Spider House Kitchen Is Closed

As of this week, Spider House, the campus-area hang zone frequented by students, musicians, and laptop-wielding beverage fans, has permanently closed its kitchen.

According to General Manager Jay Cesak, they are “moving toward a Cheer Up Charlies model, with Arlo’s taking over all food operations.” Spider House has moved another trailer from Casino Southside into the back “chapel-ish” area, and now there will be two Arlo’s trucks on site. Arlo’s is known for its vegan comfort food like the Bac’n Cheeze Burger.

Cesak explained via email that with newer places like Moontower Saloon (and its enormous, multifaceted space) popping up, Spider House has had to revamp to keep up the pace. “I’ve been here six years. Last year was Spider House’s 25th anniversary, and [we’re] going with the trends in Austin. As a business that’s been here for so long, you can’t just stagnate. We can’t use a business model from 15 years ago. … It makes more sense to let someone else handle [the food].”

He added, “We are just trying to move Spider House in a more streamlined version of itself. We obviously wanna keep all the funky, quirky things that make it Spider House, that people have come to grow and love over the past 26 years, but make it more sustainable. We also are building a new outside bar as well, and as of this week will be discontinuing table service. It is our hope that these changes will help our employees to be more profitable and create less confusion for the patrons!”