A South Austin landmark has sat empty for years, languishing despite its important music history. Now, the old Threadgill’s will see new life as a second location for the longtime Austin steakhouse Bartlett’s, according to the Austin American-Statesman, which was first to break the news.
The Statesman’s report details that Bartlett’s is partnering with McGuire Moorman Lambert Hospitality (MML) to open the new restaurant. MML operates well-known restaurants around town, including Clark’s Oyster Bar, Swedish Hill, Pecan Square Café, and Joann’s Fine Foods.
The new Bartlett’s at 301 W. Riverside Dr. will feel like the original, with steakhouse classics and rotating specials that the Statesman positions as a way for MML’s culinary team to “flex its creative muscle.”
Threadgill’s is most famous for helping to launch the singing career of Janis Joplin, who was from Port Arthur, Texas, and lived in Austin during her brief time studying at the University of Texas. At the time, the business was a bar in a converted filling station in North Austin; the South Austin location opened in 1996.
According to the Threadgill’s-sanctioned history of the establishment, the two locations represented different things. The North Austin location, founded by bootlegger Kenneth Threadgill, was characterized by its Wednesday night singing sessions, its appeal to “longhairs,” and its ability to quell clashes between them and the”rednecks” who also frequented the space.
The South Austin location, dubbed Threadgill’s World Headquarters, was operated by Eddie Wilson, who co-founded the famous Armadillo World Headquarters music venue next door.
“The south location celebrates the history of the Armadillo and its salad days of the 1970’s,” the Threadgill’s website, which has outlived both physical locations, says. “The memorabilia of the Headquarters represents the hey-day of this era from the juke box which contains many of the artists who played the Armadillo, to the piano that hangs from the ceiling which has been played by artists as diverse as Jerry Lee Lewis to Captain Beefheart.”
When the Riverside location closed in 2018, Wilson cited “boomtown property taxes” as the reason.
Although it’s less storied, musically, Bartlett’s also has a long history and is no longer under the care of its original owner. Before it was Bartlett’s, it was Houston’s, opened by Texans George and Carol Biel in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1977. Tim Bartlett was on the original team and moved to Austin in 1990 to take over the Austin location, which he rebranded 20 years later.
Barlett died in 2013, and after an interim with other owners, Trey Wolslager bought the restaurant in 2023. According to the Statesman, MML co-founder Larry McGuire also “made a run at buying the restaurant.”
This makes just two restaurants so far for Bartlett’s, despite its growing number of ties to restaurants in and beyond Austin. The Statesman report shares an estimated opening in 2028.