End of an era?

Iconic Clarksville pharmacy may have flipped its last burger as trouble looms

Marked pressures have forced Nau's Enfield Drug to halt its food operations.

Nau’s Enfield Drug — an Austin fixture for nearly 70 years — has temporarily shut down its iconic 1950s-era soda fountain and grill, thus sounding the alarm about its perilous future.

In a heartfelt, unvarnished letter given to “neighbors, customers, friends, and visitors,” manager Laura Labay explained that the business was forced to close its in-store restaurant in the face of competitive pressures from nearby Clarksville businesses.

“We took the bullets to the heart and plugged away each day despite a huge decline in business, the acute competition among our fellow businesses just yards away,” she wrote in the letter, citing West Lynn Street neighbors Caffé Medici, Fresh Plus, Galaxy Cafe, and Zocalo Cafe. “I have never wanted to give up hope.”

In a phone call with CultureMap, she added that the eatery lacks the staff — including full-time cooks and servers — to keep the restaurant running. According to Labay, Nau's stopped operating in mid-January; one of the victims of the temporary closure was about $1,000 worth of food that had to be tossed.

Labay described customers’ response to the letter, which she posted at the store, as “very positive.”

“My father, the owner, hated it and took it down multiple times,” she said. “He found it depressing and thought I was being too honest.”

Labay assumed control of Nau’s after her father, Lambert Labay, suffered a massive heart attack in February 2016. Lambert Labay began working at Nau’s in 1963 and purchased the store eight years later.

Diners at the nostalgia-steeped shop — furnished with retro booths and stools — were, until recently, able to order signature items such as breakfast tacos, eggs-and-bacon platters, grilled cheese sandwiches, and five kinds of burgers, and then top them off with a shake, malt, float, or ice cream soda.

Labay told CultureMap she’s weighing several possible options to save the operation, including an investment from a local hospitality group, a crowdfunding campaign on the GoFundMe platform, or a partnership with a local catering company.

The pharmacy and general-goods store remain open, but the entire step-back-in-time landmark has been struggling financially for a few years. Labay said she’s not inclined to sell the business. At this point, she’s unsure when food service might resume.

Labay said customer traffic has dropped off since the soda fountain and grill closed, with just a few people a day coming by to pick up prescriptions. The store has practically been empty in the wake of the shutdown, she said.

“I hope and pray that those of you that have taken a few moments to read my overly honest explanation as to why Nau’s [has] been forced to close will share this with your friends and neighbors,” she wrote, “and remember when Austin was a fair, reasonable, safe, good-hearted small city with room for everyone to live and work.”

Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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