In June, Brian Mays, owner of the East Austin institution Sam’s BBQ, put out a call to his community. The same developers who snatched up swathes of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood had come to his triple lot with an offer to buy—for $3.5 million. Mays—whose family bought the restaurant from the founder, Sam Campbell, in 1976—had watched as East Austin’s landscape changed over the years. White people moved into the historically black neighborhood and African-American families and businesses sold their property to newcomers whose vision for East Austin included condo towers and hipster bars. So Mays told the neighbors who asked him not to sell that if they wanted him to stay, they needed to show him that they valued Sam’s the same way he did—by showing up to eat the brisket, sausage, ribs, mutton, and chicken he smokes seven days a week.
The community responded. Black and white East Austinites started turning up and doing their part to make sure that Sam’s wasn’t just a museum of the old East Austin, but a vibrant and active part of the neighborhood.
But last week, Mays told KVUE that the developers had come back. This time, they’d upped their offer to $5 million.
That’s a lot of money, and it puts Sam’s BBQ in an unusual bind. Mays is 64. He loves his neighborhood, and business is good enough that he doesn’t need to sell. But also, when you’ve spent decades running a restaurant and now you can walk away with millions, who are you responsible to in making that decision?
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