Austin360 blogs > Bottlecaps & Wingnuts > Archives > 2008 > March > 10 > Entry
You should miss Beverly’s
Beverly’s, that seedy-looking biker bar on the southern end of South Congress, is gone. It appears that the 81 Club, the seedier-looking joint just a block north, has also closed its doors for good.
And with them, goes a part of Old Austin that will never come back.
Closing down an old bar is like cutting down an old tree. You can’t just replace ‘em. It takes time. And I’d bet more young saplings grow into old trees than new bars last long enough to build any sort of character.
The 81 Club, I’ve driven around it a couple times in the past week during prime bar-operating hours, and it’s been locked-up and deserted. It wouldn’t surprise me that it would close without a peep — I’ve only met one person who admits to ever going in there (besides the old guys that were in there the several times I went). I’m sad it’s gone, but it never had the charisma of its neighbor.
I was there on Beverly’s final day. I only knew of it because a friend had alerted me to John Kelso’s column about the end.
I had wanted for years to write the epitaph for Beverly’s in the Statesman. I had wanted to research the bar’s history, talk to some old-timers, spend some time in there, hear the stories and write a moving essay on why Austin should care that it was gone.
I had wanted to, but not bad enough, I guess. Being “Mr. Mom” for my 11-month-old son for most of each day didn’t leave me the time to invest in the project or the opportunity to research.
But I learned a few things. It’s only been Beverly’s since about 1980, but the building has been a bar since about the time Prohibition ended. Back when South Congress was the highway to San Antonio and that spot was a ways from town.
The place survived a massive fire in 1994 — its customers wouldn’t let it go.
When Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson needed a biker bar for their TV movie “A Pair of Aces,” they used Beverly’s. Deep in the Statesman archives we have a photo of Willie and Kris standing in front of the joint — I’ve seen it.
I even heard somewhere, though I can’t confirm it, that the bar was used in the closing scenes of the music video for “Pancho & Lefty.” If that’s true, it would mean that at one time, Willie, Merle Haggard and Townes Van Zandt were all in that room.
I thought about that while I was there about 5:30 on Sunday. I was there alone and I wasn’t there long. Half an hour and two Lone Stars and that was it. As much as I appreciated the history of the place, it wasn’t my place.
I had on my work boots, jeans and a T-shirt. But the time may be over when I could pass for just another blue-collar laborer, the way I did in so many bars in my 20s. I’ve grown soft and it’s not just in the waistline.
Nobody knew, I suppose, that I had a grocery list in my pocket that included “cheerios, granola bars.” Or that a Curious George stuffed monkey was sitting in the carseat in the back of my Xterra in the parking lot.
Still, nothing like an old bar. This one had been just about stripped: The bench out front was gone, the signs were gone, the interior was barren. I guess regulars were taking home keepsakes.
I was about to go when someone asked me if I wanted to buy a picture of the place. Sure. Why not? It’s a fuzzy computer print, but it shows Beverly’s in all its glory on a sunny afternoon.
I’ll file it away in my man room somewhere. Sometime, years from now, someone will see it and say “hey, what’s that place?”
I’ll be able to tell ‘em: It was a biker bar. A place that could be friendly. And a place that could be trouble, if you were looking for it.
It was a real bar. And I went there on its final day to say farewell.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: By Dave Thomas
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By JAN
March 19, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
i started going into beverly's way back in the early 80's. it was a country western bar back then. had a band every friday night and standing room only. of course the buckeneer was still open then. only if the owners wife had not run off with the money.
By Lee
March 10, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this
Those far South Congress bars have some colorful reputations, to say the least. One time I was planning to go to a Gulf Coast Playboys show at the New Chaparral Lounge (is that one still in business?) and I told this to John Conquest (who back then was publishing his "Third Coast Music" magazine here in Austin). He's a person with an affection for seedy bars, but even he gave me a look of shock when he heard where I was going. "What's the matter?" I asked. "They don't like outsiders?" He replied, "Man, they don't like EACH OTHER."
We had a great time, but the show was in the middle of the afternoon, so I probably didn't catch the full flavor of the place.
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Dave responds: That place is now the Casino nightclub, one of ... strike that ... the only place south of the river I haven't been in.