Strangeways’ owner Eric Sanchez was on hold with the insurance company when I called him on Tuesday afternoon. An alleged drunken driver plowed his SUV through the side of Sanchez’s bar on Sunday, and now he’s dealing with the unavoidable repercussions that accompany such mishaps. I called him back an hour later.
“I was sitting outside, the whole thing happened about 10 feet away from me,” says Sanchez. “It happened at 3:30, we open at 4.”
“There had been an accident down the street earlier that day,” says Sanchez. “I was out watching the tow truck pull off a car that hit a telephone poll. I gave a nod to the electrical guy. Then I heard tires screeching; this car was going for it. The Oncor guy did this skip thing, the car missed him by a frog’s hair. Then I was like ‘Holy shit! That’s my wall! Holy crap! There’s all the picnic tables thrown around!'”
According to the police report, the driver, 34-year-old Jose Moreno Estrada, drove too fast out of the parking lot of the La Michoacana grocery store across the street. He lost control of the SUV and drove into the bar. He was charged with a DWI with an open container, a class B misdemeanor.
“I looked around and saw that there were no innocent people hurt,” says Sanchez. “Our regular, we call him ‘Bicycle Robert’ because he buys and sells bikes and he’s always rolling up with cool new bikes … he’s here almost every day at around 4:02. He grabs a beer and sits exactly where that path of destruction was. Right after the accident, he rode his bike up.”
While the incident certainly affected Strangeways’ Memorial Day—the bar had to close for the day—it’s now business as usual.
“We need extensive repairs, that’s for damn sure. We are open,” Sanchez says. “We had regulars come out and offer supplies. One couple came out wearing work gloves, ready to move bricks. My sister and José, one of the other guys who helps run the place, went to Home Depot and got plywood to help seal off the hole. We painted the wood to make it look like bricks. It’s super goofy looking but some of our regulars have been, like, ‘Wow! Heard there was a big accident, but it’s already fixed!’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not brick! That’s plywood.'”
The driver was arrested, Bicycle Robert lives to ride another day, the wall has been sort of restored, and cold beers—and negotiations with the insurance company—await.
“Nobody was hurt,” says Sanchez. “So all you can do now is laugh.”
