#202: Blindside Lounge

The Bar

Blindside Lounge. 211 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 9pm.

The Drink

Penis colada. "Four kinds of rum", "green", pineapple juice. $7. Plus bonus "breakfast tequila" shot.

The name of this drink, which our bartender selected, is the kind of joke that probably lands really well with the bachelorette parties who are one of the main target demographics of this kind of establishment. Heck, it landed well with us; when you go bar-hopping on this stretch of Dirty Sixth on a Friday night and start asking bartenders complicated questions about which drinks best sum up the bar, you're just asking to be Rumple Minze'd, so a prank cocktail might as well be a Manhattan in comparison. His choice was perfect - affordable but alcoholic, striking to the eye yet easy on the palate. In a reverse of the usual shot + chaser formula, he gave us a round of shots of "his favorite breakfast tequila". If you're wondering why I didn't record more details of these drinks, it's not (just) because this was the fifth stop of the night, although that didn't improve our memories - it's because even though we were essentially the only patrons in the whole place, the bartender kept wandering off to different zones of the bar to concoct our beverages while in mid-hilarious monologue mode on his surprisingly eventful life story, and, being attentive and appreciative patrons, we did not want to interrupt his story for such nitpicky details as "what's in this drink?" or "what do you mean by 'breakfast tequila'?" A+ would recommend.

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The fifth and final stop of the evening. Blindside Lounge is one of those rare new bars on Dirty Sixth that did not replace a previous bar, instead having been founded earlier this year as an adjunct of the Blindside Tattoo & Piercing establishment in the same building. There was some sort of interesting but hard-to-decipher situation going on with the ownership, who were evidently semi-absentee but also very committed to making the new establishment successful, although like I said this seemed to be an off-night. Having just come back from a trip to Panama and Peru, I appreciated the Mesoamerican/Pre-Columbian art theme of the interior decoration over the classic legacy Austin stone, which also had some sort of deep meaning to the owners. Quite frankly all of these nightclub bars on Dirty Sixth are essentially indistinguishable to the average patron wandering in off the street, so having a friendly bartender and any kind of distinctive motif at all is a huge product differentiator, to use a marketing term. They might need more of that business speak; when I was doing my post-visit research I really couldn't find much on them even though they've been open for half a year, which is usually plenty of time to build a media footprint. Hope they make it.

#201: The Dead Rabbit

The Bar

The Dead Rabbit. 204 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 8:30pm.

The Drink

Irish coffee. Teeling Small Batch Irish whiskey, coffee, demerara, whipped cream, nutmeg. $16.

The Dead Rabbit was one of those venues where the bartender was not amused by my standard request to give me the drink that they felt best represented the bar. I never hold it against them, as a Friday night on Sixth Street is usually neither the time nor the place to force a bartender to plumb the depths of their soul to isolate the essence of the establishment, but in my defense, they had a lot of cocktails, including not one, not two, not even three, but four distinct Irish coffees. I have to commend the bartender for not simply giving us two shots of Rumple Minze the way that her counterparts at Friends and Barcelona did in the same Friday night scenario, because she gave me their standard Irish coffee and it was delicious. She couldn't tell me much about the coffee, but Teeling is a newish Irish distillery, and this was one of  their entry-level whiskeys, which are often underrated compared to their fancier siblings. Not that it's generally possible to make a bad Irish coffee. You read a lot about the important role that hotel bars have had in the history of the cocktail, but the Irish coffee was invented in an airport bar in Foynes Airport, near what is now Shannon Airport, which is possibly unique in cocktail history. I have had an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista in San Francisco, which popularized the drink in the US (apparently the story that inventor Joe Sheridan brought the recipe with him is untrue), and this one was right up there. Elijah got the frozen Irish coffee, and while it was not quite up there with the version from the Erin Rose in New Orleans, which is one of my favorite drinks of all time, it was excellent too. They theoretically have some Austin-specific special cocktails, but those will have to wait until next time. 

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The fourth stop of the evening, and certainly the most upscale. The Dead Rabbit replaced BD Riley's, an Austin-native bar which was one of many tragic COVID casualties, though luckily they still have a location up in Mueller. I always find it amusing when one bar is replaced by a very similar bar - what, is it in the lease that you have to follow the same theme and keep the same goofy shit on the wall? - but it makes a bit more sense when you consider what a globally successful business "Irishness" is. Earlier this year I had the privilege of spending St. Patrick's Day at Paddy's in Cuzco, Peru, the self-proclaimed "highest 100% Irish owned pub on the planet", which was possibly even more Irish than the Irish bars I've been to in Ireland. The reason why there are a zillion Irish bars all around the globe and not the equivalent number of, say, Welsh or Scottish bars, is in large part due to the Irish Pub Company, which has done a very good job of meeting consumer demand for cozy, intimate, friendly, joyous, convivial spaces for pints of plain and good craic by airlifting prefab bars to every corner of the planet.

Interestingly, the OG Dead Rabbit in Manhattan (named after a questionably historical gang that was further embellished in the movie Gangs of New York) was founded as a bit of a reaction to this particular version of Irishness, as owners Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon came from Belfast, where they ran "the world's best cocktail bar" at the Merchant Hotel, although touches like the sawdust on the floor allude to the stereotype that Irish pubs involve spilling a lot of blood and beer. Less true to the stereotype are the high prices ($25 for fish & chips?), but this is where you would start to rhapsodize over how the slow transformation of the humble Irish tavern into an extravagant gastropub mirrors the metamorphosis of Austin from a working-class college town to a high-priced metropolis, the upscalification of the bar a metaphor for the gentrification of the city, and on that note, in search of a more affordable pint to ponder over, we made our way to the next bar. 

#200: Mala Fama Rooftop

The Bar

Mala Fama Rooftop. 422 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 8pm.

The Drink

Paloma. Tequila, agave, lime, Squirt, tajin. $5.

I've mentioned several times before that one of the many fun things about doing this project is getting to explore many of the drinks I've been served in various different forms. Like all famous standard cocktails the paloma is a very simple drink in essence - tequila, grapefruit, and lime - but while I of course enjoy the more refined versions I've been served in other joints, even the more elemental version you see here can be just fine, especially for $5 (it would have been $9 were it not on special). Sort of in the way that a Coke from McDonald's can be better than the same Coke from a can, sometimes a paloma with well tequila in a plastic cup can hold its own with the more upscale paloma you'd get in a fancy glass further west on Sixth Street. 

This is the first time I've been served a cocktail with Squirt as an ingredient (a more upscale version might have used Jarritos). I had not thought about the grapefruit soda in years, and evidently it originated in Arizona in 1936 as a sort of Mountain Dew of the desert, a cocktail mixer that was basically a way to sell excess grapefruit. It's currently owned by Keurig Dr. Pepper, like so many other wayward brands that have been conglomerated over the years. You don't need me to tell you about such a ubiquitous childhood staple, but I did enjoy this anecdote about its inventor Edward Mehren:

During its 86-year reign as a pop star, Squirt briefly became the topic of political debate during two days of hearings by a U.S. Senate subcommittee on intermediate coinage in 1950. Mehren led a movement to split nickels by creating three new coins with values of 2 ½, 7 ½, and 12 ½ cents. He claimed these new fractional coins called “Bens,” “Links” and “Bits” would cut inflation by saving consumers more than $8 billion annually in overpriced goods since prices tended to jump by 5 cents. 

The coinage would also make buying a soda easier. At the time, Squirt cost a nickel from a vending machine, but this price wasn’t profitable. Mehren wanted to keep it a one-coin transaction, but doubling the cost by charging a dime would hurt sales. “Mehren thought the world would revolve around vending machines,” Dobbins says. “With the new coins, he could charge a reasonable 7 ½ cents.” The proposal failed, despite Mehren giving President Harry Truman a bowtie with hand-painted images of the new coins, which included thrifty Ben Franklin on the 2 ½-cent coin and Abraham Lincoln on the 7 ½-cent denomination.

"Three Bens for a soda" has strong vibes of Grandpa Simpson's "give me five bees for a quarter" onion belt story, but you have to love a guy who tried to get the country to adopt several entirely new denominations of currency just so that he could charge more for his soda. 

Elijah had a tamarindo lindo, a mezcal cocktail with tamarind, which was also quite good.

The Crew

Aaron, Elijah.

Notes

The third stop of the night. Mala Fama used to be Buckshot until about a year ago, when it was sold to Gabriela's Group, who own a few bars and restaurants around town, including the similarly-named Mala Vida down the street. When we stopped by it was by chance, in yet another instance of shoe leather reporting being the ultimate guide to Sixth Street. It's hard to tell from the picture, but Mala Fama has spruced up the interior from the Buckshot days a bit and moved away from the shot bar vibe by leaning in to the Latin dance club market, similar to Mala Vida. There are music posters all around, incredibly loud reggaeton music, and interior decor conducive to dancing, although we were the only folks there. We did not get to check out the titular rooftop to see if they had also changed it up since it was Buckshot, but our bartender assured us that it was still a highlight of the establishment. Everyone loves a rooftop bar, but we had more bars to head to, so with regret we departed.

#199: Marlow

The Bar

Marlow. 700 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 7:30pm.

The Drink

Angel w/ a Shotgun. Ford's gin, sake, black sesame, grapefruit, lemon, pho spices, sakura. $15.

After the tasty but filling burger we just had at NADC Burger, a dessert-ish cocktail hit the spot. Every so often I will drink a cocktail that I change my mind about halfway through. This was one of their house specialty cocktails, which I generally have had great luck with whenever a bartender recommends one (they're specialties for a reason!). This one didn't really land with me until I was deep into the back half of it, when all of the more subtle flavors - Ford's gin, sake, sakura (which means cherry blossom) - finally coalesced into something I enjoyed rather than merely ingested. As indicated by the sakura ingredient, the name of the drink appears to be some kind of anime reference, which is apt given the Japanese theme of the drink. Periodically on this project I'll have a fleeting thought that I wish I had stuck to a standard gin and tonic or something else super basic, for ease of comparison if nothing else, but bartenders serve me just what I need enough of the time that I'm glad that I've stuck resolutely to Dealer's Choice. Plus, this is really just a fancy gin and tonic anyway, although not with the typical G&T's price tag like I would have gotten at Waller Ballroom. 

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The second visit of the night was a new discovery to me. The opening of a new bar is always cause for celebration at this blog, but sometimes the pleasant introduction of a new bar involves the sad discovery that a previous bar has closed. Marlow replaces Edwin's, which was apparently a COVID casualty, which had in turn replaced Waller Ballroom. While the preceding two names honored Edwin Waller, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and most importantly Austin's first mayor, Marlow breaks the pattern: rather than being Waller's middle name or something, the new name honors the owner's daughter, which is a charming touch. I have always known the bars in this space as concert venues and nightlife bars; the new owner evidently has plans to make it cozier and a bit more West Sixth-like, which is just fine with me. Marlow is one of the properties owned by Stream Realty, which has ambitious plans to make this stretch of Dirty Sixth a bit less scuzzy, and from the looks of it they've gotten ahead of the game. When we visited the evening rush had not yet begun, so we had time to chat with the other patrons and the bartender, which was a welcome surprise on a Friday night. We had a good chat about Bangladesh, which I'd visited back in 2019, enjoyed our drinks, and then headed on out.

#198: NADC Burger

The Bar

NADC Burger. 1007 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 6:30pm.

The Drink

Night Fever. Mezcal, musk melon, cucumber, lime. $12.

By looking at old pictures of the menu I see that this exact same drink used to be called the Disco Flip; I'm not sure what the reasoning behind the name change was (both seem to be Saturday Night Fever references?), but whatever you call it, it's a solid well mezcal cocktail. "Well mezcal" is not a phrase you usually see, because even as mezcal has come out of nowhere over the past decade to appear on most bar menus, it still has an aura of an exotic "special occasion" liquor to it, with a price tag to match. Unfortunately the exact brand wasn't specified on the menu and the staff didn't know either, so it was probably towards the Del Maguey end of the quality spectrum. Whatever it was, it was a relatively faint backdrop to the musk melon flavor (much as tequila is a type of mezcal and not the other way around, musk melon is a broad category that includes cantaloupe) and the cucumber lime, resulting in a pleasantly smoky/fruity/fresh/citrus balance. $12 is pretty reasonable for this cocktail, even if every few people would come here just for the drink.

The Crew

Aaron, Elijah.

Notes

As you have doubtless already inferred from the name, Not a Damn Chance Burger is primarily a burger joint. It's native to Austin, originally located in a trailer out back of Idle Hands on Rainey but now with an additional brick and mortar here on East Sixth, following in the now well-trodden path of Austin trailer success stories like Via 313, Torchy's, etc. As I mentioned above, drinks are not NADC's primary selling point, most people instead being lured by the promise of a premium wagyu burger from a chef with a Michelin star, but even though we were in that very unusual group of patrons visiting for the booze, we each still got one.

Now, the very premise of a "wagyu burger" has sparked fierce debates - the entire selling point of wagyu beef over regular beef is that the more delicate marbling of fat among the muscle makes for a better taste and sensory experience, which is completely obliterated when you then chop it up to make ground beef. Furthermore, when you then slather on sauce, cheese, pickles, onions, and jalapeños (no modifications allowed!), what's the added value of wagyu compared to any other ground beef with the same fat:muscle ratio? Great questions, especially given the $16 price tag for the burger alone. My answer is that the burger was really good (for a more comprehensive review, see here), and deserves to become a classic along the lines of Casino El Camino's burger just down the street. I would say that something like $12 would be a more appropriate price for it... except that somehow $16 has become the average price for a burger (almost double the mere $8.41 for a fast food burger), and this is certainly way above average quality. However, if you want cheap, you should be eating at Sandy's like a real Austinite anyway.