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Austin -- We are losing this place


DalTxHornFan

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So pretty much from Manor to Airport?  

My god, they're gonna take away local establishments like Short-Stop Burger, Chevron, and that creepy ass Arcade place?  

The real loss will be Nature's Treasures.  Which, I recently discovered when I walked in, is not a strip club comprised solely of women with natural breasts.  But rather, a rock & gem shop.  How can the government and come in and just move this indigenous rocks?  (What?  Igneous rocks?)  Oh fuck them, pack your shit. There's a U-Haul next door, they'll help you.

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Hey, founded in 1984, Short Stop is as much Old Austin as that costume place everyone was crying about.  And the clientele at that particular Short Stop, is just as weird.

In unrelated news, I once saved a friend's life at The Crazy Lady.

 

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Actually we used to hit up short stop all the time when we lived in cherrywood.  My stoned roommates would buy me a burger if I’d drive them to rent movies at the blockbuster across the lot.  We’d get home and somehow all the fries were in the blockbuster bag, and the short stop bag contained only Dr Zhivago tape II.  
 

it’s really gone downhill, believe me.  Stopped there about a year ago.  Food sucks, took longer than a what a burger. Pricey as shit too.  I can’t figure out why so many day laborers were waiting there for so long with no bathrooms.  

one good thing that ugly cylinder UT building that used to Be Pharmaco test center is going away 

your crazy lady story already sounds better than mine.  You go first. 

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I live around the corner from Short Stop. I think it's fucking delicious for a drive through burger place. And if you like Sandy's on Barton Springs road you also like Short Stop. It's the same burger/ingredients just different branding for some reason. And Short Stop doesn't have custard or ice cream. 

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1 hour ago, MalibuSheriff said:

What the?

Hell, I’m a damn Okie and have eaten at Dan’s a “half-a-hunnerd” times.  Live a little!

Crown & Anchor is the burger I miss though…love that place.

Well, now that one I've had and, man... good and still relatively cheap.

I will fix the Fran's oversight this month... I think of that often when I drove past it on the way to/from Radio or driving above it on Ben White

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On 1/9/2023 at 4:19 PM, irishtexan said:

I live around the corner from Short Stop. I think it's fucking delicious for a drive through burger place. And if you like Sandy's on Barton Springs road you also like Short Stop. It's the same burger/ingredients just different branding for some reason. And Short Stop doesn't have custard or ice cream. 

You obviously go more frequently than I.  Just saying last couple of trips were a disappointment.  But every restaurant had off-days during Covid.  I need to take the kids to Sandy's for custard after the park someday soon.  Can't believe I haven't done that sooner.  

Dan's on Manchaca still going strong.  Stop by there whenever I gotta drop off/pick up my vehicle from the mechanic down the street.  Breakfast is fantastic as stated above.  Just go inside too, the drive-thru line sticks out onto the street and makes What-a-Burger look efficient.  In the drinking days, a couple of pints at Radio and then a dan's double with hickory.  Oh my lord...

Maybe short Stop can stick around, but I think any and all pad sites will be removed for highway.  That Gulf Station there at the NE corner that they've been working on for years.  Looks like they're on pace to finish the day it'll be demolished for the highway.  At least they'll recoup their costs.  Or will they?  

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11 hours ago, YGIFS said:

You obviously go more frequently than I.  Just saying last couple of trips were a disappointment.  But every restaurant had off-days during Covid.  I need to take the kids to Sandy's for custard after the park someday soon.  Can't believe I haven't done that sooner.  

Dan's on Manchaca still going strong.  Stop by there whenever I gotta drop off/pick up my vehicle from the mechanic down the street.  Breakfast is fantastic as stated above.  Just go inside too, the drive-thru line sticks out onto the street and makes What-a-Burger look efficient.  In the drinking days, a couple of pints at Radio and then a dan's double with hickory.  Oh my lord...

Maybe short Stop can stick around, but I think any and all pad sites will be removed for highway.  That Gulf Station there at the NE corner that they've been working on for years.  Looks like they're on pace to finish the day it'll be demolished for the highway.  At least they'll recoup their costs.  Or will they?  

Went to Sandy's tonight just for grins... cheeseburger and cone... ughhh... so full.

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2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

We went to Dan's because of this thread.  Cheeseburger, fries, onion rings and milk shakes.  I'm gonna die Elvis Presley style on the shitter.

Add in a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich on top of that, let us know if that doesn’t do the job. 

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Was doing the Dan’s thing back in the day when the Congress location was lit with the drive up and hookers. Dealt with the Dan and Fran’s thing because I always loved their hamburgers. Plus, the owners children went to Travis and not the other suck ass South of the river high schools (at the time). Will be hitting up the Manchaca location this week just because of this thread. 

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8 hours ago, Al Czervik said:

Was doing the Dan’s thing back in the day when the Congress location was lit with the drive up and hookers. Dealt with the Dan and Fran’s thing because I always loved their hamburgers. Plus, the owners children went to Travis and not the other suck ass South of the river high schools (at the time). 

I owned a house in Travis Heights for years, right behind the fire station.  Walking distance to Fran's, Magnolia Cafe, Texas French Bread, Guero's, eventually Homeslice.  I spent a LOT of weekend lunch hours at Fran's with my young kids -- they loved that place and the staff loved them.  Good peeps.

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Thanks for link.  I really just wanted to work in the hipster microfiche angle since the digital age is what literally changed Austin forever.  

Glad to see they acknowledged at the time, the massive significance of the MCC relocation to Austin (cool backstory behind that involving Neil Kocurek and Admiral Inman).  It's so weird to read that in the mindset of somebody in 1983, as opposed to now when the issues facing the city seem so quaint.  That must have been a real shock at the time.  But also eerie that even in their present mindset of 1983, the interviewees seem to be glamorizing and over-romanticizing the city's recent past.  

Comforting to know we've been listening to the "Don't Houston my Austin" bullshit for 40+ years now.  Although 40 years from now, we may look back and say, "Shit, I wish we could be like Houston 'cause I don't know what the fuck's going on here anymore."  

In other news, wasn't exactly an old-Austin stalwart...but 14 years in the food business in this town ain't nothing.  But just saw that Counter Culture closed earlier this month.  Really liked that place  

 

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20 minutes ago, Mittens said:
Quote

Robert Lane, president of the InterFirst Bank, the largest here, said the city's ''paranoia'' about growth had led it to neglect roads and services. He believes the city must devise a long- range ''road map'' to see beyond the weekly battles over zoning and development that consume the City Council.

Still waiting on that mother fucking road map.

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It's a trip to read all those names.  I was a young engineer working in some pretty exciting defense and then startup realms, and had the chance to rub elbows with a lot of those local movers and shakers.  The defense research was closely aligned with MCC execs, and my first startup had an employee who was close with Bobby Inman, who advised us regularly.

And then there was the time when I went to traffic court to act as an "expert witness" (lulz) for a friend who got busted for running a red light.  She was the roommate of my girlfriend, both of them in UT Law School, and all 3 of us went to court to put it to the justice system.  We succeeded, but only because the cop didn't show up.  On the elevator down afterwards, a somewhat older (mid-late-30s) apparent mover and shaker started chatting us up.  It was Gary Bradley, already going through his first bankruptcy, and he invited us out for drinks and maybe dinner on his dime.  The dude was worth NEGATIVE more than I was worth positive and yet he got comped everything all night long.  I think he fucked my girlfriend's roommate that night.  I kept close tabs on my girlfriend, though.

It was an eye-opener.  The +/- sign doesn't matter, it's the number of zeros that matters.

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Just an anecdotal observation: the wife and I just took a quick weekend trip to New Mexico to relax.  Talked with two people who HAD lived in Austin, but didn't any longer.  First was our waiter, who was kind of a bohemian type, looking to live the relaxed lifestyle.   He said that 15 years ago, he lived in Austin for a while, then went back to home (SOCAL), and had to decide on where he was relocating -- northern NM, or Austin.  He picked NM, and he's glad that he did, as he couldn't afford Austin now, and the stuff he liked (easy, cheap music everywhere) is much less available.  And my wife got a massage from a gal who has been something of a nomad, and similar story -- she had lived in Austin for a couple of years several years ago, but got out when she could see the mellow nomad-ish vibe changing.

It's interesting.  Even 5-10 years ago, when we'd travel and tell people we were from Austin, we regularly got the "oh, I hear Austin is so cool" or "I love Austin, I'm trying to find a way to move there" response.  In more recent years, we're hearing more of the stories I cited above -- "I spent some time in Austin years ago, but I left."  Again, anecdotal, but interesting.

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20 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Pics of the masseuse?

Shoulda done so.  Athletic blonde, lots of tats, natural look.  Real-deal old style nomadic hippie chick.  The kind of thing you used to see around Austin a lot.

Now, 90% of the women you see out and about in this town are clones wearing the ubiquitous "flat brim hat of Instragram chicks":

1b8ab89c5dd31f3098220fdf63e21768.jpg

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8 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

I think I could live in NM 

I really could as well.  Sure, it's a poor state, but the people are really nice, the weather and scenery are gorgeous.  Lots of outdoor options easily accessible.  Good food (with some good healthy options, great farmer's market system there).  And I noticed on our drive that their roads -- both I-25 and some of the smaller state roads we were on -- were in great shape (one stretch of I-25 had some potholes, though).  As a kid, I remember driving from Texas to NM, and you could tell when you crossed the state line with your eyes closed (the roads turned to shit in NM).  Today....the opposite is true.  Sigh.

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27 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I really could as well.  Sure, it's a poor state, but the people are really nice, the weather and scenery are gorgeous.  Lots of outdoor options easily accessible.  Good food (with some good healthy options, great farmer's market system there).  And I noticed on our drive that their roads -- both I-25 and some of the smaller state roads we were on -- were in great shape (one stretch of I-25 had some potholes, though).  As a kid, I remember driving from Texas to NM, and you could tell when you crossed the state line with your eyes closed (the roads turned to shit in NM).  Today....the opposite is true.  Sigh.

NM still looks like a hot turd compared to the surrounding states... as much as I love Santa Fe, most of the state is pretty dismal.  Yes, Taos, Red River, etc. but 95% of that state is in dire shape.  You seek it pretty much post places where you cross the border in/out.  Crossing north into CO past Farmington towards, Durango, its like you flick a switch once you cross the border... and its not like southern CO is shangri-la.

 

That said, give me Santa Fe any day.

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57 minutes ago, texasdago said:

NM still looks like a hot turd compared to the surrounding states... as much as I love Santa Fe, most of the state is pretty dismal.  Yes, Taos, Red River, etc. but 95% of that state is in dire shape.  You seek it pretty much post places where you cross the border in/out.  Crossing north into CO past Farmington towards, Durango, its like you flick a switch once you cross the border... and its not like southern CO is shangri-la.

 

That said, give me Santa Fe any day.

It's a poor state.  Travel the state highways, and there's lots of mobile homes.  But even the stark, bleak desert areas are beautiful (to me, at least).  That high desert stretch from Espanola past Abiquiu is fantastic.  And the state highways off of that stretch were in good shape, as we saw them.

And again, the people we meet are pretty friendly across the board, from the fancy shops to the dicey mexican food dives in Espanola.

There's plenty of pretension in Santa Fe and Taos, but it can be relatively easily avoided.

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