Threadgill’s first opened as a filling station back in 1933, but after getting hold of Travis County’s first beer license, it quickly became the favorite watering hole for local musicians. Soon it became the world headquarters for a new style of music that merged Southern sounds of country, rock, and blues music. Janis Joplin jammed here in the ’60s.

In 1970, inspired by the scene, Threadgill’s regular Eddie Wilson opened the legendary Armadillo World Headquarters south of the river, which quickly put Austin on the music map for good. When that great eatery closed in 1980, Wilson reopened Threadgill’s. Sunday’s gospel brunch at the South location has long been a favorite Austin activity, and while the buffet makes migas congeal and stiffen, sweet potato pancakes and cheesy grits are delicious.

Generally, the execution of the Southern comfort food here is decidedly dated. Chicken-fried chicken cutlets are dry and overdone, as is a Buffalo chicken sandwich, the sauce no more complex than Tabasco. Vegetable sides are bland and watery, the mac and cheese runny and undersalted. Burgers are better, and come nicely smoky and medium-rare to order, but the buns are puny. Peach cobbler is buttery and the buttermilk pie is a pleasure—moreso amid the memorabilia of a time in Austin that we wish we could have witnessed.