Doug Cugini, a co-founder of the Hole in the Wall — the long-running dive bar and live music venue near the University of Texas campus that has played a central role in the city’s music scene since opening in 1974 — died Tuesday. He was 75.
Cugini’s death was confirmed Tuesday on Facebook by Debbie Rombach, a former Hole in the Wall bartender and bar manager. In her post, Rombach wrote that Cugini had died earlier that day. She wrote that she had known him for 48 years and remained in touch after leaving Austin, describing him as “a great friend, a fabulous boss and so much fun to hang with.” She added, “I will miss him.”
Former co-owner and longtime bartender Jeff Smith also shared a remembrance on Facebook, writing that Cugini was “an exceptionally kind and funny man who loved his family, baseball, rock’n’roll and The Hole In The Wall.” Smith credited the Cugini family with founding the bar and said he was grateful that “the spirit of what the Cuginis created continues.”
No cause of death has been announced. In 2018, a GoFundMe campaign was launched by friends to help cover medical bills and living expenses after Cugini underwent triple-bypass heart surgery and faced an extended recovery, according to the fundraiser’s description.
Cugini’s legacy in Austin is inseparable from the Hole in the Wall, which he and his parents opened on June 15, 1974, in a former dry-cleaner storefront across from the University of Texas campus. The venue holds roughly 200 people or fewer, a scale that helped define its intimate, musician-first atmosphere over multiple decades, according to the Handbook of Texas, published by the Texas State Historical Association.
A painting of Hole in the Wall by legendary musician Bob Dylan. Hole in the Wall/theholeinthewallaustin.com
The business was not originally intended to be a music venue. In a 2023 Austin Monthly oral history, Cugini recalled opening the Hole as a restaurant serving inexpensive, truck-stop-style food to students, university workers, and neighborhood regulars. Live music emerged gradually after street musicians began asking to play, initially for tips.
Over the decades, the Hole in the Wall became a proving ground for Austin musicians and a frequent stop for touring artists. Performers documented by the Austin Chronicle and other historical accounts include Nanci Griffith, Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, Doug Sahm, Timbuk 3, Fastball, Spoon, and the Gourds.
According to a 2014 Austin Chronicle feature by Kevin Curtin, Groover's Paradise, Cugini sold the Hole in the Wall in 1998 to longtime managers Rombach and Smith. The venue closed in 2002 after the building was put up for sale, reopened in 2003 under ownership by associates of Austin’s Pizza, and changed hands again in 2008, when it was purchased by Will Tanner, who remains the bar’s owner.
The Hole in the Wall marked its 50th anniversary in 2024, a milestone that underscored the venue’s endurance and the legacy Cugini helped establish more than five decades earlier.
