Austinites Chat

How did I get here? (And why did I stay?): The White Horse's Denis O'Donnell answers

Since opening in 2011, The White Horse has established itself as Austin’s hipster honky-tonk — no doubt a mainstay on the calendar of any Eastsider in town. They might be less familiar its proprietor, Denis O’Donnell, a family man with a flair for good times and an affinity for great people. On a Tuesday night sipping whiskey, the former Houstonite shed some light on how he got where he is today.

Name: Denis O’Donnell

Hometown: Houston, Texas

Occupation: Owner, The White Horse

Year I moved to Austin: 1999

First neighborhood: Right next to Capital Plaza, which is a heck of a place to live alone as a teenager. I got to see an Uzi fired for the first time in my life.

Current neighborhood: I still call East Cameron home.

What brought me here: I was a musician at 19, and my friend Chris, the guitar player from East Cameron Folkcore, wanted me to start a band with him. I moved here to start a band and start college. But ultimately, it was the music scene that drew me here.

First Austin memory: The first weekend I moved here, I went to Sixth Street with a really shitty fake ID. The guy had a big gap between his teeth and a rat-tail. We went to what is now Bikinis, which was formerly a place called Jazz — a great spot for live music and Cajun food. We wandered up and down Sixth, and we ended the night at The Library, and they kicked my butt, hard. I got yanked off a stool, my head hit the floor and when I went to get my hat, I got thrown from the bar to the street. It was quite a first weekend.

Hole in the Wall has my heart. It’s been a beautiful incubator of every spectrum of live music for almost 40 years.

Favorite Austin spot:Hole in the Wall has my heart. It’s difficult to walk the line of eclectic booking — it’s been a beautiful incubator of every spectrum of live music for almost 40 years. It was a home for Townes Van Zandt and his contemporaries, and a place they used to get kicked out of frequently. They were homeless and hobo jerks that got thrown out of places as fast as they ever had a shot, and they’d inevitably shuffle their way down to the Hole in the Wall. The bartender would go out of his way to avoid having to let them in.

Austinite I look up to: Will Tanner, owner of Hole in the Wall. I spent a lot of years running restaurants in this town. It’s a very stressful thing to do, but it’s in my blood. I left a high-volume, high-stress job, and he took me in. I was a bar back with a sweeping mop; I went from an executive position to shaving a mohawk in my hair. And I never felt so awesome.

Austinite I miss: John Pettis, guitar player in the now-defunct Bankrupt and the Borrowers [who died tragically in a house fire at the age of 26]. He died too young. While the height of the East Cameron scene was just exploding with passion and collaboration. It just wasn’t fair. These guys came from a Berklee College of Music background, but drew from a knot in their throats. It was something that just came out of their stomachs. Pettis was the one who probably had the most skill in arranging harmony, and his bands are seeing so much beautiful success right now that could have only been honed with his skills.

Biggest change I’ve seen: I’ve seen live music move off of Sixth Street and move to Red River, and then East. I’ve seen Sixth Street as an entertainment district dissolve into a knuckle-dragging, shot-bar shit show.

Restaurants I'd recommend: My favorite Austin restaurant(s) would be Justine’s — such an amazing marriage of culture, deep cut vinyl, mixed with French cuisine and fun. It’s an example that Austin isn’t totally inundated with affluent yuppies — that everyone can enjoy the edgy environment of the finer things. If you’re looking for Italian, Vespaio can’t be beat. They go way beyond. It has an old-world, classic warmth.

If I had any advice for a new person, it would be to try to enjoy as much of the beauty and fun that this city has to offer.

Advice for newbies: I’d say "welcome." If I had any advice for a new person, it would be to try to enjoy as much of the beauty and fun that this city has to offer. Because I’ve been a lot of places, and we’ve got it in spades! Go outside and bask in the aesthetic beauty that Austin has so much of. There are so many options of things to do today, things to eat and more. It’s so beautiful. I hope any stranger that comes into town has the opportunity to be racked with the notion of "what to do next?"’ This city is like a sandbox for adults.

What Austin has taught me: Austin has taught me everything. The most important thing it’s taught me is probably love. I met my wife here. It’s taught me business. I’ve run some of the most successful restaurants in town. It’s taught me about hard knocks and the competitiveness of the music scene — I’ve tasted success with East Cameron Folkcore, and I’ve tested the waters with my own band. I’ve learned that this is home, and that this place has more value to me than anywhere that I’ve ever been.

Why I’ve stuck around: I’ve felt that I could contribute in work and business and music, and it all came together at once. All of the work with playing live shows for nobody and nothing turned into a band. All of the hours I worked in a business turned into running a bar I love. I saw an opening in contributing to the country genre that wasn’t there before, and I’m happy to have that chance.

Denis O'Donnell (l)

Austin Photo Set: News_Arden_white horse_bar_Dec 2011_3

The White Horse Facebook

Denis O'Donnell (l)

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San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030

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Horses will no longer pull carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio has pulled off something that the rest of Texas has yet to do, but it didn't come without some contentious conversations. City Council has unanimously voted (with one abstention) to phase out the use of horse-drawn carriages over the next five years. That means by January 1, 2030, there will be none on the streets at all; instead, there will be electric carriages.

These plans have been in the making since 2022 — if not always at the same level of intensity — when District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran wrote up some concerns about the horses' wellbeing. A special session at the end of October 2024 hinted to San Antonians that the end for this practice was neigh — sorry, nigh — and the final vote was made on December 12. In addition to accepting the plan, it extended its timeframe by two years.

The initial proposal included worries about the horses' exposure to traffic and pollution, as well how their presence might exacerbate those issues for the environment at large by slowing traffic. It also raised concerns about the effects of standing or walking on hard surfaces for too long, or spending time in extreme weather.

At the December 12 meeting, San Antonians gave impassioned speeches about animal welfare — both to call attention to the need for better conditions and to defend the reputations and jobs of current horse drivers — but it wasn't the first time the council heard from the public about the issue.

In a prior city survey, 50,476 respondents weighed in. Of those respondents, 51.98 percent said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." There were alternative solutions listed, but respondents were less drawn to them.

A cultural divide emerged in the data and continued in the December meeting: some people avoided the carriages because they worried about the treatment of the horses, while others enjoyed them because of their historical echoes and living legacy. Many speakers in favor of the plan used this to form their argument, raising questions about history versus progress.

More tangible objections to the plan hinged on the businesses — specifically five companies — and jobs that would be lost, which was the main factor behind extending the adjustment period.

Discussions about the particulars of the electric vehicles are still to come, as confirmed in the discussion near the end of the meeting. Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez addressed concerns about what would happen to the horses, mentioning the Brady Hunter Foundation as a future partner in finding them rescue homes.

Some council members also brought up rhetorical questions about animal exploitation by groups like Sea World, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, military and police forces, and even various groups in the Fiesta parade, although these did not come with a formal motion to pick the issues up.

This decision could have a ripple effect on other Texas cities. Dallas has recently considered a similar ban, but it appears to have stalled; Austin's attempts at a ban have been unsuccessful, but according to the Austin-American Statesman, only one operator is permitted to bring horses downtown. She declines to do so because the long hours are unfair to her and the horses. Houston does have horse-drawn carriages, and there seems to be little conversation about banning them.

Cities like Chicago and Salt Lake City have led the charge in the United States with some of the most prominent successful bans. Other cities around the world with bans include Brussels and Guadalajara, which both switched to electric models. Bans that have been around for years, like Guadalajara's and Prague's, still aren't out of the woods — people are still pushing back on the decision, so it sounds like San Antonio still has much work cut out for it.

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