{"id":451289,"date":"2026-09-29T17:22:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/451289\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:22:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:22:32","slug":"a-haven-for-the-weird-and-the-wonderful-tanstaafl-pub-spills-its-secrets-to-longevity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/451289\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A haven for the weird and the wonderful\u2019: Tanstaafl Pub spills its secrets to longevity"},"content":{"rendered":"

by The FWR Staff, Arlington Report
September 28, 2026<\/p>\n

Arlington\u2019s oldest obscure bar, a self-awarded title worn as a badge of honor, is not tucked away between historic downtown brick buildings or recently renovated office spaces. Instead, it is about 10 minutes west, past the QuikTrip on the corner of West Division Street and North Bowen Road and just before Rustic Fence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The front of the building is a wall of nearly blacked-out windows that have \u2014 from just the right angle \u2014 a blue-and-white glow that seems to beckon passersby to open the doors. Tanstaafl Pub, which was founded in 1976, is not hiding, it is simply waiting for its people to find the front door and head on in.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo even though we\u2019ve been in Arlington for 50 years, we\u2019re still a little bit of a well-kept secret, and we kinda like it that way, but my mother\u2019s joke was always at least once a week somebody will walk into the bar and say, \u2018You know, I\u2019ve driven by this place a hundred times and never knew it was here,\u2019\u201d said Mel LeRoy, Tanstaafl manager and managing director of the Innocence Project of Texas. \u201cWe\u2019re just sort of a charming little secret in Arlington, you know, not overly well-known but known to the right people and that\u2019s how we like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking into the bar is like stepping into the living room of the coolest person you know, the \u201cvery intentional\u201d vibe LeRoy said her father started the bar with, and one they have kept for 50 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lining nearly every wall is a collection of promotional signage from alcohol companies, plaques and a few framed and signed tour posters gifted to Mel\u2019s mother, Mary Ann LeRoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was in graduate school at UTA and he was managing a bar not too far from here \u2014 it\u2019s no longer open \u2014 called Mickey Finns, (and) my mother\u2019s best friend had moved here from Miami. … My mom came to visit her for the summer, met my dad and never left,\u201d Mel LeRoy said. After working at that bar and managing another one, LeRoy said her parents decided that they \u201creally loved the bar business\u201d and decided to open their own place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behind the bar, a green chalkboard features a drawing of Steal Your Face, or Stealie, the infamous Grateful Dead logo, next to multitiered shelves filled with different colored bottles. At the bar\u2019s edge, a medium-sized fish tank covers most of an old mirror, its water filled with the movement of colorful fish and Mr. Peachbottom III, an albino dwarf African clawed frog with his own Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"In front of an old bar mirror sits a fish tank filled with colorful fish and an albino dwarf African clawed frog named Mr. Peachbottom III, photographed on Sept. 18, 2026. (Gianna Ortner-Findlay for Arlington Report)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s a haven for the weird and the wonderful, you know?\u201d said Marissa Soto, an Arlington resident who has served as a bartender at Tanstaafl for 17 years. \u201cI feel like you come in and you can find the people, find the oddballs and we welcome that and embrace that and encourage that here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soto has known the bar her whole life, no stranger to the place that was the very bar her parents met. In the nearly two decades Soto has been bartending at Tanstaafl, she says that one of her favorite parts about working at the bar is how the establishment feels like \u201ca big family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bar is comprised of one main room, but features spaces for darts, pool, board games, a small stage and retractable projector screen surrounded by plenty of seating. In the back is a small shaded patio decorated with more signage along the wooden fence and strings of Pride flags crisscrossing the top of the space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in with my friends. … We typically frequent another bar over here and we just wanted a change of pace, and as soon as we came in it was so welcoming,\u201d said Peyton Yoder, a south Arlington resident and three-year regular. \u201cUsually if you go into an establishment where everyone knows each other, you feel almost like an outsider, but here it\u2019s very welcoming. So \u2026 it felt like home almost instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mel LeRoy said that many of the decorations are vintage, collected over the years or brought in by customers of the bar. Along the back wall of the bar next to one of the dart boards is rows of miscellaneous beer bottles from a customer who did not want to throw away his personal collection and instead donated the bottles to Tanstaafl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bar is steeped in family history, and one can feel the presence of the LeRoys everywhere but especially in the prominently placed family portrait from Mel LeRoy\u2019s first Christmas that hangs behind the bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tanstaafl\u2019s name \u2014 an acronym for the phrase there ain\u2019t no such thing as a free lunch \u2014 comes from one of Jim LeRoy\u2019s favorite books, the 1966 science fiction novel \u201cThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,\u201d by Robert A. Heinlein. The phrase was also popularized in economics by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who frequently used the acronym.<\/p>\n

In addition to atmosphere and a broad drink menu, The T, as it is called by regulars, has a stacked calendar of shenanigans, filled with both repeating and new events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody\u2019s comfortable just walking into a place where they don\u2019t know anyone and, you know, these kinds of events that we hold give people a reason to interact and meet each other. And it takes sort of some of the social pressure off if you\u2019re playing a game together or watching the PowerPoint night together,\u201d Mel LeRoy said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Some customers play Mario Kart at Tanstaafl Pub\u2019s monthly double-elimination Mario Kart Night, while others play tabletop games on Sept. 18, 2026. (Gianna Ortner-Findlay for Arlington Report)<\/p>\n

In October, in addition to returning events will be a new series, Mel LeRoy said. The Bar Curious lecture series will have professors from local universities come to speak on a topic at the bar. The first lecture will be from TCU associate professor Katherine Polzer, who has a doctorate in criminology, on Oct. 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a really wonderful community,\u201d Mel LeRoy said. \u201cThe customers are incredibly supportive of the bar, they\u2019re supportive of each other, it is a welcoming and inclusive environment,\u201d Mel LeRoy said. \u201cSo you know there\u2019s a rule in New Orleans in bars, \u2018be nice or leave,\u2019 that is definitely true here \u2026 (what makes Tanstaafl) unique is the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianna Ortner-Findlay is a freelance contributor for the Arlington Report. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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