Chelsea Street Pub

Ahhh…80s mall culture! Anyone else seeing scenes from Fast Times at Ridgemont High here? Once upon a time at the Barton Creek Mall there was a bar and eatery called Chelsea Street Pub. And sure, it was part of a regional Texas “chain” (all locations in malls), it was a long-running live-music spot. The pub’s mall location created a different kind of audience: Hard rockers had to wait for later sets, after dining families and older mall shoppers had left, before cranking up the volume. Bands would be booked for an entire week, and played their sets at the top of every hour, and things would get pretty nuts later in the evenings. Many bands passing through Austin booked time at Chelsea Street, and the “Mountain of Nachos” wasn’t too bad either.