We Triple Filter Our Water then
Chuck
Norris Grinds the Beans with
his Teeth
and Boils the Water
with his Own Rage.
Happy Hour 4:15pm - 7:15pm
$4 Mocha Martinis and $1.50 Lone Stars
Ask about: red eye, black eye, dead eye crazy eye
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Master Gohring's Tai Chi & Kung Fu - Austin, Texas
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What's Up this week at Kick Butt?
Latest News
Austin Monthly Magazine
Kick Butt Coffee, Java and
Martial arts: the perfect blend
by Lindsey Mullikin
WHILE CHATTING WITH A BANK TELLER about the lack of coffee shops along Airport Boulevard, Thomas Gohring came up with what he thought was a kick-butt idea. Merging his love of martial arts (he also owns Master Gohring's Tai Chi & Kung Fu ) with the community's need for a little pick-me-up, he opened Kick Butt Coffee [February 2008] and then Kick Butt Coffee in The Triangle [July 2009]. Red walls, nunchucks, bamboo and oriental fans illustrate the business' ties to martial arts. The shop, which serves coffee, smoothies, pizza, breakfast frittatas, sandwiches, wine, beer and liquor, has round, cozy booths, a giant plasma screen TV and a Wii gaming 
system. But Gohring wanted to build more of a nighttime business. He asked his sister Joy , a stand-up comedian, to help start a weekly open mic night, and Kick Butt Comedy was born. The small coffee shop even opened its stage to over a 100 out-of-town musicians, including John Biz, Aim Low Kid and Christpher Denny, during South by Southwest. Gohring built off that music foundation with a weekly blues dance night , weekly open mic music, monthly Jazz Jam, and monthly belly dancing and drumming as well as regular hip-hop shows and rock concerts. While martial arts, coffee, comedy and music events may seem like random patchwork, it's all tied together with a single thread, Gohring explains. "It kind of boils down to one question that we ask ourselves every step of the way: Is it kick-butt?"
Rare Austin Magazine
Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting
by Laura Hensley
Thomas Gohring teaches his Kung Fu and Tai Chi students that energy, like fire, seeks something to burn. Gohring's students harness their energy by kicking, sparring and meditating. Gohring, a sixth-degree black sash master of Kung Fu, burns off his energy in other ways.
The 37-year-old fireball is always seeking his next challenge--whether it is opening his own Kung Fu and Tai Chi school or building his own coffee shop (Kick Butt Coffee) from scratch.
The native Austinite first began Kung Fu when he was 14, and eventually took over mentoring new students in his teachers' classes. He began teaching Kung Fu professionally in his backyard, and opened his own school on Airport Boulevard in 1996.
"Watching Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies (as a kid) I thought. 'I want to do that,' " Gohring says, "But after a year or so training, there was some talent noticed in me. Not necessarily for my capabilities in martial arts, but for my capabilities in communicating. I've now learned to call it tuning in to what's going on with someone."
It's that intuitiveness and passion that has set Gohring and his school apart. "He's identified that people learn in different ways," says Mary Grabhorn, an Assistant Instructor at Master Gohring's school. "He has a talent for very politely and concisely making a student feel comfortable."
Gohring says that people seek out Kung Fu and Tai Chi for various reasons. Some enjoy the physical fitness and meditative outlet it provides. Others are admittedly in it for the thrill of learning how to weild nunchucks.
But no matter their motives, Master Gohring's school (which includes four instructors) helps them all, with a special focus on beginners and people with learning difficulties or physical handicaps. Some 200 students, ranging in age from four to 79 years old, choose from 30-plus classes each week. Master Gohring's also has become popular for entire families who learn Kung Fu and Tai Chi together.
"It's not what you get to do. It's what you get to become." Grabhorn says about the process of learning Tai Chi and Kung Fu. "It really adds to people's lives."
In Other News
Austin Business Journal / Austin360 Michael Barnes Review / Unknowncity.com
Bob Apthorpe Review / Star***** Gets Butt Kicked / A-List Best of Austin
Austin Monthly Review / Kung Fu Goes Youtube on Martial Arts Instructors Website
Tai Chi Saves Former Fire Fighter / Where are They Now? Daily Texan Article
My Brother Knows Where All the Austin Bars Are (Review) / Austin 360 Weekend Out
Tai Chi on News8Austin 1 / Tai Chi on News8Austin 2
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