Chuy’s in myth and location
Chuy’s in myth and location and Capricorn. Always a Capricorn in the mix.
The original Dallas location for a Chuy’s was in the then-vaunted West End. Outside, but protected by wire-mesh, as I recall, there were some of the original Daddy-O Wade’s “Dancing Frogs” from the top of Tango, another questionable establishment that I am only tangentially tied to.
“Girls, girls, girls.”
Over time, those frogs migrated to Willie’s Bio Diesel truck stop, just south of town. All disappeared, lost in myth and mystery, the shady gray of the past.
Late lunch, one afternoon, away from family business, listened to a Capricorn, compared injuries, and talked strategies.
Wandering in, if only for a minute, I took a turn around the inside of the new location, looking for old, familiar artwork.
Legend, the original Chuy’s on Barton Springs in Austin? Right before opening, lacking any kind of “decorating budget,” they scoured a few student move-out heaps, and thus the tacky yet unrefined ambiance was born. Used to be a Black Velvet Elvis where a microphone was replaced with a jalapeño pepper.
Chuy’s in myth and location
But it goes much deeper, a real B-side cut.
Can’t find it now, but Sherie was the original red-headed Capricorn. I met her early in my career, as she was the promoter plus lead psychic in El Paso.
She was a grande dame.
Stately and overly elegant in her appearance, she always sported a large mane of red hair, while she was stuffed into a tight sheath of a dress, bulging in an alluring fashion in all the correct spots. With spike heels, close to six feet in regal height.
Massively Capricorn, too. Hugely.
She was coy, demure, classy, and yet, under the right conditions, she would swear like a trucker and talk about chasing young boys. I was too mature for her tastes, even then, and this recollection is over thirty years old.
The one show we worked together in Dallas was pretty much a bust, and she was out airfare as Sherie was from Old El Paso — before border wars and cartels. She would talk about crossing into Mexico for gambling, legal drugs, cheap cigarettes, and an afternoon at the bar. There was a time when El Paso residents would wander back and forth across the border with relative impunity. Grocery shopping was cheaper.
“Si hablo ingles!”
as the signs suggested.
The very specific recollection, though, pointedly so, was at that Chuy’s in the West End of Dallas, with a table full of grumpy psychics, most of us were from Austin, and Sherie from El Paso, collected around a large table in that restaurant.
My date, Scorpio, and Sherie, Capricorn, were getting their drink on. Supposedly, tequila washes away a bad day. Sherie was sitting next to me, on one side, I think, flirting somewhat, or joking, not sure, and the memory is too distant to be accurate, but in a moment, she had to be at least two margaritas deep, there was comment, and she looked at me, lifted her scalp, “I tip my hat to that!”
I almost feel out of my chair, the trademark hair?
It was a wig.
Chuy’s in myth and location
Previous notes about the original Chuy’s and Hatch Peppers
Chuy’s and the Hula Hut in Austin.
More Tango frogs.
