Austin Club, Bars In Austin And Austin Happy Hour

Thought to be the first location in Travis County to sell liquor by the drink, the Continental Club opened on South Congress Avenue in 1957 as a private supper club hosting touring bands like Tommy Dorsey and Glen Miller. During the 1960's, the Continental Club became the first burlesque strip club in Austin featuring performers like Candy Barr and Bubbles Cash. It was during the 1970's that the current reputation of the Continental Club began to be established as performers with guitar driven blues and rock bands such as Joe Ely, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Cobras, Jimmie Vaughan and WC Clark began to appear on a regular basis, as well as punk and New Wave Bands like D-Day, The Skunks, The Butthole Surfers and The Explosives. The current owner, Steve Wertheimer, took over the club in 1987 and remodeled it to resemble the original Continental Club as in appeared in the fifties. The Continental still hosts touring bands like Igor and the Red Elvises, Southern Culture On The Skids, Hank Williams III, Bill Kirchen and Jonathan Richman and some of the most popular Austin home town performers with a variety of music including rock, rockabilly, blues, singer-songwriters and swing. Regular performers on the calendar include Junior Brown, Jon Dee Graham, Toni Price, Alejandro Escovedo, James McMurtry, Dale Watson and the LeRoi Brothers. The Continental is often a great location to spot celebrities both visiting and resident to Austin like Johnny Depp, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Matthew McConaughey and Dennis Quaid. The Continental Club is also home base for a custom car and hot rod shows like the Lonestar Rod and Kustom Roundup in April.