Old School Bar and Grill

What happened after

Bar in the historic Cotton Exchange Building on 6th St; closed per Eater Austin article dated November 9 2017. Also owner's domain oldschoolaustin.com no longer resolves (DNS failure).

Closure date on record: 2017-11

What happened on the show

Danny Parrott and Jonathan Insley could not turn a profit on the weekly poetry night their manager had started at their Austin bar and grill. Charles Stiles sent mystery diners Samantha and Justin in as a waitress and a customer. As aired, the manager has been comping drinks and appetizers for the poets and the crowd, one performer clears the room with a vulgar piece, and a waitress slips friends free food off the manager's flyers. The confrontation has the owners firing the manager and suspending the waitress, the manager still insisting poetry night was good for business. Stiles closes with the night scrapped and the losses stopped. Given the scripting claims that later dogged Mystery Diners, this open-mic sting is best framed as broadcast rather than as verified.

After the cameras left

Old School Bar and Grill has since closed, in the ordinary way. The bar in the historic Cotton Exchange Building on 6th Street closed around November 2017, per an Eater Austin account, with its own domain since gone dark, held at medium confidence in our 2026 check at 401 East 6th Street. That is a downtown bar shutting years past the episode, unconnected to a poetry-night sting. A 6th Street room reached the end of its run, which is how most of these stories actually close.