Hole In The Wall on Guadalupe in Austin

The Hole in the Wall, on the Drag, across from the University of Texas in Austin has been my favorite dive bar in Austin for over twenty five years. I would have said twenty seven years but they closed down for a year or so a good while back. I have seen Rosie Flores and Emmy Lou Harris share the stage in there. I saw Doug Sahm with Jesse Guitar Taylor backing him up, may they rest in peace. They weren't booked to play, they just dropped in and joined the band onstage. I was once in the men's room, taking a leak, when a blind guy with a red tipped white cane came in and locked the door. He offered me a line of cocaine, which I politely refused, then he unlocked the door so I could leave and locked it again as soon as I left. It's the thought that counts. I have hours of sub par video tape of a band called the Nortons that I made in there over a period of many years. Someday I'm going to convert it to DVD. Yeah, someday when I'm not so lazy. About the only major changes to this place have been the removal of a severely smoke stained, scuzzy drop ceiling and worn out astro turf flooring plus the addition of a second bar in the back room. They have shuffleboard and pool tables plus lots of cool memorabilia behind the bar and the tip jar has survived three different owners and at least ten years. They just got some new solid bar stools and they seem to fit my butt better than the old ones did, so you know I'll be going back again soon. Heck, I'd be going back again soon even if they didn't have any bar stools. It's just that kind of place.