#235: Benny's Room

The Bar

Benny's Room. 720 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 6/19/2026 @ 10:30pm.

The Drink

Espresso martini. New Amsterdam vodka, cold brew coffee, Frangelico hazelnut liqueur, cream, honey. $15.

As I was typing up this post I was wondering how this was only the fourth espresso martini I've catalogued so far, but I remembered that a good chunk of the rest have been second/third drinks and therefore not "official" for the purposes of this blog. By now you should be familiar with the three basic ingredients of an espresso martini:

1. Vodka.
2. Coffee.
3. A ton of sugar + maybe some other stuff.

It's notable that while the vodka vs gin battle still rages to this day among traditionalist martini drinkers who insist upon gin, when it comes to espresso martinis the battle has been decisively won the other way by the vodka partisans (though I did appreciate when Marfa Lights and Roe Bucks used mezcal and peanut butter tequila, respectively, as their base liquors). This makes perfect sense, because whereas the gin botanicals would be completely overwhelmed by the coffee and sugar, flavorless vodka slides in perfectly unobtrusively behind all that. Benny's Room did wisely to choose New Amsterdam vodka for that role, as I have been fond of it for many years. I don't know that there's anything special about their cold brew coffee, but it did the job caffeine-wise, which was appreciated. 

Where the Benny's Room rendition of the espresso martini distinguishes itself is in the third leg of the ingredient tripod with its use of not only cream, and not only honey, but also Frangelico, an absolutely delicious old Italian hazelnut liqueur. I have made a lot of joking references to how espresso martinis have a tendency to turn into milkshakes, since if the liquor part is essentially fixed, and there's only so much you can do with coffee part, most of your creativity budget is being spent in the sweet part. It's like if that infamous silt-sand-clay threefold chart had only one of the types vary, leaving you lost in loam land. Well, this version plants you firmly in the milkshake sector, and you know what - the milkshake sector is actually pretty great. This is the best espresso martini I have had so far. 

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

My fourth stop of the night. I'd been sitting on this place for a while because I wasn't sure if it technically qualified as its own independent venue, but after a bartender at the main Green Light Social bar assured me that a different name would appear on my receipt, I was sold, and walked right in. Benny's (not Bennie's) Room is a side project of Green Light Social that they use as both a venue for events as well as a lure for customers who want something different from downstairs, with either a more speakeasy-like atmosphere inside or a rooftop view outside. It's not particularly hidden (just go upstairs and head leftward/northeast), so assuming that there's available seating you can just go walk in like I did. I confess that I don't have a lot to say about this place other than that it fulfills every requirement you could ask for from a nicer cocktail bar. Sometimes it's okay to just quietly excel in your chosen field, and that's exactly what this place does. I was very strongly tempted to stay for another round, but I had dreams (sadly dashed) of checking out Mayfair, so I departed.