In a well-loved booth, 30 minutes before their first booking and marketing meeting – which coincides with some air conditioning repair – Hole in the Wall’s new co-owners, Mike Lavigne and Courtney Goforth, are animated about the venue’s new chapter and clear-eyed about their roles as stewards.
“The place isn’t broken. We’re not here to fix it. We’re not here to save it,” says Lavigne. “We’re just here to help them succeed.”
Although – he adds later, gesturing to the open wound of vinyl and foam beneath our thighs: “We are gonna fix these booths.”
Hole in the Wall has staunchly lived up to its name, even as the area around it shot upward and expanded. The dive bar-meets-music venue itself grew during that time to accommodate three stages, a full kitchen, patio space, and Calamity cafe and karaoke bar in back. Since its early years in the hands of founder Doug Cugini, who passed earlier this year, the Drag staple has been known for adapting to its community with a spirit of hospitality, and becoming home for songwriters from Townes Van Zandt to Spoon to Ethan Azarian and many a barfly in between.
Goforth, who has spent years in Austin venues booking bands and promoting shows at Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, and more, says it’s that spirit the new team will keep at the forefront.
“Things are going well as long as your priority is on the community and the artists and the people that are bringing the entertainment here and bringing people in,” says the experienced marketing director.
Lavigne, a partner in La La’s Little Nugget and public affairs firm Texas Access Partners, owned Violet Crown Clubhouse, served on the city’s Downtown Commission, and has a political background working for the Texas Democratic Party. When longtime owner Will Tanner approached Lavigne about buying the bar, the entrepreneur was surprised, but couldn’t walk away from the opportunity.
“The only way that that would even remotely work is if Courtney would be down to do something like this, to be my co-pilot,” he remembers thinking. Nearly seven months later, the two are ready to step into the spotlight as co-owners to lead a trickle of minor updates and adjustments, like reintroducing late-night shows and expanding booking.
“There won’t be any less of anything that’s happening,” Lavigne insists. “We have a lot of days of the week, hours of the day, and stages to play. There will be all the local bands you could ever possibly imagine and watch and want to see, and touring bands and disco and drag and partying.”
Tanner, Long Play Lounge co-owner and former Coral Snake owner, bought the venue in 2008 and saw it through several bumps in the road before the Guadalupe mainstay turned 50 in 2024. The storied business owner, who could not be reached for comment, will stay on as a partner at Hole in the Wall in what Lavigne calls “a smaller capacity.” Through a newly established shareholding structure, the Cugini family – as well as a slate of “musicians you’ve heard of,” Lavigne says – will also hold a stake in the business.
In 2023, the business got a $1.6 million funding boost from Rally Austin’s (then Austin Economic Development Corporation) Iconic Venue Program and assistance securing a 20-year lease from the Weitzman Group. Lavigne says the new owners are grateful for the prior support and will continue to seek city grant opportunities.
“The lion’s share of that money has already been spent before we got here on infrastructure,” the entrepreneur says. “What it works out to is about $4,000 a month in rent abatement on $20,000 a month rent.”
The pair have no stars in their eyes when it comes to maintaining a charming, but aging, music venue.
“You know that you’re gonna have to work hard at it, but it’s valuable to keep something with that kind of character,” says Goforth. A/C repair guys aside, the two say the multi-room venue is in better shape than it has been.
With kitchen repairs already wrapped up over the summer, and incoming, unnamed full-service restaurant tenants Lavigne promises are professional, “beloved,” and “rock & roll,” the duo are confident that new – and old – daytime and late-night audiences will ensure the venue continues to play homebase for songwriters, music lovers, and Austinites of all stripes for generations to come.
“Keep your eyes open,” Lavigne says. “You never know what’s gonna happen at the Hole in the Wall, and that’s gonna become true very soon, if not already.”
