The storied venue located at 501 Brushy bears a new name: Brushy Street Commons Day & Night. Formerly known as the Parish, and North Door before that, the independent stage has been a hub for local acts and touring musicians for decades.
“The stage at Brushy Street has such a rich but relatively unknown history in Austin’s cultural landscape that we believe it will become something truly special,” incoming ringmaster Eli Kooris wrote to the Chronicle. “With the 25 foot ceilings and mezzanine, it feels like a really big room yet has a super intimate vibe. And since we own and operate it as an independent venue, there just aren’t many other places in Austin like it.”
Parish owner Steven Sternschein announced a pending move earlier this year, citing difficulties paying rent despite an amicable relationship with the Kooris family, who have owned the building since the Seventies.
“The rent is fair for the building and the neighborhood, but it’s too much for a small independent music venue like us to break even,” Sternschein wrote in a statement quoted by the Chronicle in May 2025. “We could raise prices, but our mission is to support our music community, ALL of it, and that means keeping ticket prices and drink prices accessible. We just can’t do that in our current location.”
Originally built as a granary in the 1800s, the building had a brief stint as an administrative center for an asylum before Eli’s father, Richard Kooris, purchased it. Richard made use of the unique, wide-open floor plan to create a soundstage for his filmmaking venture 501 Studios. In the room where Brushy Street Commons will soon operate, they shot commercials, music videos, and feature films including Universal Picture’s 1981 movie Raggedy Man, starring Sissy Spacek and Eric Roberts. The studio played host to legendary music videos from Austin icons like Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan and was the home of the Texas Lottery broadcast drawings for over a decade.
Now, the sizable 501 Studios building is home to creative offices, and the soundstage space became a live performance stage when North Door moved in. North Door was a hub for cocktails, viewing parties, comedy, and music from 2008 until the pandemic pushed it closed in 2020. Parish took over soon after, focusing on mid-sized musical acts and several beloved residencies like karaoke-meets-pole-dancing event Punchline ATX.
Eli, a 1999 Chronicle intern turned filmmaker, is now picking up the reins of 501 Brushy. He plans to honor its multifaceted history with programming old and new. Punchline ATX and the nearly 50 more shows booked through the rest of 2025 will remain in the space, as will much of the staff, and the venue will continue to work with Resound Presents, Live Nation, and See Tickets.
“We wanted to allow the staff to continue working there,” Eli says. “We’re going to keep [shows] going because at the end of the day, it’s a very fun place, it’s a great room, it’s totally set up and we had a lot of great artists coming in there.”
In addition to the established music performances, Eli and his team want to make room for more events that North Door patrons might recognize, like sports and movie screenings. The “Day & Night” part of the new name is intentional, too. Marinara Miracles, known for supplying Italian bites upstairs at Valhalla, will soon open in the kitchen, and a coffee shop and craft cocktail lounge will move into the back room where the bar My Oh My once stood.
Sternschein, who is also the owner of Empire Control Room & Garage, acquired Parish in an eBay auction in 2021, when it was on Sixth Street, and relocated the venue to 501 Brushy after an expensive legal dispute with the landlord nearly a year later. Sternschein told the Chronicle he’s still hoping to purchase a new location for the venue where they won’t have to “rely on alcohol sales to give artists the opportunity to grow and connect with their fan base.”
