In a Booming City, “Making a Place Where We Would Want to Hang Out” Keeps the Lights On

By Sarah Gonzales

Photography By Sarah Gonzales

Reporting Texas

When four longtime friends maxed out their credit cards and depleted their savings accounts nine years ago to open a bar, they had no idea who would turn out to see their vision become a reality.

“The goal, the whole time as we were getting things going, is just making a place where we would want to hang out, and I mean that’s still kind of our MO,”  Mike Sanchez said.

Those four friends, Sanchez, Mimi Sanford, Karinne Sanchez and Brian Buscemi , named the place The Little Darlin’, a South Austin staple off William Cannon Drive — one of a handful of beloved dive bars that define their neighborhoods and manage to hang on as other bars and restaurants come and go.

The Little Darlin’, with its spacious outdoor lawn accompanied with picnic tables, an outdoor bar, sound stage and swingsets, has been able to succeed due to the laid-back Austin culture the owners have fostered within the spot.

“As Austin has grown, there’s all these amazing restaurants and stuff, but are maybe just not thought of as much as by people who just want good food and cheap cold Lone Star versus the newest hippest place with $18 cocktails,” Sanchez said.

Brent Broyles, who has helped to create two ongoing dive bars in Workhorse and the Back Lot Bar, believes in the power of a good business plan.

Broyles opened Workhorse in April 2012 alongside Steve Ettle after looking at roughly 100 locations and reviewing 10 to 15 possible leases.

“It’s actually pretty hard as a first-time business owner to even get a landlord that’s willing to sign a lease,” Broyles said. “One of them finally agreed to sign a lease with us.”

Through word of mouth, Workhorse was able to generate consistent foot traffic on North Loop Boulevard. Broyles, alongside Ettle and Miles Ryerson, a bartender at Workhorse, expanded the business two miles down the road at Back Lot.

“We were a little worried about self cannibalizing our own business, [but] it seems to be just far enough apart, so it works out,” Broyles said.

For Deep Eddy Cabaret on west Sixth Street, price fluctuations haven’t driven away their regulars just yet. A bar rooted in a multigenerational community, Deep Eddy Cabaret, with its strings of multicolor lights that hang from the ceiling, pool tables and infamous carpet that locals joke has been there since the fifties, has managed to remain the little dive bar that could through a community that has become a family during the day and an appeal to college students at night. It’s the best of both worlds.

Manager Inger Olsen, who has worked at Deep Eddy for over 20 years, credits the bar’s low employee turnover and maintaining its original look throughout the years, something she believes regulars and newcomers appreciate.

“Well it looks the same,” Chris Cook, a regular, said. “It’s the same bartenders, so continuity has a lot to do with a dive bar keeping its charm.”

“When you are a regular, you come in because you know a handful of people,” Bryan Lym added.

Cook said Deep Eddy’s customers have  become more of a family, and pointed to a collage of photos behind the bar.

“(That) stuff behind the bar,” Cook pointed out. “You have to die to get on.”

“If you see a picture, they’re not with us anymore,” Lym continued.

The daily noon crew at Deep Eddy Cabaret, Craig Johnson, Jack Plunkett, Bill McMillin and Amy Cichowsai, also attest to the bar’s welcoming community, noting that the people have become a second family to them.

“Everybody has their own history and you come here together to blend that to an extended family,” Cichowsai said.

Along with the community, Deep Eddy Cabaret has generational history, something the regulars appreciate and note as a key factor to keeping a dive bar open.

“It’s the history,” McMillin said. “That’s why they endure.”

In a booming city that’s constantly changing and growing more expensive, dive bars like The Little Darlin’, Workhorse, Back Lot and Deep Eddy Cabaret somehow survive.

Sanchez is no stranger to management and financial challenges. Back in 2020, when the COVID pandemic hit, he, alongside other bar owners, were forced to close down due to safety precautions.

“Being able to make it through (COVID) was a pretty big accomplishment,” Sanchez said.

For Deep Eddy, it was the locals who kept them going, and it was the locals who will keep them going.

Johnson recalls during COVID the regulars would come in and sit in assigned stools six feet apart as a way to keep business coming in.

McMillin added that he, along with a few other regulars, chose to get their Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission certification to help out the bartenders when they’re understaffed.

Over at Back Lot, Broyles has a strategic plan, considering potential financial barriers he could face due to factors such as tariffs and inflation.

“One of my concerns (is) that the food costs and labor costs have just gone up so much,” Broyles said. “I’m worried that to match the cost I would have to make the prices something that I don’t think would be attractive to the customers. Just doesn’t feel right.”

Broyles plans to keep pricing low at both bars for as long as he can. Alongside the welcoming environment, cost is a key factor for drawing in regulars and Austinites who might just need a quick drink before a concert.

“I think if it is the prices, it’s trying to stay true to industry pricing, and try to stay close to what people want to pay,” Broyles said.