When I went downtown to make photographs in early May, part of it was to test a new camera, the Panasonic GM1. However, I was also there to document Austin, especially during the quiet of the pandemic. This was before the protests and upheavals that we are experiencing right now.
I saw Hut’s Hamburgers and recalled that this 80-year-old establishment recently closed. Over its history, the restaurant has been in a few locations but has been here since 1969. An Austin icon, I felt it was worthwhile to document the sign and the building before it changed. Assuming that this modest structure would be torn down and replaced by a high-rise. The rapid pace of development is quickly altering the downtown landscape.
There are no immediate plans for a gleaming tower, I found out. Instead, an Italian restaurant is supposed to take over. That is unless the fallout from the economic slowdown doesn’t change plans.
I’ve eaten here, once or twice, a long time ago. It was back when I first moved to Austin in the early 1990s. Since then, while I often visit downtown for my photography, I usually didn’t make it to this area. I read that sales had diminished over the years, eventually leading to its demise.
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Huts was a classic. The food was high I colesterol but tasty. I should have taken some pictures inside over the years I visited the establishment.
Yeah, I wish I had documented the interior too.
The GM1 is one of the truly underrated and relatively unknown micro-four-thirds gems.
It was one of my favorite semi-pocketable take-everywhere cameras for years until the universe made me recycle it to another photographer friend who needed a camera. But it is truly a fine photographic tool.
Nice picture, too! Looking at it, I have a sense…of a bygone era, of a former generation, which is now no longer among us.
Thank you, Miguel. Yes, it is a unique camera that many people probably didn’t know or forgotten about.