Pinkie's is a historic name in West Texas. It first arrived in San Angelo in 1944.  That is when A. W. "Sam" Ellington and his wife, Dorothy, moved to the town on the Concho River.

In conjunction with Tom "Pinkie" Roden, Sam opened the first Pinkie's on the old Big Spring Highway ----north of San Angelo on a county precinct line that marked the boundary of the only wet area in Tom Green County.

When O. C. Fisher Dam was completed in 1952, US highway 87 had to move to its current location, and Pinkie's moved with the new highway.  A new Pinkie's was built and operated in that location until January of 2006. There were eventually three liquor stores on the new highway.

Two more Pinkie's outlets were added in the early 1950's. The second store purchased from "Dutch" Wilke, was located on the same precinct line, but on the Mertzon Highway (US Hwy 67), west of San Angelo. Three liquor stores were located on this precinct line. The Mertzon Highway store was rebuilt and enlarged several times over the years.

A third Pinkie's store, formerly Pat's Liquor Store and purchased from Pat Colley, September 1959, was located on the Arden Road(Ranch Road 853). At the time, there were six liquor stores on "The "Hill" as this area of the Arden Road was called. The Arden Road store was also rebuilt and enlarged. It burned to the ground in 1983. A new store was built and it also remained open until January of 2006.

In 1952, Sam Ellington bought the ownership interest of Tom Roden in the San Angelo Stores. Samco, Inc. was born. This entity still operates Pinkie's in San Angelo to this day.

Because of the patchwork of wet and dry areas in Texas, opportunities existed to locate liquor stores in out of the way places. Many wet areas were surrounded with huge dry areas. This concentrated business on the county lines of the wet area. Sam located a new Pinkie's on the Menard, McCullough County line. Menard County was wet, and dry territory stretched Northeast through Brady and Brownwood nearly to Fort Worth. Even though they voted "dry", these folks drank wet. Beer came to this store by the truckload.

This was followed by a similar ploy when the Southwest precinct in Runnels County voted wet. Rowena was the principle town in this area. The precinct ran near Ballinger and was the closest wet area to Abilene. The good citizens of Abilene also voted dry and drank wet. Business was good until Abilene---and later Ballinger voted wet.

 In 1962, Mike Ellington, the second of the four Ellington children graduated from Texas Tech and joined the family business. Emulating his father, this started a long and successful career for Mike. The Ellington family has been in the alcoholic beverage business more than 75 years, since prior to the repeal of Prohibition.

The next chapter in the Pinkie's story took place in December, 1964, when Brownwood finally voted itself into the 20th Century. Samco, Inc. purchased one location and leased another in Brownwood. Two new stores were opened in that market while the Menard county-line store slipped into history since those thirsts were being slaked closer to home. Samco now owned and operated six stores under the Pinkie's name.

In October,1970, Mike Ellington formed a new corporation, Mical, Inc., a contraction of Michael and Cally the next generation of Ellington's. Through this vehicle, Mike bought Doc's Liquor store in Amarillo, Texas. Ewing "Doc" Cates was ready to retire and Mike was ready to expand. Sam Ellington, too, was approaching retirement age, thus the new and separate ownership. Doc's was also located on a county line, but within the city of Amarillo--Amarillo is a city that straddles two counties. Randall and Potter counties met at Doc's southern property line. Potter County was wet, Randall county dry. You guessed it, November, 1972, Randall County voted wet! Mical, Inc. opened Doc's # 2 December 18, 1972, and Doc's # 3, February 1973 in the newly wet southern portion of Amarillo.

Lubbock was a natural next step. Hubert Odom, Mike's godfather, owned Cecil's Liquor store on "The Strip"---the wet area just south of of Lubbock. Lubbock was dry at the time and remaind so until 2009. Lubbock also has a large population of thirsty souls. Texas Tech, Mike's alma mater was a huge collection of thirsty college- age kids, and drinking was legal at age 18. Hubert wanted to sell his store. It was a perfect fit. They made a deal in 1980. 

The old Cecil's liquor store---renamed Doc's---was completely revamped, as was the beer store. Soon, the folks, customers and competitors alike knew that a new player was in the market. Aggressive advertising and pricing brought the new guy on the "strip" success, and the Ellingtons now operated 10 liquor stores in Texas.  

An old acquaintance from San Angelo, Frank Smith and his wife, Gloria, operated a restaurant and pool hall in Lubbock. It was located just across the street from the Texas Tech campus.  Frank wanted to expand into new markets and invited Mike to participate. That eventually resulted in a restaurant chain of four large operations called Crystals and one called Café Caribe.

Restaurants were located in San Angelo, Amarillo, Abilene, and Corpus Christi.  As a result of the success of these restaurants, Mike decided to sell some of the liquor stores and concentrate on the restaurants. The liquor stores in Brownwood, Amarillo, and Lubbock were sold. Life was good. Then, unfortunately, Jimmy Carter and the FDIC arrived on the scene.  Banks closed, Savings and Loans companies disappeared, businesses closed, and the oil patch dried up. The restaurant business went straight to hell. We held on for a while, but wound up selling one restaurant in Corpus Christi and closing the rest. 

The retrenchment back to San Angelo was painful, but we were not alone, and the Pinkie's stores in San Angelo survived, gained market share and moved forward.

Then, lightning struck in September, 2003 when Tom Green County voted to allow sales of wine throughout the county. Pinkie's lost 60% of its important and profitable wine business overnight, starting a new era for our business in San Angelo.

In response, Mike put his support behind an election to allow the sale of all alcoholic beverages within the city. In September, 2005, San Angelo voted wet.

Pinkie's already had a long term plan in place. Pinkie's opened a 7500 sq. ft. store at 4239 Sherwood Way (US Hwy 67) November 1, 2005 and it was an immediate success. Why had we hung on to the old way for so long?

The following March, we opened our incredible new 10,250 sq ft store at 1415 South Bryant. This store, too, opened with a bang. In addition to the largest selection of liquor, wine, and beer in our area, the store also houses The Market at Pinkie's which sells artisanal cheeses, meats, chocolates, flatbreads, ready-to-heat casseroles, and many other gourmet foods.

In 2009, the American Beverage Licensees, the nation's leading trade association for retail alcohol beverages license holders, honored Mike Ellington with its prestigious Brown-Foreman Retailer of the Year award for Texas. 

Everyone at Pinkie's thanks the great people of West Texas for your incredible support, and we look forward to providing you with a superior shopping experience for many years to come.