The Return of the Governor’s Words Starring Oat Willie

Joe Brown and Gilbert Shelton

Anna Swanson, Lily Boone and Camille Swanson

Copyright, 2014, Stephen L. Clark.  All rights reserved by the copyright owner.

Used with permission of Stephen L. Clark.  Courtesy Texas State University, Lily Boone Collection, Witliff Collection.

The Opening of Another Raw Deal Called Another Raw Deal

Post card invitation to a special party in celebration of the opening of Another Raw Deal:

On the Walls and Doors

A Day in the Life of The Raw Deal #1

The Raw Deal Mural

 

The Raw Deal is Closed

A Good Deal at the Raw Deal

UTmost Magazine

Haute Spots

by Patti Ricker

This fall UTmost will begin a regular feature on Austin’s nightspots – designed with the comfort-seeker in mind.  Each month UTmost will spotlight a different club and provide information on a variety of the city’s tantalizing discos, restaurants, dance halls and other haunts.  So lean back, enjoy and get ready to do some exploring.

In the beginning of the never-ending saga of Austin nightlife, there toiled a man named Eddie Wilson.  He and a handful of enterprising friends converted a dilapidated National Reserve Armory on Barton Springs Road into Austin’s most enduring club – and a nationally praised showplace to boot.  After launching the fledgling Armadillo World Headquarters into permanent orbit, Eddie Wilson sneaked off to a crackerbox building at 605 Sabine Street and opened the Raw Deal – for himself.  The laid-back Armadillo-brand of hospitality moved with him.

From the first day, the club has existed for “the kind of folks you’d like to have in your own living room,” says Fletcher Boone, one of the original Raw Deal-ers.  Fletcher and two or three buddies pitched in some enthusiasm and elbow grease and found themselves owners after Eddie moved on.  A homey intimacy around the place makes you feel that you can lean over and chat with a stranger at the next table.  The Raw Deal helps people make memories, and the staff swears never to dish out fancy service or serve anything on a silver platter.

And they mean what they say.  At the Deal you learn fast – if you’re hungry.  Don’t arrive too famished to fetch your own silverware, or you’ll find yourself roughing it with your hands.  A little table by the front door offers forks, knives, spoons, napkins and steak sauces.  While you’re getting your silverware, order your food from the menu scrawled on the blackboard across the room, and pick up the beverage of your choice.

Steaks include 8-oz. sirloins, 6- and 8-oz. filets, chopped steaks and 16-oz. Porterhouse cuts, served with spicy red beans and crisp strips of carrot and bell pepper.  Other alternatives include are the 6- or 8-oz. pork chops (served with beans), and a chicken breast, which comes with a beautiful salad – bright lettuce greens piled high, topped with carrots, ripe olives and egg slices.  Prices for these dinners range from $3.25 to $5.75.  The Deal here is the superior quality of the meat, cooked exactly as you desire; and no money is squandered on parsley flourishes or orange pinwheels.

Extra special items, which range from $.75 to $1, include home-style fries (the real thing – huge chunks of potato, fried to a delicate brown, and enough for two people), dinner salads in round ceramic bowls and wedges of pecan or apple pie.

To wash this down, choose from the usual coffee, tea and soft drinks, or opt for one (or two) of a tempting variety of domestic and imported beers.  Included are Tecate ($.95 – the best price in town), Bohemia, Heineken, Pearl, Lone Star and many others.  The Deal also pours a big juice glass of wine and provides set-ups for the bottle of your choice – which you bring in with you.

While you sit at a table, soothed by the breeze from ceiling fans and sipping a jumbo glass of something cool, you can watch the cooks take your dinner from the refrigerator to the grill to your plate.  If you’re a novice to culinary mysteries, this process should entertain you.  If not, it will be hard to take your eyes off the reclining, cardboard naked lady, swinging over the preparation table.  Her back is turned to the customers and tennis balls hang by string from her feet, shoulders and derriere (this arrangement must be seen to be fully appreciated).  Her toes point to red chili peppers dangling from the ceiling, basking in the greasy glow and blistering from the heat of the grill.

Before you’ve fully whetted your appetite on the scenery, a cook will put your dinner in front of you and it’s time to dig in.  After one whiff of intoxicating aroma, you’ll devour your meal.

You may be a little stuffed, too, but the pie is ambrosial and the deal provides plenty of attractions with which to amuse yourself while waiting for your stomach to make room.

You might stroll over to the bar and take a look at the Raw Deal’s Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.  Complete with reading glass (the print is microscopic), the two gigantic volumes sit to the left of the jukebox,  with the world of words at your fingertips.

I you can tear yourself away from this temptation, the record machine boasts a well-rounded selection of old favorites.  Choose from greats like “Misty,” “For What It’s Worth” and “The Last Time I Saw Paris.”  Or, take a chance and try “Stars and Stripes Forever” by Herbie Mann and the Carnival Band.  After you’ve topped these entertainments off with a big slice of Raw Deal pie, you’ll be lulled into a state of bliss which words cannot describe.

The Deal is a delightful, palatable place to be.  Its smoky, cozy atmosphere is ideal for chowing down, reminiscing and bridging the generation gap.  Somehow, in that tiny building, each person – of any age, profession or reputation imaginable – can find a little nostalgia.  The place is a genuine time machine, perpetually coaxing in “victims” (as one owner fondly calls the customers) off the street.  The shoe-shine boy who once set up shop by the front door is gone – too many folks wearing sandals and tennis shoes.  But the Deal rolls on and the motto over the door always seems to hold true:  “It’ll be better next time.”

Dear Three Hearts

Austin, Texas  78703

October 23, 1979

Dear Three Hearts:

Will The Raw Deal ever be quite the same again?  After being violated by “pink posies & silk ribbons,” it somehow takes on a new image, it life has indeed come full circle.

A note from us to say so much:  that appreciation is not found only in the dictionary, that our party elevated our engagement to new heights, that we had more fun & laughed harder than we had in a long, long time (like my 3rd grade Surprise Birthday Party in 1948) the the “BAY OF PIGS” invasion ain’t so bad after all, that perhaps the Capulets and the Montagues can come together and have a good time and finally say how much we thank you for your hard work and time and energy to put together such a fine gala just for us.

A BANANA CREAM PIE IS IN ORDER.  F.O.B., C.O.D.

My love to the 3 of you:  Lopez, Fletcher, & Segal –

From,
The Bride, et al

Raw Dealers’ (The Raw Deal Softball Team) Thoughts for Today

Thursdays

March 15 – BYE
March 22 – Sweet Olive Bunnies – Govalle (9:30)March 29 – Muffin Men – W. Bartholomew (6:30)
April 5 – Too Smooth – Brentwood (8:30)
April 12 – Superior Dairies – Kreig IV (7:30)
April 19 – BYE
April 26 – Sweet Olive Bunnies – Govalle (9:30)
May 3 – Muffin Men – W. Bartholomew (6:30)
May 10 – Too Smooth – Brentwood (8:30)
May 17 – Superior Dairies – Kreig IV (7:30)

This is the year of the Lastros (strike that) big Deal according to the Chinese calendar.  We are a veteran team and are long overdue for a trophy.  Our three fans are disgruntled because of our continual failure to bring the bacon home to the Raw Deal.  The owners, Fletcher and Lopez, are threatening to sell the franchise to new ownership unless we produce something more than used softballs and beer tabs.  As the schedule indicates, it will be a long drawn-out season with only a couple of BYEs available for rest and recuperation.  If all goes well this season, our stopper – that old pro Dave Richards – might get elevated to a new team on the Fifth Circuit.  With that in mind, we should try to win one for the Dipper.