Let Congress Go

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I did something really unusual last night. What's that?

I went to the grocery store and paid with a check. All right, well, first off, that's why we're doing this.
Like, let's get into how season two of Good Morning Gus began. No contact from Gus.

Let's start that.

Let's start with that. I haven't heard...
from Gus since November of last year, probably. Not a like Merry Christmas or whatever, which is fine because I didn't get sent to TV.

We should say it's February now because this will probably come out in October. Yeah.

We'll get it out sooner. Oh my God, this place has all the best animals.
It's like February 5th or something with Alan Boots is what he's talking about. It's cool.
I can see you guys in it.

That's a good photo. Raccoon playing a guitar, it looked like.
Hell yeah. Or a ukulele.
Yep. So out of the blue, Gus texts Eric and I last night.
I just paid for my groceries with a check.

And Eric goes, Good morning, Gus, tomorrow morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
9 a.m. And then we just planned it.
You guys want to start recording now?

It was just such a out-of-left field. Of course, this is what we're going to be talking about thing.

Why did you do this?

There's something I used to say back in like the

roosting days when I was

on a ton of podcasts.

Lots of times I'll put myself in an unusual situation to have something to talk about. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah.

I was at a grocery store. I i wasn't like

i went to heb yesterday and while i was checking out at hb

this is not where i paid for the check while i was checking out at hb

it took forever for my credit card to process like what i sat i stood there for a long time and i asked the cashier like is it broken do i need to like tap it again she's like no it's just slow and then later eventually it worked And then later in the day, I read in the Austin subreddit that all of HEB's payment terminals in the city at least were down.

You had to pay cash in HEB. Oh, wow.
I was like, oh, that's weird. That sucks.

And then later in the night, I needed to run to like a neighborhood little grocery store, not like a big store, but small neighborhoods, not a convenience store either. It's like in between, right?

It's one I go to a lot.

Go in, grab a couple things that I forgot. Checking out, tap my card.
Again, it takes forever. And it says like, cannot process transaction.

And then like one of the other dudes who was working there, not my cashier, is like, oh, is it saying cannot process? Like, I need to go reboot the

internet. He's like, so he leaves, he goes like into the back office, comes back.
He's like, give it a minute, it'll work. Wait a minute or two, still not working.
He's like, let me reboot it again.

He goes into the back, reboots it again, wait a few more minutes. Still not working.

Do you have cash? I was like, are you serious? Oh, my God.

He's like, well, you come in here a bunch. I recognize you.
He's like, he gives me like a little receipt. He's like, just next time you're in, you can pay this.

And I'm like, I've got my checkbook in the car. He's like, what? I was like, yeah, I've got checks in the car.
Hold on, I'll bring it back.

So I went into my car, wrote a check for like six bucks or whatever it was I owned, I owed them, went back in and handed it to him. There is a joy in handing Gen Z kids a check

because everyone who worked there was like a high school kid. I will never experience the join your talking.
Yeah, the joint you're talking about, dude.

I think they all looked at me like I was trying to run some kind of scam.

I think I would have looked at you that way. Yeah, dude.
Yeah. I was like, here you go.
And there was the manager who had rebooted the internet, like, looked at it. He's like, hold on a sec.

He's like,

I guess I could just zero this out. Yeah, yeah.
He's like, oh, yeah, you're good. It's fine.
He doesn't even know how to sell it.

He doesn't know how to sell it against a check. I guess I can zero that.
I guess I'll just do it like you didn't buy anything.

What? Do you think? So I'm curious to see if this check clears my bank or

do you think that is the only check they will receive this year? Dude, that is the only check those people will ever see in their lives?

Yeah, dude, the way we're talking about it on this podcast is the way they went home and told all their friends, dude, this fucking guy came in and wrote a check today.

And their friend's like, are you serious? That's not in a museum. That's not check in a museum.
It had the guy's name and address and a bank. Dude, what?

Like, now I know where he lives, fucking idiot.

By the way, Hotel San Jose on the left. Pretty cool place.
Oh, yeah, we went to,

I go to Little Brother here on South Congress. I wanted to do something that felt like

hip-hop.

Austin, Austin. Well, I don't know if I'd call it hip-hop.
South Austin's like the the fucking spot.

Yeah, I don't know. So all the tourists go.
Yeah, yeah, to the tourists.

Well, San Jose is still the same, but oh, this is so different. Yeah, yeah.

This Southside Tattoo used to be over there on Mary Street, and that's where I got my tattoo. Used to be Incredible Inc., actually.

And then they changed the name to Southside Tattoo with the move, I believe.

But same people, yeah. You and I both, that was our tattoo spot for years.
I lost that place in my first divorce.

So

my first wife was friends with my tattoo artist, and so had to make a clean break. It was good.
Congratulations, man. Yeah, it's been here for a long time now on Song Congress.

It's probably been here since 04?

Yeah, probably since before that, 03, 02, someone else. Do you think most of their business is people walking in, like tourists walking in, going, I'm going to get a tattoo in Austin?

There's a fair amount of that, but I mean, there's a pretty decent, there's a couple of decent artists in there that are pretty booked out. Yeah.

So I think they have like, they probably have a couple of tattoo, like, younger artists that handle walk-ins. Yeah.

But the serious serious artists are the appointment only i'm sure interesting there's a guy named chris that used to tattoo that it was really good

and then next to it

austin landmark i think everyone knows continental club

um i think i've only been in there two or three times in the entire time i lived in austin you've got to continental club yeah yeah i've been a few times i saw mojo nixon play there once in the last

six yeah it's about I think everything you just said is like the most Austin thing you could have said. It's pretty, it's pretty special.

So this place behind this

Hotel San Jose is kind of a cool story because of the lady that created it. Her name is

San Jose.

Yeah, her name is Melissa San Jose.

No,

her brother is

the guy who started the. Hold on, I'm gonna cover down for a second because I can't remember those names.

I can make it on my own.

Gus isn't helping. What's the barbecue restaurant on

Franklin? okay oh uh so her name is

so what's a little brother no hold on this is all cut i'm just i'm trying to no way baby this is it

what are you talking about this is this is what the this is what the show is homestar runner little brother yeah i can make it on my own

okay sorry anyway so the lady The lady who started Hotel San Jose, her name is Liz Lambert.

And she's from Austin, became a lawyer.

I guess wasn't happy. I'm telling somebody else's story, but as I understand it, wasn't happy working in law in New York.

Decided to come back to Austin, bought the Austin Motel when it was an absolute shithole. I stayed in it when it was like $25 a night.
Shoe. It was a sketchy, scary place.

Flipped it around, turned it into a boutique hotel, started this thing called Bunkhouse. Yeah.
Bought Hotel San Jose. She owns,

well, owned

the Havana Hotel in San Antonio, the El Cosmico in Marfa that all the celebrities stay at.

And then then also a place over here called Hotel St. Cecilia, which is an old mansion just off the road back here.
It's a super private. Wow.

And eventually she sold Bunkhouse to, I don't know, somebody else. And then I think it's owned by Hilton now.
I don't think she has anything to do with it.

But yeah, she created this whole kind of hub in the 90s. And it was really, I don't know, it was cool.
And her brother is the guy who started Lambert's. The barbecue.

Cool. Louis Lambert.
Yeah, yeah. And so.
Why did you stay at Austin Hotel when it was $25 a night? Motel. Hotel.

we were it was a cheap place to stay in austin back when i was in the army oh you oh okay to put it in perspective before the late 90s like all of this here the south congress was all like super sketch yeah

like

you could like pull up in your car and buy drugs from someone standing on the side of the street and like this was all i remember in the late 90s when they started all this road construction between i don't know between like the river and ben white yeah and it was like oh that's probably the mid 90s actually and it was like oh all of this is going to change yeah and then that started the evolution into

a newer, nicer South Congress. And then that led to the gentrified South Congress

now. I don't spend any time down here.
No. When I stayed at the Austin Motel, it would have been 94 and 95, probably twice.
And it was the kind of place where you...

Like five of us were going surfing in Corpus Christi for the weekend or whatever. You stop in Austin.
You rent the room and then you go.

It's the kind of motel that you go into and you don't leave again until you leave the next morning. Yeah.
Like the door shuts and you just stay in.

But what if you're in the middle? you've already eaten and everything there's nothing to do you're not hanging out

now the Hermes store is like right across the street from it's like it is such a radical change from what it used to be back then couldn't it be a bigger change also joe's coffee shop right here is locally famous the i love you so much is on uh that's liz lambert she's the one that wrote that she also the same lady that owns the hotel

she wrote that for her girlfriend at the time i think they broke up years and years and years ago but the message remains that's fun why is the john deere store above marine layer on south cones dude i've been wondering that too.

I'm the one that's it. That doesn't track

the headquarters. It's right, but it's like Howler Brothers Marine Layer.
Like everything's here. The Gorham Brothers hat shop.
Like everything's here. And then the second floor is John Deere.

You know what that used to be? What? Alta Vista.

Really? Yeah. It used to be right there.
Whoa, where was Light College? Are you thinking of the Excite building? Or was it Excite? It was Excite, and it was further down. No, it was here, wasn't it?

I thought it was over at Custom Porn Store. No, no, there was an Alta Vista porn, too.

I think they were both here. There was the Excite building down there.
Oh, this This used to be Ultra Vista here. Okay.
Wow. Back in the late 90s.
Right there, that Aviator Nation store.

I fucking hate that store.

I hate that fucking store. What is it? They make the most generic, like, I put a guy surfing on a t-shirt and it looks like 80s Ocean Pacific.
Look at the motor. It's just Ocean Pacific.

With like 70s. It's always like horizontal stripes of patterned colors, but they'll charge you, you can go in and buy like a what looks like a comfy hoodie for like $400.

It sounds like you just described

what marine layer is, except they didn't slap a surfer guy on it. Yeah, marine layer is the non-surfer version of

Aviator Nation. I think Aviator Nation's been a little bit

around a little bit longer. Your logos are very similar now that you're doing.
I mean, it's exactly the same. It's horizontal sunsetty stripes, which when I look at it, I have a real fondness for.

I love the look. The look of those logos.
And it pisses me off. Exactly, because it's $400 for

what looks like a spalding hoodie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I'll tell you guys this without, I I don't want to call anybody out on our podcast, but we all worked with somebody who was a big aviator nation type person.

Really? I bet you can work together. I could take some, yeah, I could take some games.
Gavin Free. There you go.
Classic sales guy. Classic sales.

Do we keep walking down the road here? Yeah, yeah. Let's keep, let's keep hustling.
So we went to a little brother. You guys got kalachis.
Yeah. Some coffee or whatever.

Kalachi's work.

I wanted to get somewhere that was like,

what is a place that maybe you guys spent time in

before,

and now where we're at is so it's just fucked. I've spent a lot of time on this street in all iterations of it.
Yeah, um,

back in the 90s, this was the this was what you did every weekend. You would get up, you'd come down to South Congress, you'd go to antique stores.
There was a place called Uncommon Objects.

Oh, yeah, right over there. You could spend three hours in.
It was like a labyrinth of like just walls of junk that they'd kind of carved around. That place recently, right? No, it's still around.

It moved maybe six or seven years ago from here. It's over by

Ben White, over where El Camino South is where El Camino South is. Yeah, that's right.
They've got like a little hub of old Austin over there.

And on the weekend, they have a big yard, and on the weekend, they have like markets and shit in the back. It's actually pretty cool.

If you're looking to look for

insanely overpriced antiques

and crap, go to Uncommon Objects in Austin. It is very expensive.

But then I had a membership to the solo house, which is up here for a while, so I'd come here for that. Yeah.
Canceled that because it was dog shit.

But also, my favorite restaurant in Austin is on the street, so I come pretty regularly. Is it that

ABBA? ABBA? That Mediterranean place? Yeah. Been there a couple times with you.
That's a cool spot. This place is really good, too.

What is it called now? It's Jolene's.

Joanne. Jolene.
Joanne. Sorry, Joanne.
I was thinking of the...

I was thinking of the

Dolly Parton song? The Dolly Parton song for some reason. Used to be

not far, and then before that, El Solia La Luna, which moved to 6th Street for a while, but I don't think they've been there forever.

6th Street, totally different. Have you guys seen what's happening? Not in person.
I drove by it the other day. Really crazy.
Really gross. Yeah,

they used to close the street on the weekends. Right.
Pedestrians could wander and puke all over the place.

But now they're not closing the street and it's still open. Or they're keeping it open so cars can drive down.
I don't understand how that's better.

security but I don't understand how that's better

it's an interesting idea from the way that I understand it is the closed street gives people more space to fight yes

but the open street but this they they closed it in a response to the issue to the thing in New Orleans yes yeah which was somebody driving exactly exactly what it was so now they've given a lane for people to drive yes that's what the metal barriers are fucking dog shit none of it makes any sense to me and I saw some videos on tick tock apparently you just cannot walk up and down streets

it's just well because it's just lines coming out of like jackalope or whatever there's a cult up here yeah careful don't get indoctrinated what the fuck is this to butcher people in white shirts and blue caps uh this jenny's ice cream is pretty good out of the area

there used to be man all these places are different this is like yeah so wild this used to be a place that sold paper mache fucking

like mexican masks and dragons and stuff

but they were like twelve hundred dollars and they were so fancy and well

And I used to have to do all kinds of paper-mâché

projects with my second wife. And I would always come here and just be so angry at how good their paper-mâché was.
Awesome. And also be like, who would pay for this? And I guess.
No one? It's a...

Yeah, now it's a store now, so I guess.

This used to be like Blackbird over here. Yeah.
Yeah. Blackbird.

Yeah. And that's been gone forever.

You want to keep going? You want to cruise around? That's what you guys want to do. And then let's cross your dislike.
Okay. Yeah, let's cross.

Yeah. No, no, you guys are all good.

so it's all boutique, it's all boutiques. Uh, you guys want to cross? Oh, yeah, clothing stores and stuff.
Yeah, it, um, well, let's wait here. Let's not rush because we can still talk.

Yeah, it was all boutique clothing stores, and back then, I remember the move was to park back here, yeah, up this street, and like around the corner because everyone would try to park on Congress right here.

You would just park like one street over and just walk around.

You start at one end, and then

that's what I do on E6. Like, park, like, everyone wants to get like in the middle of it.
I just park by

like Violet Crown social club and then you have like the whole length to watch. Yeah.
And it's like, that just seems easier than having it, oh, I'm going to drive down this. Why?

Yeah, it is weird to see, I mean, I guess it makes sense and it was always going to be this way, but it is a little weird. I definitely have gotten used to it to see Cezanne and Hermes

and

Reformation. Well, what's weird to me is that when you look on the east side, like where this Billy Reed, like where we said Blackbird used to be and all of this stuff, this building's still the same.

This has always been here. You turn around and look at the west side, none of that was here.
Nothing.

There was like that docks, South Congress garage over here. There was that dry cleaner over there, and then a little further south.
Oh, that docks was all right.

Yeah, and but like none of these other buildings were on this. I'll tell you this: on the what is this, the east side, there wasn't a single building that was two stories, right? Oh, exactly.

Across the entire street until those apartments down the road got built in the early 2000s. All of this, it all looked like,

it all looked like the fucking

shopping center where

Amy's is over there. Amy's is.
Yeah, it was just old, cute little rundown buildings. Right, right.

I think all of those people are from that cleaning service? Yeah, that cleaning service. And they're doing like a

first day

showing you around here or whatever, which I guess is

cool.

I appreciate that they all had uniforms on and they were nice uniforms with like embroidered shit on it and they seemed to be taking it seriously. Yeah.
I thought that was cool.

Did you know what's driving that car? Waymo. Oh, yeah.
Let's just go. I got invited into the Waymo thing and then I couldn't use the invite.
It didn't work. So I'll never know.
Sad.

You talk to Brandon Farmahini about it. Yeah.
You got to drive your own car now like an idiot. Yeah.

Odds have you driving your own?

You come here to their miss store like every week, right? Oh, yeah, I'm here all the time. Yeah, they know you.

I actually, I designed the horse with the fucked up eyes and the dog with the fucked up eyes.

Those are my guys. You're like Norm from cheers in here.
Yeah,

yeah, but they call me Norm.

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I think if I walked into an Hermes store, they would immediately tell me to go.

And yeah, you took the wrong turn, buddy.

Isn't there, there's like an episode of The Simpsons where Homer's mad at Mo and starts trying to go to new bars, walks into like a fancy bar and like, the door greeter comes up to him and he's like, please leave, sir.

He's like, oh, dude.

If I lived around this area or whatever, this would be really cool to walk down and then go to Joe's to get some coffee. Or a little brother.
Yeah, you know what I mean? Like that, that would be cool.

But like, so much of Austin now is like, if you don't live in the pocket, you have to drive to the pocket. Yeah.
And then.

It's just crazy that we have pockets now, though. Austin didn't used to have pockets.
It just used to have places you drove to. I mean, that's really interesting.

I grew up in a city of pockets, yeah, and San Diego was just like little islands with stuff like you had to drive in between or whatever. Now it's a little more spread out and it's not so pocketed.

But Austin is all just like it's this neighborhood post. Yes, big time.

This is the garbage pocket. Yeah, well, who's in the garbage pocket? So, this used to be the fucking place to park too back then.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.

This Amy's here, if I'm remembering right, used to be it was the first Schlotzky's. Yes, you are correct.
It was the very first Schlotzky's. Yeah.
Yeah. It was just like an Austin company that

nobody remembers. People think that this has been here forever and it hasn't been.
This Amy's came in in the 2000s, I think, early.

Yeah, which is, I guess, comparatively a long time, but yeah, it's not like.

I remember when it was the new Amy's. I think what I said.
Yeah.

Lucky Robot? Lucky Robot used to be Zen Japanese.

What I'm going to say about Lucky Robot is I respect that at the door they put rated number two sushi. Dude, I think

they did not have the golly. Like the best sushi in town or anything.
Dude, not only did they do that, they said in big letters, rated number two sushi, rated number one best ramen lower.

Smaller form.

I respect that. I respect the honesty and how forthright they are.
It's like, listen,

but we're up there. They're essentially saying it's better to be number two at sushi than number one of ramen.
We're the number one best ramen, but don't fucking worry about that.

Come here for the sushi. We're number two.

Then, of course,

a lot of tattoos Gus and I got here at South Side Tattoo. Yeah, not at this location.
I got.

You never came to this location? I don't think I ever came to the control. I only went to the other one.
Back in the day. I don't think I've been there in

15 years.

Are we going to get Good Morning Gus tattoos?

No. My fan.

I was.

You do like a... What if we did this? What if you guys got Gs and I got an M? And then all together,

we're GMGs.

We gotta like football games or take our shirts off. Yeah, yeah.
I think we have to put it on the back of the hands. We put it on the back of our hands and we all put our fists in.

Yeah, we'll have to find a place that's. It's a great idea.
I'm totally down with that. My wife would kill me if I had to.

My wife went, you can get whatever tattoo you want. Please don't put anything on your hands.

I don't know. Yeah, see, this is what I'm talking about, Eric.
Like, that's like a $350 hoodie. Yeah.
And it's a nice-looking hoodie. It was great.
It looked great. And it trades on

my childhood nostalgia, which bugs me. Ocean Pacific.
Yeah.

i want everything that i wear to have a small logo on the front and a big logo on the back hell yeah opo gotcha catch it yep

body glove you're talking about nostalgia for old brands and whatnot my wife sent me a instagram reel this morning and it was like tells me like gen x asmr uh-huh and it's like three people sitting on the couch behind them a dude's like fucking with a vcr and they have to like guess what the sound is or like the 3d viewfinder and i was like oh that's kind of funny it was a reel made by AARP.

Oh, you seriously? Yeah. And I was like, oh, I hate this.
Brutal. By the way, what the fuck is...
Like, I remember Bernie had a King Ranch truck. And King Ranch is a ranch.
A King Ranch truck?

Like the King Ranch version of like an F-250. Oh, really? 150.
150. But now it's a store where they sell clothes and shit.
So are they just turning it into like a... Yeah, it looks like it's like a

Duluth Trading Company whole brand. I think they're exhibited the brand.
It's like, now it's this iconic. I think if I remember right, King Ranch was like the biggest ranch in Texas.

It was like in South Texas near Corpus. Yeah, me.
Now they sell wine glasses and plates ceramic plates with a stack.

They dress me up with like a gaucho pack and they go get this picture. We'll shoot it on film.

Yeah, I think with the truck, it was like the leather was like the King Ranch leather from like the King Ranchan.

It's kind of like how there's like an Eddie Bauer edition of something. It is, I think, it's just like an evolution of that where it's like, now it's just a brand.
Now it's just a brand. Crazy.

but i mean that's most stuff right most stuff is just a brand went into that store over the weekend uh because my wife what's that this one here that little shoe store over there

because my wife wanted to look at their shoes they make like little elf shoes like if you wanted to be like like i just kept going like walking behind her going rabble dabble

so she didn't buy any of the ones

that sounds right they were not because she didn't like them because they were very expensive oh i thought maybe it was because you kept saying it cost a lot of yabble dabble didn't didn't slow her down at all costs a lot of money to be an elf we might want to stop for a second because i i figured we're going to talk about home slice but they're leaf blowing up front of there right now just stop

so this was of course the first home slice there's only two now but we came here a lot like it's funny to me i cannot remember when they opened uh it's like they just were there and then we just started going at some point but i know i can remember they weren't always there I remember time before they were there, but inside there, they've expanded a bit.

This is the original one. Then across the street is that, I think they call call it like Home Slice 2, which is like a pickup only thing.
Yeah, yeah, which is the place to go, by the way. Right.

But inside here, if you eat in the restaurant itself, there's like a big mural of like an elephant. Like a big top carnival circus style mural.
And

the inspiration for the Rooster Teeth Depressing Mural was from that mural. Oh! We came here and we all thought it was really cool.

So we looked up who painted the mural in here and we contacted that person. The same person who did the Rooster Teeth mural is also the same person who did the mural thing.
That's cool.

Blue Genie Art is who did it. Oh, really? Yeah, I think we actually asked them who made your mural and they told us.
It was Rory Skagan. Yeah, Rory Skagan.
Both of them.

Incredibly talented dude. Incredibly talented dude.
Is this the home slice that has like the big back patio? Yeah. Yeah, there is one out here.
Yeah. This is the first home slice I ate at.
The other,

is it really? Well, that was the first home slice, yeah. Yeah.

The other rub on this place, the only other story I have to share, and I think we've probably talked about it on GMG before or on, I guess, Anma, is the lady who started Home Slice named My Dog Era.

Oh, that's right. I went to a dinner with her and she's the one who gave me the name.

There's always this,

people like to talk, right? Like, why is it? They love it, man. Why does Home Sliced Pizza taste the way it does? Why does it taste so good?

And there's always been like this conspiracy theory that they ship in the water. They ship in the water from the East Coast somewhere.
And who knows if that's true or not? But I will say this.

Like seven years ago, the city of Austin had a problem with the water system. And everyone had to boil their water and you couldn't use the water.
And it was like lasted for a week.

Home Slice was open every day and serving pizza every day. There you go.
It's true. Something to think about.
Yeah, I think they stopped their leaf blowing. Keep moving forward.

So there is something to the sauce.

Can I talk shit on a local establishment that's totally fine real fast? Please. We're crossing the street.
We're walking across the other side of the street. Hop Dotty.
Yeah.

Hop Dotty is a burger stand, a restaurant in Austin. That's the original one.
It's very popular. Hop Dotty's fine.
I eat there with Jack. It's one of his favorite places.
It's very Jack's.

Totally fine. I don't hate Hop Dotty at all.
But for the first like five years they were open, there was minimum an hour and a half line in front of that place for no fucking reason. It made no sense.

I don't get it, man. I don't understand the hop dotty hype.
It's died down now and they have multiple locations. Clearly they're still doing well because they have like at least three locations.
Yeah.

And I still eat there occasionally, but I never understood.

Can I continue your shit talk? Yeah, please. Next to Hop Dotties is Weros.
Yeah. Which is, I feel the exact same way about, as you just talked about with Hop Dotty.
Yep.

It's a place that has been there for a long time. People love it.
And it's just like mediocre. Well, didn't Tarantino film Death Proof? Yeah, Proof.
That's like a scene from Death Proof. But

that was after it was like the place in Austin for years. Yeah.
Well, I think that's probably why he did that, right?

Yeah. Where is this one of those places? You know, like how

you were telling us your cousin came into town and what's up? Y'all recording? Yeah. I'm literally listening to you right now.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's like you're getting a stereo effect. What's your name? Huh? What's your name? It's Doug.
Nice meeting you, Doug. I like that one.

By shaking his hand, you agree we can use your voice. Technically, I'll do an in, listen to your ball.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Well, thanks.

How are you going, man? He legally agreed to it. Yeah.

All right. Yo, what's up, Doug? First fan on the show.
Yeah, there you go.

First guest, Doug. Where you go?

Of GMG. Yeah, Warrow's is just like a...

It's a spot. Have you ever eaten there? Yeah, I got the, yeah, because I got the nachos because that's what he ate in Death Proof.
But that's not where he ate the nachos.

He goes to Texas Chili Parlor. It's a spot in the same way one in a million is a spot.
That's a great way to do it. It's like grandfathered in.

Everybody knows about it. Cisco's.
Everybody wants to go there when they visit town, but yeah.

Super mediocre. This whole street.
So my cousin is moving to Austin like right now, like actively. She found a spot and she's moving here in like February.
We're recording in February. And

all of this stuff is partly of like why she wanted to move here. She's like, this is so cool and interesting and different.
And I'm like, it didn't used to be.

I guess it doesn't matter what it used to be. It's like she's not moving here for what it was was in the 90s

she was born she wasn't alive she was alive it's like moving to la because you heard it was cool in the 60s it's like did you guys know about this laurel canyon stuff i love chinatown

i love chinatown you know what i think yeah exactly yeah they got wired out who gives a so i i like begrudgingly i have like that realization of like oh man i'm i missed south congress when it was all this stuff it's like who gives a yeah

even when it was like a cool spot i would have been like yeah this place sucks like if it was so fucking special we would have done more to save it

to maintain it or to keep it. Absolutely.
Over here, what is this place called now? Del Mar? Yes, it used to be South Congress Cape Florida. South Congress Cafe.

And before that, this is where Shaggy's was, right? Yeah, that was Shaggy's.

Shaggy's.

I think we've talked about it on and off. Shaggy's too dope.
Is that what it's called? I don't remember. No, that's the name of the Shaggy's Too Dope is

one of the Instagram Cloud posse? It was the Instant Clown posse. It was Shaggy's Boombastic.
Was it Violent J?

It was called Violent J. Yeah, it was at Magnet.
That's how they work.

Whoop Whoop. They had the jerk fries.
Yeah.

Shaggy's Boombastic was a Jamaican-themed bar and restaurant where Gus and I would eat because they had these Jamaican jerk fries. Oh, that's cool.

That they still sell now at Cavalier over on Weberville because it's the same family. Oh, no.

We just haven't been over there to eat them because when we tried, they weren't open for lunch yet, but they are open for lunch now, so we can go whenever the fuck we want.

So we have not eaten at Shaggy's in probably 22 years or so. It would have closed in the first year of our friendship.
Yeah, 99 or 2000.

It's been about 25 years since we've had the jerk fries at Shaggy's. Wow.
We'll have to do that on episode of GPG. I think it's a great idea.
I think we should definitely do that. I think it's great.

Man, this is just like...

Everything's a sit-down brunch spot in this part of the drag, of like this stretch. I don't get brunch.
I've said it before. It's overrated.
I mean, yeah, I won't wait for breakfast.

I won't wait for food. If there's a wait, it's like, yeah, it'll be 20 minutes.

I just wait for food. It's like, I'll just get some.
Especially for breakfast. I haven't eaten since yesterday.
Like, I don't have time for this. Is the Kendra Scott store?

I think it used to be the Tom's shoe store. Okay.
Was it here or was it where the L shit was? It might have been. I think it was here, though, but it might have been back there.
I can't remember.

If it was, oh, you know what? That was the Tom's shoe store. This was a store that soldiers.
This was word.

Oh.

What is that? Shit, threads and shit yarn. It was like a yarn store, maybe.

Kendra Scott, locally, she's local to Austin, if you don't know that. It's like a famous, famous designer,

jewelry designer who like went to UT and got her start in Austin and is like a billionaire now.

My only connection to Kendra Scott is my wife used to do her hair sometimes. Oh, really? Yeah, that's cool.
She would go to like her mansion and do it.

It's all this stuff across the street because we're across from, we're at the firehouse, but what's all this?

Over here we have paperwork, which used to be Lucy in disguise, I believe. Yeah, that was where it was.
Then next to that, that's where Uncommon Objects was, or was that Tesoros?

I think this was where Chipula Cath. That used to be Tesoros.
Okay, that was Tesoros. Yeah.
So Uncommon Objects was further down or further up north, I guess. I think so.

Uncommon Objects might have been in where that two-story building is now.

I think you're right. Yeah, right down there at the end.
Big Top Candy Shop's been around for a long time. That place is really good.
Monkey See, Monkey Doo.

It's been around for quite a while, too. Yeah, it's like one of those, like you go to buy like a little Japanese robot or a...

You remember in the broadcast area of Rooster Teeth, there was like that painting of the dramatic hamster like turning around? I bought that at Monkey See, Monkey Doo. Oh, cool.
Oh, did you really?

Nice.

I bought it there.

I wonder who took that. I'm sure somebody is

used to be the excite building right here. Yes, and I think Alta Vista was back there.

I think I'm remembering right that Alta Vista was over there.

I think they both existed. I could be misremembering, but that's what I remember.
This green place, 1722, has been more fucking establishments since I've lived in Russia than

it's called now. I couldn't even name two of them.
Wahoo's fish tacos. Oh, what's it?

It was a Wahoo's fish tacos. There have been so many.

There's three different

cheap grocery stores. Real stories.

Okay. This right here, this used to be a Wahoo's fish tacos.
Yeah, the tiny grocery

that's next to it was it for a while. That Woodland place was a really cool wood-themed restaurant for a while.
It might have just been called Woodlands.

We've got like a very Blade Runner-looking Japanese neon sign

up on top of it right now. Yeah.

It's impossible to keep up with everything over here. Hudson Meat Market is still going through.
That has been there forever. That's exactly what I was going to say.
Forever.

If you want to get your deer processed,

get sausage and jerky.

And I think we talked about this in a recent episode, but this torches is what used to be Franz.

Oh, is that right? Yeah, which was like the offshoot of Dan's. Right, yeah.
It was Dan's and was Franz. So if you ever see, like, the, I think they have it at Saint Bar, right?

The Fran, the actual like,

it used to be right here facing Congress, like right in front of Friends. Huh.
So where's the original torchies?

The original torchies, I believe, was a trailer off of 6th Street behind little Woodrows. I think you're right.
Oh, really? I think you're right. Okay.

And then they very quickly had a brick and mortar on Dirty Sixth, I feel like. Did they? That was the first like Torchies was on 6th.

I mean, the other one, they were both on 6th, right? But they had the trailer on one end and then the brick and mortar on the other.

Yeah, when I say Little Woodrow's, the one on 6th Street, like across the street, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was like right over there. Because that's also where Hat Creek Burgers had their first trailer.
Like right across the

street,

it's on the same spot. And then Torchies was like right over there behind Little Woodrow's, like right across the street.
You could see them from each other. I thought it was a real incubator.
Yeah.

No kidding. kidding i uh

i ate next to somebody famous at that franz one time

oh it was uh what's his name uh

from inner space

dennis quaid dennis quaid dennis quaid and this whole family yeah cool i was thinking about inner space yesterday that's so weird awesome well guys they check out this mural on this uh electric bus scary south park

you guys like fucked up south park when does south park smoke cigarettes this grade school one time Back in the pre-Rooster Teeth, I used to skate with this kid named John Farrell, who was

friends with Gus. What's Cross and I? Yeah.
We could also just go in the neighborhood, too. Oh, for sure.
Actually, that's a good idea. Let's go back a street and then walk down the neighborhood.

But anyway, back when Gus and I used to work at the Tech Sports Center, I used to skate with this kid, John Farrell, and we would skate at this,

skate around here a lot at this grade school. And I was riding with him one day, and I got all the way home and realized I didn't have my house keys, and I didn't know where I left them.

And he had to drive me all the way back there, and I had to go into the grade school and go to the lost and found. And they had my keys.
No way. Yeah, they had found them like in the parking lot.

Oh my god.

Uh, John Farrell was the poison, the voice of Private Jimmy in season one of Red vs. That's true.
That's true. This doesn't impossible.
John Farrell. That's funny.
Let's see. He was the

block every way the pete best of rooster team.

Benso, comarine susenas festivas, y lebino naidea, from

retorcidas, sarpique sus papitas verte, constazón de pepinillo, y cones feos qualcetines, vermi retorcido motivo. Así que siquieres probar lo que bringe preparo vea McDonald's and vera lo que tremor.

El novo gringe mio, ya en McDonald's. En McDonald's participants as agotar existences.
Para papa papa papa.

Man, driving here, we saw, not to distract from this area, we saw so many buildings that have been demolished along I-35.

Like Starseeds Starseeds is gone, and all those places there that were right up against the streets. Basically, everything is gone.
Chicas Bonitas is gone. Yeah.

That was your home way from home back in the day. Gus, what are you going to do? Aye, aye, aye.

For the non-asminized, Chicas Bonitas was the

bottom of the strip club barrel, is how I would describe it. The great thing about that place is it used to be called Crazy Lady, which I thought was an awesome name.
It was. Yeah, yeah.

Crazy Lady was where like old punk people came to hang out and drink.

And it was less of a strip club and more of just like a place for burnouts who like heavy metal to do drugs. That's and it was kind of an awesome vibe, honestly.

And then Gus had to come in and ruin it. Yeah.

Gus had to bonita it up.

Oh, yeah, but some of that stuff moved. Like, there used to be that Mexican restaurant there called Los Altos, which moved over there by the link.
You love that place. Yeah, that place was great.

I know, right there. I used to live back in that area.
Growing up, it was super friendly. The place was dirty as hell, so it's probably a good thing they moved.

How do you guys feel about all the stuff they've torn down or whatever for

that expansion? I think the expansion itself is stupid

and going to be ultimately pointless. Yeah.
But whatever, things change. Got to do something.
I don't think that, you know,

I think everybody was sad to see Starseeds go, but probably nobody had eaten there in 15 years.

And,

you know, I don't know.

There was like a kayak store that had been closed for five years. There was, they had just opened a progress coffee up.
Yeah.

I feel bad for them.

But

a lot of the businesses on the side of that road were boarded already

or in pretty dire straits.

There was that one building at the southwest corner of like 38th and I-35.

Okay. Which had been like graffitied and boarded up.
Oh, yeah. It used to be a mechanic shop.
Yeah. The blue building.
Yeah. I don't think that place has been open in 30 years.

It was open, actually, believe it or not. I had to take my daughter's car there

one time to try to get it fixed, and they wouldn't work on it. Yeah, because it was something my ex-wife worked out.
Oh my God, this would have been four years ago. Wow, really?

I always picture that place as being closed and never having been opened. No, I agree with you.
I was one of those things where I was like, surely the address isn't right. Yeah.

And then you go there and you're like, this is open? Wow. Okay.
Yeah. No, it was.

It's next. There's been like right next to it.
There's like a Mexican restaurant. What's it called? I don't remember what it's called, but it looks like a fucking front, like a fucking scam.

I know what you're talking about. It's a scary building.

I ate there once and they seemed shocked when i walked in that place is a fucking front i'm doing it now i went in there one time wait you want what food dude i went in there one time to eat food right and i had a hat on just like a trucker hat on and this is gonna be like 2006 maybe 2007.

i went in there for the first time i just wanted to grab some food and the guy at the counter was like have you been here before and i go no it's my first time he goes you were here yesterday and i go i assure you i wasn't he goes i remember your hat and i go okay well a lot of people have hats and he goes no no i remember and And he was like mad at me.

Like, something had happened with the dude yesterday. And I was like, it wasn't me, but I don't like this.
And so I just left.

It was like a way to get you to leave. Yeah, I kind of, yeah.
I just like, it was like instantly unwelcoming. And I was like, okay,

Cafe Hornetos. Oh, yes, yes, yes.
So I think I walked across the street to Astor's Ethiopian and ate there that day. Ah, that's cool.

Which is a great restaurant. Yeah.
If you like Ethiopian food. Definitely has been there a long time.
Really sweet people, too. Yeah.
These houses are awesome.

God, that mailbox looks like Austin in the 90s yeah

all the uh the line the uh topo chico topo chico bottles lining the front yard

that's uh that's that's a code violation

god's grandfather didn't don't worry about it it's a load-bearing topochico this is a place if you want to move to austin and you want to pay 2.7 million dollars for a 1300 square foot two-bedroom one bathroom absolutely little craftsman this is where you do it well don't worry you have to get the roofery done also oh yeah there's a house up here on the right by

Ava and Elizabeth that's on the market. It's a two-bedroom, one-bath, 1,300 square feet for $1.25 million.
Oh, there you go. The prices are dropped.
Honestly, like half of what's going to look.

Let's go look. Let's walk it in.
It's a steal. We can make it the good one in Gus office, dude.
We can get it. It's even the exact same square footage.

What's the most expensive house for sale right now in this neighborhood? Oh, let me take a look. There's actually not a lot on the neighborhood, in the neighborhood that's active at the moment.
Yeah.

Well, this is not the time for these people to sell these houses. That's the only only one out here, actually.
Wow, realize me at all.

The market, man,

we talk about the real estate market often this show. Yeah.
It is terrible.

It is so stuff.

So what happened? Price reducing. Interest rates went up

and then people's monthly mortgages double. Dude, I will.

That coupled with the overvaluation during 2020, 2021 with the pandemic. Like prices have cooled and interest rates have shot up.
When does this come out? Not for at least eight weeks. 2026?

No, this will probably come out this is february when we're recording it i'll tell you where we're seeing it

where we're seeing it right now gus is that eric and i uh because we're the grown-ups of regulation uh we're in the process of finding an office for the company actually

since this isn't going to come out forever we found one and we're already in the process of getting it but rent is plummeting in the city of Austin right now.

It is crazy how cheap we were able to get the place that we're fingers crossed. Like we're, it's a very Austin-y type deal.

It's like a dude who's a musician dude he's got a friend you know he they they he knows the owner and the owner just wants to be like hands-off with the whole thing so it's like it's all just kind of like do this thing and it's our move-in it's contingent on his move out his move out it's contingent on if he gets this music straight the whole thing it's what i'm the most comfortable with yeah it feels the most austiny 100 i really do like that but um but unbelievable how cheap it is to rent in Austin it's like every story I see on the news is like rent prices continue going down and it's like that part is a combination of,

well, I mean, it's not a combination. It's just a direct response to the massive construction boom that went on to build apartments and office spaces.
And it's not over. Yeah.
No.

I have no problem with this. I think it's great.
I'm glad that I'm glad everything's dropping. When my cousin was looking at places or whatever, they'd be like, great.

So, yeah, this is available in Winky Move. We can move in now.
What can you do? And when can you do it? And can it be right now? Having right now. Multiple good options.

Like, what is, what the fuck is that?

When was the last time you had multiple good options options of anything in austin you know yeah and it's you know it's been like that in the past like i remember when i moved into that apartment up there by the arboretum kind of across from where mighty fine at arbor walk is okay um i found that place through an apartment locator and

they had a deal going off where you got three months free rent if you signed a lease

like this cost used to happen yeah in austin it's like that's why i moved there it's like oh all right three months that is what austin god damn that is it is crazy how things have changed in our lifetime you want to just live live here for a little while and just sign a lease?

I can give you like $100 or something.

Rent in Austin used to be like, I don't know what you got. Yeah.

What can you afford a part with? I can pay you in songs.

I can tune your guitar.

Will you take poems?

I think I've mentioned it before, but when I lived off of Enfield

by Enfield and Mopac, it was like a one-bedroom, one bath with a loft. And I was paying $800 a month.

This is an interesting spot. I think this is the house.
This blue house is the one that's on this listed on the market. Oh, I looked at this blue house when it was for sale 100 years ago.
I don't see,

but I think this is it. Let me tell you about this blue house because I thought about buying it.
And the reason I didn't buy it, because I couldn't quite afford it, because it was $320,000.

Oh, well, it's only like $900,000 more than that. Oh, cool.
So when I looked at this house in like 2006, 2007, it was, because, what an awesome opportunity to live right here.

What you were across to, now you're across the street from the Frankie Hotel, i guess that used to be vulcan video vulcan video oh really and like where that says 110 yeah that side like right over there and earthwise is that what that place was called or was it eco-wise eco-wise yeah yeah eco wise which was like a home store that like had like i don't know

eco-friendly stuff they actually have a cleaning service still on guadalupe but yeah and then vulcan video which was incredibly popular well the thing i always remember about this vulcan video right here was it was so weird to me it was like vulcan video and i think there was also like a place you could fill up with biodiesel.

So it was

like VHS or see like an old hippie in a beat-up truck who was putting like vegetable oil into his face. Yeah, it smells like French fries here in a VHS.

And Vulcan Video got ruined for me in the best way possible because my favorite band in the world for a very long time was a band called J Church in San Francisco. Yeah.

Lead singer Lance Hahn moved to Austin because his wife or girlfriend was going to grad school at UT.

He got a job at that Vulcan Video and I couldn't go anymore because I went like three times in a row and was like, hey, hey, Lance,

real big fan. And I just like, I embarrassed myself so bad that I stopped going to Vulcan video.
He died. Oh, dude.
He died a couple of years later. And I never of a heart problem.

And I had so many opportunities to talk to like one of my musical heroes, one of the people I was most interested in. He ran an independent label called Honey Bear Records.
I was so impressed with it.

It was such a big deal for him to move here. I had been writing letters to him.

Back in the old punk days, we would write letters back and forth to different people. And then he got here.

And then I just like, every time I saw him, I put my dick in my own mouth and I couldn't, couldn't, I had to walk away. Do you think that was like one of his last thoughts?

He's like, I wish I didn't work at that Vulcan video. That one kid was so weird.
Yeah, probably.

He's like, God, I wish I could have afforded healthcare to buy me the medicine to meet my heart condition. And also, thank God, I don't have to look at that kid again.

I invited him to play one of my weddings. Oh, wow.
He said no. I said they didn't respond.
Yeah,

that's a gabin, though. We should, yeah.
Yeah, I know that.

We should talk about little brother because we're getting on to time. Oh, we are.

What did you guys think? So it's a little storefront window coffee shop.

But there's like, there's like a little inside, but you can just walk up, order a cup of coffee from a girl who just doesn't care if you live or die, and then they have klotchis.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna draw a conclusion about Little Brother. Okay.
And here's my conclusion.

There is a store called Stag across the street from this right now. Stag provisions for men.
Provisions for men. That's us.
It's a men's clothing store. It's where you go buy nice.

The pants I'm wearing right now I got from Stag. Oh, cool.

I was just there the weekend, actually, and I need to return some pants that I bought that were too big. Oh, you could have brought it, man.
That store has been around forever.

It's been around as long as Home Slice.

They across the street, we already walked by it, they opened up a store called Sisters, which is the girl version of Stag where they just sell girl clothes.

I'm going to guess that Little Brother is their coffee shop. That they went Stag, Sisters, Lil Brother.
Oh, that's fun.

I think you're probably right. I think I am right.
Yeah. Yeah.

I agree with Gus, though. I do think it's based on a Homestar Runner bit where if a Lil Brother can do it himself,

another fucking Waymo. I want to throw my coffee cup at a Waymo just because he can't do it.
There's no recourse. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Jeff.
This stag used to be further down. Nope.

Didn't it?

Where the dry cleaner was? Wasn't it? What was there? Remember the dry cleaner? Like, there was something there, and I thought that was stag, and I thought they were here.

Wasn't it parts and labor? Was it parts and labor? I might have been. I don't think stag's ever been anywhere.
I thought it was anyway.

There's a BW bus that's in self-driving car, and somebody was driving it.

That made any sense to me. Little Brother, it was fine.
Yeah, it's fine. It was not the best best cup of coffee, but not the worst.
It was like,

I had an iced Americano. It was like a 7, 7.5, something like that.
Totally fine. It's a 7 coffee.
I think it was fine. My iced coffee was a 7.75, and my Kolachi was an 8.
Oh, yeah.

How was the coffee fine? It was way too hot. Yeah.
Oh, I will say this. So it's a good cup of coffee if you're going to be doing what we're doing.
Like getting here, walking up and down. Yeah.

If I'm given the choice between Joe's and Little Brother, I'm doing Little Brother. Oh, really? Oh, there's a place across the street we should try too called Two Hands or something.
Two what?

There's another coffee shop on the left. It's a little, it's very similar to,

maybe it's Idle Hands. It's very similar to Little Brother in like a little window that's supposed to be good.
We try that too. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I liked it. I thought it was a

thought it was fine. Like, honestly, price-wise too, it's cheaper than what we've paid in some of the icons.

I had a cup of coffee for $350, a large cup of coffee. We're walking up on it right now.
Like with much of Austin,

the best thing, the best part about it is the logo.

They got a really good sign. Yeah, it is a good sign.

There we go. Cool.

Well,

I think that season two underway. Yeah.
So how do you guys feel about season? Are we still doing the thing where at the end we have to figure out if we're doing more? Oh, we got, yeah, we should.

I guess we should do that. Yeah, I should also mention we got rid of the chalk.
Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're streamlining. Yeah.
Well, here's the thing. The show paid for itself.

So now we have, we have minimal show funds to be able to buy a cup of coffee. So we don't have to worry.
Mission accomplished. You suckers are buying us coffee.
Yep, absolutely.

But I feel good about doing another season. I don't think it should be eight months before it's like a whole thing that comes out and all that stuff.

I think it should be a little bit quicker than that.

So if you're hearing this, just know we recorded in

February. February.
It'll probably be 5th, 2025. This will probably come out around April.

I would think. Our friend Richard edited the first batch of episodes.
I'll probably have him do that again.

And

he did a great job getting everything turned around and everything. And then Nick also helped get all these like posted and all that stuff.
So it is a team effort.

Great. So thanks for the coffee.

But this has been Little Brother on South Congress. Any final thoughts, parting words for the folks at home? I can make it on my own.
Okay.

Yeah, my parting thought is

if you come down to South Congress and you're familiar with Austin and you go, oh, this isn't what I remember. This is fucking lame now.
It sucks. There's a Nermez here.

You can spend the rest of your life doing that, or you can just try to find the thing about it that's cool enough that you do like and try to find a way to enjoy what it is currently.

I feel like that's our over-archy thing. Yeah.
Yeah.

Also, the coffee. Yeah.
Yeah. Maybe.
Yeah, whatever. I'll say this about it.
There's more coffee shops than there ever were on the street. Yeah.
True. Yeah.
True. Two.
Way less.

Way less. Actually, four.
There's one right

behind that hotel, too. Way less hard drugs, though.

All right, I'm out. Yeah, Austin Motel sells

less needle drugs now. Yeah, for sure.

All right, change your back. Bye.