Guero's Taco Bar founder Rob Lippincott, who helped transform South Congress, has died

Guero's Taco Bar founder Rob Lippincott, a gregarious stalwart of the Austin hospitality scene and a driving force in helping give South Congress Avenue its distinctive style, died of natural causes Saturday night at his home. He was 74.

Lippincott derived inspiration for Guero's from his many adventures to Mexico with family and friends, his wife, Cathy Lippincott told the American-Statesman. The Indiana native, who was mostly raised in Houston before moving to Austin permanently to attended the University of Texas in the late 1960s, had a favorite taqueria in Mexico City with a horseshoe-shaped bar that encircled an open kitchen.

Inspired by that taqueria, the Lippincotts, who had no real restaurant experience, decided to open Guero's Taco Bar at 614 E. Oltorf St. (now home to Curra's Grill) in 1986, just two weeks after marrying.

“We started out knowing nothing,” Cathy Lippincott said with a laugh. “We loved to eat out and we loved to go to Mexico.”

The Lippincotts brought the cook from their favorite Mexico City taqueria to Austin to live for a few years and help them build the restaurant's menu. Despite the couple's lack of restaurant experience, Guero's thrived early on thanks in part to Rob's magnetic personality and self belief.

“He was very gregarious, just open arms to everybody. Just a really fun, open personality," Cathy Lippincott said. "He just didn’t put up with a whole bunch of BS from anybody.”

After almost a decade in business, the Lippincotts decided they wanted a bigger space and the opportunity to own their own property. They came to each other one day with the news that each had stumbled upon what might just be the perfect spot. It turns out they had both landed on the same space.

The couple, in laughing disbelief that a bank would agree to loan them the amount of money it did, purchased the old Central Feed and Seed store on South Congress Avenue in 1994. After closing their original location briefly, they reopened Guero's in its new home in 1995. The restaurant housed in the century-old former feed store represents the antithesis of shiny new Austin. The floorboards in the front bar area, which has an indoor courtyard feel, may not be original, but they creak with the wear of decades, and the stools at the Mexican-tiled bar wobble like some of the late-night customers.

The rough-hewn space lined with black and white photos of Mexican markets, musicians (Alejandro Escovedo, Ray Benson) and politicians (Jim Hightower circa 1982) embodied the flip-flops and weed vibes of 1990s Austin. It was the place many out-of-towners thought of (and many still do) when they envisioned an Austin of the late 20th century. And its lack of pretense, ironically, made it famous, the restaurant name checked in glossy mags by the likes of Sandra Bullock and home to conversations by politicians like Henry Cisneros and Bill Clinton in 1996.

Rob Lippincott ceased being a daily presence at the restaurant at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The couple's daughters, Lyle and Bette Lippincott, who grew up working at Guero's as high school students before spending seven years working in the Chicago hospitality scene, have operated the restaurant with their mother for several years.

"We had hoped this is what they would want to do," Cathy Lippincott said of their daughters.

Steve Wertheimer, who opened the Continental Club on South Congress on New Year’s Eve 1987, said he was thrilled when his friend Lippincott told him that he was considering moving Guero’s just a block away.

When Wertheimer opened the now-iconic music venue, Congress was populated with motels, a gun store, a floor covering store, a liquor store and some vacant buildings. He doesn’t remember any tenants on that stretch of the avenue even being open past 5 p.m.

Guero’s changed that.

“I was kind of like an island down there, and we were trying to make something of that club, and I thought it was a great idea,” Wertheimer said. “I was looking for more activity down there. That family really helped solidify my existence down there. It helped me out considerably.”

Wertheimer said Lippincott, his friend since about 1987, thrived at Guero’s because he was a people person who had the right personality and the right attitude for the hospitality business.

“He was always a joy to be around. That guy just didn’t seem like he had bad days,” Wertheimer said. “We’re gonna miss him terribly.”

In addition to the thousands of margaritas, steaming plates of enchiladas and countless bowls of queso Guero's has served, the restaurant also has delivered plenty of entertainment to South Austin, with regular live music at its adjacent Oak Garden Stage. The iconic restaurant and its live music stage have been featured in numerous TV travel shows and appeared in the Jon Favreau's 2014 film "Chef."

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Lippincott not only fed and entertained those coming to South Congress, an area that was home to drug and car dealers back in the 1980s, he helped transform the now-bustling boulevard. In the mid-aughts, Lippincott and his partners, Abe Zimmerman and Stan Biderman, developed the complex that is home to Hopdoddy, By George and Perla's Seafood & Oyster Bar. About 20 years ago, Lippincott purchased the lot behind Guero's that for years was home to Vulcan Video, and work has recently begun on a new hotel that will be operated in partnership with hotelier Richard Lent.

Longtime Threadgill’s owner Eddie Wilson, who gave South Austin much of its spiritual identity with his Armadillo World Headquarters, met Lippincott in the late 1980s. He called the Guero’s founder a “stalwart,” a “real creative, hard-working” man who always had good, unique ideas and “the most remarkable love of family.”

When the Lippincotts opened in the old feed store on South Congress just down from Threadgill’s, Wilson paid him a visit.

“We had kind of a brotherhood immediately,” Wilson said. “I took him a photograph of the feed store that he held very near and dear for the rest of his existence. The feed store had originally been opened in the 1920s and was owned by Kenneth Threadgill’s father-in-law, so we had this Old Austin connection. When I took him that picture, I was told I would never be charged anything at Guero’s.”

Rob Lippincott is survived by his wife, Cathy; his daughters, Lyle and Bette Lippincott and their husbands; and two grandchildren.

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Guero's Taco Bar founder who helped transform SoCo district, has died