28The Horse That Quit the Oil Business
The red Pegasus at Jake’s Texas Tea House, 613 Austin Ave · maker not on record · a painted figure on a molded rock base, with no visible maker’s mark · private patio decor at the gas-station-themed diner that opened in August 2012, not a commissioned public artwork · know who made it? Tell us.STATUE
A rearing red flying horse on a restaurant patio, peeling magnificently.
The rearing red horse with wings on this patio is Texas royalty. The flying Pegasus was THE trademark of the Texas oil age — the neon version raised over Dallas in 1934 could reportedly be seen for seventy-five miles on a clear night, and old-timers swore you could catch its glow from Waco. This one landed at a burger joint — genuine salvaged original or loving tribute, no record says, and the horse isn't talking. There's a story in the landing spot either way: Jake's Texas Tea House was opened in 2012 by an oil executive who quit the corporate world, named the place for his grandson, and stuffed it with filling-station signs and halves of classic cars. Texas Tea is oil-boom slang for crude. The burgers come in hubcaps.
So the horse isn't decoration. It's a whole career change, standing on its hind legs, weathering handsomely in the Austin Avenue sun.