When did old Austin die?

[BurdineBandit 815]

4 hours ago, SwanderedTalent said:

Two, if you experienced mid-90s Austin before downtown development really got underway (the Frost Tower era, again symbolic), I really don't see how you can visit it now and make a claim it's similar. The vibe has changed. There's a glitzy, sort of technocratic young money feel to areas that used to be more laid-back. There's a much broader focus on providing stuff for people with money to do. Stuff is new and clean and nice, upscale. Thirty years ago, it was more slacker-centric. It's not that no one would open Casino El Camino downtown in 2020, if it didn't already exist. It's that it would be a focus-grouped tourist-trap theme restaurant. 

 

I won't enter this thread and bitch about the new Austin, but I will compound on this point and say FUCK Punch Bowl Social being put right on Congress. Fucking glitzy, technocratic, young-money, focus-grouped, tourist-trap themed restaurant fuckshit.

[Armybrat 40845]

2 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

When I enrolled at UT in 1988, my dad told me I should have seen what Austin was like in 1962, when he enrolled, at which time I bet his dad told him he should have seen it in 1925, when he enrolled, at which time I bet his dad told he should have seen in 1895, when he enrolled. There were places we all remembered all our lives, though some had changed. Some forever, and not for better, but in our lives, we loved them all. All those places had their moments with lovers and friends we still could recall. Some are dead and some are living, but in our lives, we loved them all. 

 

I enrolled the same year as your dad. Tuition & fees for 15 hours was <$100. Blanket tax was about $15 and OU sucked.

[Cajun 11705]

2 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

When I enrolled at UT in 1988, my dad told me I should have seen what Austin was like in 1962, when he enrolled, at which time I bet his dad told him he should have seen it in 1925, when he enrolled, at which time I bet his dad told he should have seen in 1895, when he enrolled. There were places we all remembered all our lives, though some had changed. Some forever, and not for better, but in our lives, we loved them all. All those places had their moments with lovers and friends we still could recall. Some are dead and some are living, but in our lives, we loved them all. 

 

And, yet, I know people who have known Austin well over those same time periods, who have all made those statements, and who all still would acknowledge that there was still a common thread that wove through the fabric of that time frame.

All of them would also acknowledge that thread is pretty much gone now.

There were blocks removed from the ATX Jenga year after year, that's for certain, but somewhere in the last 20 yrs or so the entire game got the tannerite treatment.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Cajun

[Armybrat 40845]

2 hours ago, F250 said:

Back in '93, I met a girl who lived in Round Rock. I ended up driving out to her place and picking her up for a date and I remember thinking, "Damn, I think I am going to end up in Dallas this place is so far away." At that time the distances between neighboring towns seemed a lot more significant. For instance the stretch of highway between San Marcos and Austin used to be an empty drive and if you were driving in at night the XXX store on the right of 35 was the first sign that you were getting close to civilization.

Another area that blows my mind is Taylor, TX. I was in Taylor a few years ago after last visiting the place in '97. It used to be a couple of gas stations and that was all there was to it. Dripping Springs is another place that has been notably changed by the outgrowth of Austin.

It seems once Austin became Greater Austin, the Old Austin faded into the ether. Obviously this isn't the cause of the death but a consequence of all the damn out of state people moving into the area. Which seems to have started with the early success of Dell.

Mrs. Brat moved to Taylor in 1949... before Louis Mueller’s relocated to its current location, and Vencil was just a young man.

[BottleRocket 646]

How long did you work for that crooked sumbitch?

About 3 years. Hilton +1.

[Armybrat 40845]

1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

 

Yeah, good points here. I posted earlier about Austin being enjoyable mostly for well-off people these days. I disagree with the guy who said it was always like that. We could go downtown and get hammered on $10 or so in my heyday. I lived here for plenty of the part of my life where I was not even close to "well off" and did just fine, enjoyed the city and everything it had to offer, etc. That ship has totally sailed. Some places have $2 cans of Lone Star and the like, but generally speaking, there's no such thing as a cheap night out in Austin. 

The two changes you mentioned are very clear shifts. The first one I knew was coming the minute they opened a Coyote Ugly on 6th St. That was during me and my crew's 6th street heyday and I remember thinking that was a Bellwether of more of that crap to come. 6th street shifted to dirty 6th pretty quickly after that. 

The second one was a slower process. I couldn't point to a line in the sand between getting cheap pitchers and free hot dogs at Copper Tank to finding myself eating at a restaurant near Rainey and paying $8 for a can of beer when I could get in my car, drive to the brewery, buy a pint, drink it, and get back to the restaurant before appetizers are out and for less than $8 including the gas (Austin Amber, FWIW)

There's a lot of things that have changed for the better that a lot of the old Austin people don't acknowledge. The food scene is much, much better. The bar scene is too. It's more than just "do we go to 4th, 5th, 6th, or Red River tonight?". There are neighborhood bars. But it's definitely not nearly as accessible for normal people as it used to be. The city center and all of the in-demand offshoot arteries of it (Lamar, Congress, etc.) are hipster/technocrat/white DINK heaven. I'd be stunned if more than half of the people who live in the rectangle between Mopac/35 and the river/MLK are from Texas.

Heh, in my heyday the fancy restaurant food scene in Austin was the Nighthawk at S. Congress & Riverside and Hill’s. No public bars that sold mixed drinks, just sleazy beer joints like Louie’s between East 5th & 6th. Then there was Scholz’s for $1 pitcher night.

For digestible BBQ we had to drive to Taylor or Lockhart.

[tx 3 putt 76958]

2 hours ago, F250 said:

It seems once Austin became Greater Austin, the Old Austin faded into the ether.

 

Greater Austin was long ago, it's now the San Antonio / Selma / Schertz / New Braunfels / San Marcos / Kyle / Buda / Menchaca / Austin / Round Rock / Georgetown - I 35 metroplex. 

 

Biggest city in the Texas, no doubt 

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

2 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

When I enrolled at UT in 1988, my dad told me I should have seen what Austin was like in 1962, when he enrolled, at which time I bet his dad told him he should have seen it in 1925, when he enrolled, at which time I bet his dad told he should have seen in 1895, when he enrolled. There were places we all remembered all our lives, though some had changed. Some forever, and not for better, but in our lives, we loved them all. All those places had their moments with lovers and friends we still could recall. Some are dead and some are living, but in our lives, we loved them all. 

 

There used to be a pretty good thread on the old board about Austin landmarks 40's-90s or something.  Good photos and stories too.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Heh, in my heyday the fancy restaurant food scene in Austin was the Nighthawk at S. Congress & Riverside and Hill’s. No public bars that sold mixed drinks, just sleazy beer joints like Louie’s between East 5th & 6th. Then there was Scholz’s for $1 pitcher night.
For digestible BBQ we had to drive to Taylor or Lockhart.

That was the last nighthawk I ate at.

[tbone_ 14123]

Had a drunk friend get arrested for kicking a good portion of that eyesore down. Doubt he was the only one.

I remember the Pythons nailed a dog house to the side of it. Always got a kick out of that.

Cushman parking carts stolen and driven through it.

Didn’t someone eventually burn it down?

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

6 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Heh, in my heyday the fancy restaurant food scene in Austin was the Nighthawk at S. Congress & Riverside and Hill’s. No public bars that sold mixed drinks, just sleazy beer joints like Louie’s between East 5th & 6th. Then there was Scholz’s for $1 pitcher night.

For digestible BBQ we had to drive to Taylor or Lockhart.

Victor's Italian Village would like a word with you.

 

Speaking of Scholz's, back in the mid 80's and probably long before,  there used to be an informal polka band night(Thursday in the summertime).  A bunch of us from Longhorn Band would go and play.  Sometimes we would buy some beer, but we got a lot a pitchers paid for by the locals.  Whenever we got thirsty we would ditch the polka stuff and do some LHB stuff that was always good for some generous orange blood to open their wallet.  I remember the pitchers being about $5 bucks by then but I am not sure since I was usually pretty drunk. I do remember that whatever they charged was at least $1 more then the Posse East.

[Cajun 11705]

21 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

Greater Austin was long ago, it's now the San Antonio / Selma / Schertz / New Braunfels / San Marcos / Kyle / Buda / Menchaca / Austin / Round Rock / Georgetown - I 35 metroplex. 

 

Biggest city in the Texas, no doubt 

One long strip mall from SA all the way to Georgetown.

[Cajun 11705]

5 hours ago, DaysOff said:

6 hours ago, Lat22 said:

When they tore down the shanty?

Had a drunk friend get arrested for kicking a good portion of that eyesore down. Doubt he was the only one.

Shit, there was some frat guy who ran the entire thing over with a truck.  I have no idea how her manuvered to get over there, but it was covered in the Daily Pravda, uh, I mean, Texan.

[LongestHorn 759]

When I moved here, old timers were crying about all these tech companies taking over Austin.  Motorola, Tracor, TI, IBM.

That was 1979.

[Armybrat 40845]

42 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

That was the last nighthawk I ate at.

The original one at that location burned down and took a couple of years to rebuild. The rebuilt restaurant never really caught on because patrons had moved on to other newer venues that had opened up.

[Guest Lobo]

On that note, you could also heavily point to a moment in 1983.  Two prominent Austin civic leaders went to the MCC final selection process in Chicago. If you know O'Hare, you know the Hilton right across the pickup lanes with those glass elevators (well, they were way back when).  These two men stopped the elevator with a member of the final selection board.  And one of these men basically implied that his life would be markedly less difficult if he were to push for Austin and that the U.S. intelligence community would also appreciate his cooperation.  The other Austin civic leader couldn't believe what he was witnessing, so he just went along with it.  A very short time later, the unlikely darkhorse contender, Austin, lands the MCC headquarters.  Although, NI, TI, and IBM are already here in Austin at that point, that seminal moment brings us MCC, then Dell blows up, then the semi-conductor market, and then the dot.com bubble of the mid-late 90's.  All because these two guys pulled the good-cop, bad-cop in the O'Hare Hilton airport.  one of those two men is unfortunately passed away, the other is a career intelligence community leader and won't be giving up the rest of the story until he's 50 years dead.  

But if you have any feeling that it was the "tech scene", not anything music or sky-scraper related, then you'd be interested to know that more of Austin's "tech scene" was decided in a Chicago elevator than anything else that ever happened on the ground here in the Silicon Hills.  

[Armybrat 40845]

40 minutes ago, Jiggy-Z said:

Victor's Italian Village would like a word with you.

 

Speaking of Scholz's, back in the mid 80's and probably long before,  there used to be an informal polka band night(Thursday in the summertime).  A bunch of us from Longhorn Band would go and play.  Sometimes we would buy some beer, but we got a lot a pitchers paid for by the locals.  Whenever we got thirsty we would ditch the polka stuff and do some LHB stuff that was always good for some generous orange blood to open their wallet.  I remember the pitchers being about $5 bucks by then but I am not sure since I was usually pretty drunk. I do remember that whatever they charged was at least $1 more then the Posse East.

I said “fancy”, such as it was. Victor’s was more casual. In fact Victor’s was the first restaurant we ate in after returning to town when my dad retired in 1959. We were staying at my brother’s tiny apartment in the converted bungalow at 2826 Rio Grande. That building is still there. Then there was Ellis’s Cafe at Airport & North Lamar. Great pies there.

[Armybrat 40845]

32 minutes ago, LongestHorn said:

When I moved here, old hippies who had started infesting the city as young UT grads in the late 1960s were crying about all these tech companies taking over Austin.  Motorola, Tracor, TI, IBM.

That was 1979.

Fify

Edited February 10, 2020 by Armybrat

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

24 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

I said “fancy”, such as it was. Victor’s was more casual. In fact Victor’s was the first restaurant we ate in after returning to town when my dad retired in 1959. We were staying at my brother’s tiny apartment in the converted bungalow at 2826 Rio Grande. That building is still there. Then there was Ellis’s Cafe at Airport & North Lamar. Great pies there.

Well, I was only six years old.  Even Sirloin Stockade was fancy to me...along with our other regular haunts of Luby's(The fancy one over off of Hancock),  Monterrey House, Top Notch, Catfish Parlor, Mr Gattis, and Airport Haven's, 2Js etc. 

[Armybrat 40845]

Those were all “new” places to me. Lol

I preferred Holiday House - #5 Flame burger ftw.

[HouTex 1867]

On that note, you could also heavily point to a moment in 1983.  Two prominent Austin civic leaders went to the MCC final selection process in Chicago. If you know O'Hare, you know the Hilton right across the pickup lanes with those glass elevators (well, they were way back when).  These two men stopped the elevator with a member of the final selection board.  And one of these men basically implied that his life would be markedly less difficult if he were to push for Austin and that the U.S. intelligence community would also appreciate his cooperation.  The other Austin civic leader couldn't believe what he was witnessing, so he just went along with it.  A very short time later, the unlikely darkhorse contender, Austin, lands the MCC headquarters.  Although, NI, TI, and IBM are already here in Austin at that point, that seminal moment brings us MCC, then Dell blows up, then the semi-conductor market, and then the dot.com bubble of the mid-late 90's.  All because these two guys pulled the good-cop, bad-cop in the O'Hare Hilton airport.  one of those two men is unfortunately passed away, the other is a career intelligence community leader and won't be giving up the rest of the story until he's 50 years dead.  
But if you have any feeling that it was the "tech scene", not anything music or sky-scraper related, then you'd be interested to know that more of Austin's "tech scene" was decided in a Chicago elevator than anything else that ever happened on the ground here in the Silicon Hills.  

MCC was always in the news when I was at UT. Bobby Ray Inman was a badass.

[Cajun 11705]

13 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Those were all “new” places to me. Lol

I preferred Holiday House - #5 Flame burger ftw.

Man I miss those burgers.  I was crestfallen when I came back to ATX to visit my aunt in Tarrytown and that place was a bank or sumshit.

[utee94 15823]

AMD was also one of those high tech/semiconductor companies in old Austin's "Class of '79."

 

[F250 28775]

3 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

Greater Austin was long ago, it's now the San Antonio / Selma / Schertz / New Braunfels / San Marcos / Kyle / Buda / Menchaca / Austin / Round Rock / Georgetown - I 35 metroplex. 

 

Biggest city in the Texas, no doubt 

If we could get an MLB and an NFL team somewhere in between New Braunfels and San Marcos then it would be an official Metroplex.

[Deej 76791]

1 hour ago, Cajun said:

Man I miss those burgers.  I was crestfallen when I came back to ATX to visit my aunt in Tarrytown and that place was a bank or sumshit.

A family member opened a food truck out in Dripping Springs with the old Holiday House burgers.

[Cajun 11705]

No shit?  I will go there lickity split.

Give me the 411.

Man, I could use one right the fuck now.

 

[JimmyJames 12271]

2 hours ago, Lobo said:

On that note, you could also heavily point to a moment in 1983.  Two prominent Austin civic leaders went to the MCC final selection process in Chicago. If you know O'Hare, you know the Hilton right across the pickup lanes with those glass elevators (well, they were way back when).  These two men stopped the elevator with a member of the final selection board.  And one of these men basically implied that his life would be markedly less difficult if he were to push for Austin and that the U.S. intelligence community would also appreciate his cooperation.  The other Austin civic leader couldn't believe what he was witnessing, so he just went along with it.  A very short time later, the unlikely darkhorse contender, Austin, lands the MCC headquarters.  Although, NI, TI, and IBM are already here in Austin at that point, that seminal moment brings us MCC, then Dell blows up, then the semi-conductor market, and then the dot.com bubble of the mid-late 90's.  All because these two guys pulled the good-cop, bad-cop in the O'Hare Hilton airport.  one of those two men is unfortunately passed away, the other is a career intelligence community leader and won't be giving up the rest of the story until he's 50 years dead.  

But if you have any feeling that it was the "tech scene", not anything music or sky-scraper related, then you'd be interested to know that more of Austin's "tech scene" was decided in a Chicago elevator than anything else that ever happened on the ground here in the Silicon Hills.  

This story surprises me not at all. 

Next thing you’re gonna tell us there are underground tunnels somewhere under Austin...

[Deej 76791]

4 minutes ago, Cajun said:

No shit?  I will go there lickity split.

Give me the 411.

Man, I could use one right the fuck now.

 

Lono's

https://lonosketo.com/

[MAUFRAIS 6629]

It was when the Burger King at 35th and Jefferson closed.

[Deej 76791]

1 minute ago, MAUFRAIS said:

It was when the Burger King at 35th and Jefferson closed.

When they got rid of all the LeRoy Runquist art.

[Guest Lobo]

10 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

It was when the Burger King at 35th and Jefferson closed.

I just ate there recently.  do you mean, when they closed the drive-thru? I love all the expensive ass retail around there.  It's there because the day-laborers in the area need to eat.  

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Why in the actual fuck would anyone eat at Burger King?

[MAUFRAIS 6629]

I just ate there recently.  do you mean, when they closed the drive-thru? I love all the expensive ass retail around there.  It's there because the day-laborers in the area need to eat.  

You ate your last west Austin impossible burger lobo.

[Deej 76791]

21 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Why in the actual fuck would anyone eat at Burger King?

A friend once mentioned that every customer at any Burger King looks like they are having the unhappiest day of their life. He was right.

[MAUFRAIS 6629]

dp

[utee94 15823]

25 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Why in the actual fuck would anyone eat at Burger King?

No kidding.  Even Subway is about 1000x better than Burger King.

[Armybrat 40845]

12 minutes ago, Deej said:

A friend once mentioned that every customer at any Burger King looks like they are having the unhappiest day of their life. He was right.

Last time I had a Whopper was when we were paying the car insurance for six cars with three sons (2 in college). We was poors.

[Terry Silver 219]

When the fox and hound on 4th street closed. 
The Jennifer Cave murder.

I’ll add when UT switched to Nike. Nike at that time started pumping crazy money into marketing.

also what about when that old honky tonk on south congress closed? Or maybe it’s just been buried by high rise real estate projects 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Terry Silver

[2300 Nueces 163]

3 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Those were all “new” places to me. Lol

I preferred Holiday House - #5 Flame burger ftw.

That place was greatness.

[Guest Lobo]

1 hour ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Why in the actual fuck would anyone eat at Burger King?

When you've had a lunch meeting at Tiny Boxwoods and had a tiny salad and 3 dalmations, whilst enjoying the eye candy of tiny boxes in tiny yoga pants.  And you have to get back to your office.  And you leave said restaurant and there's a Burger King 100 yards away.  You're gonna stop by for a quick burger and fries to satiate yourself, I don't care how snooty you are.  Same reason some folks on here cried when Fuddrucker's closed down.  Sometimes you need a burger in a pinch.  

[Bevo 13577]

The day Austin died was when the jester sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean

[TexasBeta 1261]

Forgot to add one more. When GM Steakhouse closed on the drag. That and when they stopped doing the roundup parade and I had no one to throw my empty beers at from the Woo.

[tbone_ 14123]

Got damn GM was good.

[Stunns38 3460]

[SaucyJack 3488]

On 2/9/2020 at 6:57 PM, Harrison Stafford said:

I can't tell you when Austin died, but I can tell you when the death march began.  It was the mid 70's amid the resignation of Richard Nixon and the end of the Vietnam War.  The anti-war, anti-establishment activism on campus and in the community fizzled along with a goodly portion of local political activism that had kept Austin developers at bay.  That's when Austin's rapid growth began.  In that same time period,  Schlotzsky's expanded opening it's second location (Dobie Mall) and DKR called it a day. Austin's vibe had shifted.  You could feel it.

 

23 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

Nail poised above coffin lid in 1977 when Ron Mullen was elected to City Council. Nail firmly driven into coffin lid in 1983 when he was elected Mayor. 

Doug Sahm said 1977.

I say when they closed Red Rose. 

[Bevo 13577]

When did they stop doing the fraternity rodeo? Where was it held?

[Continental Op 3934]

When the fox and hound on 4th street closed. 
The Jennifer Cave murder.
I’ll add when UT switched to Nike. Nike at that time started pumping crazy money into marketing.
also what about when that old honky tonk on south congress closed? Or maybe it’s just been buried by high rise real estate projects 
 

When Waterloo Brewing closed down to put that shitty Fox and Hound in there to begin with.

[CooterBrown 18012]

When Waterloo Brewing closed down to put that shitty Fox and Hound in there to begin with.

Haha. Lamenting the closing of a chain bar like Fox & Hound just screams you moved to Austin from Dallas with your parents paying the lease on a 3-series.

[Jerry Callo 8703]

At some point The Lizard Lounge closed and was replaced by Polly Esters.  Austin dies shortly before that.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

I’ve posted these before. The skyline shots were just me trying to finish a roll to get processed. Nothing special about these photos except that they are from the time and place we are discussing. Going to stop into C Mart for a Great White.

Anyone remember this West Campus character? John was his name. I wish I had gotten a portrait of him as well as Martha.





The above are from 1998, this is from 2003 or 04.