Restaurants and Bars you liked that closed down

EZ's. Player's. Showdown on the drag; great place for a burger and soda/beer and a game of darts.

 

I used to like to go to the old Players sports pub by the corner of the drag and MLK. (I think this is the same Players you reference above). Good burgers, nachos, and onion rings. Best place to watch the Horns when we played away games. Good camaraderie, loud cheering, packed house, massive big screen tv, and very lively Longhorn atmosphere.

That patch of real estate was just too valuable for it to last. They tore it down and built some nice fancy building on that site. I think they may have put a new Players in there, but I've never been in it.

 

Let me just put this out there: I tip my hat to anyone that manages to keep an independent restaurant in business longer than 10 years. It's one of the toughest businesses to make it in and most don't survive long. Looks easy, but it's not.

Same goes for bars.

 

I agree, but get you a niche market and it does happen:

Barbecue Inn on Crosstimbers since 1945

El Patio on Guadalupe since 1952 (??)

El Gallo on Gessner since 1973

Taste of Texas since 1977

Bars not so much. Had a well known guy in my Bible study class that owned multiple well known bars around the state. He told me that he spends seven figures renovating a place, get his investment back in 2-3 months, his profit in months 3-6, then hopes to lose no money while he's planning the renovation sometimes between months 12 & 36.

 

"El Patio on Guadalupe since 1952 (??)"

Love that place. Best Tex-Mex dive near campus (or at least it certainly used to be). Also was DKR's favorite Mexican food joint.

 

It's still there and good as ever. Mrs Joseph finally raised the prices a couple o years back, after refusing to do so for a couple of decades.

Eat there before or after every home game. Proud to say that we walked in a few years back, and as always she gave me hug, then said, "It wouldn't be football season if you and your family didn't show up".

Great family. great food. best hot sauce around - always take a couple of containers back to Harris County.

 

Cheap beer by the pitcher, foosball, darts. I wasted spent a few evenings there when I lived in West Campus.

 

Damn good steaks but the last time we went there it was a 2-hour wait. No reservations. There are plenty of good steaks around town though and I will never again wait that long to get a table. There’s a Saltgrass just down the road from me with a very nice prime rib.

 

Great place indeed! Often had a multi-generational crowd of students and older (sometimes much older) locals.

By "or at least it certainly used to be", I meant perhaps some new place(s) have come in near campus that make even better Tex Mex food than El Patio. After further reflection, I find that possibility to be highly unlikely...

 

Are they still serving saltine crackers instead of tortilla chips?

 

Nope.

Every summer, Mrs Joseph took a lengthy vacation with two family members, always driving her Cadillac. The joke became that every vacation, David would make changes while she was gone. One year, she half jokingly asked me to to come to Austin and prevent David from changing anything.

In my friend's defense, everything but the crackers was in my opinion a positive change:

1) Removing the crackers, although they may still be available on request. I don't know since I'm consumed with the hot sauce & big chips

2) Enclosing area outside the door, so you could wait inside.

3) Adding the bar

4) Adding the TV for sports events

5) Adding a margarita machine

6) Moving the autographed photo of Ben Crenshaw's Ryder Cup Team from the entry way to the dining room. (That upset me not Mrs Joseph because it has made it impossible for me to walk out with it.)

 

Upon request only. Chips come out with the salsa these days.

 

So the old whispered grumblinga from the back pews "I wish he'd hurry up and finish the sermon so we can beat the Baptists to the cafeteria" are fading into history as we speak.

Since it's Sunday and all...

 

Very true. We left Austin in 2000 but still dream of being back until we go back. We kind of feel like we are the native Coloradans who hate the Texans that come up and take over. I can't blame the soulless from CA individually, but damn, you people pretty much ruined the definition of a "cool" city.

 

OMG, Seis Salsas! My business partner and I would eat there at least once a week, we loved it. We owned a movie production services company and were pretty much hung over every day we weren't working and breakfast at Seis Salsas (at about noon or so) was a great way to start the day.

 

From info gained on other threads:

Add El Patio and Huts to the list...
Very sorry to see these two Austin institutions go away.

 

Holley’s on Louisiana - fantastic seafood, great service, super fresh oysters. Fell victim to Harvey.

Beloved Houston Seafood Restaurant Holley’s Shutters

 

Does anyone remember the pizza joint that was on the drag, west side of the street across from Dobie Mall? A middle-aged hippie ran it. I always loved eating pizza and drinking beer in there because he had Schiltz Dark on tap. One time I told him I wanted something different and he made a popcorn shrimp pizza. Until this past summer, I'd never had anything that came close to it. But I found a pizza joint close to the wharf in San Francisco that made it pretty close to what I remembered.