The Bearded Lady’s patio crowds have always doubled as West Magnolia Avenue’s welcoming committee, ever since the craft beer-centric bar/restaurant opened five years ago. The small but lively front patio of the converted craftsman house – often brimming with customers and surrounded by foot traffic – alerted anyone entering the Near Southside from the south that he had just arrived in a cool, progressive entertainment district. On June 27, Magnolia will lose its boozy ambassador to a new spot in the nearby South Main Street area.
Thanks to an expiring lease and what co-owner Shannon Osbakken characterized as a “partnership separation,” the Bearded Lady will be moving to 300 South Main Street. The new digs, situated next to the ABC Flag Manufacturing Co. building, sits at the cross-streets of Daggett Avenue and Main. Along with fellow beer peddlers HopFusion Ale Works and The Collective Brewing Project, the transplant bar/restaurant will add to the “hopping” (#sorrynotsorry) craft beer scene in the area.
Osbakken said the new space’s larger kitchen and dining area will allow the new-look Lady to focus more on its popular food menu. In 2016, the kitchen’s burger was named one of the 50 best in the state by Texas Monthly and was also awarded the title of Top 5 Burger that year by the Weekly’s very own burger cognoscenti.
“It’s going to be more of a restaurant,” Osbakken said. “Our food has grown so popular over the past couple of years, we kind of outgrew that tiny little kitchen.”
Like its old location, the new building will prominently feature a party patio – and like the rest of the space, the patio will be bigger, allowing Osbakken and company to book bands, host events, and add other outdoor bar activities
The announcement, made on social media by real estate agents Hatfield Advisors, came on the heels of The Bearded Lady’s fifth anniversary party, which featured bands and specials on beer and food. As of a few weeks ago, the Lady did not appear to be a bar that was planning to pick up stakes. Osbakken wouldn’t elaborate further on the circumstances of the move.
The Bearded Lady is just the latest bar/restaurant to make its home in the now-booming South Main Street area, which already boasts close to a dozen bar/restaurants and will soon house several more, including Taco Heads’ sister restaurant, Tinie’s Rotisserie Chicken.
Osbakken said she hopes to reopen the Bearded Lady by November and said that her current staff is pledging its support, despite her moth-balling the bar for three months.
“Pretty much all of my employees are saying they are going to come back,” she said. “They love working for the company, and even though it won’t be in an old craftsman-style house, a lot of the design will keep the same feel and comfort of our current location.”
She said she’s excited to be a part of the growth of the South Main area.
“I think in the long run, the move is going to be for the best,” she said.
