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Austin dive bars.

Armybrat

By Armybrat
in Food and Travel

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  • 2 years later...
Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted

Dammit Brat, I was just there.  Why didn't you post you were going?  I'd love to buy you a drink IRL.  And then hit on your great, great-granddaughters after being overserved.

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  • 11 months later...
UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9432

Posted
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14 hours ago, stc said:

have been frequenting the silver medal at 290/183. tiny bar that smells like cigarette smoke, has cheap lone star on draft and a solid burger. open 3pm-2am every day. definitely an old school dive. 

Maybe see you there soon.

I live on the south side of 290, drive by there every day, somehow have never stopped in.

definitely looks like my kind of place and the marquee kinda sums up all of surly: “where everyone’s almost a winner”

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  • 2 weeks later...
Al Czervik

Al Czervik 1229

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Posted
On 6/28/2019 at 8:06 AM, Deej said:

But Chester isn't. Rest in peace, Chester.

Catching up on this thread. 
Chester’s funeral was the only funeral where Al couldn’t hear part of the eulogies because the audience was digging around in the ice chests and popping beers.  Chester was a good guy. 

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19450

Posted
Posted (edited)

Drove out to Dripping Springs via 290, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to see some family before heading North on turkey day proper.  Was very pleased to see at 2:00p the parking lot of Boomerz full of about 20+ cars.   I'm guessing a bunch of lone drinkers seeking fellowship around a major holiday.  

I don't think there's a single other functioning business in that strip center. But Boomerz still going strong.  Been 25 years since I first stepped foot in that place and became a regular from about 1999-2005.  Haven't been in there though in at least a decade.

csb/ My favorite time there will always be watching Texas v. Xavier in the Sweet 16 in 2004 (iirc).  It was a Friday during Lent so Robbie/Robby (bartender probably in his 30's) was doing a fish fry in the alley behind the strip mall.  Nothing about this was remotely up to health code.  He was using a friend's fryer and some "fish" he brought in a busted cooler with paper plates and utensils he procured from the Thai restaurant pad site.  Robbie would often wear board shorts and flip-flops because he either showed up to work after being on the lake or he was heading to the lake after work.  That evening was no different.  But it was late and his wardrobe was bone dry.  But he would hustle between the bar and the fish fryer out back all night while we played pool and watched the 'Horns lose to Xavier. 

Finally he comes back in and regales us with a story of a guy he'd never seen before a few days earlier.  Guy comes in, drinks a bunch, and can't pay his tab.  Tells Robbie and a regular that he has his payday check but can't drive to go cash it because he's fucked up and doesn't know where his car is.  Promises to buy the regular drinks if he'll drive him by the bank real quick before 5:00p.  Regular agrees and drives him back up 290/MoPac to some bank over there.  Guy runs in and runs out and tells the regular to get them back to Boomerz quickly.  Guy pulls out wad of cash and buys the whole bar drinks for the rest of the afternoon.  Well, it turns out the guy robbed that bank, while shitfaced, and Robbie ended up with a till of marked bills and didn't know if he should call it in to the authorities.  Great fucking story.  But the part that always puzzled me is while he was telling us this, I noticed went to check the fish in the alley in dry shorts and came back behind the bar with his swim trunks dripping wet.  To this day, I think there may be a secret creek behind Boomerz.  

Edited by YGIFS
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Deej

Deej 76768

Posted
Posted
On 12/5/2022 at 6:37 PM, Armybrat said:

My son’s back yard band played at the Carousel Club last week. He’s on the drums. 
They were asked to come back for New Year’s Eve. 
Nobody got shot or stabbed, so I guess it was a quiet evening.

 

705F19C8-FFEF-46FD-86BD-AE991084943C.jpeg

Why would anyone get shot or stabbed at The Carousel? That's a decent neighborhood, now. 

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40840

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18 minutes ago, Deej said:

Why would anyone get shot or stabbed at The Carousel? That's a decent neighborhood, now. 

I forgot the area has been somewhat gentrified since the Mueller development went in. My oldest son used to frequent the place using his fake ID when he was in high school during the mid-1980s.

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19450

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Deej said:

Why would anyone get shot or stabbed at The Carousel? That's a decent neighborhood, now. 

It's been awhile since I was in that joint, but I remember a shitfaced patron yelling, "We all will be renewed at Carousel!"  And I laughed, raised my drink, and shouted "To Logan's Run!"  Bartender and me smiled, everybody else stared at me like I killed a puppy, and the guy that yelled the original quote fell down and knocked himself out.  /csb

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Wiler77

Wiler77 1566

Posted
Posted
On 12/5/2022 at 11:50 PM, Al Czervik said:

Catching up on this thread. 
Chester’s funeral was the only funeral where Al couldn’t hear part of the eulogies because the audience was digging around in the ice chests and popping beers.  Chester was a good guy. 

Chester always had time to sit with customers and tell a dirty joke or three.  I spent more nights there than I'd like to admit between 1997-2001. One of my best friends was a waitress there and, by extension, I was friends with every waitress.  I think every girl in that group of friends waited tables on occasion because it was a good, but hard earned, $100-$120 per night in tips. And free fried mushrooms for me.

I lived with my cousin at the time, and one time we were there, and the Back Page Austin Chronicle hooker he ordered the night before was there with a guy. We both recognized her immediately and she shot us the "don't say a fucking word" look immediately.  Always wondered if she had a boyfriend or husband and the guy had no idea.

Took my dad there one time he came into town shortly after I turned 21.  We walked in, and all the waitresses rushed to give me a hug and brought us a bucket of Miller Lite without me asking, which was my standard at the time.

Dad: "How are your grades this semester?"

Me: "Well, I'm learning a lot."

Dad: "I can imagine."

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19450

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, Deej said:

"That man was Wulaw"

And that bartender serving us?  You guessed it.  Frank Stallone. 

Old austinites bitching about the way it used to be is exhausting, always has been.  Old drunks complaining about how different bars are nowadays is exhausting, always has been.  But as somebody trying to go sober who closed down more Austin dives since 1996...we had really good dive bars in this town.  Maybe we still do, but I doubt that it's as plentiful as it once was.  Just the way markets work.  But there was a time you could, in the dead of Winter, walk into Buddy's Place at 6:59am while it was still dark out, and walk out at 9:37am in broad daylight, the exact opposite of how bars should work...and have had a great time with new friends and good music and brush your teeth to get the beer taste outta your mouth before breakfast across the street.  To all the knife shanks I avoided in South Austin from 1999-2006.  The things I did in the Horseshoe Lounge bathroom.  My god...

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11049

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Armybrat said:

I forgot the area has been somewhat gentrified since the Mueller development went in. My oldest son used to frequent the place using his fake ID when he was in high school during the mid-1980s.

 

Way back in the mid 80s sometime, my roommate bought me a scratch off for my birthday, and I won 200 bucks. I cashed it, called up a bunch of friends, bought a bottle, took it all to the Carousel, laid it on the counter, and announced "beers and set ups on me until the money's gone."

edit to add: I stuck a tenner in my sock for the cab ride home.

 

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

And that bartender serving us?  You guessed it.  Frank Stallone. 

Old austinites bitching about the way it used to be is exhausting, always has been.  Old drunks complaining about how different bars are nowadays is exhausting, always has been.  But as somebody trying to go sober who closed down more Austin dives since 1996...we had really good dive bars in this town.  Maybe we still do, but I doubt that it's as plentiful as it once was.  Just the way markets work.  But there was a time you could, in the dead of Winter, walk into Buddy's Place at 6:59am while it was still dark out, and walk out at 9:37am in broad daylight, the exact opposite of how bars should work...and have had a great time with new friends and good music and brush your teeth to get the beer taste outta your mouth before breakfast across the street.  To all the knife shanks I avoided in South Austin from 1999-2006.  The things I did in the Horseshoe Lounge bathroom.  My god...

 

Back in the early 80s my driver's ed class was next to the horseshoe. Weeknights for something like two weeks. Dad would drop me off, then hang out in the horseshoe.  After class was over, I'd scrape him out of there and drive us home.

Edited by High Plains Drifter
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royiv

royiv 9308

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11 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Back in the early 80s my driver's ed class was next to the horseshoe. Weeknights for something like two weeks. Dad would drop me off, then hang out in the horseshoe.  After class was over, I'd scrape him out of there and drive us home.

Uber Jr.

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UTPhil2006

UTPhil2006 3807

Posted
Posted (edited)

Don’t have a lot to add besides that 12 years ago today (according to Fb memories) one of the first couple Prodigy Mortgage Austin Shaggy HH’s was at Betsy’s which was the back side of some bar which was Oslo before that. No clue what it is nowadays on 6th. @lonestar3 was the bartender at the time. 

Edited by UTPhil2006
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YGIFS

YGIFS 19450

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A friend of mine opened that place up.  I liked it the couple times I was in there.  Obviously not as great as the Horseshoe, but what is/was?  Not going in there now that I try not to drink and there's literally nothing in there by alcohol and darkness.  But I think he tried to pay honest homage to it and pulled it off respectably.  I've been in "bars" without drinking but there is food or games or some shit. 

But haven't been to a true dive bar in a long while because there's nothing to do but sit with your thoughts and a drink.  I guess that's a mark of a good dive bar, "Would somebody trying to quit come in here?  If so, you're just a piece of real estate that happens to serve drinks to some folks who are trying to meet other folks."  A true dive bar serves only two purposes.  Anonymity and heavy drinking.  All else is commentary.  

I have to admit I kinda want to go see the holiday scene at Nickel City though.  Longbranch Inn was an old favorite of mine, but this place does pay decent homage and has a great holiday finish out.  

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