Donn's Depot on Fifth Street West of Lamar Blvd.

This is one of the very first places I ever went to in Austin. In 1976 I came through Austin for the first time and went to The Armadillo, Soap Creek out on Bee Caves Rd. back on a dirt path near where Westlake is now, The Split Rail, some places out by Lake Travis and Donn's Depot. Back then 6th Street was someplace you didn't go except for Antone's when it was across the street from the Driskill Hotel. I saw B.B.King on that same trip through town. Now I've been here for twenty seven years or so and every bar I mentioned is history except for Antone's, but it has moved three times since then, and Donn's. It's a time warp. It has changed a little bit, I'm sure some of the furniture is newer than it was then and the carpet has probably been replaced a few times plus the deck out front wasn't there in the seventies, but it is virtually the same now as it was then. They have had free popcorn for thirty years and it is still dark enough that you can meet your girlfriend without your wife finding out even if some nut job comes in with a video camera. Not that I would ever do anything like that, but I could and I would blend into the dark recesses. This isn't a review blog, it is just a beer joints in Austin blog, but if I were doing reviews I would give this one a whole bunch of stars.
http://www.myspace.com/donnismyhomeboy