#241: Hermanas

The Bar

Hermanas. 1100 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 9/2/2026 @ 5pm.

The Drink

Date Old-Fashioned. Casa Mexico añejo tequila, date + orange turbinado sugar, mole bitters. $18.

Buckle up, because there are a lot of drinks to come. 

Since I was the very first customer (more on that below), the discussion of "what is the drink that best represents the bar" was a little more fluid than usual, if you will pardon the pun. I was given two main options, and between them the bartender selected Old-Fashioned #21 as the first round. I will pull out the (semi) standard rating scale for this one:

• Base liquor: 6/10. Tequila, huh? This continues the proud tradition I've experienced ever since Café Josie's "Mezcal Manhattan" of bartenders using the name of a standard cocktail to make whatever the hell they want. By definition añejo is aged, and therefore has a softer flavor than other tequilas. While fine in itself, this is not actually what I want in an Old-Fashioned, so it left me wanting more. 
• Other ingredients: 9/10. Props on using the flavor of date, as its caramel sweetness perfectly complemented the turbinado sugar. 
• Preparation: 9/10. Nothing but skill here. 
• Value: 8/10: This is $13 in 2017 dollars, which is fine. 

The overall drink was good but so laid-back and subtle that I had a weird reaction to it: if I hadn't been told that it was an Old-Fashioned, I would have said "man, this is really drinkable, another round please!", but as an Old-Fashioned it just didn't have the "this is a stiff drink" factor that makes you order one in the first place. I have since learned that the date Old-Fashioned is a well-recognized riff on the classic, but I think it should rebrand and stand on its own. It turns out that expectations matter, and there can be a lot in a name!

Makrut + Arbol Daquiri. Union mezcal, makrut lime, arbol infused curaçao, agave. $15.

This runner-up for the "drink that best represents the bar" that I ordered for round 2 was my actual favorite drink, although as above it was also only very loosely related to its namesake. A standard daquiri is rum + lime + sugar, but if you swap out the rum for mezcal, the sugar for agave, and add just a hint of arbol spice in a splash of curaçao, then you get... something pretty great, actually. Makrut lime, also known as kaffir lime, is ubiquitous in Thai cuisine, and it gave the mezcal a delicious citrus tang. I was really tempted to order another of these but was persuaded to broaden my horizons for round 3. Amusingly, this was actually quite close to the drink that Ah Sing Den served me nearly 10 years ago, so perhaps some spirit of the spirits remains in the walls of this establishment. 

Mango + jasmine white negroni. Casa Mexico añejo tequila, Suze bitters, lillet, mango fruit + jasmine tea tincture. $16.

Yet again we have a highly enjoyable cocktail that is related to its textbook definition in name only. A negroni is gin + sweet vermouth + Campari liqueur, but just between us, let's say it was tequila, bitters, fortified wine, and jasmine tea - would it be so wrong to call it a negroni anyway? Assuming you said yes, you would be rewarded with an excellent drink. The refreshing jasmine tea flavor in the tincture really stood out; it reminded me of Austin Beerworks' delicious Eastern Philosophy specialty beer that they need to make more of. 

It was while drinking this "negroni" that my discussions with the bartender centered on the role of creativity in the cocktail crafting process. I mentioned that I had really enjoyed The Treasury's use of carrot juice in their cocktails, and she mentioned that she had a bunch of cabbage, so we started riffing on how one might use it as an ingredient, whether fresh, boiled, fermented, extracted, etc. So if you show up here in a few weeks and there's some bizarre sauerkraut or kimchi cocktail on the menu, I will accept partial responsibility.

Chang Classic lager. $7.

After 3 rounds of cocktails I needed a cooldown drink. Fitting neatly into the Southeast Asian part of the restaurant's theme, Chang, which means "elephant" in Thai, is evidently legendary for its "Changovers" if you get the volatile domestic version in Thailand itself, but the export beer you see above is a tame and reasonable 5% ABV. Thailand's domestic economic landscape is quite colorful in part due to its unique situation as the only Southeast Asian nation to never be colonized, and so there is apparently a tale behind Chang's battle for market share with rivals Singha and Leo, but as that is obscure to an oblivious American drinker like myself, I thought it was a solid malty lager regardless of provenance. 

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Replacing the suddenly departed OKO, which in turn replaced Ah Sing Den, Hermanas (Spanish for "sisters", it has several more personal meanings for the restaurant) is brand new - so new, in fact, that with this stop I achieved a rare and singular honor: I was their very first customer! I have never gotten in on the ground floor of a venue like this before, which is why there are so many drinks up above. Hermanas is a high-end Thai/Mexican fusion restaurant that has an interesting lineage, and represents another step forward in the ongoing upscale restaurant redefinition of East Sixth even as the understated interior (basically the polar opposite of the opium den theme of Ah Sing Den) made it appear to have been here for quite some time. I didn't eat here, but as I was drinking my way through their cocktail menu the bartender and I discussed how neighborhoods grow and change and what that meant for East Sixth as distinct from Dirty or West Sixth. Cultural districts don't just fall from the sky, they are gradually accreted and refined through the same creative destruction processes that govern other economic sectors, and little by little this stretch of Sixth Street east of I-35 is becoming ever more noteworthy for its drinking and dining scene. As you can tell by how unique and creative their drinks were (and their food looked too), there is still plenty of room for new ideas in Austin, and Hermanas is a welcome part of the ongoing story.

#237: Lefty's Day & Night

The Bar

Lefty's Day & Night. 1813 C E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 7/31/2026 @ 7:30pm.

The Drink

Green Heat. Poblano-infused blanco tequila, mezcal, pineapple, agave, salt, lime. $14.

As is so often the case these days, the official best drink did not come first, as while I was waiting for my friends I asked for the drink that SECOND-best represented the bar, and then circled back to the best drink on the second round. I did prefer this mezcal-drenched take on a margarita to the runner up on account of the well-balanced flavors; it's hard to go wrong with pineapple, especially with mezcal in the equation needing a balance. I also enjoyed the spice level, although like all spicy drinks it's best taken in moderation; I would not want to go more than a few rounds with these, particularly with heat like we've been having - despite not having so many triple digit days locally as previous years, nationally this has been the hottest July ever recorded. I should probably learn to love frozen drinks more. 

Lychee Lemonade. Ford's gin, lychee, lemon, elderflower. $14.

My verbatim reaction to this variant on a Bee's Knees was "Man, that is a potent potable", as it was very strong initially and then mellowed out, which maybe meant I should have given it a stir or two first. If you by chance have never had lychee before, it's a Southeast Asian plant that has the distinction of being domesticated multiple times, and it has an interesting sweet/tart/floral flavor that could probably go in basically any cocktail without seeming too out of place. Despite its strength, a few rounds of these would most likely go down more easily than a few rounds of the Green Heat due to the lack of spice. Refreshment with strength.

The Crew

Ishani, Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

Lefty's is another fun edge case of a "new" bar that is really an existing bar which has rebranded under mostly the same name, much like Thirsty Nickel changed to Thirsty's or Mooseknuckle became Moose Bar, etc. To get some terrible jokes out of the way, the difference here is hardly night and day, nor does it come out of left field; instead the former Brick Bar has undergone a fairly subdued transformation to Day & Night thanks to the folks from Emmer & Rye, quietly shedding its Cajun/Caribbean aspects in favor of a less-specific neighborhood event space vibe. You'd be forgiven for hardly noticing the changeup, however - pretty much everything aside from the menu is exactly the same as it was before, down to the weird wolf mural behind us in the photo above. However, the menu change is evidently a big hit, specifically their chicken caesar wrap, although we sadly did not partake. If they ever decide or are forced to change concept again, I hope they take a page from Nickel City's delightful yearly Moe's Tavern cosplay and re-emerge as the Leftorium. In the meantime, we found the vibe just as fun as advertised, providing us plenty of opportunity to sit and discuss the exciting FIFA privatization debacle (hence my shirt) over a steadily increasing number of rounds, which is a sure sign of a successful bar in my eyes.

#232: The Treasury

The Bar

The Treasury. 1012 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 6/19/2026 @ 7:30pm.

The Drink

From Monument to Masses. St. George Valley gin, Yebiga "Bela" plum brandy, Comoz blanc vermouth, China-China Amer. $15.

The Treasury takes the exploration part of craft cocktails really seriously, as both this cocktail and the other I tried had unique ingredients I'd never seen before but really enjoyed. The name is a reference to spreading the gospel of Monument Valley (which the owner is evidently a big fan of), but I am not quite sure what cocktail genre this falls in - the combination of gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari/another Italian liqueur would make it a negroni, but the plum brandy adds a really different spin on it, and all of the other ingredients have some sort of citrusy overtones, including the gin. The bartenders are big fans of the Balkan plum brandy, also known as rakija; this was the unaged version. The Amer, which dates back to 1875, was a solid addition; as you can tell by the name, it can play the role of amaro or vermouth in a cocktail. I have had the Comoz vermouth before at Swedish Hill and liked it. Overall this was just a really well-made cocktail with multiple ingredients that would each be great in other cocktails. 

A fun behind-the-scenes detail is that the drink picture above is actually of my second round; I was so absorbed by my conversation that I totally messed up the picture, and was therefore forced to order it again so I could get a clean snap of it. I don't like to dwell on just how much suffering I endure on this journey for you, the loyal reader, but sometimes I am practically forced to order multiple cocktails in order to provide the level of service that you deserve. 

What's Up, Doc? San Cosme mezcal, Primo Aperitivo, pineapple gomme syrup, carrot juice, lemon. $15.

I liked the first drink but loved the second. In my opinion drinks like this single-handedly justify the existence of the entire craft cocktail scene/movement/wave, as the idea of using carrot in a cocktail would never have occurred to me but fully converted me once I tried it. Like many great ideas it was based on an inventory problem: one of the bartenders had a bunch of carrots lying around and - just like in the famous anecdote of the Moscow Mule being designed to unload a ginger beer surplus - decided to see what could be done with the excess root vegetable. The result is a triumph; even its name is both a fun reference to Bugs Bunny, arguably the greatest cartoon character of all time, as well as the fact that San Cosme is the patron saint of doctors. San Cosme is evidently more of a mixing mezcal than a sipping mezcal, and that works well here when poured alongside the citrusy Primo Aperitivo, which is also from Mexico. Gomme is just syrup with a thickener in it, so when the pineapple is combined with the lemon, the carrot juice, and everything else, the resulting cocktail was so good that I immediately wondered why you don't see carrot more often. The answer: carrot juice doesn't stay fresh for very long, so it's usually not worth it to keep it around. If only all inventory problems had a solution as drinkable as this one.

The brilliance of carrot juice as a cocktail ingredient in conjunction with the sight of a bottle of Malört on the shelf sparked a lengthy discussion about how Austin needs its own prank liquor equivalent to Malört based on some local flavor or ingredient of our own. We have the Indian Paintbrush, invented at Garage Bar, as our "official" city cocktail, but that's way too pleasant for our purposes. Malört's horrible taste draws deeply on old European folkways, but Austin is too new for us to have thought up our own terrible local distilled disaster (I have had menthol tobacco-flavored vodka, but that's imported), so the best we could come up with was to make our hypothetical gag spirit savory, reminiscent of breakfast tacos somehow. Upon further reflection, I think a good candidate would be a chorizo liqueur:

• Even the sound of that is disgusting, which is just what we're after.
• At least one person has made a chorizo negroni and not died instantly, so there is precedent.
• Filipino cuisine has not one but two types of pork sausage - Chorizo de Cebu and Chorizo de Macao - made with anise, which strengthens the Malört connection.

I'm not directly asking someone to make this horrific meat liqueur nightmare come to life, like Prankenstein's monster, but wouldn't it be fun if it did exist?

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Somehow I had not noticed that Hen House had closed - maybe because the paint job on The Treasury when the door to the outside is closed camouflages it seamlessly with the rest of Shangri-La - but close it did after COVID, departing for a new life on Fourth Street back in 2021. This sad closure gave Shangri-La the opportunity to stealthily open up a more intimate high-end cocktail bar adjacent to their existing more laid-back dive bar. They call it a speakeasy, but it only sort of is - though the most common way to get in is indeed to follow a circuitous and non-obvious path through the bar and outdoors to travel up and down flights of stairs and then wait to be buzzed into the cocktail chamber, another way is simply to walk in whenever they have the outside door open during happy hour. 

Through some trick of interior design, the space itself somehow seems much smaller and more intimate than when it was Hen House. Perhaps it was the treasury/bank vault theme (not like a Fallout vault), but I felt securely ensconced at my front seat bar perch in a comforting way that I didn't at Hen House. One really cool thing they did that stood out was that on their menu they have recommendations for other cocktail bars to go to if you liked the vibe here. I have never seen a bar advertise other bars on their menu like that, but I really respect that attitude of friendly competition and mutual support for fellow establishments. That carried over to the bartenders too, who were all very well-connected and happy to be a part of Sixth Street. I felt like I could have stayed here and drank for the whole night, but I had places to be. This is a great place to drink, and you can take that to the bank!

#230: Campo

The Bar

Campo. 1630 E 6th St #100, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 4/10/2026 @ 5:30pm.

The Drink

Spicy watermelon mint margarita. Carabuena tequila, watermelon, mint, chili. $16 ($10 during happy hour).

I've had watermelon margaritas before, but this one was easily the most citrullic yet, as it included a chunk of actual watermelon in it, thus putting the false promises of the other, lesser renditions of this humble classic that I've been drinking all these years into sudden stark relief. What a fool I'd been! An additional element in favor of this rendition is that the Carabuena tequila it uses is from Austin. I'd first encountered Carabuena when doing my research after visiting Willow Country down on West Sixth; after finally trying it, I think it makes an excellent base for the cocktail. I snagged this really fresh-tasting drink at the $10 happy hour price and it was a fantastic bargain.

Mezcalita maracuya. 400 Conejos mezcal, passionfruit, orange, agave, chili. $16.

This was the drink that second-best represented the bar, as I put it when I requested a second round. Campo does a lot of in-house juicing and making of agua frescas, and so I got another really fresh and flavorful cocktail. A mezcalita is just a margarita with mezcal in it, and maracuya is Spanish for passionfruit, so this drink is very true to its name. Speaking of, the name of the mezcal, which over-literally translates to "400 rabbits" (hence the name of the Alamo Drafthouse's specialty bar down south), is actually a translation of "centzon totochtin", the Aztec term for being really drunk: think of "drunk as 400 rabbits" as saying "3 sheets to the wind" in Nahuatl. By a funny numerical coincidence, the French also have a "400" phrase: "faire les quatre cents coups" figuratively means "to raise hell, to live a wild life", but when François Truffaut used it as the (perfectly apt) title for his debut film, it was bafflingly calqued by the studio as "The 400 Blows", which doesn't mean anything at all in English. What gives? What were they thinking?

In conclusion, I liked this cocktail as well. If the third beer is the philosopher's beer, the second must be the linguist's.

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

About a month ago Campo ("countryside, field" in Spanish) moved into the empty space left by Recreation's closure a few months back. None of the staff were quite sure what had happened to Recreation, but from what I can piece together, it seems like when Recreation's sister restaurant Ma'Coco's lease ran out on Comal a few blocks away, the owners tried to consolidate the concepts at Recreation, and just couldn't make it work out. RIP. Instead of Recreation's San Diego cuisine specialization, Campo's an upscale interior Mexican sort of place. The nice clean decor reinforces this impression; you can't really tell from the photo above, but everything is very neat and Instagrammable, which my bartender and I spent some time discussing. As I keep saying, it's really tough to open a cheap dive on Sixth Street these days, so the economics of influencer-friendly establishments, both in looks and menus, get more and more attractive to prospective bar owners who are trying to battle any number of economic headwinds these days, both tariffs on the national level as well as the related falling alcohol sales on the local level. 

As always, this is unfortunate for those of us who are attempting to recapture our lost memories of $1 Lone Stars and $3 wells, but what are you going to do. Interestingly, restaurant meals have gotten nearly 50% more expensive since 2017 versus only a 33% increase for drinks at a bar, so rather than complaining about how bougie cocktails have gotten, we should be directing our ire at more upscale menus and mourning cheap wing specials instead. But it's missing the point to spend too much time grumbling at how much appetizers are these days, and you won't hear (too much) grumbling from me on that point - bars aren't charities, and the worst bar of all is the one with the CLOSED sign on it. Instead I will say that you should go here if you're looking for a slightly more casual, less dressed-up companion to Mexta at Sixth and Congress.

#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 any of the numerous other cocktails of the same name: examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Hey, sometimes you come up with 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 for me, a big glass full of tomato juice over a shot or two of vodka just 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, as the peculiar power of persuasion they need to override the critical parts of your brain and shift you into day-drinking mode can only be accomplished by cumulative impact. Much like a bad joke can become funny via constant repetition, even a mediocre Bloody Mary can become charming once accompanied by a few more rounds in short order. 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 served alcohol! Counter Cafe is a local mini-chain originally founded all the way back in 2007. They first caught my attention in 2009 when they landed at #2 on Texas Monthly's Best Burgers In Texas list, quite deservedly in my opinion. 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 not jammed right up against a busy street like Lamar but is sheltered from the elements, which is important on a rainy day like today. Although they're famous for their burger, these days I usually go for their breakfast: they have some of the best pancakes in town (no word on where those 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 and I hope they keep doing what they're doing for many years, although as I mentioned above, maybe their drink menu could use another look.

#222: Kalimotxo

The Bar

Kalimotxo. 1813 C E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 1/3/2026 @ 4:30pm.

The Drink

Kalimotxo. Red wine, Coca Cola. $8.

Described by my bartender as "a poor man's sangria", a kalimotxo (pronounced "Kah-lee-moh-choh" and meaning "short and ugly" in Basque, as the menu helpfully directs) is a sweet and refreshing red wine and cola drink that reminds me of a slightly stronger shandy. It is a little curious to me that mildly-alcoholic European drinks like this aren't more popular here outside of a brunch context, alongside mimosas and sangrias and the like. No doubt there are deep-seated sociological explanations for why Mediterranean cultures invest so heavily in day-drinking solutions like this, which in the US get relegated to punchlines on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, but still, perhaps due to the somewhat goofy presentation with the colorful plastic straw, you could easily see yourself on a patio terrace gazing out over the Bay of Biscay, absorbing the sounds of the surf and seagulls while sipping a few of these. 

Rebujito. Manzanilla sherry, lemon-lime soda, lemon. $10.

Kalimotxo has an extremely generous happy hour (more on that below), so I practically couldn't afford not to get a second cocktail. A rebujito is a cocktail from Andalusia in southern Spain (so not near Basque country, but not without its connections to the kalimotxo) which involves Manzanilla, a type of wine which may or may not actually be a sherry. I joked about seaside day-drinking technology above, and the NYT has exactly the same thoughts about the best way to use this wine, although I unfortunately did not pair it with any seafood. I briefly considered promoting this to the Official Drink of the Stop since it was quite good, but there was no way I could allow it to upstage the titular cocktail of the restaurant. 

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Kalimotxo replaced Vixen's Wedding in October 2024 after moving from its original location on Third Street, but I am only now just getting around to it. I always try to pour one out for the previous inhabitants of an address to honor the noble efforts of previous bar attempts, but while I will miss Vixen's Wedding's completely unique cuisine - just try and find another Goan restaurant in town - its successor is no less worthy. The interior did not seem too drastically different from its former occupant, although I admit that I only visited VW at night, so perhaps the vibes are quite different after the sun goes down. While I was here I chatted with some fellow patrons who were on a quest of their own to try out local happy hours, and Kalimotxo's was one of their favorites. Upon their recommendation I got the following:

• Kali burger, $10. Burger with caramelized onions and Mahón cheese.
• Patatas bravas. $5. Fried potatoes with garlic aioli and spicy paprika sauce.

They were absolutely spot-on: both dishes were excellent, and an absolute steal at the price. I can't speak to the rest of the menu, but a happy hour like this is a rare gem in this city these days, and it would be worth going here for the food alone.

#221: Shokunin

The Bar

Shokunin. 1009 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 12/22/2025 @ 9pm.

The Drink

Sushi By Scratch Private Label Sake. $13.

For whatever reason, sake is generally not something I ever really think about or have the urge to grab a bottle of. I have the irreplaceable Texas Sake to thank for giving me a more in-depth exploration of the subtleties of sake beyond "it's half of a sake bomb", but I would still not claim to be an expert on all the varieties of the venerable rice wine. Luckily for me, sake snobbery does not appear to be much of a thing here in the same way that wine snobbery is, and even I could tell that this was good stuff. This is the latter half of a bottle of sake from the group who owns the restaurant; after taking an initial round of toasts, we got glasses of ice-cold Kirin from a special kegerator to drop our second helpings in for shooting purposes. I will be honest that this was neither the first round of drinks we had this evening nor the last, so please don't ask me for detailed tasting notes, but rest assured that it was perfect, as was everything else that we had.

The Crew

Ashley, Lars, Aaron, Mike.

Notes

Shokunin, which had only been open since Halloween, is the Japanese word for "master artisan", and it deserves its moniker, although I do mourn the loss of the former occupant, the excellent Italian gelato/liqueur joint Gelateria Gemelli. Shokunin is a project of the Sushi By Scratch restaurant group, who I learned are also behind a few other high-end establishments such as NADC Burger next door. Japanese restaurants in the US occupy an interesting place in the culinary landscape; whereas in Japan they obviously have restaurants which span the entire budgetary spectrum, here the absence of the $4 lunch bowls so beloved there is due to our culture of NIMBYism and regulatory failure, which means that almost all Japanese food you'll find in a city like Austin is going to be high-end stuff. This of course is a running theme with essentially all new restaurants on Sixth Street, but especially with a less-common cuisine like Japanese. 

Shokunin is not quite Jiro Dreams of Sushi (though keep in mind that Jiro himself might not be around for too much longer), but it's definitely aiming at a higher price point than Ramen Tatsu-Ya or Domo Alley-Gato. Now, as I alluded to above, we had all had a LOT to drink (at the delightful show the Mutt-Cracker, specifically) before visiting, and we were in an exceptionally Dealer's Choice-friendly mood, and I am not exactly the tuna king even at my most perceptive and discerning, so my accounting of the food is not quite up to my usual exacting standards, but rest assured that everything we were served was incredible. This is the kind of place where you can put your drunken dining fate entirely in your server's hands and be fully confident that you will have an excellent meal.

#219: Civil Goat

The Bar

Civil Goat. 2000 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 11/22/2025 @ 1pm.

The Drink

Meanwhile Jolly. $8.

1pm is a little late in the day for a coffee for most people (more on that later), but acceptably late enough to start drinking booze without too much judgment from your fellow patrons, especially on a gameday. Civil Goat offers a few types of beer and wine, and I was morbidly curious if my bartenderista would recommend one of the wines (which seemed surprisingly diverse for a coffee shop), but instead I received Meanwhile's take on a winter lager. Winter lagers are typically some combination of sweeter, maltier, and more spiced than a typical lager; I have no idea who invented the style, although winter ales go back hundreds of years, but Meanwhile makes one of my favorites exemplars, with a very light berry flavor that doesn't wear too heavily over the course of a full pint. It is occasionally forgotten that strong flavors in beer can overstay their welcome, and what tastes delicious for that first sip can become a burden once you near the bottom of the glass. As usual for one of my favorite Austin breweries, that was not the case with this very drinkable 5.2% ABV beer, and I was still pleased with it once I had finished.

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

First, let's pause a moment and pour one out for the much-loved Cuvée, which had to relocate from this spot last year due to rent increases, though thankfully they landed on their feet on Rainey Street. However, Civil Goat is also an Austin-based coffee chain (the name is evidently a reference to an anecdote in author Stuart Lee Allen's book The Devil's Cup alleging that humans first discovered the invigorating effects of coffee after witnessing their goats perk up upon eating the plant) which has been around for just shy of a decade after starting off in Bee Cave. As this stretch of East Sixth continues to accumulate more offices and homes, the need for coffee shops rises roughly in tandem, and so on a Saturday afternoon there were plenty of folks typing away on their laptops. Civil Goat feels just fine as a coffee shop.

I couldn't stay for too long, however. Civil Goat is currently only open until 3pm, which would seem to make selling alcohol nearly pointless for all but the most dedicated drinkers, but the bartenderista told me that they have imminent plans to stay open until the evening. Peak coffee purchasing hours might be from 8am to 10am, but that didn't help me on a gameday; I was forced to go elsewhere to watch Texas vs Arkansas.

#216: Fish Shop

The Bar

Fish Shop. 1401 E 6th St #201, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 8/15/2025 @ 8pm.

The Drink

Martini rossi. The Botanist gin, cocchi americano, olive, onion, lemon oil. $15.50.

When I looked over the menu before we visited, I was pleasantly surprised to see that unlike so many other new bars and restaurants, especially on Sixth Street, Fish Shop's drink prices were downright reasonable. Because of this blog I have gotten in the habit of using January 2017 as a price reference point, and this martini would have cost less than $12 back then. It's worth every penny, as this was one of the best martinis I've ever had. The gin is The Botanist from Islay in Scotland, which you probably know better for its scotch. Describing it as "balanced" feels like cheating, but even though the scotch on Islay is stereotypically very peaty, the local botanicals in this gin were smooth and anything but aggressive. But the real star of this martini was the cocchi americano, a quinine-based "aperitif wine" from Italy which turned what could have been an ordinary vermouth-based martini into something more like a gin & tonic. One sip of this and I immediately wondered why we've been using vermouths for so long when this has been around since 1891. It was seriously delicious and I immediately ordered another when I was done with the first. I thought it was a nice touch that when they listed this drink's ingredients on the menu, they gave instructions for making it too (mix the gin and cocchi at a 2:1 ratio to recreate it at home). And if for some strange reason you don't like martinis, even ones as nice as this, they have Guinness for $8, which is a mere $6 in 2017 money. Not bad. 

The Crew

Elijah, Ishani, Aaron, Mom.

Notes

Fish Shop is a brand new seafood joint on East Sixth, located in the same building as Mother's Ruin (happily) and Brooklyn Dumpling Shop (less happily). Austin has not historically been a big seafood town, which makes sense for a small, not-wealthy town whose closest coast was the Gulf, a full 3 hours away. Quality Seafood was as good as it got, and we liked it! Well, as I may have mentioned once or twice, we're a big rich city now, so we have better access to fresh seafood than ever. Fish Shop's owners have connections to other high-quality restaurants in town like Uchi, Uchiko, and Justine's, so you can expect a good meal. We grabbed dinner here, and the food was excellent. We had:

• Mezcal octopus.
• Clams.
• Oysters.
• Fish & chips.
• Their take on a Filet o Fish.
• Honey pie.
• Affogato. 

Everything was really great, and reasonably priced for the quality. Two years ago my sister moved to New York City, where top-notch seafood is ubiquitous; my mom and I visited her a month ago, and the seafood here was easily on par with what we had there. All respect to Quality Seafood for holding down the fort for so many years, and welcome Fish Shop to our current stable of great seafood places. Its main flaw was that, like all too many Austin restaurants, it was just too damn loud (and not in the fun way). I will never understand what drives restaurants to significantly worsen the dining experience for patrons with music blasting from the corners, but hopefully they fix that soon before too many patrons swim off to calmer waters. 

#209: OKO

The Bar

OKO. 1100 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 4/5/2025 @ 9:30pm.

UPDATE: OKO has closed.

The Drink

Rock Lee. Citadelle Jardin d'Été gin, pandan, plum, ponzu. $19.

Every so often on this project I get served a cocktail that impresses me more than delights me. Evidently named after a character from the anime Naruto, this was by far the sparkliest drink I've yet been served. A quick glossary: pandan is a fragrant flower often used in Southeast Asian cooking, ponzu is a Japanese citrus vinaigrette sauce, and the Jardin d'Été gin is a slightly more Asian edition of their standard gin, with yuzu, melon, and orange peel. The sparkle came from the edible glitter on the dried plum (NOT a prune) you can see perched atop the rim of the glass. Savory cocktails often provoke a strongly mixed or polarized response from people since your brain spends more time going "hmm, this isn't what cocktails usually taste like" than analyzing the flavors themselves; by the end of this one I knew I liked it, but I might have preferred a simpler gin cocktail with only 1 or 2 of the other ingredients. The other cocktails on the list are all similarly eclectic. When I was looking up Filipino cocktails afterwards I discovered the kagatan, which is sort of their version of an Irish coffee; it's not on the menu, but if I go back, I'll see if they can make that.

The Crew

Aaron, Ishani, Elijah.

Notes

The wheel of time continues to turn on this property; as the sun once set on East Side Showroom to rise on Ah Sing Den, it has now set on Ah Sing Den in order to rise once more on OKO, a very upscale Filipino restaurant that is the latest project from ubiquitous local super-chef Paul Qui. Austin has never been known for its Filipino cuisine, for essentially purely demographic reasons (there are fewer than 5,000 in the city proper), which gives prospective Pinoy restauranteurs the classic dilemma of either opening a low-cost food truck serving mainly street food or opening a high-cost brick and mortar of high-end cuisine. Either option risks neglecting the "middling cuisine", as Rachel Laudan put it, that most average people typically eat and enjoy, which is one reason why immigrant restauranteurs sometimes struggle with finding a business model that fits the food they want to serve in addition to all the other ones of labor, etc. Qui and his partners chose the latter option for OKO (which interestingly is from the Hawaiian word oko'a, meaning "different/separate/independent" and not a Tagalog word), which is a drag from a wallet perspective, but on the other hand the food was absolutely delicious. We had:

• Baboy (pork skewers).
• Manok (chicken skewers).
• Pancit canton (stir fry noodles).
• Roti.
• Basque-style lemon cheesecake.

All of it was superb. Austin might not be as encouraging to new restaurants as it could be (due in part to our zoning restrictions which artificially hamper the low end of the market), but the ones which do make it are usually top notch.