#240: Somewhere On Sixth

The Bar

Somewhere On Sixth. 409 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/22/2026 @ 7pm.

The Drink

Green tea shot. Jameson whiskey, peach schnapps, sweet & sour. $6.

I hate when reality falsifies a good drinking hypothesis. I wrote a whole thing in my review of Medusa's green tea shot a few months ago expressing surprise about how constant shot prices have remained at $5 since I started this project in January of 2017, only for the very next green tea shot I received (#5 in total) to be a whole $1 more expensive, making a mockery of my shot theory. Ah well - $6 is still only $4.36 in 2017 dollars, so it remains mostly relatively affordable (at this point I try treat the prices of the 00s as merely pleasant dreams). There's not too much to say about this iteration of the green tea shot, other than that it was a faithful rendition of the classic, which sometimes is all you need. When I tried to come here last week I was given something else entirely, but I can't decipher my notes, so this is literally round two.

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

This is one of the more baffling rebranding decisions I've ever seen. First: Somewhere On Sixth is Toulouse. As in, it's the same bar. As I mentioned in my review of Toulouse way back in 2017, it has a long and storied history on Sixth Street, physically occupying multiple locations throughout its multi-decade existence but always culturally occupying a prime place in the street's lore and image, on the level of Maggie Mae's or one of the other long-running anchor bars. However, for reasons unknown to me they have evidently decided to drop the name and theme entirely, replacing the New Orleans theme with an identity so generic that it had me worried for the venue's future. It reminds me of nothing so much as the infamous "Thai Food Near Me" restaurant in NYC, although SEO-wise this is even worse, as I only noticed the change when I was on foot because it is basically impossible to find the venue online. The staff there couldn't tell me much more about the rebrand either, so your guess is as good as mine. In the ownership's defense, when I tried to visit here last weekend it was absolutely packed, so perhaps my concern is misplaced and they'll be just fine - they're the ones who've been serving drinks one way or another since I was in elementary school, after all. Let's hope they're right. 

#239: Driskill Bar (again)

The Bar

Driskill Bar. 604 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/15/2026 @ 11pm.

The Drink

Driskill Old-Fashioned. High West bourbon, Rittenhouse rye, demerara, Angostura bitters. $18.

This Old-Fashioned is exactly the same as the Old-Fashioned that The Victorian downstairs serves, even down to the use of both bourbon and rye, with the sole detectable exception of having a single giant ice cube instead of multiple smaller ones. I will be honest that I don't think that the ice cube form factor makes a huge difference taste-wise, but I will be even more honest that myself and my companions were quite a few rounds deep at this point, so to do this cocktail proper justice I had to come back here again a week later to give it a proper tasting. The things I do for my audience! My perhaps excessively well-researched conclusion is that this gets exactly the same 9/10 as The Victorian's version. Even if Old-Fashioned #20 is technically the same as #19, it is well worth the trip up the stairs.

The Crew

Aaron, randos.

Notes

The previous iteration of the Driskill's bar was one of my most-anticipated stops when I first began this project nearly a decade ago, and it had remained one of my downtown favorites even several hundred bars later, so when it reopened in May after a year-long renovation project under new management (the ubiquitous MML Hospitality), I had to stop back by to make sure it was still good. You can read actual journalism for more details on the full scope of the renovations, but rest assured that they did a great job, and it is still an incredible vibe, perhaps even be better than it was before. The main differences from a bar patron perspective are that the bar is closer to the front, there is a bit less lounge seating due to increased dining space, there is some snazzy new art on the walls, and the new carpet is more vibrant than the old, which all means that the overall sense of being in a seriously impressive and welcoming environment remains fully intact.

That also means that this is a great place to take newcomers. Next to me in the photo are two fellow bar patrons I'd met at Happy Bar and invited along to this stop since they were relatively new to the city. One of the things that people who aren't from here mention over and over again whenever I have a discussion about Austin with them is what a surprisingly friendly city it is, and evidently I fully embody that stereotype, since this is not the first time on this project that I've made friends and invited them along on my bar-hopping, and (as you might be able to tell from the picture) it is always a sign that I am having a good time. Maybe too much of a good time, as even though we were many rounds in, once we had finished our drinks here we tried to make another bar our third stop, promptly got separated, and I never saw them again. Oh well, it was a blast, and they were suitably impressed by the Driskill, which will always be one of my top recommendations to anyone looking to have a great cocktail in a great setting, whether a veteran Austinite local, a recent Austinite newcomer, or a temporary Austinite tourist. 

#238: Happy Bar

The Bar

Happy Bar. 701 W Sixth St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/15/2026 @ 7pm.

The Drink

She's From Texas. Western Sons cucumber vodka, Deep Eddy lemon vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup, Sprite, cucumber, lime, Tajín. $14.

Good gracious, that glass is curvaceous. Sorry, wrong song. Named after the hook from Ella Langley's megahit song of the summer Choosin' Texas, this cocktail is essentially a complicated vodka soda - a delicious one, thanks to the cucumber and my beloved Deep Eddy lemon vodka, the best vodka - served in an amusing custom glass. Forget settling for a copper mug like a Moscow Mule, why not make your drink stand out by serving it in a fertility idol? Its resemblance to a religious icon like the famous Venus of Willendorf statues prompted some joking discussion on what if us patrons were at a post-apocalyptic Fallout-type bar and these glasses were used as chalices to serve whatever the future equivalent of Eucharist sacramental wine would be, or what if Indiana Jones had picked this as the Holy Grail in The Last Crusade, etc. Like all good riff sessions, maybe you had to be there; plenty of folks would just see them as mildly tacky/tasteless/touristy novelty items, but they made for a fun 5 minute conversation piece, and that's more than you can ask for from most cocktail glasses. Strongly recommended if you own a replica of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story.

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Happy Bar had only been open for a few weeks when I visited. The bartender was not sure exactly what happened to Space Fox, the previous occupant of this building, and did not have much to say about the ownership either, so your guess is as good as mine about what caused this transition; I am not even sure it is still owned by Gold Fox Hospitality like its predecessors Space Fox and WTF were. The layout is basically the same as Space Fox, with the primary difference in décor being a determined application of the smiling happy face motif all over the place. Something that did strike me on this visit is that while having the bar facing away from the street is good for people walking by, who can easily see the screens and the patrons, we inside the bar have to turn around in case anything notable comes along our way. It was mainly just bachelorette party crawlers, which prompted some good discussion between myself and my barstool neighbors, who were fairly new to town, about the differences between how tourists and locals view Sixth Street, since there is a well-known tradeoff between bars whose strategy is to churn through price-insensitive visitors who will never return and bars which depend on repeat patronage from price-conscious locals. The conversation was good enough that I sat drinking with them for four hours, and eventually invited them along to the Driskill, the next stop of the night, and the rare example of a bar that can cater to both visitors and locals at the same time without compromising on quality.