The Continental Club

This narrow room at 1315 South Congress opened in February 1955, in a building that had been a laundromat, and it has been in more or less continuous operation ever since. Its original owner Morin Scott ran it as a private supper club with a doorman and a dress code. It then became the first burlesque club in Austin, and after that a working man's bar that opened at seven in the morning, before it settled into what it is now. The stretch that made its reputation was the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a small stage three steps off the floor was a regular room for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, for Paul Ray and the Cobras, and for Joe Ely. Almost nothing about the room has been enlarged since. The stage is still small, the ceiling is still low, and the audience is still standing within a few feet of whoever is playing. The booking runs to roots music in the broad sense: rockabilly, country, western swing, blues, soul and rock, most nights of the week, with long running residencies that regulars set their calendars by. Austin has larger and newer venues with better sightlines. This is the one that has been doing it the longest without moving, and the physical room is a substantial part of the reason people care about it.