A New Lease on Life

The Golden Horn and Yellow Ranger breathe new life into an old space on Airport Blvd.

by Haris Qureshi

From 1973 until 2020, Burger Tex, a nondescript burger joint tucked away on Airport Boulevard south of Koenig Lane, was well known locally for its bulgogi burgers and salad bar. Sadly, the beloved greasy spoon closed at the beginning of the pandemic and the space was unoccupied for nearly five years. Earlier this year, though, the 50-year-old space found new life and a couple of new identities as The Golden Horn and Yellow Ranger. 

Marcos Canchola, owner of the iconic local dive bar Barfly’s which has been open since 2001, teamed up with Pete Adamski to unveil their new bar The Golden Horn located on the ground floor of the same building as Barfly’s at 5420 Airport Boulevard. The new venue contains chef Jeremy Young’s Chinese-American concept Yellow Ranger and represents a blend between an old Austin dive bar aesthetic upstairs and a more upscale casual lounge downstairs.

The Golden Horn was named after the main bar featured in Charles Bukowski’s  semi-autobiographical film, Barfly, which follows a young alcoholic writer’s misadventures in the rough streets of Los Angeles, California. If Barfly’s, the upstairs bar, represents the authenticity embodied in Barfly’s depiction of Skid Row, then one could say that The Golden Horn represents the sense of community that the eponymous bar in the movie represented for Bukowski.