Cheer Ups Deal Falls Down

Cheer Up Charlies will reportedly no longer be sold to national group

Cheer Up Charlies continues on as an independent business for now.

One of Austin's top LGBTQ+ venues reportedly continues its embattlement as a sale to a national investor has fallen through. The sale seemed like an answer to the bar and music venue's financial troubles.

In August, the public covered about two months of late rent — $58,000 — for Cheer Up Charlies via online fundraisers. A couple months later in October, both Cheer Up Charlies management and Pride Holdings Group, which trades in LGBTQ+ hospitality and entertainment, announced that Pride Holdings would acquire the venue and even turn it into a franchise.

KUT News reports that the sale mutually ended on November 4. “Both parties have rescinded, and Pride Holdings is no longer involved in Cheer Up Charlies,” bar owner Maggie Lea told Austin's NPR affiliate. “Our membership interests have been returned and we (Tamara Hoover & Maggie Lea) remain owners of Cheer Up Charlies.” Pride Holdings did not respond to KUT's request for comment.

That means it's business as usual at Cheer Ups, with Lea and co-owner Tamara Hoover still at the helm. Even if the sale had gone through, they would have remained in leadership positions.

Anyone visiting the Cheer Up Charlie's Instagram page can see the sale was met with suspicion from sections of the queer community, many of whom worry about corporate interests overtaking a gathering place that is supposed to represent a marginalized culture. KUT noted this perspective in its coverage.

The Austin Chronicle also looked into the matter and found discontent, including allegations that Pride Holdings is affiliated with MAGA figures that it followed on Instagram. However, the holdings group denied any affiliation and attributed the followings to a junior employee who can no longer access the company's social media.

KUT also noticed that Pride Holdings had removed the press release in which it had announced the acquisition. The group has not deleted its announcement on Instagram at the time of this article's publication.

"I have nothing bad to say about them," Lea told KUT. "It just didn't work out, you know?"

lgbtqia+bars business downtown

Sundown at the Saloon

Developers plan to demolish Shiner's Saloon in downtown Austin

Photo courtesy of KVUE

The Austin Historic Landmark Commission approved the permit, but the saloon staff asks it to reconsider.

A piece of Downtown Austin's past could soon be removed. Developers are asking to demolish the longtime home of Shiner's Saloon.

Shiner's Saloon has operated out of the 1940s-era building at the corner of Congress Avenue and West Fifth Street for the last 18 years. But on Wednesday, the Austin Historic Landmark Commission approved a permit to demolish the building.

David Jalufka, one of the owners of the bar, urged the commission to delay the permit, as it has been an integral part of Downtown Austin for years.

"We've made it through COVID, which was not easy, and we just want to keep going," Jalufka said. "I hope they just realize it's more than brick-and-mortar. It's a part of Austin, Texas, and it should stay that way."

Historic 1940s building
In addition to the building being more than 80 years old, Jalufka said the spot has added some unique historic pieces over the years.

"When we built Shiner's, we brought in 300-year-old longleaf pine and tin from a dairy that was in Shiner [Texas] a couple hundred years ago," Jalufka said. "When the building goes, it's gone."

Throughout the years, Jalufka said the building has served many purposes, working as a school, an old phone company and more.

For many longtime Shiner's patrons like Chris White, who has been coming to the bar for the last 10 years, it has become a second home.

"It's very much like a modern-day 'Cheers,'" White said. "I come in and sit down, they know what I want to drink and just slide it across the bar. They know when I'm having a good day, they know when I'm having a bad day."

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

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Cheer Ups Deal Falls Down

Cheer Up Charlies will reportedly no longer be sold to national group

Sundown at the Saloon

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