East Austin Dive Bar St. Roch’s Is Permanently Closed

East Austin dive bar, crawfish restaurant, and generally New Orleans-obsessed spot St. Roch’s Bar is now closed on 515 Pedernales Street because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to Facebook.

The shutter happened because of a “combination of greedy, ignorant landlords, and the COVID-19 shutdown [that] made it impossible for us to continue to do business at this location,” read the message from co-owners Steve Leininger, Chris Mullins, and Miguel Jimenez. It is unclear as to what will happen to the bar at this point. Read the full Facebook announcement below.

St. Roch’s was a main hub for fans of the New Orleans Saints, hosting watch parties for every football game. The bar also held crawfish boils throughout the mudbug season.

The bar closed along with other businesses in mid-March as part of the strict shutdown throughout the city to mitigate the spread of the virus. The bar sold its anniversary t-shirts and drink chips, and collected donations, to raise money for its staff. It also held weekend to-go crawfish boils at Jimenez’s other bar Knomad in Windsor Park.

The trio opened the bar in 2010 originally as the Double Down Lounge. It turned into St. Roch’s in 2011.

St. Roch’s Bar’s Facebook Announcement

After 10 years in East Austin St Roch’s Bar (or Double Down Lounge for those of you that were around from the beginning) is closing. The combination of greedy, ignorant landlords and the Covid 19 shutdown made it impossible for us to continue to do business at this location. Thank you to our current and former staff for your work and dedication. Thank you to all of our loyal patrons for your support through the years. We are unsure what the future holds at this point but we hope to see you all again.

Thank you, stay safe and WHO DAT!

Steve, Chris and Miguel.

• St. Roch’s Bar [Facebook]
• All Coverage of St. Roch’s Bar [EATX]