#228: Buckshot (again)

The Bar

Buckshot. 519 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/28/2026 @ 12:00am.

The Drink

Cucumber kamikaze shot. Pearl cucumber vodka, triple sec, lime cordial, sour, spicy rim. $6.

Do constraints encourage creativity? In most types of art, the answer is yes. Whether the scarce resource is money, time, materials, deadlines, space, or people, being forced to work within some sort of limits can engage an artist's talents in a way that unlimited freedom might not. Shots are no exception: as a bartender, you are trying to serve up something strong but palatable enough to go down the gullet all at once, so you have to be careful what you mix up. In cooking, making small food big or big food small can be revelatory, but it's easy to think of good cocktails which would make for bad shots, and likewise, of decent shots which would make for decidedly unappetizing cocktails. 

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that within the parameters of what constitutes an acceptable shot, this diminutive version of the kamikaze cocktail is squarely on target - basically a mini-margarita, with an additional smooth cucumber aftertaste in this rendition. As it happens, the kamikaze shot is actually based on a cocktail, and one mentioned in the hit movie Cocktail, at that, although not with affection: 

In the book on which the film is based, also called Cocktail, author Heywood Gould describes Flanagan's contempt for the drink, mainly because it's a pain to make, only to be gulped down in one go.

"The Kamikaze is one of a class of disco cocktails invented by barbiturated teenagers," Gould writes. "It is a senseless, infuriating concoction made of equal parts vodka, lime juice, and triple sec (some regional variations include Tequila), shaken and strained into an ounce-and-a-half shot glass, and thrown down in one gulp. Its intent is instant inebriation."

Flanagan laments that a large shot of any spirit would do the job faster but then "these little sadists wouldn't have the fun of watching the bartender pouring and measuring and shaking and straining to absolutely no end".

Well, the bartender recommended it to me, so any sadism here would really be masochism. It was quite pleasant to shoot, though, which was good, because this was definitely a drinks, shoots, and leaves situation, as you will see...

The Crew

Aaron, Carter, Elijah, Ishani.

Notes

I'm seeing double here... four Buckshots! It turns out that Buckshot moved a block east to the old Sake Mama location several years ago and I simply didn't notice until a few days ago when I was scrolling Google Maps. In my defense, Maps still lists the bar in its old location too, but still... even if the bar were "the same" (which this isn't), a new location means a new bar to visit. Unfortunately, it turns out that the punishment for failing to notice that Buckshot moved is a visit to Buckshot, which was one of the loudest bars I have ever been to. I don't want to rehash the discourse on why some bars play such stupidly loud music (answer: it draws patrons in with promises of good times and then encourages them to buy their drinks and consume them as quickly as possible), but I will reiterate that I hate it and avoid bars as loud as this as much as possible. I really do try to look at the bright side of all these bars I visit, but I personally go to bars to have a drink while talking to people, and it was almost too loud in here to even order our round, which really shouldn't be possible. There are a ton of taxidermied skulls all over the place, and I couldn't help but speculate that they were there not for baddies reasons, or even as trophies for the ammo connection, but to represent patrons who have simply succumbed to the near-lethal volume of the pounding hip hop/EDM/club music. 

This was our fourth stop of the night (after a detour to Violet Crown, the third and final official stop), and we wanted to actually talk to each other, so we slammed our shots and immediately retreated next door to Roe Bucks for great drinks and a chance to hear ourselves think. Despite the retention of the "buck name" (as in Roe Bucks, Two Bucks, Buck Wild), the ownership changed around the time of the move, so Buckshot now has no formal connection to its similarly-named brethren. Whoever the new owners are, they need to turn that shit down. Get your patrons drunk, not deaf!

#227: Bluff's

The Bar

Bluff's. 1107 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 2/27/2026 @ 9pm.

The Drink

Jalapeño business. Tequila, triple sec, jalapeño lime, tajín. $10.

When I asked the bartender for his recommendation, he initially tried to beg off because this was in the very first hour of his very first shift here. Well, too bad! I'm on a quest here, man! In truth, he did just fine, as the spicy margarita he eventually made me was just fine. His compatriot behind the bar lent a hand, both conceptually - he was the beverage director - and in the actual pouring. I confess that I find myself somewhat at a loss for something interesting to say about this drink, given how solid it was; despite being the single most popular cocktail in America, margaritas are not generally a drink that people rhapsodize over. No matter: it was strong, tasty, and cheap, and I would recommend it unhesitatingly. We also had a round of espresso martinis that were delicious, and I would recommend those as well.

The Crew

Aaron, Carter, Ishani, Elijah.

Notes

Bird's Barbershop, the not-really-a-bar that snuck on this list thanks to the salesmanship of its staff, has moved a few blocks the street, its old location replaced as of January by Bluff's. Frustratingly, I couldn't learn much about this bar's story since the owners were not present and all of the staff were brand new. There's basically nothing about it online, not even a blurb from the normally extremely useful Eater Austin, aside from a surprisingly informative influencer video. I did learn that this is not a chain or branch location, and I am always heartened to see another bar started from passion rather than from pecuniary impulses alone. Otherwise this seemed like a fairly typical Dirty Sixth bar despite being on East Sixth; I am not sure if this portends any cultural shift of the "grungy/touristic" vibe eastwards into the "hipper/laidback" zone, but it was perfectly pleasant while we were there. Some of us needed a snack, so after a long conversation with a fellow patron about the woeful history of the Jets, we decided to get a round of pondering Iron Whips (the best frozen cocktail in the game) and some Jewboy sliders at Violet Crown next door before tackling Buckshot, the third and final official stop of the night. 

#226: Max's Sushi

The Bar

Max's Sushi. 2121 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 2/27/2026 @ 6:30pm.

The Drink

Hatozaki. Hatozaki small batch whiskey. $10.75.

I practically had to pull the bartender's teeth to get him to recommend me a drink - "We don't do dealer's choice, we do customer's choice" were his exact words - but after much haggling and some very leading questions about what would be appropriate to drink with sushi, eventually I got my whiskey. I don't really have an appropriate category for this drink: Hatozaki is sipping whiskey, so this isn't a shot, but as straight whiskey, it feels weird calling it a full-fledged cocktail. Well, it came in a rocks glass (mainly because they didn't have anything else to serve it in), so a cocktail it is! Hatozaki has gotten mixed reviews, for being overpriced, on the light side, or simply being unremarkable; I liked it, even though I agree with the comments that it wasn't really anything special and I wouldn't recommend it over other Japanese whiskeys if you had to pick one bottle in a liquor store. We also had a few rounds of Bushido and Snow Monkey sake; I do actually recommend the Bushido, which was surprisingly good for canned sake.

The Crew

Ishani, Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The first stop of the night was the old Hi Hat location. I really liked Hi Hat, a really distinctive restaurant/live venue/craft beer joint that felt like a neighborhood institution, and I was bummed that it closed in summer 2024 when they couldn't recover from the lengthy and expensive repairs the space required after suffering damage from our various recent winter storms. Max's has been in the space for about five months after relocating from their old location up north, but they still seem a bit unsettled. Half a year is a long-time to still be experiencing opening-night jitters, but almost every aspect of the experience felt slightly discombobulated to a degree - the lengthy drink-ordering process described above, the incomplete glassware, the parade of confused DoorDashers wandering in trying to pick up their orders from the bar kitchen, the abandoned half-installed sake taps next to the bar... Even the music required some assistance from me, but that turned out to be for the better, as I am happy to report that I have now gotten Skee-Lo's immortal 1995 hit I Wish played at not one but two different Sixth Street bars. 

I would be remiss for not discussing the food here in more detail; despite what I said above about this bar still seeming in shakedown mode, their food is an excellent deal. They have big chicken katsu fingers, delicious garlic ramen plates, hefty sushi rolls, and each item is only like $5. We were sharing plates and left full for what felt like no money. Highly recommended, especially if you are eating because you need a buffer against the next round of drinks, which we were...

#225: Poeta

The Bar

Poeta. 1108 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 2/14/2026 @ 2:30pm.

The Drink

Golden Hour. Gin, golden falernum, ginger, rosemary, lemon. $15.

Great cocktail, despite it not having anything to do with the numerous other cocktails of the same name. Hey, sometimes you make a good drink, a name comes to you, and you roll with it, prior art be damned; if it's not one of the very few trademarked cocktails, you can basically mix up whatever you want. This laissez-faire attitude extended to all phases of the drink-ordering process, as the hostess who sat us initially recommended a paper plane, a modern classic invented by none other than Sasha Petraske himself, but before that order made it to the bar our server called an audible and recommended this house specialty instead. I was glad he did, since this was a nice lemony, herbaceous, very drinkable afternoon cocktail. It was sweeter than you'd expect given the ingredient list; simple syrup wasn't listed, but this tasted almost like straight Deep Eddy lemon vodka, which is not a criticism since I love that stuff. Worthy of a second round, for sure, but given how rainy it was, I switched to a nice warm carajillo instead, which was also quite good.

The Crew

Elijah, Ishani, Aaron, Bobby.

Notes

Poeta is the newest occupant of the East Austin Hotel. You may recall that this hotel opened in 2019 with 3 different bars residing within: Sixth & Waller, Pool Bar, and The Upside. The ownership then decided to economize, and, reusing one of their other bar concepts, replaced them with a single bar: Second Bar + Kitchen. Now another bar has moved in: Poeta. The reason it's not called Third Bar or something similar is not only because Second Bar is still hanging around, operating in this space on weekdays and swapping out to Poeta for dinners and on weekends, but also because Poeta predates the hotel, having taken up residence in a few other spots around east Austin before finding its latest footing here on Sixth Street. I'd never been to its previous incarnations, but it's an upscale Italian place that has consistently gotten rave reviews no matter its mailing address. Bobby and I had just eaten so we didn't order anything, but Elijah and Ishani got mortadella and raved about it. I have written before about how the era of hotels playing a pivotal role in the invention of various dishes and drinks has ended; that may be true, but hotel restaurants and bars are still pleasant places to stop in even if you're not staying there.

#224: Counter Cafe

The Bar

Counter Cafe. 1914 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 2/14/2026 @ 1:30pm.

The Drink

Bloody Mary. Tito's vodka, house mix. $12.

I used to be a big Bloody Mary fan, but my enthusiasm has waned somewhat over the years. Nothing against the drink itself, it's just that a big glass full of tomato juice over a shot or two of vodka doesn't quite hit the same as it used to, regardless of how many mini-meals are or aren't crammed into the drink. For a long time Rio Rita ruled the roost of Bloody Marys on Sixth Street; once they departed for 12th and Chicon in 2016, Casino El Camino took over as my favorite on the street. Casino can be confident in their crown, as Counter's Cafe's version was functional but not particularly spectacular. The main way that a Bloody Mary can fail to impress is by not being strong enough, which this wasn't. Another way is by having a subpar mix, and while this wasn't bad or anything, it just didn't knock my socks off. However, in fairness, the main way that you can fail a Bloody Mary is by having only one of them, thus depriving their cumulative impact the opportunity to exert their peculiar power of persuasion that day-drinking needs to override the critical parts of your brain. Much like a bad joke can become funny via constant repetition, even a mediocre Bloody Mary can display its charms once accompanied by a few compatriots. However, we couldn't stay to consume enough gallons of cocktail to begin to enjoy them, so I have to give a rare thumbs down on this one; maybe stick with a mimosa or something. 

The Crew

Bobby, Aaron.

Notes

"Always read the fine print" is always good advice, not only when you're buying a house or participating in a leveraged buyout, but also even when you're reading a menu, as I overlooked what should have been stop #112 or thereabouts on this project for all these years because I simply never noticed the tiny text in the bottom corner stating that they serve alcohol! Counter Cafe, a local mini-chain originally founded all the way back in 2007, first caught my attention in 2009 when they landed at #2 on Texas Monthly's Best Burgers In Texas list. That was back when all they had was the single cramped location on Lamar (featured at the 32:33 mark in the movie Slacker); this Sixth Street location opened up in 2014, followed in 2018 by their taking over the original Conan's Pizza location on 29th, followed by the COVID-induced closure of the Lamar location in 2020 and its replacement by what is now Garbo's. I like this location more than the original; while still maintaining the intimate, old-school diner vibe of the original incarnation, this new location has more than double the room, which allows them to handle the crowd (especially on a day like Valentine's Day), and its patio seating is not only enclosed but is also not right adjacent to a busy street like Lamar, which is important on a rainy day like today. Although they're famous for their burger, these day I usually go for their breakfast: they have some of the best pancakes in town (no word on where they rank in the state; stop slacking, Texas Monthly!), their breakfast tacos are excellent (though a tad small), their crab cakes benedict is phenomenal, and their migas special is no slouch either. Counter Cafe is a solid modern classic.