Texan Motel. photo by Mary Lowry.
This no-tell motel sits just north of the famous Threadgill’s Restaurant, which opened up as a gas station in 1933 and quickly became a popular place for drinking, live music and gambling 24/7 . Back then, North Lamar Blvd. was the Old Dallas Highway, and ran–two-lanes, no shoulder–straight to Dallas.
Once a country thoroughfare outside the city limits, this strip of street is now populated with the forgotten ones: day laborers looking for a hard days work for not much pay, and ‘exotic dancers’ ducking into Undercover Style for a new show outfit.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Pay. photo by Mary Lowry.
Thanks, Mary. Back in my Austin salad days, when sleepy South Austin was the center of the universe and the Armadillo WHQ was its thriving capitol building, that stretch of N. Lamar was sweet redneck Americana, a Route 66 kind of place.
An expat living in Dallas since 1986, I grieve for the Austin that was. But, it was like a delicious chocolate cake left out on the porch. Leave something that fine out there and it’s going to get gobbled up, and what’s left is going to get covered by flies.
The soul-sweet core of Austin is still there, though, buried under the new people and new cars and new buildings.
My people are still there, most of them, like old river bass hanging under the best rocks and moss.
Yep, they’re still there. And I never should have left.
Sonny, come on back!
That strip of N. Lamar is more endearing to me because it’s populated these days by down-and-out, struggling folks.
But there are also plenty of fun-times to be had there. The Korean kareoke bar stays open until 5 a.m. and at Korea Gardens, the sushi floats around the bar on a conveyor belt.
And of course Threadgill’s still serves up soul-satisfying, heart stopping food.
And if you’re looking to get tattooed or pierced “Quickie’s” can get the job done in a jiffy.
Ah, yes… I’ve eaten enough of those Threadgill’s chicken fried steaks to be walking proof that they will not kill you. Or they would have killed me for sure.
Let’s not forget to pay homage to the Stallion Drive-In at N. Lamar and Koenig where even guys with no noticable facial hair could score a six-pack and go to the Chief Drive-in across the street with a date you wouldn’t take to the fraternity party. About a year ago there was a Chinese casino about a block south of Koenig and N. Lamar, and it got busted. They lost all their 6 liners. Its still an active area even though the cops park their cars there. As a sign of the times, the Yellow Rose just fired all the girls over 30. Hard times for everyone.
Speaking of chicken fried steaks, anybody remember Kirschner’s on Burnet Road? Back in the 50′s if you happened to be a McCallum High School student with a car, you could load up some friends, drive to Kirshner’s, eat a big super-good platter of chicken fried steak, salad, french fries, and onion rings, pay Mrs.Kirschner 75 cents and get back to school–all within the thirty minute period allotted for lunch. No lie. If you didn’thave a car you could walk to the Stallion, get a cheeseburger to go for thirty cents, and eat it while walking back to school. How about the Chicken Shack on North Lamar? You could walk there and back too if you wanted to eat your order of wings on the way back. And if you remember the Chicken Shack, then you have enough age on you to remember Hank’s Grill on Guadalupe. Hanks wasn’t within the thirty minute lunch range from McCallum, but sometimes a UT freshman could get a Lone Star there with his chicken fried steak. Joe