El Gallo Closing

One by one the dominos seem to be falling with respect to classic, family-owned restaurants in Austin.
The latest casualty is the iconic El Gallo on S Congress which has been dishing up Tex Mex for 60 years. The Kennedy family has had to shut its doors because they simply can’t keep pace with rising property taxes.

This is the downside of progress and it’s already impacted a number of family restaurants. Since Apple and Google etc get generous tax abatement from the city one wonders why some of these classic restaurants that are a part of the fabric of what makes Austin unique can’t benefit from thar same generosity.

Of course the hard-boiled business types will lay the blame at the feet of the family for not sufficiently raising prices to cover these costs. But I doubt their customers would have been inclined to pay $20 for a bowl of queso. And I’m not sure that would have covered it.

El Gallo will be missed.