Threadgill's on Lamar set for a musical revival

Renovations will give landmark restaurant more space for songs

By M.B. Taboada
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, October 26, 2007

The original Threadgill's is returning to its roots.

The North Austin landmark has been largely dormant as a music venue in the past two decades, known more for its home-style cooking. That might change after the restaurant at 6416 N. Lamar Blvd. undergoes a $650,000 renovation that will provide more space for nightly gigs.

"We wore out the old building," owner Eddie Wilson said. "Sometimes it'd be raining on the inside of Threadgill's a day after it cleared up. We're going to rebuild it more tighter and a little more waterproof and a little more energy efficient and try to make it a little more fun than it is now."

The back dining room will be closed, and 40 seats will be added to the restaurant. The renovations will add 500 square feet of space, bringing the total size to 5,000 square feet.

The original Threadgill's had a pivotal role in Austin music's history. The one-time filling station is where country yodeler Kenneth Threadgill received the first beer and wine license in Travis County after the repeal of Prohibition. Later, the Wednesday night singing sessions of the 1960s brought together fans of country music and blues, rednecks and hippies. It was also where a shy University of Texas student named Janis Joplin learned to perform.

Threadgill closed the beer joint in 1974 when his wife died. But in 1981, Wilson reopened Threadgill's as a comfort-food emporium and revived the Wednesday night songfests with the Threadgill Troubadours, first led by the restaurant's namesake. First Jimmie Dale Gilmore and then Champ Hood took the reins after Threadgill's death in 1987. Music has continued on Wednesday nights but with a smaller profile.

Only 20 months after the restaurant reopened, a fire savaged nearly everything but the walls of the building. Wilson rebuilt it three months later, adding a banquet hall and commissary kitchen. He later turned the hall into the Country Store Museum.

With Threadgill's popularity, Wilson opened Threadgill's World Headquarters in 1996 at 301. W. Riverside Drive, next door to the site of the Armadillo World Headquarters, the infamous music venue of the 1970s that Wilson opened in 1970, sold in 1976 and closed in 1980.

Construction has started on Threadgill's on Lamar, but the restaurant must close for about a month so the work can be completed.

Plans call for the restaurant to close the day after Thanksgiving and reopen on Christmas Day.

When the restaurant reopens, it will have a new sound system and a loading door behind the stage, making it easier for the musicians and equipment handlers to set up. Nightly music probably will start after dinner, and Threadgill's will extend its hours until midnight.

The upgrades also include new air-conditioning and heating systems, new restrooms, new kitchen floors and repairs to existing dining room floors.

While changes are being made to the North Lamar location, a proposed Cedar Park location — which was to open more than a year ago — sits vacant.

Threadgill's is caught up in lawsuits over whether a financial backer must still pay for and complete the project.

The company has indefinitely halted the opening of its third restaurant, along with an accompanying Mexican cantina, a 7,000-square-foot banquet hall and an outdoor music venue on RM 1431 between U.S. 183 and the 183-A toll road. The parties have not reached a settlement, and the dispute might go to court.

mtaboada@statesman.com; 912-2942.

Additional material from staff writer Michael Corcoran.