ustxtxb_obs_1977_11_18_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

GOODBYE, LOUIE’S Louis Hens. vet Joe Chesse Remember Louie’s? The Sinatra records, the after-game crowds, the quiet retreat after that last exam? Well, by December 1st after one last hurrah on Saturday, November 19th Louie’s will be leveled for a state parking lot. Yes, it’ll be gone forever all except for Louie’s “antique” bar top, which has rested some of Texas most famous elbows. Louie has donated this Texas landmark to the Joe Christie campaign for the U.S. Senate. This historic bar top will be cut into squares and mounted on attractive certificates signed by Louie himself. These pieces of Texas past are available for a modest investment In Texas’ future a $10.00 tax-deductible political contribution to Joe’s campaign. Send Joe a check Then come by and say goodbye to Louie’s Deer Joe. Here’s my check for Plesse send rile pieces of Louie’s. Name Qty State Pd. poi yely. addbanyed by T. Loa. Convent. \(IS SV.., MT Au… ‘Nub TVOT 4 Dm Col* Trtstartr. To: Joe Christie The Christie Committee 813 Brazos, Suite 703 Austin, Texas 78701 Last call at Louie’s By Colin Hunter Austin Louie’s Bar in Austin is an ugly green building some 30 feet deep by 50 feet wide. About 1,500 square feet at the corner of 18th and San Jacinto. Or, as the State of Texas views it, 8.33 parking spaces for a proposed government office building which may open sometime in 1979. So after 25 years, Louie’s must go, sacrificed to make room for eight and a third automobiles. “I’ve been drinking beer here since 1954,” a patron confides. “I started coming because it was close to campus and the juke box had the only progressive jazz in town. Now it just seems to me that after all the people the Texas Legislature has screwed around over the years, it wouldn’t hurt them to forget the one little place between the university and the Capitol that doesn’t belong to the damned state.” Louie’s never seems to change. Just another beer joint where air conditioning ducts describe a soft geometry on a dusty ceiling while through the dim light an electric beer sign bubbles in blue and gold. Around the edge of the room a quiet procession of customers slowly wears down the seats of the hardwood booths. But political intrigue and passionate romance have occasionally been known to flourish here, despite a stray cobweb or two strung above five plastic clocks quoting five different times. Campaigns and marriages alike have been planned 22 NOVEMBER 18, 1977 for and plotted against under the eyes of Louie’s plaster longhorn. The chic go elsewhereto fashionably laminated places where they can relax and be comfortable with a more sanitized version of Texas. To be sure, Louie’s is a crude and embarrassing remnant of a time past. It is not the sort of establishment where a waitress/coed shares her name with you before suggesting a Tequila Sunrise. Not a disco, not a trendy watering hole nor swinging singles bar, it is nothing but the purest essence of a Texas beer joint. “It’s kind of like belonging to a club,” says our friend. “After you’ve been in a few times you get to know most of the Sinatra songs on the juke box and the things tha Louie says all the time. Then later when you walk in, even if you don’t recognize any of the other customers, it’s still not like you’re drinking beer alone . . not really.” But Louie’s reputation is not restricted to a handful of local partisans. In fact, any list of the bar’s regulars over the years would be practically a Who’s Who of Texas. \(To give you an idea, a few days ago Tom Wicker came by just so he could see Louie’s before the bulldozers Recently, statewide ads have announced a “Goodbye Louie’s” celebration for Nov. 19. As a highlight, the crowd will see Louie’s old bar sawed into small squares and distributed to all who have contributed at least $10 to the U.S. senatorial campaign of long-time patron Joe Christie. Then all assembled will mourn vigorously the loss of the little beer jointanother victim of politicians, progress, and parking lots. So, unless the , state yields again to Louis Mecey’s’ pleading and grants his bar another condemnation stay, the hard truth is this: Monday, when the other drinking places in Texas open for business,.Louie’s won’t. 0 Colin Hunter is an assistant editor of the Observer. Al op, 01 ok, M41 vo41 !Mew Ily,,,Commay toy n and t purclux um, Me Fule131 onvuitton, WasIvKlon OC