After Cain & Abel’s owner Ellis Winstanley sold the land beneath his beloved restaurant and bar last summer, the UT alum anticipated the ultimate closing of the iconic West Campus restaurant and bar that he has owned since 2002. Now, the time has finally come for the bar to close its doors. 

Cain & Abel’s will be torn down and replaced with a 30-story high-rise, which will be developed by 24RG Student Housing.

“We are planning, at the end of the month, to have some people taking Cain & Abel’s apart from the inside out and cutting it up into pieces to give to people to keep as a momento,” Winstanley said.

Although the current bar is closing and the building is being demolished, Winstanley said the new bar will not be far from its predecessor. The new bar will be at 907 W. 24th Street, according to KXAN. The new site is only a couple blocks from 2313 Rio Grande St., where Cain & Abel’s currently stands.

The bar’s closing and subsequent reopening also comes as a surprise to its employees, who found out about the plans last week, according to Cain and Abel’s bartender Kendall Crow.

“The (new) location is only, I would say, a block and a half, two blocks down the street, so that’ll be good,” radio-television-film senior Crow said. “I would say it’s still very close to a lot of apartment complexes, so I think that it’s still very accessible to college students.”

Since rumors of the bar’s closing started to spread through West Campus earlier this spring, students have flocked to Cain and Abel’s in masses, soaking up the bar’s last few weeks before a private development company demolishes it to construct a student-housing building. 

“You start to see a line actually forming outside of Abel’s,” accounting senior J.T. Sparks said. “I waited for 45 minutes last time.” 

With an opening for the new Cain and Abel’s set for sometime later this month, students will not have to wait long to enjoy Winstanley’s new bar. However, some students are saddened and frustrated to see the long-time bar torn down.

“Even though it’s moving down the street a couple blocks, it’s still really upsetting that it’s getting torn down to be turned into a 30-story high rise for student housing that’s going to be completely not affordable for anyone,” said Natalia Saenz, a youth and community studies junior.

According to Winstanley, however, the building is not what made Cain and Abel’s so beloved by the UT community.

“Cain and Abel’s, or West Campus in general, is really like a collection of shared experiences for the people who are living there during college,” Winstanley said. “It’s not as much about a building or layout as it is a place for people to have those experiences together. I know three people who have the logo tattooed on their butts. It’s not as much to do with the building as it is the spirit and a history of people sharing those experiences together.”