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A large armadillo sculpture with longhorns stands outside Goode Company's Armadillo Palace, a music and food venue at 5015 Kirby Drive, Houston. According to the Goode family, it began as a mobile DJ booth and was in place when the venue opened in 2005.
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Armadillo Goode's Armadillo Palace
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Site-level location · 29.7264° N, 95.4204° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The Armadillo Palace announces itself with a very large armadillo out front, topped with a pair of longhorns and, according to Visit Houston, breathing smoke.
According to the Goode family's own account, the armadillo had been a mobile DJ booth, once owned by an entrepreneur in the Texas Panhandle, and still had its turntable and PA system inside. On one of their yearly trips to the Lebel's Old West Show & Auction in Cody, Wyoming, in the early 2000s, they spotted it parked outside a diner on the edge of town and bought it, then had it trucked about 1,500 miles to Houston with oversize-load permits. The family added mirrored scales and red LED eyes, and say smoke comes from its nostrils once a day. Before installing it they obtained hurricane-proof permits from the city. It was in place in front of the Armadillo Palace when the venue opened in 2005.
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WHAT TO EXPECT
An armadillo sculpture outside a working honky-tonk and restaurant. Visit Houston lists the venue as closed Sunday and Monday, open Tuesday to Saturday at varying hours. The sculpture stands outside the venue.
ACCESS
Outside Goode Company's Armadillo Palace, 5015 Kirby Drive, Houston, on business property; the venue is open Tuesday to Saturday per Visit Houston.
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