Cardinal Puffs

Sometime between the summer of 1972 and 1973, during one of many trips to my friends’ favorite watering hole, we met John Ahern.  The bar, The Lyon’s Pub, was located just across Central Expressway from SMU, making it a big hangout for college students.  The Lyon’s Pub was also just one block off Greenville Ave., a major road in Dallas, and was near an old, small gas station.  This was John’s first establishment.

John, recently out of college, and like most of us, still living in the 60s, owned the station where he sold cigarettes and beer.  We, like many others, often stopped there to purchase our beer.  The station was close to the Meadows office building which, at the time, housed the regional offices of AB and Schlitz.  Needless to say, John sold a lot of beer.

Over the years, I drove up and down Greenville Ave, first on Coors trucks and later on Lone Star trucks. It was not until I had been promoted back to Dallas from West Texas in March of 1974 with Lone Star Brewing Co., that I encountered Cardinal Puffs.  John had sold the station (now a parking lot) and moved around the corner to open a small off premise store named Cardinal Puffs.

In 1974, the “Red Neck” rock movement, which had started in Austin, had taken hold.  Originating in Austin locations like Armadillo World Headquarters and The Broken Spoke, the music leaders at that time were Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Murphy, and many others.  As they sang in these packed houses, they drank Texas beers: Lone Star, Pearl, and Shiner in longneck bottles.  The kids loved it.

When I returned to Dallas, I began working with the Lone Star distributor, a wine and spirit house. At the time, sales were dismal.  In March, the distributor sold only three kegs and 1,700 cases of beer.  With the redneck music scene a hot ticket, and working many of these accounts, we started acquiring handles and the distributor finally was convinced to hire a draft driver and truck.  Sales jumped as service improved. But we still needed off premise help.

In came John and Cardinal Puffs. John agreed to promote Lone Star longnecks and put a display of 50 cases in the middle of his floor.  At the time the beer was only in 24 loose cases so every Friday we had to bring him beer and we sat and six- packed every case.  Space was limited so we had to move quickly before the rush hour.  With Johns help, the beer took off.  For weeks he would call and say “I need more Lone Star!”  By the end of the year, sales were over 30K cases a month!

Schlitz called, and the Lone Star days moved on, and over the years we would come back and visit with John, who now had once again moved.  John had bought an old motel court around the corner and moved Puffs there.  Now it was a bar with some food.  Time past and he remained it Ozona.

John experienced some personal issues and left for California. He returned to Dallas some years later and continued his bar business.  Sixteen years ago, in 1998, John sold his business.  Today, Ozona’s still serves cold beer and good food and hosts pictures of the old Cardinal Puffs hanging on the walls.

John died last week. For those of us who sold beer, we have come across those people who have gone the extra step to help us.  John was definitely one of those great retailers.  John, we will miss you, and the beer industry will always remember The Cardinal Puff.