Downtown Austin Districts

Ringside @ Sullivans Being Torn Down?

Jude Galligan | January 8, 2011 |

Thanks to a friendly tip directing us to a facebook update by Curtain Call, the popular Ringside lounge, next to Sullivans, in downtown Austin’s Warehouse District could be torn down. According to the update demolition could begin as soon as Monday. I used to go to Ringside quite a bit, and have lots of good memories from that place.

“We have been informed that Ringside at Sullivan’s is going to be torn down (starting Monday) in order to make way for a new bar/restaurant that will be a cousin establishment to Sullivan’s.”

No news on what the new concept will be, so if you have an info on that please use the comments.

-Jude

Spotted: New Bar Coming to Rainey Street Neighborhood

Jude Galligan | December 31, 2010 |

No, not that one. Or that one. Not these, either. Another one…

East Avenue Lounge, located along frontage road at 90 N IH-35 (aka East Ave), has posted their TABC application notice. This is an interesting property. It faces I-35. It has an upper and lower porch. In fact, it’s the only legacy two story structure in the area – a defining characteristic that hopefully will be embraced with creative uses and design. The proprietors will likely benefit from lots of “on the way home” traffic. While inside the boundaries of downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood, this structure is located outside of the Rainey Street Historic District.

View Rainey Street District in a larger map

Downtown Austin’s W Hotel Trace MENU & La Condesa New Lunch Menu Items

AG | December 19, 2010 |

Trace Main Dining Room — The W's Restaurant "Trace"

Just a week or so ago, The W Austin Hotel in downtown Austin held it’s grand opening. Boy, that place is nice. Jude and I visited the lounge areas and had dinner at Trace (link to Yelp reviews) on our visit. The decor is swank, and the menu is trendy. The dinner menu is separated into five categories: foraged, farmed, crafted, hunted, or shared, and the hotel restaurant has even hired an official forager, Valerie Broussard, to select local produce for the plates.

A little pricey for some plates and a little small on the portion sizes (which, honestly – is to be expected, this is a *fancy* hotel restaurant, after all), but delicious overall. I had the Winter’s Garden salad, the Pumpkin Agnolotti, a basket of fries (from the bar menu – which I don’t have), and a glass of Merlot, all wonderful – the cost was about $35 + tip. Here are the menus – breakfast, lunch, and dinner (they apparently change fairly frequently, maybe seasonally?, – but this should give an idea on food type and price range) To enlarge each image, click once on the image to get to the image page, then click the image again. More after the jump.

Tipping Points & Lawsuits

Jude Galligan | December 13, 2010 |

After months of complaints, Enzo night club is being sued by the Monarch apartments. This is not surprising, but the suit could be unfounded if Enzo has been operating in compliance with existing laws. According the article, city police and fire officials believe they have been. Behind the scenes, various advocacy groups are discussing the bigger question: are existing compatibility laws failing a mixed-use downtown?

Outside of the established entertainment districts of E 6th Street and the Warehouse District, there’s unrest brewing between downtown residents and night clubs. These two groups evolved in the same playground over the past decade. Now, both seem uncertain about the rules and who’s playing by them.

Can’t we all just get along?

One of my favorite books is Freakonomics – a book that challenges our core economic motivations. I’m a perfect example of irrationality. I am a downtown property owner. I believe that scarcity creates value. Using purely economic instinct, I should support the anti-height and anti-density sentiment we’re used to seeing from ANC, since the expected result would be less real estate for my properties to compete with. However, I have qualitative interests that go beyond simple economics. So, I do support height and density initiatives designed to create more housing in downtown.

In similar fashion, a club owner might want to limit the creation of new bars in downtown Austin in order to preserve their existing fiefdoms. Why desire more competition, right? I know many bar owners, but I’ve never once heard them say “there’s too many bars”. It makes sense, as they don’t want to be blocked from opening future concepts/locations.

There’s also the argument for economies of agglomeration, which helps to explain why destination entertainment districts thrive.

Responding to exogenous forces

Remember when the City of Austin banned smoking inside bars? If you do, you might recall the uproar from bar owners suggesting that would kill their business. In the long run, bars adapted. The response was to take business outdoors to rooftop decks and open air lounges. This phenomenon paralleled the residential boom in downtown, and created new Outdoor Music Venue challenges for lawmakers (to be discussed in another article). Look around. Now, there are more bars than ever in downtown Austin.

Another reason for the surge of bar development: parking. CBD bars don’t need onsite or adjacent parking. By requirement of the law and/or lender, onsite parking isn’t as important to a bar’s success than it is for retail and restaurant uses. So, it’s no surprise we’re see more bars. They’re simply easier to build, finish out, and operate. CBD zoning enables this.

Still tippin’

According to the Texas Bar Nightclub Alliance (TBNA) there are more alcohol retailers in downtown Austin’s 78701 zipcode than any other zip code in the United States!

I went to the TABC and pulled all of the permits in 78701, and found approximately 290 permits.

Big whoop, Jude. What’s your point?

At what point are there so many night clubs that they collectively begin to erode the quality-of-life for residents and visitors of downtown? I think the answer has to do with compatibility, more than raw numbers.

Have you seen the vision for Congress Ave? It’s mixed-use. These pics from the holiday stroll should help you visualize it. Downtown Austin is more than just bar-centric nightlife. Night clubs outside of the established entertainment districts (E 6th & Warehouse) need to play nice with their neighbors. And residents need to support the ones that do!

I support the Downtown Austin Plan’s recommendation for conditional use permits for new downtown Austin night clubs outside the entertainment districts. It’s a softball pitch for stakeholders to foul out the bad players.

Jude, stop being lame.

Meh, get off my proverbial lawn. Few new night clubs add to our city’s brand and goodwill. IMO, we’re at the tipping point of problematic “bar creep” outside of the entertainment districts and into areas envisioned for more mixed-use.

Maybe I’m growing up, and through the course of business I see more families in downtown Austin than ever before. I see, in aggregate, the billions of dollars homeowners have invested in their downtown residences.

Unlike E. 6th Street (aka. “dirty 6th”), W. 6th Street was not a major destination until there were 1,500+ high rise doors and $500,000,000 in residential multi-family/condo property tax base surrounded it. Rainey Street wasn’t a destination until 1,000+ high rise doors and $250,000,000 in residential multi-family/condo property tax base surrounded it.

Entertainment “districts” are a piece of the Downtown Austin CBD pie. Not the whole pie.

-Jude

DON’T MISS IT!!! Capitol Tree Lighting, Holiday Sing-Along & Congress Ave Stroll: SAT 12/4 @ 6PM

Fred Schmidt | December 3, 2010 |

UPDATE: This is last year’s post. This year’s Holiday Stroll is on Saturday the 3rd!

Once again, KUT and the Downtown Austin Alliance will bring you the annual “Holiday Sing-Along and Downtown Stroll.” It’s now become an annual tradition. Last year an estimated 8,000 people attended. This year, with the beautiful weather expected Saturday evening, maybe 10,000 or more?

It’s all happening Saturday, Dec. 4th. KUT’s John Aielli will be on the south steps of the Capitol building leading Christmas carols beginning at 6PM. That is immediately followed by the lighting of the Capitol Tree on 11th Street, at the head of lower Congress Ave.

Then everyone takes a leisurely stroll down “The Main Street of Texas”, Congress Avenue where many businesses will be open late and have decked their halls and display windows in holiday style. One sidewalk-adjacent travel lane on each side of Congress will be closed to vehicle traffic from 11th to 6th streets to accommodate the crowds.

Along the Avenue you’ll discover loads of wonderful live entertainment in office building courtyards and on street corners. Refreshments, children’s activities, shopping, a Bicycle Zoo parade and more are also part of the merriment that will go on for a couple of hours.

There will even be a Santa’s Workshop. And the jolly big fella himself will be found holding court in the lobby of One American Center at 6th and Congress.

As long as you’re in the area, also make a point of taking in a few blocks of Historic East 6th Street too (before the Saturday night revelers show up after 9pm). East 6th looks lovely this time of year with holiday street decorations its entire length, the majestic Driskill Hotel all dressed out (don’t miss a peek inside), and many local businesses are showing their spirit.

What a fine night for a carriage ride around Downtown, too! The horses usually line up in front of the Driskill. (That’s a great photo-op, by the way.)

It is also requested that you share the spirit of the holidays by dropping off a jar of peanut butter at the downtown Christmas tree for Caritas to distribute to those in need.

This event is made possible by generous sponsorships from Whole Earth Provision Company, Goodwill Industries, The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum , Ballet Austin, InStep, Louis Shanks Home Furnishings.

(Compiled from information from the Downtown Austin Alliance and KUT. Capitol and caroler photos courtesy of the Austin American-Statesman. Driskill lobby photo in HDR courtesy of Trey Ratcliff, www.stuckincustoms.com)