Cottonbelt ICE House

The white corrugated tin icehouse at midday with all three roll-up doors open, the faded red ICE over the middle door, and people at picnic tables under pecan trees.
Afternoon, doors up, tables in the shade.
The tin icehouse in late afternoon light, three doors rolled up, the faded red ICE over the middle door, and a mixed crowd at picnic tables with a dog under one.
Late afternoon, doors up.
The icehouse at night under string lights in the pecan trees, the three open doors glowing, people at picnic tables, a man carrying two cans from the bar and a woman bending to pet a dog.
After dark, string lights on.

Open-air Texas icehouse. Cold beer in the ice, tables under the pecans.

Open 7 days hours below

Every Tuesday 7 pm Washer league

Directions Call (940) 555-0142
  • Dogs welcome
  • Kids till 8 pm
  • Outside food welcome
  • Cash & card

Denton, TX · east of the square

The week on the dock

  1. Tuesday 7 pm

    Washer league

    Tuesday nights belong to the washer pits. Sign up as a two-person team at the bar: $10 a team, and a season runs 8 weeks.

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  2. Thursday 8 pm

    Pickers' Night

    A songwriter round on the dock: three local songwriters trading songs.

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  3. Fri & Sat Nights

    Food trucks

    Trucks park out front.

  4. Saturday 4–7 pm

    Porch music

    Free, with rotating local acts.

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  5. Sunday 11 am–2 pm

    Game day

    Football season

    Bloody Marys and ranch water specials while the game's on the tin-wall projector.

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A woman pitching a steel washer toward the far washer box on the gravel, the gray-bearded man pitching against her waiting his turn beside her, the two players at the far box watching it come in.
Tuesday, a little after seven. Washer league on the back pits.
Three songwriters on stools at the edge of the concrete dock at night: an older man playing guitar, a young woman singing with a guitar, and a young man with a mandolin.
Thursday night. The mandolin waits its turn.
Marisol, a woman in her fifties with silver-streaked hair and a denim shirt, lifting two dripping longnecks out of a galvanized trough packed with bottles and cans in crushed ice.
Marisol Haney, pulling longnecks from the ice.

What's in the ice

  • Cold beer Mostly Texas-brewed. Longnecks and cans pulled from galvanized ice troughs.
  • A short draft list
  • Frozen margaritas
  • Ranch water

No cocktail menu.

A plain white food truck at night with its window lit, a cook handing out food to a short line, the icehouse glowing behind.
Saturday night, a short line at the window.

No kitchen. Bring supper.

Food trucks park out front on Friday and Saturday nights. Other nights, bring your own.

Two plain bags of ice on the edge of the concrete loading dock in late sun, one lying on its side.

Bags of ice to go

for old times' sake

This was an ice dock long before it was a bar, so we still sell bags of ice to go.

Close view of the hand-painted red letters ICE on white corrugated tin above a rolled-up door, faded and chipped.
The original ICE, in late sun.

The old ice dock

since the 1940s

The building went up in the 1940s as an ice dock serving the cotton gin next door: white-painted corrugated tin, three roll-up garage doors and a concrete dock floor.

The faded red ICE over the middle door is original, and it has never been repainted.

Dale Haney grew up going to icehouses in San Antonio. He and Marisol reopened the old dock as a bar in 2019; Marisol runs the bar and the books.

A scruffy dog asleep on the gravel under a picnic table, a water bowl and a pair of boots beside it.
Midday under the pecans, somebody's dog asleep in the gravel.

Out in the yard

Picnic tables on gravel under big pecan trees, with string lights for after dark. Two washer pits and a horseshoe pit out back.

  • Dogs welcome on the patio
  • Kids welcome until 8 pm

Lately

We post a few times a week on Instagram.

Concept snapshot: generated photos, laid out the way a real site shows the owner's latest posts.

Open seven days

Hours
Mon–Thu 3 pm – midnight
Fri 3 pm – 2 am
Sat 11 am – 2 am
Sun 11 am – 10 pm

Denton, TX · east of the square

Directions Call (940) 555-0142