alt Hacker NewsEchoing that. 99 Bottles really was an institution. It had the feel of a proper local pub: warm, a little scruffy, and full of character. The walls were covered with bottle caps from all kinds of beer brands — probably more than 99, honestly.
And if you made it through all 99 beers on their list, you got a small plaque on the wall, about the size of one of those e-ink grocery price tags. It was a great tavern-like atmosphere, and the kind of place that felt increasingly rare even before it was gone.
I just am always in awe of successful business owners who don't leverage their success into a business loan to buy the building or one nearby. I grew up in Austin, and there are a few businesses that have no business still sitting on their little plots to obvious places are: El Patio and Dirty Martin's. How are they able to stumble along with low prices and old school menus? Well, they own the property they sit on.
Time and time again, I see businesses fighting against rent-seeking landlords who are happy to remove a well-loved successful business for an extra few hundred a month. It's happening right now to Yard Bar (my favorite weird spot in Austin right now).
I know it's a thin margin business, but I wish every successful spot would take every damn dollar they made and at least by a comparable property so they have leverage against these landlords. It's a pointless destruction of value that doesn't have to happen to profitable well loved businesses.