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Trudy's in trouble

elguapo

By elguapo
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elguapo

elguapo 4586

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Had some great times at Trudy's in college, can't remember the last time we've been.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/food/2020-01-16/trudys-employees-revolting-over-late-pay/

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Trudy’s Employees Revolting Over Late Pay

Tex-Mex institution showing signs of financial distress

“What do you want me to do, go lie to them?” the manager at Trudy’s South Star angrily asked her boss in a visible blowup at the restaurant on Wednesday night. “You’ll get paid on Monday! You’ll get paid on Wednesday!”

She’d been cheerful when we ushered to our table 45 minutes earlier.

That day, claims of unpaid wages and gossip about larger financial collapse – involving Trudy’s and sister business the South Congress Cafe – sparked online on two /Austin Reddit threads as well as the popular service industry Facebook group In the Weeds.

I’d taken my girlfriend down to the local Tex-Mex staple to see if the purported signs of a restaurant in peril would be obvious to regular diners.

It hadn’t been at first. It was a slow night, but the business – which has operated in Austin for 43 years – seemed to carry all its usual comforts… except they were out of draft beer. My girlfriend ordered the fish tacos. Our waiter told us they were out of those too.

“What else are you out of?” she asked.

“Chicken wings and carne guisada,” he replied.

We got some classics: queso, a stuffed avocado, and enchiladas and enjoyed an uneventful dinner. Then as we stood near the host table, preparing to exit, the stress of a business rumored to be unable to pay its workers played out before our very eyes.

The man in all black – ostensibly a GM – tried to keep the conversation at library volume, but the manager, standing with the hostess and another employee, boiled over.

“I can’t make them stay,” she said, motioning back towards the bar and kitchen staff. “Are you going to pay me cash at the end of the night? And is it going to be manager pay? They just keep telling us: ‘keep selling, keep selling!’”

The reasons for Trudy’s apparent payroll troubles aren’t clear. That afternoon, a representative at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts told the Chronicle that Trudy’s currently owes them $130,000 in taxes – not an exorbitant amount for a business its size. The prevailing social media rumor of a million dollar debt to the food distribution giant Sysco led me to call the company’s Central Texas office, but an account manager told me that they don’t disclose the financial information of their customers. Multiple messages left with Trudy’s office manager Shelly McHugh and operations manager Kris Peterson were not returned.

Wednesday afternoon, I talked to an employee at the northside Trudy’s who said they’d endured months of late or unreliable pay. (That individual, whose employment was confirmed by the Chronicle, spoke on the grounds of anonymity.) They also related that the kitchens of both Trudy’s have been so short on inventory that not all of the menu is available, something that echoes social media posts from customers and my own experience.

Trudy’s was founded in 1977 by Gary Truesdell and eventually expanded to four restaurants and a strong following for their Mexican Martinis and Stuffed Avocado Special. A Hill Country iteration of the chain that opened in 2011, Trudy’s Four Star, shuttered last January. Flagship eatery Trudy’s Texas Star, a UT campus favorite at 409 W. 30th St., has been closed since late November 2019 following a fire.

 

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utee94

utee94 15824

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13 minutes ago, Native Horn said:

Damn, that's too bad.  Friday night date night back in the early 90s usually consisted of heading to Trudy's on South Lamar, appetizer, two entrees and two margaritas for about $30.  And almost without fail, Ann Richards was eating there on Fridays too.

 

2 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

In before all the poster recollections about when they went to trudys and what they had, etc

Didn't quite make it... :)

 

I'm sorry to see it in distress, it's been an institution and a staple in my restaurant-going life for over 25 years.  But I can't say I'm surprised.  

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105147

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1) I never got the Trudy's love.  It's fine.  Whatever.

2) I imagine losing their top-revenue spot (the location by campus) in November hurt revenues like hell.  And if they didn't have the right insurance, you end up behind the 8-ball and never catch up.  Damned shame, and it's a tough business in this high-dollar, high-rent town.

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utee94

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1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

1) I never got the Trudy's love.  It's fine.  Whatever.

2) I imagine losing their top-revenue spot (the location by campus) in November hurt revenues like hell.  And if they didn't have the right insurance, you end up behind the 8-ball and never catch up.  Damned shame, and it's a tough business in this high-dollar, high-rent town.

It was popular amongst UT students for obvious reasons-- close to campus, strong drinks, relatively cheap.  Then, as those students moved out away from campus, they had other locations where those students gravitated.  Atmosphere, drinks, nostlagia-- that's why people kept going.

As far as the food, their standard Tex-Mex was never very good, but they had a few other dishes that were quite tasty.  The pecan-smoked chicken enchiladas were my standard for years, then then they brought on the chile relleno I'd get that with fajita beef and chipotle sauce.  Then they introduced beef tinga and that, combined with the relleno and chipotle sauce, was pretty freaking great.  And the chorizo-stuffed chicken was also really good.

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105147

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Just now, utee94 said:

It was popular amongst UT students for obvious reasons-- close to campus, strong drinks, relatively cheap.  Then, as those students moved out away from campus, they had other locations where those students gravitated.  Atmosphere, drinks, nostlagia-- that's why people kept going.

As far as the food, their standard Tex-Mex was never very good, but they had a few other dishes that were quite tasty.  The pecan-smoked chicken enchiladas were my standard for years, then then they brought on the chile relleno I'd get that with fajita beef and chipotle sauce.  Then they introduced beef tinga and that, combined with the relleno and chipotle sauce, was pretty freaking great.  And the chorizo-stuffed chicken was also really good.

 

The surprising good dish there was their CFS.  It was really good, and you could get it topped with gravy and then green chile sauce, which took it up a notch.  But again, I haven't been to one in at least 10 years, and that was only because I was dragged there by an expat Austinite back in town who wanted a plate of nostalgia.

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utee94

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9 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The surprising good dish there was their CFS.  It was really good, and you could get it topped with gravy and then green chile sauce, which took it up a notch.  But again, I haven't been to one in at least 10 years, and that was only because I was dragged there by an expat Austinite back in town who wanted a plate of nostalgia.

Their cheeseburgers were top-notch as well, which is true of many Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants. 

Right out of undergrad, I worked very close to the North Star location and there were days when I'd eat both lunch and dinner there, so I had a lot of opportunity to try the whole menu. There were even a couple of days when we hit it at lunch, started drinking, and then called the boss to say we weren't going to make it back to work.  One of those times, she surprised us by showing up, drinking the rest of the afternoon and evening with us, and then paying the whole bill.  Good times.

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utee94

utee94 15824

Posted
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Just now, jimmyjazz said:

They actually had good migas, especially if you remembered to ask for serranos instead of jalapenos.

I don't know how it's possible to screw up migas, but plenty of Tex-Mex joints do.

Definitely.  They were "wetter" than most places, which I prefer.  I guess they used more cheese or something.

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Wiler77

Wiler77 1566

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50 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

2) I imagine losing their top-revenue spot (the location by campus) in November hurt revenues like hell.  And if they didn't have the right insurance, you end up behind the 8-ball and never catch up.  Damned shame, and it's a tough business in this high-dollar, high-rent town.

I actually had the thought when I read the last line of the article was "Well that explains the fire."

If that was the top earner, they probably had a larger policy.

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4th&Five

4th&Five 41557

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Just now, Liquor and Poker said:

The one on Burnet has a great buffet on weekends.  Usually hit it one game weekend Sunday a year.

All you can eat bacon, migas, tortillas, waffles, and cheap bloody marys.  Lots of other shit too that I've never bothered to try.  Good deal.

it was on weekdays too.  my dad used to take me all the time when i started working for him after college.

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Guest Lobo

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1 hour ago, Native Horn said:

Ann Richards was eating there on Fridays too.

Ann ate Trudy on Friday.  Yeah, that checks out.  

Had no idea they closed their campus location, I went there about 4-6x/year over the last few years while working on campus.  I do know that dripping springs location in all it's multi-acre monstrosity was a massive fucking mistake for them.  

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gsoda3

gsoda3 3262

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The one on Burnet has a great buffet on weekends.  Usually hit it one game weekend Sunday a year.
All you can eat bacon, migas, tortillas, waffles, and cheap bloody marys.  Lots of other shit too that I've never bothered to try.  Good deal.
I've gotten food poisoning from that buffet twice. The buffet is good though if you can avoid that unfortunate side effect.
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Liquor and Poker

Liquor and Poker 3659

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Just now, gsoda3 said:
39 minutes ago, Liquor and Poker said:
The one on Burnet has a great buffet on weekends.  Usually hit it one game weekend Sunday a year.
All you can eat bacon, migas, tortillas, waffles, and cheap bloody marys.  Lots of other shit too that I've never bothered to try.  Good deal.

I've gotten food poisoning from that buffet twice. The buffet is good though if you can avoid that unfortunate side effect.

Twice?

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utee94

utee94 15824

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6 minutes ago, Iconoclast Texan said:

Do they still impose 2 per person limit on those bad boys. Remember they used to do that.

I'd assume they do, which is why I stopped drinking them.  Didn't want them counting my drinks.  You could pound 7 margaritas, each with a tequila floater, and they'd let you walk out the door and drive wherever your liked.  But you order one Mexican martini, and the gestapo was all over you.

But that was AFTER whatever legal trouble they got into regarding Mexican martinis. Before that, when I first started going to Trudy's in the very early 90s, they didn't count 'em.  In fact, the Mexican martini was the Tuesday night special and you could order as many as you liked, super-cheap.  Wednesday night special was the aforementioned floater night.

Those were the days!

 

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23113

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For the 10 years we lived in Hyde Park, we'd regularly go by the one by campus during the holidays or the summer when the students were gone.  It was mostly good meals. Then around 2017, it started consistently sucking so we stopped going.

Moved up to Crestview and tried the one on Burnet last year.  HOLY SHIT it sucked. Never ever going back.

So I'm not surprised by this. There are way too many restaurants in Austin for shitty ones to survive solely on nostalgia.

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RDCanecutter

RDCanecutter 26446

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My main Trudy's memory, out on the deck with friends getting our drank on. There's an intense little white guy sitting there unironically wearing a silk Chinese shirt from the Ming Dynasty or some shit, buttoned up to his intense white chin. Apparently, Honorable White Devil has survived a bruising round of job interviews with unsatisfactory results. He kept ranting about his "skill sets", this was 2001, that bit of jargon was fresh and edgy. Skill sets. Skill sets. Skill sets.

I was drunk, but not drunk enough to say "Maybe it's not your skill sets. Maybe it was your dumbass Kung Fu movie shirt."

Skill sets.

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Junior Miller

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8 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

 

2) I imagine losing their top-revenue spot (the location by campus) in November hurt revenues like hell.  And if they didn't have the right insurance, you end up behind the 8-ball and never catch up.  Damned shame, and it's a tough business in this high-dollar, high-rent town.

Yep, happened to my formerly favorite bar Hurricanes on Greenville avenue almost a decade ago. No proper insurance, fire happens, and now it's a shitty ass Dodie's. 

Oh well

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6th Street

6th Street 6411

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2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

For the 10 years we lived in Hyde Park, we'd regularly go by the one by campus during the holidays or the summer when the students were gone.  It was mostly good meals. Then around 2017, it started consistently sucking so we stopped going.

Moved up to Crestview and tried the one on Burnet last year.  HOLY SHIT it sucked. Never ever going back.

So I'm not surprised by this. There are way too many restaurants in Austin for shitty ones to survive solely on nostalgia.

It's been 8 years since I went to the Burnet location but can confirm it had gone down in quality significantly and turned pretty ghetto in fact. There was a time when a migas and fajitas playe for $7.95 was money. 

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