It’s a countdown to Last Call at the famed University of Texas bar Cain & Abel.
The West Campus watering hole opened in 1991 — Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey’s Sophomore year — but last Tuesday, plans were filed with the city to build a student housing tower on the storied 2313 Rio Grande Street lot. No word yet on how devoted Longhorn and former UT frat star is handling the news, but social media has been in a frenzy.
“They increase rates by $200, they build 5 new buildings a year, AND NOW THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY MY DOLLAR BEERS???!! I think not… WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS,” Bar Stool Longhorn posted on Instagram last week when Twitter user @theATX1 broke the news via Twitter.
Cain & Abel’s is a “staple within the UT community” said UT student George Velez, “I feel like taking this away would kind of like… I don’t know, it’s not the vibes, really.”
As of right now, nothing is finalized, or as the Austin-American Statesman told its readers on Thursday, “you can take the metal chains and locks out of your Amazon cart.”
The building application was filed by 24RG Student Housing which has partnered with Bleyl Engineering for the project.
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Ellis Winstanley, who has owned Cain & Abel’s since 2002, told the paper that his lease does not end for “several years,” though he did not share the exact date. Winstanley added that, in his experience, site plans usually take at least two years to be approved.
At the end of the day, Cain & Abel’s relocation may have been inevitable due to rising property taxes, Winstanley said. The longtime bar owner criticized Travis County’s tax policies, saying they’re neglectful of small businesses.
UT-Austin’s enrollment was almost 52,000 for the 2021-2022 academic year — the 10th highest in the country. With the Texas capital seeing some of the highest rent hikes in the nation, the need for affordable student housing around campus is glaring. However, satisfying this demand has come at the cost of local fixtures. Wooten Barbershop, one of the oldest barber shops in Austin, was forced to vacate within a month after student housing developer American Campus bought the entire block at the intersection of 21st and Guadalupe Streets in April.
That same month, the company broke ground on affordable housing for graduate students on the block.
— Maddy Sperling