The Bar
Chupitos. 311 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701
Visited 4/11/2025 @ 8pm.
The Drink
La Palomita. Tequila, grapefruit, agave, lime, Tajín. $16.
This was a great disappointment. Not the drink itself, which was just fine, but the manner in which I received it compared to what could have been. A paloma ("
dove") is a standard cocktail, so the
diminutive form palomita either refers to a smaller version, or a variant on it, or just a paloma that you particularly like. The bar's intention was that this paloma would be served in a glass bottle of Mexican Squirt, but the
absolutely idiotic Trump tariffs made it too expensive to import them from south of the border, so it was served to me in a normal boring rocks glass instead. Ah well, you know what they say about a bird in the hand - it was a great paloma anyway.
The Crew
Notes
My third stop of the night. Chupitos (meaning "
sips, shots") is brand new, like a month old. I have no idea what happened to Tiki 311, and neither did the bartender, but now Chupitos is here instead. It's kind of strange to me that in 2025 bars can still open up and shut down suddenly without anyone having any idea what happened, but there you go. What the bartender could tell me is that Chupitos is a very different bar, being more of a Mexican dance club, like Mala Vida or Mala Fama, and rather than serving Hawaiian food like Tiki 311 did, naturally they serve more Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine like CDMX-style street tacos, which looked really good although I did not partake. While I was walking here I saw a big sign for the
Old 6th marketing campaign (
run by Stream Realty, which is redeveloping a big chunk of Sixth Street); as Austin has grown and gotten richer over recent years it's gotten less white and more Hispanic, going from about 20% Hispanic in the mid-80s when I was born to
just about a third Hispanic now. Bars can be either leading or lagging indicators of demographic change, and while I'm not sure if exactly 1/3 of all new bars opening up on Sixth Street are Hispanic-owned/oriented/patronized, it's interesting to contrast the newer establishments to older ones like La Perla or Cisco's. As the Old 6th campaign kicks into high gear, it's worth pondering on how Sixth Street grows and changes along with the city, rather than freezing certain moments in time. What a happy coincidence that "
al centro" can also mean "
to downtown"!
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