NEW PALM LOUNGE COMING TO ELIZABETH STREET NEAR YOU

By Juan Montoya
We've all read the rhapsodizing by Jerry McHale about the great burgers at the Palm Lounge when Johnny Quiroz and is wife Queta used to tun the place.
For decades, it was the measure of a downtown lounge, where you could take the kids on Charro Days and join the throngs who would buy their brews an peer out at the Children's Parade while munching on the trademark cheeseburger with fries.
The Palm Lounge fell on hard times since Quiroz passed away and his wife made a stab at it but gave it up to sublease and then start a restaurant business of her own (El Torito) where she didn't have to deal with the barflies and old high school football players regaling the rest of the crowd about their glory days.
During its heyday, it served as the watering hole for ral football and sports legends, wannabe stars and the average Browntown Joe who wanted a break from the furnace-hot summer temperatures, drink a cold beverage and tell a few lies himself.
After a sequence of tenants who did nothing to improve the infrastructure there and tried to milk it for all it was worth, the place closed for a few months, forcing the regulars to patronize places such as the Carta Brava, which as a aplce to quaff a few wasn't bad, but catered to a rougher crowd who seemed to wake up with a hankering for a draft beer as early as 10 a.m., including botana Sundays.

Now it seems like the new tenants at the PL are serious about making a ago at becoming an honest bar  where self-respecting customers can lounge around like the old days and fraternize.
We don't know who the new owners are , but judging by what we saw there recently, they are making a hefty investment in the decor and the air-conditioning system in the place, including the removal of the old suspended ceiling that threatened to become unsuspended at any moment.
And even though it was somewhat quiant, we hope they paint over the caricature of the two overweigh Native Americans looking at each other and asking "how?."
Whenever the place opens, it will be a welcome addition to the downtown bar scene and perhaps one day will reclaim its place as the bar to beat on Elizabeth Street during Charro Days and the football season.