Everything else was a work in progress, with a team of carpenters on duty almost nonstop since Garrett and Stewart took over. A peak toward the back showed that Beerland’s historically “divey” bathrooms had been upgraded to appeal to a more standard nightlife clientele, which Garrett said is one of the many concessions that had to be made to keep the new Beerland busy with a cash register he hopes will be ringing frequently.

The lounge concept will see a seating capacity of just under 100 people on non-music nights, with long bench/table seating as a main operational component to help customers congregate and want to stay for a while. That orientation will also allow the space to serve as something of a cafeteria for visitors to enjoy food from the assortment of food trucks and restaurants throughout the district. On live music nights the seating and tables will be struck to allow up to 170 standing-room patrons.

As an example of possible business synergy, Garrett spitballs the idea for a discount on a bottle of wine for customers who come in with a pizza from the Hoboken Pies located across the street. He said that kind of cooperation amongst nightlife spots is key for the survival of the district.

That’s especially important with property values in surrounding areas expected to continue climbing thanks to the Waller Creek tunnel project and the nearby Waterloo Greenway series of parks along the creek.

Increased collaboration has helped businesses in the district push the city for long-in-coming streetscape improvements and work to close off and clean up the alley bordering Beerland that had become a haven for drug use and prostitution and created an unsafe environment for pedestrians.

“Red River is changing. It’s the one thing that I've learned and what I've loved over the course the last five, six years... the bond in the community here got tighter,” Garrett said.

“For so long it was like it was Mohawk versus Stubb's. I bought into it too and I think when Cody (Cowan, former Mohawk general manager and now executive director of the Red River Cultural District) was over there he did too and, his words, we were these ‘asshole evil empire people over here at Stubb's.’ I'm like well actually, we're a locally owned and operated the music venue that hired and employs 104 people. Once we realized, after I took off my black cloak and he stopped looking at me like I was the anti-Mohawk, and vice versa, and it turns out you're not a shithead… we got to know each other, realized that we had a lot in common and now I’m on the phone with Cody five days a week.”

Some words need to be spent on the change in booking philosophy at Beerland, and the undeniable impact it will have on young bands starting out in 2019 Austin. Back-of-the-envelope math roughs out to nearly two dozen acts per week playing the club during its years as a music-first venue. That works out to over 1,000 performance slots per year.

With 100 nights of music programming a year in the reopened Beerland - even if some of those are high-artist-churn times like South By Southwest - the number of performance slots per year could be reduced by about two thirds. That’s a huge gap to make up, and even if neighboring bar Valhalla moves forward with its plans to offer two nights of music per week there is going to be a large net reduction in performance opportunities for young band starting out.