#203: Aris

The Bar

Aris. 1111 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78703

Visited 2/28/2025 @ 6pm.

The Drink

Aris G&T. Gin Mare Mediterranean gin, grapefruit bitters, kalamata olives, Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic. $20.

I've had a fair number of gin & tonics on this journey, and as Aris means "the best" (as in "aristocrat"), it makes sense that they would deliver. Gin Mare is a Catalonian gin, which is a first for me; the region has more gins that I thought. Its most notable botanical is the Arquebina olive, also from Catalonia, which gets good reviews from olive enthusiasts, although the presence of the much more famous kalamata olive was of course much more prominent. I didn't catch the brand of the grapefruit bitters, but their use of a higher-end tonic was probably the difference-maker, since going from a cheap tonic to a medium or high-end tonic arguably makes just as much difference as making the equivalent leap in the gin. Fever Tree sources its lemon thyme ingredient not from Catalonia but from just across the French border in Provence, but gets its quinine (of which it has less than the standard cheap grocery store-tier tonic water) from a Cinchona cultivar in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though the famous "fever trees" that quinine is sourced from are native to the Andes. Britta De Pessemier wrote a fascinating paper on the differing phylogenies of  Cinchona trees in Peru and DR Congo, if you want more than the standard story of quinine, but I will end this digression by saying this was unquestionably the least medicinal/bitter G&T I've ever had, even less than the one at Gin Bar, and I would highly recommend it in spite of its price tag. 

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Aris just opened in January, and while I can't speak to whether it lives up to its name as the single best restaurant in town (I haven't tried them all), it is unquestionably really nice, although the luxe quality of its interior is somewhat incongruous with the weirdly bland office park that surrounds its building on the south side of West Sixth. This is in the brand new Treaty Oak Square development that replaced the old AISD headquarters across the street from where Sixth & Blanco is replacing Z'Tejas. Anyway, I have nothing but compliments for the high quality of the interior, which is clearly calibrated for the upper tier of business diners, but my attention was captured by the huge meat room you walk past in order to get to the bar that is just to the right in the picture of me above. The Sof Hospitality group that opened Aris specializes in steakhouses (though I have to say I haven't ever encountered a Mediterranean steakhouse before), and it's worth it to take a detour to gawk at all the cuts of beef hanging around waiting to be devoured. Even the bar is nice, and I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of my fellow barmates. You probably have your own stereotypes about the kind of person who would frequent an establishment like this, but though statistically there must have been some Worthington's Law believers in the joint when I was there, everyone sitting around me had great fun commenting on the project and talking about their own favorite drinks and establishments nearby. Whatever you think of this latest wave of upscale "stores with a philosophy", as always, the real measure of a bar is its patrons, and this one was great.