Iced Out
Rainey Street bar Icenhauer's closes after ongoing sales losses
Icenhauer's has closed.
Austinites spent Sunday celebrating one last time at a Rainey Street staple: Icenhauer's.
The bar's owner, Michael Icenhauer, said all of the construction in the area is taking a toll on the bar's sales.
"We've been losing money since April 2023, and it's just not something we want to deal with anymore," Icenhauer said. "Our best year, our best month was ... we were down 20 percent. Our worst month, we were down 70 percent. So the last year and a half has been brutal for us."
Other Rainey Street bars like Reina, Container Bar, Bungalow, and Stagger Lee have all closed since 2022.
With this latest closure, longtime Central Texan Shelby Campbell said this is just another example of how the story of Rainey Street keeps changing.
"I remember being down here when it was all just little houses and tiny bars and everybody was just like that kind of a quaint feeling when you wanted to escape the crazy Sixth Street," Campbell said. "And now, to see so many high-rises, it's honestly wild."
Campbell has been living in Central Texas over the past 10 years and still hopes a part of the "old" Austin she knows can be preserved.
"I think it's a booming city and I don't think it has any signs of slowing down, which again, there's a lot of positives in that," Campbell said. [...]
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