this is life in austin & aspen

Except that it’s actually April. Tonight is still the championship game in college basketball, and with a Big 12 team in the final–Kansas–against a southern team–Memphis–and the game being played locally–San Antonio–I’m guessing tonight will be a busy night in the sports bars.

Strangely enough, downtown/warehouse district sports bar Ringers abruptly closed its doors last month. Its website is still live, like an eery vestige to a life taken too soon (maybe I’m taking that too seriously). Rumors are swirling about how the owner didn’t even tell his employees he was closing shop, he just chained the doors shut and that was that. Classy, sports-loving Austinites still puzzle over how the only place to watch a game downtown and not feel like you’re still in college at Cain and Abel’s could possibly close.

In any case, it leaves just two downtown-ish venues for watching the game tonight: Third Base and The Tavern. I prefer the Tav, but it’s on 12th and Lamar, which isn’t quite downtown. And it looks like my north-dwelling friends are going to ask me to come up to Sam’s Boat for crawfish and sports, not a bad combo. Although I’d probably prefer the airy outdoors and people-watching at Doc’s, I can’t blame the northerners for not wanting to drive that far south.