved at the end.
Sometimes our store looks more like Starbuck's than a motorcycle dealership. Our friends like to hang out and enjoy our free coffee bar. But that's OK. At least when they're here we know they are not down on Sixth Street causing trouble.
We'll meet you at Niel's
Niel's second home
One thing we have noticed about motorcycle riders is that they like to drink coffee, eat and talk. To keep them from clogging up such fancy places as Starbuck's, we built a coffee bar right inside the Lone Star building and named it Niel's. As usual, that's Niel leaning on the bar. If you enjoy a hot cup of coffee, a slice of cake, and some lively conversation, you know where to find us.
Niel, The Instigator
Niel liked to wear our competitor's t-shirts just to irritate us. It didn't work. We loved him anyway.
Niel, Nancy and John
A lot of people think that we named our coffee bar after Niel (on the left) because he drinks a lot of our coffee. Well, not exactly. It's just that he spends so much time hanging out at our store we had to build the coffee bar around him. We don't think he even noticed all the sawing and hammering. That's Nancy and John listening to yet another of Niel's fascinating yarns.
Nancy, Ardys and The Instigator
From left to right, we call them Princess, Queenie, and The Instigator. They're high ranking members of The Gutter Gang. Just about any Thursday evening you can find the Gutter Gang hanging around Lone Star's coffee bar, drinking all our coffee, eating our snacks and causing general mayhem. But we like 'em, anyway.
Niel and The Gutter Gang
Here is another meeting of The Gutter Gang. We know why they are standing up. Saddlesores.
Niel's Coffee Bar
We don't mind providing free coffee to our friends at Niel's. They seem to really enjoy it. We ARE thinking about charging a fee to use our rest rooms.
Big crowd at Niel's Coffee Bar
We have a strict "No Pets Allowed" policy in our store. But the truth is, some pets behave better and are less messy than certain members of The Gutter Gang.
The Gutter Gang
We stay open an hour later on Thursday evenings so that some potential customers can come in after work and check out our new BMWs and Triumphs. The Gutter Gang also shows up like clockwork on Thursday evenings to shoot the bull, drink coffee and eat our food. At 7:00pm we have to gently nudge them out the front door so we can close and go home. If they haven't finished their "meeting" they stand around in the parking lot and talk until who knows when.
