AUSTIN (KXAN) — Red River Street’s LGBTQ+ bar and nightclub Cheer Up Charlies said it’s at risk of closure if it doesn’t make up nearly $60,000 in back rent by the end of the month.
Cheer Ups posted on Instagram Thursday, claiming that its landlord’s agent had notified its owners earlier this week that the business’s last day of operation would be August 31 unless it could pay what’s owed in back rent before then.
KXAN reached out to one of the owners of Cheer Up Charlies to request a comment, as well as the bar’s property management company, DT Land Group. We’ll update this story if we receive a response.
“Frankly, we are a couple of months behind on rent from a very slow summer, and the landlord has sent us notice that they will be locking our doors Sept. 1 unless we can pay the back-rent before then,” the bar’s post read in part.
In the caption, Cheer Ups shared that it was enlisting emergency fundraising through a Ko-Fi page and a GoFundMe. The GoFundMe description said Cheer Ups needed to raise $58,000 for 2.5 months owed in back rent.
“Cheer Ups should be a red herring for anyone worried about how the chips are going to fall here in Texas and especially in regards to the local music industry here in Austin in the coming years,” the Instagram caption said. “We’ve done and are doing everything we can to enlist emergency fundraising but we also get it. That this just might be the end.”
As of 4:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, the Ko-Fi had raised about $44,660, and the GoFundMe had received $14,701, which totals just over the $58k goal.
The post received multiple comments in support of the business, but there were also several comments expressing concern and stating that the business should be transparent about its finances if it is going to rely on crowdfunding.
This is not the first time Cheer Up Charlies has faced financial difficulty and turned to the community for help.
At the end of 2023, Cheer Ups announced plans to evolve its business model and it launched an account on the fundraising platform Patreon in response to economic pressures it faced back then.
Cheer Ups said in an Instagram post on Dec. 30, 2023, that it was working to eventually start serving its own coffee during the day and expand its brunch programming and hours. It did not.
Several comments on the Instagram post and in a Reddit thread expressed that Cheer Up Charlies is an important part of the LGBTQ+ culture in Austin, but it’s concerning that a similar situation has happened before. Some comments also note that the bar seems to have a good amount of business, at least on the weekends.
The bar’s Instagram caption addressed that. “Trying to keep a steady cashflow with rising costs of operations and a decline (almost non-existence) in weekday foot traffic or sales has proven to take a huge toll on operators like us leasing physical spaces these days,” part of the caption said.
KXAN found public records showing Cheer Up Charlies’ mixed beverage gross receipts for its sales of liquor, wine and beer. The total reported alcohol sales for each of the last six months of available information is below:
- June: $129,935
- May: $130,569
- April: $154,101
- March: $216,708
- Feb: $89,464
- Jan: $82,988
For comparison, we looked at a list compiled by TABS Report, a Texas alcohol sales data website, of the top alcohol-selling establishments in Austin for June 2025, ranked by total sales.
At the top of the list was Ojos Locos Sports Cantina, which had a total of $1,115,423 in gross alcohol sales in June. At No. 25 on that list was Perla’s Seafood & Oyster Bar, which had a total of $325,206 in gross alcohol sales in June.
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