#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!