10/09/2026
🎂💜🎶 HAPPY 42ND BIRTHDAY TO THE WOMAN BEHIND THE VINTAGE HANGOUT! 🥩🍤🍻❤️
On October 9, 1984, Kara was born on a Navy base in Portsmouth, Virginia, but Paris, Texas, is where she grew up, surrounded by a big family, generations of wonderful cooks, and plenty of Southern hospitality.
Growing up, holidays revolved around FOOD! Thanksgiving meant squeezing nearly 40 relatives into her great-aunt’s tiny house. While the other kids played outside, Kara preferred the kitchen, where learning to cook was her ticket into her grandmother and great-aunts’ gossip! 😂
At 12 years old, her grandmother entrusted her with making the family’s traditional oil-and-vinegar Thanksgiving salad. Too much of either ingredient could ruin it, so this was no small responsibility!
The following Thanksgiving, her grandmother asked, “Are you ready to make the salad? That’s your job now.”
Thirty years later, she’s still making that same salad every Thanksgiving. ❤️
But the family kitchen wasn’t the only place Kara developed her love for food.
During the 1990s, her grandfather was stationed at the Pensacola Navy base, and family vacations meant heading to her grandparents’ condo in Perdido Key, Florida. 🌴🌊
Days were spent exploring sandbars, hunting crabs, and discovering starfish and hermit crabs. Her grandmother taught her how to boil, peel, and eat shrimp, and visits to the legendary Flora-Bama became a family tradition. Ordering pizza from Lillian’s was practically a requirement!
It was along the Gulf Coast that Kara discovered oysters, Bushwackers, and a whole different kind of laid-back hospitality.
Those memories still influence The Vintage Hangout today! From wild-caught Gulf oysters and boiled shrimp served on ice to our frozen Bushwackers made with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and two kinds of rum, there’s a little taste of those Gulf Coast summers Down on Main Street! 🍤🦪🍹
Before The Vintage Hangout, Kara spent nearly 20 years as a hairstylist, including nine years owning her own salon in Paris.
Another chapter took her to Austin, where she lived for nearly seven years and where her daughter, Skyler, was born. Living in the Live Music Capital of the World fueled her love of Prince, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bob Seger, and Southern Rock. Music festivals became a family tradition, especially their annual trips to Austin City Limits! 🎸
Today, Skyler is The Vintage Hangout’s lead bartender, and Kara’s oldest son, Ezra, hosts Friday night Music Bingo!
As a mother of four, ages 21 to 6, Kara knows that taking kids out to eat isn’t always relaxing. Kids get bored sitting at tables swinging their legs, waiting for food while the adults try to enjoy themselves! 😂
That’s exactly what Kara and her husband of 16 years, Brandon, wanted to change.
Their goal was to create a place where parents can RELAX, kids can PLAY, and the whole family can have a great time!
Parents can enjoy a flame-grilled Certified Angus Beef Pub Steak, juicy burger, fried shrimp, or cheeseburger eggrolls with an ice-cold draft b**r, frozen Bushwacker, or Key Lime Pie-Rita. Meanwhile, the kids can enjoy arcade games, giant Jenga, pool tables, the photobooth, chalkboard wall, jukebox, and a Saint Arnold Root B**r Float! 🍔🍤🍹🍦
With 13 TVs, music, games, and plenty of room to spread out, there’s something for every generation.
Because family-friendly shouldn’t just mean kids are allowed. It should mean kids are WELCOME! ❤️
One of Kara’s favorite compliments is hearing a parent say, “Our kids asked if we could come back to The Vintage Hangout!”
That’s exactly what she and Brandon hoped to create.
Of all the careers she’s had, cooking alongside Brandon and working with her family has been Kara’s favorite. Feeding friends and family has always been her love language, and now she gets to share that same hospitality with an entire community.
🎂🎶 TONIGHT’S BIRTHDAY MUSIC BINGO!
Tonight’s categories were specially chosen to celebrate October 9!
🎸 BEATLES MIX — Kara shares her birthday with John Lennon, born October 9, 1940!
📼 80s MIX #1 — NEW! — Celebrating the decade she was born! Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 when Kara arrived in 1984! 💜
🤠 80s & 90s COUNTRY MIX #4 — A little nostalgia from the decades she grew up in!
🍻 BAR FAVORITES MIX #4 — Those classic sing-along anthems everybody knows, whether they can carry a tune or not! 😂🎤
🎟️ FREE TO PLAY!
🕗 8 PM
👨👩👧👦 ALL AGES WELCOME!
From a little girl learning family recipes in a crowded kitchen, to summers on the Gulf Coast, music festivals in Austin, and now a mother of four creating a place where other families can make memories, life has come full circle.
The kitchen may be bigger these days, but the heart behind it hasn’t changed. Good food, family, music, and making everyone feel welcome. ❤️
Come wish Kara a HAPPY 42ND BIRTHDAY and celebrate with us tonight!
🥩🍻🎶 There’s something for everyone Down on Main Street!
