Wooden picnic tables sit on what once was the dirt floor that lent this 96-year-old Austin burger joint its name decades ago. Framed photos of employees, customers, and Longhorn football players cover most of the burnt orange walls.
Customers young and old sit scattered around the room while Willie Nelson’s “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)” plays over their quiet conversations, and the smoky smell of bacon grease hangs in the air. For years, Dirty Martin’s has stood at the intersection of Guadalupe Street and Nueces Street. Now a proposed transit system could close the restaurant for good.
The system, called Project Connect, would dramatically expand light rail and bus service throughout the city and greater Austin area. “The intent is to provide lots of options for people to get around town more cheaply and more efficiently,” Council Member Kathie Tovo said. She represents City Council District 9, which includes the Dirty Martin’s property.
While the system is still in its planning stages, the Project Connect staff is scheduled to be 30% complete with its design by the end of 2022. Currently the proposed Orange Line would run along North Lamar and Guadalupe, displacing Dirty Martin’s and several other businesses in the area.
“I’m in favor of [the restaurant] staying right where it is until I’m dead. When I’m gone, they can sell it,” says longtime Dirty’s customer JC Johnson, sitting in the back room under a wall of photos featuring the likes of former Longhorn Malik Jefferson and the late Jim Brewer, a journeyman film and TV actor and longtime customer. A University of Texas alumnus, Johnson has been coming to Dirty’s since the Seventies and says he always orders the greasiest cheeseburger and onion rings he can get. “I wanna be forced to take a Lipitor when I leave.”
“This is my home.” – Longtime employee Val Franco
When the burger joint, originally named Martin’s Kum-Bak, was founded by John Martin in 1926, the small building had eight bar stools, a counter, and dirt floors. Ten years later, Martin sold the restaurant to Stuart Nemir Sr. The current owner, Mark Nemir, is Stuart’s grandson, which means Dirty Martin’s has been in the same family for more than 80 years.
The local staple has remained open throughout the Great Depression, multiple wars, and a pandemic, but Project Connect could displace the restaurant from its longstanding home. “I think it’s stuck because of the employees we’ve had here,” Daniel Young, Dirty’s general manager, says. “From 1950 to 2000, there were the same eight people that worked here.” An Austin native, Young has worked at Dirty’s for seven years. His assistant manager has been there for 12 years, and three of the cooks have worked at Dirty’s for more than 20 years.
In the front room is the Dirty’s hall of fame, as Young calls it. Framed photos of smiling employees line the wall. Some worked at Dirty’s for more than two decades, others for closer to half a century. The core staff remains, and that’s why people come, Young says. People want to go somewhere where the staff knows their first name and their order.
And of course, they also come for their greasy burgers. The staff starts the shift by cooking bacon, seasoning the gas grill with grease for the whole day, Young explains. Each patty is cooked for three minutes on each side. The bun gets a quick toast in the grease as well.
“There’s a little corner where you can kind of dip the bun in and it gets that glaze of grease,” Young says. “And that’s how people remember us.”
As far as burger toppings go, they keep it simple and old-school. “The original hamburger at Dirty’s was just mustard, onion, pickle, tomato, and it’s still the same,” Young says. Ingredients like lettuce, mayonnaise, and bacon have been added to the menu over time, and many claim Dirty’s is the first restaurant in Austin to make a bacon cheeseburger. They’ve also started to branch out by adding things like avocado and cilantro to their burgers.
Beginning in the early 2000s, people started to look elsewhere for a burger. The advent of P. Terry’s in 2005 hurt Dirty Martin’s business considerably, Young says. The pandemic didn’t help matters either. Dirty’s closed briefly, and Nemir decided not to do takeout because he knew their burgers were best when hot and greasy. The threat posed by Project Connect is the latest and most immediate challenge Dirty’s has faced, and it’s one that has sparked discussion about the needs of the city.
“I’m in favor of [Dirty’s] staying right where it is until I’m dead. When I’m gone, they can sell it.” – Longtime customer JC Johnson
“I’m supportive of Project Connect, even though it may result in the loss of or the displacement of some businesses,” Tovo says. “I hope the displacement will be as minimal as possible, but I understand that it may be necessary to get the routes that are most efficient and are going to serve the highest number of people.”
One solution proposed by the Austin community would place the rail line underground at the part of Guadalupe Street housing Dirty’s, Tovo says. This would minimize conflict with pedestrians in the heavily trafficked area and keep Dirty Martin’s doors open.
When asked about Dirty’s future with the impending Project Connect, Young says, “It’s hard to know. The future I think looks a little bit bleak.” He’s hoping for two outcomes with the rail: Either they build under Dirty Martin’s or over it. Young’s goal right now is to stir up as much public outcry as possible. He posted a petition on their website to help keep Dirty’s in business. The people he’s talked to Downtown say he should aim for 50,000 signatures. Right now they’ve gathered about 15,500.
He’s also encouraging customers to reach out to the Austin City Council directly and explain how Dirty’s closure would affect them personally.
“This is my home,” long-term employee Val Franco says. He’s been working at Dirty’s for 24 years and loves it. Wearing a Dirty Martin’s baseball cap and shirt, he sits at a table at the very back of the room. It’s his favorite table because he can see everything from here. “I say everything is beautiful here. I love this room,” Franco says.
A picture of smiling UT students outside of Dirty’s in the Eighties hangs on the left side of the room. The students are still customers. One is a coach in Leander, another is a realtor, another writes for Texas Monthly, Young says. Across from them hangs a Fifties-era ad for Dirty Martin’s. Young pulled it from an old Daily Texan. Dirty’s phone number was only five digits long back then.
Toward the front, a framed wedding invitation for June 18, 1983, reads, “Don’t miss the first wedding ever held at Martin’s Kum-Bak Hamburger Place.” The suggested attire is “disgustingly casual.”
“A lot of people know this place,” Franco says. “I want to keep it a home.”
This article appears in July 22 • 2022.