Another bar bites the red dirt on Lowest Greenville

Update Saturday night - BD's been getting email that Bandera has reopened. Details when we get them.

Instead of playing red dirt music, Bandera is now eating its own red dirt.

The landlord locked the doors on them yesterday, which is the Lowest Greenville way of saying Next tenant victim, please!

BD had been hearing rumors of money problems recently. The best source told us that one of the owners was out looking for a $25,000 bridge (to nowhere??) loan.

The same source tells us that one potential sucker - we mean, investor - asked what the collateral would be. The answer - None.

The closing is not a big surprise, and in fact the best bet on how long it would be open was three months, not six. Though they were legally operating as a bar (in the former Poor David's space), they were required to provide just five parking spaces [which the staff took]. So patrons were forced to pay upwards of $20 to park on any of the valet-controlled parking lots. The Resident Parking Only zones around Bandera's were installed nearly 10 years ago, and had the tightest restrictions seven nights a week.

On Friday afternoon, BD was told by a reliable source a little fact that was overlooked in the original posting. He tells us the owners of the property - Andres - had given the Bandera team six months of free rent (on top of testifying on their behalf to reinstate the non-conforming use that allowed it to operate as bar without serving food). That six months window ended in December (they opened in July after a month of renovations). And poof, they could not survive after paying triple-net rent (rent, property taxes, insurance) and a piece of the liquor action.

Business is bad all over Lowest Greenville - BD can count on one paw the number of bars (not restaurants) that are up for sale. Of course, the landlord always has another sucker out in the wings waiting to take the spaces.

When Bandera opened, the manager in charge was the former owner of Zymology Pizza (now occupied by Eat A Slice), which closed after a record five months. Then last fall, they lost a fight with the City when the landlord tried to turn the city-owned head-in parking spaces out front (and in front of Public House) into patios.

Oops, they never got the permits because the City was not about to give up the spaces to anyone. After a few weeks of fighting, which included the spaces looking like war-zones over Texas OU weekend, Andres Properties (the landlord) rebuilt the parking spaces (see original CBS11 News story here).