Mean Eyed Cat

“Beneath the stains of time, the feeling disappears.” - Johnny Cash

If your bar is going to pay homage to a musician, Johnny Cash is a damn fine choice. Times change, after all. You can be nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys one year, and the next, people may not even recognize your name. It can happen. (Sorry, Hoobastank.)

Not Johnny Cash though. That's a name that has staying power. So in that regard, Mean Eyed Cat ownership made the right call when they went with a Johnny Cash theme. By all accounts, it seems to have paid off.

When it opened in 2004, this honky tonk was still perched away from the action, not quite in the hills but also not in the squall of downtown Austin. Back in 1986, it was a chainsaw repair shop (Cut-Rite Chain Saws) that was used as a filming location for ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’. These days, it seems a lot closer. Offices and apartments have moved in and filled in the gaps. And in a way, they've made the Mean Eyed Cat's gruff, wood-planked exterior stand out even more. It looks like it belongs on a dusty road out in the Hill Country, not a mere two miles from the Texas Capitol.

Step in through the squeaky, sticker-covered doors and you'll catch a whiff of beer-soaked floorboards and fried foods wafting from the kitchen—which just might be the perfect combo, depending on your blood-alcohol level. Neon lights spill into the worn interior, illuminating the Cash gig posters, license plates, and taxidermied animals adorning the walls. Some people might call this mood lighting—the type of people that come here to pound beers like a jackhammer until they FaceTime their ex, eat pavement attempting a handstand in the parking lot, and wake up with “La vida luna” tattooed on their right butt cheek.

You'll see all kinds of characters here, from tech bros and broettes to your landlord’s molly dealer to future sugar daddies putting the finishing touches on their second divorce. Ask any of them whether they like Johnny Cash or the Mean Eyed Cat. I'd bet the answer is a “hell yeah.”