The El Mercado is a Tex/Mex restaurant on South 1st Street a short bike ride from where we stayed while visiting Austin for our winter vacation in 2014. There's another version of the El Mercado on Lavaca up by the University but I've never been there. Austin has lots of good Tex/Mex restaurants and the El Mercado is no exception but we were there for the music on "Mystery Mondays".
Mystery Mondays is a regular Monday night event at the El Mercado on South 1st hosted by Christine Albert. While we were there it was co-hosted with Jimmie Dale Gilmore (of the Flatlanders fame: Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock). Every week they would have a "mystery guest" to accompany them and they'd play a couple of sets. Mostly an unrehearsed grab-bag of music shared by friends. And often they'd bring a friend out of the audience on stage to sing a few songs. Butch stopped in several times as did Jimmy Lafave -- both of whom we also saw in concert at Strange Brew.
We stumbled onto this regular event when I saw a brief mention in the local newspaper. It's not advertised in the Austin Chronicle, the local bible to what's happening. Apparently Christine Albert and Sarah Elizabeth Campbell had hosted a long running event of exactly this sort at Artz Ribs on Lamar (we happened to see Sarah at Artz many years ago). The regular Monday event moved to El Mercado when Artz closed a few years ago -- it has yet to reopen but there's rumors it will. Jimmie took over Sarah's role as cohost when she passed away in December of 2013 after a battle with cancer.
It's a fine music tradition on Monday nights. There's good food, if you're hungry, beers and margaritas if you're thirsty. And the entrance is free -- they pass a tip jar. We enjoyed it so much we made it our regular Monday night event while in Austin.
If you're in Austin, check out Mystery Monday nights at the El Mercado on South 1st. You will be pleasantly surprised.
Mystery Mondays is a regular Monday night event at the El Mercado on South 1st hosted by Christine Albert. While we were there it was co-hosted with Jimmie Dale Gilmore (of the Flatlanders fame: Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock). Every week they would have a "mystery guest" to accompany them and they'd play a couple of sets. Mostly an unrehearsed grab-bag of music shared by friends. And often they'd bring a friend out of the audience on stage to sing a few songs. Butch stopped in several times as did Jimmy Lafave -- both of whom we also saw in concert at Strange Brew.
We stumbled onto this regular event when I saw a brief mention in the local newspaper. It's not advertised in the Austin Chronicle, the local bible to what's happening. Apparently Christine Albert and Sarah Elizabeth Campbell had hosted a long running event of exactly this sort at Artz Ribs on Lamar (we happened to see Sarah at Artz many years ago). The regular Monday event moved to El Mercado when Artz closed a few years ago -- it has yet to reopen but there's rumors it will. Jimmie took over Sarah's role as cohost when she passed away in December of 2013 after a battle with cancer.
It's a fine music tradition on Monday nights. There's good food, if you're hungry, beers and margaritas if you're thirsty. And the entrance is free -- they pass a tip jar. We enjoyed it so much we made it our regular Monday night event while in Austin.
If you're in Austin, check out Mystery Monday nights at the El Mercado on South 1st. You will be pleasantly surprised.
I've posted a photo album that documents our visits -- enjoy!
#Austin #LiveMusic #ChristineAlbert #JimmieDaleGilmore #Dining #SxS1st
#Austin #LiveMusic #ChristineAlbert #JimmieDaleGilmore #Dining #SxS1st
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