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Food Fight on Sixth: Bratwurst VS. Oysters

Fred Schmidt | July 16, 2010 |

Over the past few weeks, an interesting “struggle” has been growing between Austinites on the issue of whether the Best Wurst sausage cart should have its sidewalk permit renewed to vend in front of Parkside Restauarant.  The scene is the southeast corner of East 6th Street at San Jacinto, the heart of the East 6th Historic & Entertainment District.

Best Wurst has been selling yummy treats from its cart there for 17 years and has grown quite a popular customer following.  The owner, Jon Notarthomas, is a hard-working Austin musician and entrepreneur.  He pays $450 per year for the vending permit and transacts tens of thousands of dollars in business from his cart.

Parkside is a lovely fine-cuisine restaurant that opened in the circa-1920 building where Dan McKlusky’s steakhouse previously existed.  Shawn Cirkiel, the chef, and his Austin family purchased their building, valued by TCAD at $1.6 million, and completely renovated the property when opening the restaurant a couple of years ago.

Sidewalk vending permits must be renewed every 3 years and it is now that time for Best Wurst.  Parkside is opposing the renewal.  There are many reasons involved but the basic one is simply “incompatibility”.  This restuarant is not happy with having another food vendor directly outside of its front door.  City officials are caught in the middle.

There are many opposing perspectives arising through discussions of this matter:

“Old/Iconic Austin” versus “New/Emerging Austin”.

Upscale dining versus inexpensive street food.

Property owner rights versus temporary permitted uses.

Large investments and big taxes on property+liquor+sales versus modest investments, small fees and sales tax only.

The sensibilities of Austin’s sidewalk vending permit process versus national best-practices for kiosk-style vending in public common areas.

The growing desire for East 6th to revitalize itself to make better 24/7 use of its century-old historic district presence versus maintaining its more recent four-decade reputation as “Dirty 6th” where young folks go to get shitfaced.

Phew.  That’s a lot to take in right there.

What do you think about all of this?

Loads of media coverage and other resources available if you’d like to absorb further before weighing in:  News story on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin 360.  TV coverage on News 8, Fox News and KXAN.  Best Wurst’s website and its new Save The Wurst Facebook site with some 3,000 fans.  Parkside’s website.

Filed Under: 6th Street Historic & Entertainment District, austin history, austin lifestyle, austin news, austin restaurant reviews, downtown austin, entertainment district, history, life in austin, small business

ArtHouse Has Some History

Jude Galligan | June 15, 2010 |

Chris Lynn at Republic of Austin has some cool back story to the renovations taking place at the ArtHouse.

Before it was the boxy ArtHouse, the block at 700 Congress had a couple of other significant iterations. The building, erected in 1851, was the first 3-story brick building in Austin. For 70 years it  was a silver/high-ends goods store, law office and drug store. In 192o, it underwent its first renovation to become the Queen Theater.

I’m struck by the similarity of design that Lerner Shops had with Buttrey’s on W 6th.  The clean mid-century modern architectural lines seem to include: brick facade, three stories, wall of glass on the ground floor, metal awning/canopy.  Cool!

Filed Under: austin history, Congress Avenue District

Wild About Music – The Real Estate Tale of an Iconic Downtown Business

Fred Schmidt | May 24, 2010 |

The Wild About Music booth inside Bluebonnet Market

When Jude recently asked me start writing some stories for DAB, he thought it might be beneficial for folks to get a sense of my “downtown history” from the perspective of a local retail business owners’ leasing odyssey over 16 years.  OK, here goes!  I’ll stick with the angle of space and location because you can find out more about the business itself, Wild About Music Art & Gift Gallery (WAM), by stopping in at 115 E. 6th, across from the Driskill Hotel, or checking out our fine website here.

My partner, Shelley Meyer, and I started out in 1995 by buying the name and assets of a tiny sole-proprietor hobby business located inside the old Bluebonnet Market on the NW corner of Neches and East 3rd.   A late-90s expansion of the Convention Center resulted in demolition of the Market which stood right where Exhibit Hall 4 is today.  We took that little 200-sf booth and set out to expand it into our vision of a 5,000-sf all-music-themed art and gift gallery, plus office and warehouse space.

The Wild About Music booth inside Bluebonnet Market
The original Wild About Music: a 10×20 booth inside Bluebonnet Market, 1991-95

We knew we wanted the business to have a heavy Austin and Texas flavor — to celebrate the confluence of art and music in this region and its influence on local culture.  As a dedicated “urban retailer” we wouldn’t have anything to do with malls or strip centers.  We required authentic vintage buildings/spaces with a more natural local vibe.  Downtown has always been the only choice for us, no matter what the challenges have proved to be.

Ironically, even though WAM’s heart and soul is grounded in music, we wanted nothing to do with East 6th Street at the time.  We had watched it decline in the late 80s and 90s to a cheesy array of shot bars raided by late night college kids and mostly vagrants wandering the blocks by day.

710 W. 6th in 1996
710 W. 6th in 1996

So our first stop was 710 W. 6th, the building where J.Black’s and The Ranch reside today. We figured we’d still catch some of the global  “Sixth Street brand” cachet but stay away from its problems by being west of Congress.  With a 5-year lease in hand on the long vacant former furniture store, we rolled out a fun piano keyboard entry foyer handmade with one-inch tiles, dressed out the big display windows mighty fine, filled out five giant rooms full of the coolest art and sculptures you’d ever seen, hung some outdoor speakers to lure in passersby, and waited for the customers to show up!  We waited alright.

710 W. 6th Today
710 W. 6th today

For a year we watched the cars stack up out front with the backup at the Lamar traffic light.  We soon realized we were about a decade ahead of “the scene” forming in that neighborhood.  There was only Katz’s, Opal Divine’s Freehouse and us at the time.  Oh yes, and Leslie making visits to the MHMR clinic across the street where Molotov now burns red hot.  There was supposed to be a big retail center going in where Whole Foods stands today that would help bring more shoppers to the area.  Never happened.

We knew we were doomed unless we got the heck out of there fast.  Fortunately my longtime commercial real estate agent, Don Cox, quickly found us a great sublessee, a dot.com company to use our space as offices during a growth spurt for the remaining 3.5 years of our term.  In fact, Don was so fast, we had not yet even found a new home for ourselves!  So we packed up our goods and fixtures real snug and moved completely offline into some teeny vacant space around the corner behind Katz’s.

721 Congress windows alive with light and color 24/7 during WAM tenure, 1997-2004

Finally, after three months, our search yielded an amazing new spot: 721 Congress Avenue, the Main Street of Texas, right next door to the historic Paramount and State Theaters!  It was a fabulous open building with huge display windows that wrapped around it’s great corner location at 8th.  It even came with a 60+ year retail history as the home of locally-owned Reynolds-Penland men’s store, a predecessor to today’s Keeper’s (6th & Congress).  The Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel was not there yet, but we knew that our friend, Tom Stacy, would not rest until he got that derelict building at the other end of the block completely remodeled and open again.

Wild About Music had an excellent 8-year run on Congress, growing together with the resurgence of downtown as a whole during Kirk Watson’s energetic mayoral reign.  We found profitability and success there despite nearly being driven out of business by our landlord — who was the neighboring State Theater (pre-merger with the Paramount) — when they intentionally busted through the common wall into our leased space with a crazy expansion idea for box seats during their renovation.  But I digress; that’s a whole other story.

The 8th St. display windows of 721 Congress when WAM was there

We loved being in that 700 block of Congress — the only fully intact (both sides of the street) historic block left on Congress between the Capitol and the river, I may add.  We had excellent synergy with concerts, plays and events at the Paramount, and enjoyed good camaraderie with fellow retailers a few blocks in both directions.  We would probably still be there today had fate not struck again and our lease expire about the same time.

The theaters (merged by then, along with the ownership of our building) had fallen on some hard times financially and our building was put up for sale.  With hopes of maybe owning our own real estate and getting out of leased-space vulnerability, we planned to buy the building ourselves.  But the location ended up getting cleverly bundled together at auction with undeveloped overhead “aerial rights”.  That put the bid pricing at more than double fair market value for just the land and existing building, thus also way out of our price range.

721 Congress today
721 Congress today: empty for five long years

It forced the sale into the hands of a developer who had visions of million dollar condos stacked eight floors high and a big fancy steakhouse right where we sat.  He couldn’t wait for us to have to vacate, coming in the very next day and gutting the space.  And that’s how it remains to this day: sadly empty, not even a fresh coat of paint on the outside in 14 years, dirty windows, and absent a few nice temporary displays to help brighten the corner and the rest of that wonderful block.  It’s a fitting monument to when development gets ahead of reality…runs over yet another iconic local business…and then the new building owner doesn’t even have the pride and decency to maintain his building in a manner worthy of being on The Main Street of Texas.

But hey, that saga ended happily after all —  at least for us.  With contents once more loaded onto moving trucks and, once again, no new downtown home yet secured, we landed in our current funky, multi-level space in the Littlefield “Mall”/Garage/Apartments on a prayer and a lease done on a scrap of paper in about 20 minutes.  No joke.

I had inquired about this same long-vacant space several times over many months prior to our need to move.  Each time I was told: “you don’t fit what we’re looking for.”  But with nothing to lose, I tried one last time.  The leasing agent who I had spoken with previously was out of town, so I ended up chatting with his partner.  After explaining our plight, he agreed to meet us over at the space.  As prior AT&T retail space, it was perfect!  Then he said:  “Why, sure, we’d love to have y’all in this spot.  But the building is for sale so we can only give you a month-to-month lease.”

SRV In Front of OK Records at 115 E. 6thAlthough quite nervous about the term (or lack thereof), the next day we were in there painting and arranging.  A few weeks later Wild About Music re-opened downtown for the fourth time.  An interesting sidenote:  This also happens to be the very same spot (but in a previous building that stood there) of the original location of Austin’s famed Antone’s Home of The Blues, and the adjoining OK Records.  Here a young Stevie Ray Vaughan posed with his guitar out front for a classic Austin Chronicle photo that also later became the album cover of Blues At Sunrise.

Somehow we have managed to last for almost 6 years now on those month-to-month terms.  (Please, someone, knock on wood.)  This despite four changes of building ownership over the first four years.  During two of those painful interim holdings we were told we were soon going to be history again.  Once to be replaced by a high-end spa and salon to service an upscale South Beach Miami boutique hotel; clearly “WAM did not fit that formula,” we were told.  Then, later, another threat by a Walgreen’s coming to invade historic Sixth Street via our space — yes, I know, pathetic, aye? — because “a national-credit tenant could pay far more than a little local business,” said yet another very important leasing agent.

Fortunately we now find ourselves in the care and attentive property ownership of T. Stacy & Associates and their great staff.  We know full well that handwriting is on the wall and another move still looms large in our future.  Our block has been designated for some very intensive redevelopment one day.  Some of it would have already begun had the recession not intervened.  But at least with Tom Stacy on the other end, we also know that we will have loads of advance warning and likely plenty of helping hands to make sure we do alright in any transition.  Perhaps we might even end up right back in the same spot post-redevelopment (if we could survive an interim solution half intact).

Wild About Music today at 115 E. 6th
Wild About Music today at 115 E. 6th

Alternatively, our hope is to find Wild About Music a permanent home within one of the amazing old buildings of East 6th’s majestic Historic & Entertainment District — to experience a return to the days when buildings like those on East 6th were, in fact, owner-operated buildings and businesses.  As a visitor to the street you should be able to evidence an O&O shop by the pride exhibited in the fastidious exterior presentations, the warmth and genuineness of the interior business offerings, and the down home friendliness of the proprietors and staff.

That’s why I serve on the 6ixth Street Austin board.  That’s why I and my fellow board members are so passionate about the renewed vision for this street.  That’s why we and a handful of fellow dedicated E.6th property and business owners are working tirelessly to bring about much needed change to the street after two decades of dirt, neglect and despair.

Sure, it’s still fairly dowdy in spots right now.  And we know we need additional quality daytime offerings like more shops and galleries, a few more unique eateries, and more live music venues back on the street.  But we do have a vision: to become the premier destination for the best of Authentic Austin owned and developed businesses to be found anywhere.  And, importantly, a plan (to be discussed separately) to get there.

Thanks for reading.  To be continued…

Filed Under: 6th Street Historic & Entertainment District, austin history, austin small business, downtown austin, entertainment district, retail

Norwood House Has A Posse

Jude Galligan | May 4, 2010 |

We’re supporters of preserving significant properties in Austin, Texas.  After years of decay, it appears that one such property is heading down the road to recovery, thanks to some passionate Austinites.  Live in Austin long enough, and eventually you’ll notice that abandoned bungalow structure on top of a hill at I-35 and Riverside.

Located at 1012 Edgecliff Terrace (gmap), the “Norwood House” didn’t always look this way.  Perched above the dog park, this property has majestic views of downtown Austin.  In 1985 it began to suffer the cruel bureaucratic fate of cost cutting, once the City of Austin took control.

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157623833565557″]

Around this time last year, DAB reported on Posse leader, Wolf Sittler’s work to bring private funds to the aid of restoring the house for the benefit of the city.  KXAN is reporting that enough money has been raised to begin removing asbestos roof.

One [great] idea being discussed is turning this into a rentable banquet space.  PARD is certainly open to the idea, and those cash flows could help finance the renovation.  Right now that’s just optimistic thinking and the Norwood House needs your support.  For more information, you can contact Wolf Sittler via www.restorenorwood.org.

-Jude

Filed Under: austin history, downtown austin

The State Theatre

Jude Galligan | November 19, 2009 |

Next to the Paramount Theatre on Congress Ave sits another theatre.  The State Theatre is managed by a non-profit, Austin Theatre Alliance, which also manages the Paramount.  In recent years, you couldn’t be blamed for completely missing the theatre from the street-scape vantage point, though countless photos and postcards highlight the giant “State” neon monument.  In 2006 a broken water main ravaged the State Theatre.  At the time, its next door neighbor, 721 Congress Ave was under development by Sinclair Black (who was also the designer of the theatre’s renovation in 1994-1995).  The two buildings share a basement, and logic dictated that the State Theatre allow 721 Congress to get further along in its development plans.

Cut to November 2009 and 721 Congress Ave is still a shell of a building with little prospect for achieving Sinclair’s vision anytime within the next five years.  What will happen with the State Theatre?  We don’t know.  The State Theatre has not reopened for performances, though its acting school never closed.  There’s been no updates published about their renovations or plans going forward.  Just as the Ritz Theatre on 6th Street (another mid-century movie house) has been given a new life with its tenant the Alamo Drafthouse, we hope the State Theatre’s best days are yet to come.

Filed Under: austin history, downtown austin

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