Memories of Our Austin - Places

Dodge City Steak House

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:57:18 -0700

Anyone remember Dodge City Steakhouse out Lamar I beleive? They had sign saying if you have long hair you dont eat here. It was a riot. We would always mess with em' and try to get in. Then there was the Stallion, and the great 2 chicken fried steaks for like a buck and a half

SAHARA MOTEL

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:51:41 -0700

Does anyone remember The Sahara Motel on Lamar? It was a dump in the early eighties when I actually lived there for about a year with my boyfriend and two cats, but the air conditioner was cold and the rent was cheap. There were still a few bedraggled palm trees but the swimming pool was long since abandoned, quite a few people lived there. I liked it.

Music second to none!

Mon, 03 May 2010 22:03:16 -0700

The Black Cat Lounge, i believe they sold $2.00 Lonestar beer. and The Armadillo, saw patti smythe, Frank Zappa, Cars. greatest place nothing like that in NJ.

Swedish Hill Bakery on 6th

Mon, 03 May 2010 20:42:07 -0700

A New Jersey transplant. Hooked up with a Texas native, fell in love and stayed for 6 years! Worked at Swedish Hill Bakery on 6th street while going to school. Some of the best Sourdough bread ever made. famous couissants and fabulous cakes, cookies, you name it, couldn't beat it. We were commrades. Long hours, great times. I used to get there at 5am. travel down Bee Caves. So peaceful in the morning back then.

The Treehouse Restaurant

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:31:16 -0700

The Treehouse restaurant was a fairly highbrow eatery, its name came from the fact that the main dining room was built on stilts, in the treetops. You parked below.

You can still see the remains across from the Doughetry Arts Center on Barton Springs near South Lamar. It was open in the 70s, closed, then reopened briefly some years later. Its been shuttered for a very long time now.

Texas Tavern

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:09:49 -0700

Some of my fondest memories of U.T. were spent over a the Texas Tavern in the Student Union Building having a beer while I studied. Or pretended to study. It was huge, expansive with an enormous wooden bar. TV's all around. Always had this weird mix of people actually trying to study and the rest of us having a good time.

Sadly I will also remember it as the place I watched the final flight of the Challenger in 1986. Several hundred of us crowded around the TV sets trying to see what happened.

The Jasmine Isle in Buda

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:21:14 -0700

Jasmine Isle in Buda - Wahoo! Long before Buda was the center of the universe and popularized on the "You Won't Believe This Sh*t!" TV crime show, with wives killin' husbands and stuff, Buda was a tiny near-ghost town relic of old time Texas.

In '72 or there abouts, a bunch of hippies who had enough money to travel to Java or some such far off hippie place (maybe India), came back to Travis County and decided (probably in the throes of some un-Christian drugs or Eastern philosophy), to start a hippie restaurant in bootiful downtown Buda, in the top floor of an old hardware store.

Whoa! Shades of Alice's 'you know what', and doggone it, the food was great, and the ambiance was straight out of Pier One (maybe The Cadeau), with tied dyed bedspreads for drapes, and giant wire spools for tables, etc.

Me and Charles John Quarto went there several times and had good food and good vibes, you know?

Just another Bozo on this bus...

the Magic Time Machine and others

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:07:54 -0800

I moved here at the age of 5 and grew up in the suburbs off Northwest 183, but going downtown was such a treat. This is the 80s, so I'm a little behind... but I bet at least some of you worked at The Magic Time Machine. I know it's a chain and that there's one in San Antonio, but I have a feeling the Austin version was, of course, the best.

That place made me want to grow up to be a waitress. It looked incredibly fun-- you got to dress up in costumes and entertain your tables-- to a kid it was extremely magical. We went only a few times, when people came to visit or for a friend's birthday party... but what a great place.

I remember one time coming out of the bathroom stall and finding Wonder Woman and Tinkerbell standing there bitching about someone while primping. I think it was the first time I'd ever heard the f word.

Others:
Mad Dog and Beans - a bus trip to the drag with my friends at thirteen and a quest for this place in a summer downpour, then freezing while finally downing our millkshakes while soaking wet...

Steve's Ice Cream - I still have a sweatshirt, stained with chocolate ice cream which I had won by playing Madonna's "Cherish" on the piano.

Showplace Pizza Parlor? (Not Showbiz) I need help with this one-- don't remember where it was or even what it was called but man that place was incredible-- 1920's era silent movie theater with an actual organ player, nickelodeons and a creepy mummy behind yellowed glass-- and I remember the taxidermy cappuchin monkey with the little cymbals... it was so great and I barely remember it now...

And that big boat my bus always went by on the way to school- right at 183 and Mopac now I think-- the Showboat for a little while? Hazy memories... I always wanted to go there and then it shut down. Maybe that pizza place was near there.

I don't suppose anyone else ever lived North enough to frequent the Mr. Gatti's on 183 near Anderson Mill Road? This was our post swim meet party room and those old wooden booths were so caked with graffiti and carvings I can still see them. How many little swim team kids can you cram into a booth at Gatti's? Something like 60 I think. I might be exaggerating...

Remembering Ken Featherston

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:13:39 -0800

Ken Featherston was from my neighborhood near Oso Park in Corpus Christi. I knew his sister from school and the neighborhood, but just saw him around, cause he was older. We were all proud of him though. He was off in Austin working a staff artist (here's a cover he did for the Marshall Tucker band) and as a bouncer for the Armadillo. That lead to his death. In 1975 he was working security for a Pointer Sisters show at the Armadillo. Someone had been escorted out by another fellow, and unfortunately that person thought that they should come back and shoot and kill somebody. So we lost him. I just want him to be remembered. So, here's a link to some of his posters done for the Armadillo and for sale by wolfgangs vault. If you hunt around you can find more of the cover art he did for albums. Who knows how famous he would have gotten if he'd not been killed so young, but he was famous with me.

Texas Sun

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:36:22 -0800

Here's a treasure trove for all of you with fuzzy memories of Austin in the 70's. A full scan of the Texas Sun newspaper from 1977. I'm sure that there's more to be found but wow... check out those club listings!

Coors Beer

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:46:15 -0800

The old memory is fading fast, but remember living in Austin in the mid 70's and having to drive to this little C-store (I believe somewhere out by Lake Travis) to purchase what was then a new, must have, beer - Coors. Remember pulling up the Store and there were car loads on folks walking out with cases of the stuff. Not sure why or how the situation - but that one little store had the market for a short period.

Davis Hardware on Congress Avenue

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:48:11 -0800

I loved this place. It was on the east side of Congress around the 300 or 400 block. Loved the smell and looking at all the unique things there. My dad bought me my first rifle there from Smokey. He ran the gun department and everybody went to see Smokey. I still have that rifle. Haven't shot it in 30 years.

Oak Hill Bars in the 60's

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:41:19 -0800

I practically grew up in the bars out in Oak Hill. It was very rural then and pretty tough area of town.

Highway Cafe, run by Grouchy was my parents favorite.

The Western Inn, the last incarnation was Serrano's before it was torn down. Spent lots of time there too. Had a track that us kids played on. Dug crawfish out of the banks of the creek behind the place. The owner went to jail for cattle rustling. Steaks were cheap.

The Spot. Very small place close to what is now Oak Hill Liquor. Had a little red dot that spun around outside. My sister's father in law's favorite place.

Sportsman Inn... tough place, lots of gambling went on there. Many pool tables. Coleman's garage is now located on that spot.

Circleville Inn. corner of Circle Drive and Thomas Springs Road. Great story with that place. Shooting took place there and the fight was on again at Brackenridge in the emergency room. It was one of the toughest places around. Lots of cedar choppers went there.

The Little Wheel.. now the location of the 290 Bar and Grill. Good little beer joint with a small dance floor.

Cottonwood Inn.. Across the street from the Circleville Inn. If you felt like getting into a fight go to either place.

Later on...The Silver Dollar. Our 10 year reunion (Crockett High School) in 1980 involved a visit to this dancehall.

Squirrel's Inn

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:38:28 -0800

This little green building on the corner of Barton Springs and Riverside Drive was next to my dad's shop. He went there most every afternoon to knock down a couple. Threadgill's is there now.

I just remember the longnecks and the small glasses that they poured the beer into.

The Day John Lennon Died

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:49:01 -0700

Who was here that fateful day, Dec. 8, 1980? It was actually the day after that I remember. I was awakened, as always back then, to KLBJ-FM. Note, that was when KLBJ was good; before it changed into their current "Hey man, let's party!" blazing guitars and hair mode. Anyway, the DJ was very somber and announced that Lennon had been killed the night before. They played only Beatles and Lennon that day non-stop, no commercial breaks. I had to go to work but I was completely shocked into an altered sense of being. The Beatles meant so much to us all. Around 5:00pm or so, I was at my girlfriend's apartment and she told me of a gathering at Zilker under the Zilker Christmas tree... we had to go.

What we found there was a very large but quiet crowd of Austin under the tree. Some had brought candles to pass around and soon there was a large circle of folks, all holding candles, around the base of the tree, all facing in. We cried, we sang, we thought of the damage that Mark David Chapman had done. We all knew that things had fundamentally changed that night. Austin certainly never felt the same again. It seemed like from that day forward, the pace of change in Austin has done nothing but get faster, accelerating away from us.