Austin-American Statesman: Austin's Hole will rock again!

It's final. The owners of Austin's Pizza, a local franchise with eight locations, Tuesday bought the building at 2538 Guadalupe St. that housed the Hole In the Wall and plan to restore the vaunted dive to its past glory. The original incarnation closed in June after 29 years of business when the lot, which includes a building in the back, was put on sale for nearly a million dollars. "We want to keep the Hole In the Wall the Hole In the Wall," says Austin's Pizza manager Annie McLaughlin , who declined to disclose the sale amount. "We're just going to clean it up a bit."

Hole holdover Brooks Brannen has been hired as day manager and San Francisco music scene veteran Matt Allen is moving here to handle booking at the club, which could be open as early as late May. McLaughlin says the music will lean toward the punkier side and, despite the new owners' background, the food will be barbecue and Southern homestyle instead of pizza. Although McLaughlin says plans are to keep the Hole In the Wall name, previous owner Debbie Rombach issued this terse statement: "Austin's Pizza is not associated with the previous owners of the Hole In the Wall and their use of the name is not sanctioned."