The Victory Grill is a well-known Austin blues cafe at 1104 E 11th Street near downtown, and is said to be the city's oldest.
The state historic marker in front reads as follows:
"VICTORY GRILL
During World War II, segregation prevented African American servicemen from enjoying most civilian restaurants and recreational facilities. In an effort to address this issue, Austin civic leaders urged the city, through its “Negro War Recreation Council,” to provide recreational sites for servicemen on leave from military posts. One such project, a gymnasium-auditorium complex in Rosewood Park, opened in April 1944 and was dedicated to Doris Miller, an African American Pearl Harbor hero. By war’s end, African American servicemen had added but limited “R&R” sites in Austin.
Johnny Holmes responded to this need when he opened the original Victory Grill (a.k.a. Victory Cafe) in celebration of VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day, August 15, 1945) in a converted icehouse on East 11th Street. Holmes created a venue in East Austin which provided returning African American servicemen with both an accessible dining establishment and blues and jazz entertainment. In 1947, with support from his devoted wife, Basyle Winifred Vanzandt, Holmes built a new structure at 1104 E. 11th Street to house the new Victory Grill. The enclosed open-air patio in the rear, dubbed the Kovac Room, became a well-known stop on the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a collection of African American music venues across the west and south. The relatively small capacity of the Kovac Room and desegregation in the 1960s eventually led to the decline of the Victory Grill as African American musicians found new venues across the nation where they could perform, and the Victory Grill closed in 1973. Following Holmes’ death in 2001, his children succeeded in re-opening the beloved site.
Johnny Holmes was extremely passionate about the Victory Grill being of service to the community and its patrons, and he took a special interest in making soldiers feel at home. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, the Victory Grill is a home front cultural landmark of the World War II African American experience.
Texas in World War II - 2010
Marker is property of the state of Texas"
From the National Register Nomination Form: (
visit link)
"SIGNIFICANCE
The original Victory Grill opened on Victory Over Japan Day in 1945. In 1947, Johnny Holmes the owner opened the new Victory Grill at 1104 E. 11th Street to provide a place of entertainment for East Austinite and black soldiers from Forts Hood and Swift during World War II. Mr. Holmes is well known in Austin as a music promoter and restaurateur.
During its heydays of the early 1940s through the late 60s, blues greats such as the Grey Ghost (Roosevelt T. Williams), Bobby "Blue" Bland, B.B. King, T. D. Bell and the Cadillacs, Erbie Bowser, Lavada Durst, Jean and the Rollettes, Hosea Hargrove, Ted Roddy, and Hook and the Hitchhikers and others were booked by Holmes to perform at the Grill. Moreover, the Victory Grill was part of what was termed the "Chitlin Circuit" which was the route that followed the major highways from the North to the South and encompassed the only venues blacks were allowed to play during the age of segregation.
The Victory Grill fostered some of Austin's and the states' greatest blues and jazz talents of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. It is the last extant building from the live-music era in East Austin on 11th St. . . ."