Lone Star State Of Mind
LEON BRIDGES walks into Cherry Coffee Shop – one of his favourite spots in Forth Worth’s Fairmount neighbourhood – and leaves the Texas humidity behind. Inside the cool, caffeinated hubbub of the shop, a wave of whispers and glances enlivens the room. This is a Leon sighting. Of course, Bridges would stand out as the best-dressed man in any room, with an impeccable fashion sense to match his music. Today he’s sporting black-and-white cowboy boots, perfectly creased black trousers and a silk bowling shirt from a team that hasn’t rolled in his lifetime. All this despite the extreme heat: “I don’t really do shorts,” he says with a laugh.
Bridges has become a local celebrity, an artist who got his start here in Fort Worth, then stayed put. He might spend long stretches on the road or out in Los Angeles, but he still considers this city to be his home, however far off the industry map it might be. Such loyalty has endeared him to locals, such that Leon sightings have lost little of their excitement despite their frequency.
“Fort Worth is cool because it has its own identity,” he says as he places his order with the barista – large drip coffee, no cream, no sugar. “Dallas aspires to be like Los Angeles or New York, but Fort Worth is totally comfortable being its own little thing. It definitely has that smalltown energy. It’s grounding to be in the place where I grew up. It’s just easy here. Whenever I’m out in LA, I just don’t understand how people even have a car and drive everywhere.”
Before he can cause a scene, he bails on the coffeeshop and walks past a barbecue joint to the Magnolia Wine Bar, another favourite hangout. “I came here a lot during the pandemic and I could just have a sense of normalcy. My routine was work out during the day,
