#210: The Kitchen

The Bar

The Kitchen. 400 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 4/11/2025 @ 7pm.

The Drink

Hibiscus margarita. El Afan Blanco, Grand Marnier, fermented honey, hibiscus, lime. $20.50.

The Kitchen is one of those places that gives you a cocktail menu in the form of a little book, and the recommendation came from their page of house specialties, although they had another page of gin cocktails which also looked intriguing. The tequila here is Blanco from El Afán ("desire, yearning"), a Jalisco-based distiller. It has a fairly balanced profile, Hibiscus is a solid choice as a margarita base, not only for its complex floral/tart tangy flavor but also to the red color it gives to the drink. Grand Marnier is of course the cointreau/triple sec-adjacent component that adds a little sweetness. I wanted to know more about the fermented honey (AKA mead), like if it was from Meridian Hive meadery or somewhere else local, but the bartender unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to fill me in on the backstory due to the needs of the other patrons (see below). Overall it was a solid hibiscus margarita, although not exactly a great value for the price.

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

The first thing about this restaurant you will learn is that it is owned by Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon, being the fourth outpost of his restaurant chain. Normally that would merely be a Fun Austin Fact along the lines of Sandra Bullock owning Walton's Fancy & Staple down the street, but this place seems to be a sort of "company bar" for the entire extended corporate Muskoverse, as sitting near me were employees of Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company, etc., having exactly the kinds of discussions you'd expect of such a clientele while ordering drinks at a rapid pace. The interior is like a diner but nicer, if that makes sense, with a vibe in between "homey" and "high-end". I looked it up and it was designed by Michael Hsu, an architect who has also designed an impressive number of "hey, that's neat" buildings around town and elsewhere. Austin has a cool legacy of artists quietly leaving their their unique marks all around town for those who know where to look, like Gary Martin's signs, or Evan Voyle's neon lighting, so it's neat that that tradition is still going strong even if The Kitchen isn't exactly the same kind of local business as those others. 

The Kitchen is on the ground floor of the imaginatively named Sixth and Guadalupe tower, which is currently Austin's tallest tower, at least until the Waterline seizes that crown not just for Austin but for all of Texas, and it has a pretty interesting backstory: it replaced a series of hotels, including the Alamo Hotel, which was owned by LBJ's brother and featured in the music videos for Rock the Casbah and Pancho and Lefty. This tower was commissioned by Facebook in 2019 just before the pandemic, when commercial real estate in downtown Austin looked like a can't-miss investment for all the in-person jobs that were surely coming down the pike. Well, things didn't exactly turn out that way, and so Facebook has decided not to move in at all, opting instead to sublease out the whole thing. That's not great, but those of us who remember the Intel Shell should be relieved that that debacle was not repeated here, and instead of a decaying ruin there is at the very least an active restaurant, its proprietor's politics aside.

#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.

#208: Recreation

The Bar

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

Visited 4/5/2025 @ 8:30pm.

UPDATE: Recreation has closed.

The Drink

Figgy Mule. Tito's, fig/ube syrup, ginger beer, lime. $14.

It's been years, but I have finally gotten over being given 96 oz of Moscow Mule at Unbarlievable - the misery of that sustained assault on my tastebuds has faded, and I can drink Mules without the hateful scent of ginger beer triggering my gag reflex, so I promise never to mention it again. I probably wouldn't need to anyway, because Recreation's take on the venerable Mule is far superior, not only because it's much lighter on the ginger beer, but also due to the combination fig/ube flavored syrup in it. Ube is of course the purple yam flavor that is popular in Filipino cuisine, and its mild sweetness pairs well with the flavor of fig, and naturally, Tito's pairs well with basically anything. I haven't discussed Tito's much lately, since there's not too much to say about a consistently excellent vodka other than they continue to set sales records and throw their weight around in the unglamorous but extremely lucrative distribution tier of the alcohol industry. It's surprising to me that as late as the 21st century there was still room for a new challenger in the vodka category, a drink which is by definition tasteless and therefore indistinguishable from its competitors, but if there had to be a vodka Standard Oil, I'm glad it's from Austin.

The Crew

Aaron, Ishani, Elijah.

Notes

I noticed that Drop Kick had been replaced on our way to meet up at Mother's Ruin, so we made this stop #2 of the evening while waiting for our reservation at OKO. I am not sure exactly why Drop Kick closed, and the bartender wasn't too sure either, but Recreation (which is unrelated to Recess on the other side of I-35) only replaced it fairly recently, having opened in August. The new owners also own Ma'Coco a few blocks away, which serves San Diego-style Mexican food (a cuisine which is sadly under-represented in Austin). The new joint is a bit less of a straight up cocktail bar than Drop Kick was, which makes me curious to know more about the success rate of cocktail bars as compared to other types of bars - do you have to go for the very highest of high-end atmospheres or else you won't stand out enough, or is the labor supply of those bartenders dramatically more constrained than that of "regular" bartenders? - but I didn't see anything to really dislike in the new place's business model, where the atmosphere reminded me of a sports bar or restaurant more than most other East Sixth joints. We briefly stayed to watch some of a ridiculous Houston vs Duke March Madness game, and then it was time to hit up OKO.

#207: Mother's Ruin

The Bar

Mother's Ruin. 1401 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 4/5/2025 @ 7:30pm.

The Drink

Dressed Tecate. Tecate, Cholula, lime, salt. $5.

As a brief aside, in the 10s I lived a block away from the Thunderbird Coffee on Koenig, and cans of Tecate were $1 on Thursdays. Now, Tecate is perhaps not the single greatest Mexican light beer ever made (as a loyal fan of the Fast & Furious franchise, it can't be anything but Corona), but if you can stand the mild sweetness, a dollar in 2013 for 12 oz of the 4.5% ABV product of Baja California was a pretty solid deal. $5 in 2025 is less solid, but still a perfectly respectable bar price. The moment it was served to us, I thought, "Gee, this looks just like the ArModelo I got at La Perla." I learned that "dressing" beers is actually a specifically Tex-Mex tradition dating back to the days of  Prohibition, when it was done either to cover up questionable brewing practices or, less unpleasantly, merely to adjust the unassuming flavor profile of a light beer to suit the drinker's mood, which is of course more common these days. Which is the better dressed beer, La Perla's or Mother's Ruin's? I prefer Cholula to Tabasco in most contexts (especially as an alcohol accoutrement), and Tecate to Modelo Especial, so I have to give the edge to Mother's Ruin here, but in an ideal world you'd of course do them both one after the other.

Pickleback. Jameson, spicy pickle juice. $9.

I'm including two drinks because that's what the bartender insisted on when I gave my spiel about the project and why I wanted Dealer's Choice. She chose wisely: it runs out that a pickleback does indeed best represent the bar, because TJ Lynch, the owner of the bar, invented it! I went down this rabbit hole after Kung Fu Saloon served me my third pickleback of this project, following ones at The Lodge and The Library before that, so it was nice to try one right from the source, or at least from a franchise of the source. Mother's Ruin has a few varieties of pickle juice you can choose from if spicy isn't your thing (it very much is mine), and you can't go wrong with Jameson as the whiskey. This is a top tier pickleback, if a shot with only 2 ingredients, one of which is pickle runoff, can be said to have tiers. 

The Crew

Aaron, Elijah, Ishani.

Notes

Stop #1 of the night. Mother's Ruin (the name is slang for gin) is a venerable NYC-based bar chain that has just made its way down to Austin. Charmingly, they have a Trudy's-esque (RIP) challenge, where if you visit this location plus at least 2 of the other 3 (NYC, Chicago, Nashville) in 1 day, you get 1 free beer per day for life, and if you somehow manage to visit all 4, free cocktails. We were not feeling that ambitious, but luckily this location, which had only been open for a month, was plenty for us. The atmosphere is somehow both comfortable and nice at the same time; not to rehash my new bar economics spiel for the 10,000th time, but I will always try to highlight new bars in Austin which do a good job of providing cheap quality drinks along with an inviting atmosphere and good service, because it's a very difficult balance to strike, especially over a long period of time, since the audience that's attracted by the premium cocktails whose margins pay the rent is not always the audience who just wants to nurse cheap beers. The food here looked really good, but unfortunately we were planning to eat dinner at another stop of the evening. Onward....

#206: Willow Country Bar

The Bar

Willow Country Bar. 719 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/28/2025 @ 8pm.

The Drink

Cowboy cocktail. Chuckle rum, Malibu rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice. $16.

One of the benefits of having done this project for 8 years (!) is that it gives me some perspective whenever I get sticker shock. I don't love that a drink in a Solo cup, even one made of metal, is $16, but the equivalent drink I was served 8 years ago at Concrete Cowboy was $12, and according to the BLS inflation calculator that is $15.72 today, so it's actually almost exactly the same price, even though it doesn't feel the same, as the drink at Concrete Cowboy was not only more elaborate but much bigger. Regardless, Chuckle rum is basically a fruit punch (I'm not sure if it has extra chuckle), and Malibu rum is the classic cheap "coconut suntan lotion" you remember from college, so this is a sort of simplified hurricane. I can only handle so much of these very sweet club drinks, so while each sip was fine on its own, I was not sorry when I finished it. Interestingly, the bar has an ownership connection with Carabuena tequila; it might have been nice to get a drink with some of that in it, but that's Dealer's Choice for you.

The Crew

Aaron, Rome.

Notes

Willow Country Bar is a reimagining of Concrete Cowboy, though its owners, the So Clutch Group, still maintain the Concrete Cowboy brand in other cities. It hasn't been open too long, but it had a big crowd of service industry folks the night I was there. In terms of changes from its former incarnation, the biggest change is the addition of a mechanical bull, which is an attraction I'm always surprised that bars spring for, given the cost of installation and operation, the amount of floor space they consume, and the type of crowd you have to attract in order for them to get used. Do patrons really buy more drinks as they're watching some drunk tourist get thrown off after the first buck? Are there really people who practice their technique so they can ride it for longer? They're not that expensive, it's just interesting that the economics can work out for a bar. This was my fourth stop of the night (Rome's third), so we decided not to stick around for any bull-riding which might occur.

#205: DW's

The Bar

DW's. 715 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/28/2025 @ 7:30pm.

UPDATE: DW's has closed.

The Drink

Porn star martini. Smirnoff vanilla vodka, Passoa passionfruit liqueur, passion fruit purée, lime juice, with side of champagne. $15.

The name of the drink is the cocktail equivalent of clickbait, as it has absolutely nothing to do with porn stars other than that its inventor Douglas Ankrah thought that it "looked like a cocktail a porn star would drink". Much like with the similar Sex on the Beach, that's one way to stand out on a menu. However, in addition to the attention-grabbing name, the presentation of the porn star martini is pretty distinctive: the vodka and passionfruit ingredients are served in one glass, while the champagne is served on the side, for you to either alternate sips, pour into the main glass, or take as a chaser (my option). The ingredients are generally flexible - you can swap out the passionfruit for another fruit, the champagne for prosecco, etc - but it's kind of interesting that it took until 2002 for someone to invent a cocktail with bubbles on the side. This was one of the more popular signature drinks on DW's menu (see below for why I use the past tense), and I enjoyed it as well, so the bartender chose wisely.

The Crew

Aaron, Rome.

Notes

Normally I am fairly lax about visiting new bars immediately when they open, since I'm just doing this project for fun, but DW's is a cautionary tale for me about needing to get serious and stay on top of the new bar game. The backstory: the bar The Dogwood, which still maintains another location up at the Domain, sold their Sixth Street location in mid 2024 to Little Woodrow's, which in late 2024 opened DW's as a cocktail lounge. DW's was then open for a few months before it was closed and reopened as Woody's, a more affordable/approachable bar concept. This means that as of the date of my visit, DW's was no more. 

Normally this would would have me cursing myself for having actually MISSED A BAR for the very first time, but when I told the staff what I was doing and my dismay at having failed to patronize a bar, they told me that since the changeover had just happened barely a month ago, they still had tons of DW's stuff lying around, and therefore they could virtually recreate the fallen establishment just for me. I apparently didn't miss much; when I asked what had changed beside the menu, they said that the decor was fairly similar, with even more 60s stuff lining the walls, and there were a few more couches, as befits a cocktail lounge, but otherwise the interior at least was not greatly different. Oh well. RIP to DW's, but long live Woody's.

#204: Woody's

The Bar

Woody's. 715 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/28/2025 @ 7pm.

The Drink

Ranch water. Espolon tequila, sweet & sour mix, Topo Chico, lime. $6.

I always say that one of the most fun things about this project is learning history, and I was delighted to discover that the humble ranch water, which in its elemental form is just a margarita with sparkling water, was not only invented in Austin mere blocks away at Ranch 616 (which unfortunately is just off Sixth Street and therefore not eligible for inclusion), but helped popularize Topo Chico as a sparkling water brand in Austin. I love learning about connections between everyday items, and even if Topo Chico has been part of the Coca-Cola beverage portfolio since 2017, it's still something I drink all the time. Woody's rendition of the classic is about as everyday as you can get: the humble workhorse Espolon tequila as a base, generic sweet & sour to mix, and the requisite Topo Chico with lime to top it off. Yes, I know sparkling water is sparkling water, but how many other sparkling water brands get songs about them? A solid drink at a solid price.

The Crew

Aaron, Rome.

Notes

I left Aris to join up with Rome at a place where cocktails weren't $20. It's important to note that Woody's is unrelated to Bob Woody, the infamous "mayor of Sixth Street". Instead, its name refers to the Woody's Brands holding group which also owns Little Woodrow's, the microchain of Houston-based bars who have a few locations in Austin, including the one about a hundred yards down the street. Woody's is brand new, having opened about a month ago when Woody's Brands bought The Dogwood and reopened it as a cocktail bar named DW's (hold that thought for a moment), then pivoted to a more affordable/downscale concept under the Woody's name, which is what you see here. There's a strong 60s retro vibe, with lots of pictures of Marilyn Monroe, JFK, etc., as well as the kind of groovy wallpaper that reminds me of the hotel carpet in Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. I talk a lot on this blog about how the changing economics of the city practically guarantee that all new bars will be upscale $20 cocktail joints, but that is not always the case; this really feels like a legacy dive bar in its early days. We really appreciated that there are still cheap, unpretentious places opening up on Sixth Street these days, so we stuck around for another round enjoying the vibes before travelling back in time to DW's....

#203: Aris

The Bar

Aris. 1111 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78703

Visited 2/28/2025 @ 6pm.

The Drink

Aris G&T. Gin Mare Mediterranean gin, grapefruit bitters, kalamata olives, Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic. $20.

I've had a fair number of gin & tonics on this journey, and as Aris means "the best" (as in "aristocrat"), it makes sense that they would deliver. Gin Mare is a Catalonian gin, which is a first for me; the region has more gins that I thought. Its most notable botanical is the Arquebina olive, also from Catalonia, which gets good reviews from olive enthusiasts, although the presence of the much more famous kalamata olive was of course much more prominent. I didn't catch the brand of the grapefruit bitters, but their use of a higher-end tonic was probably the difference-maker, since going from a cheap tonic to a medium or high-end tonic arguably makes just as much difference as making the equivalent leap in the gin. Fever Tree sources its lemon thyme ingredient not from Catalonia but from just across the French border in Provence, but gets its quinine (which it actually has less of than the standard cheap grocery store-tier tonic water does) from a Cinchona cultivar in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though the famous "fever trees" that quinine is sourced from are native to the Andes. Another globalization success story! Britta De Pessemier wrote a fascinating paper on the differing phylogenies of  Cinchona trees in Peru and DR Congo, if you want more than the standard story of quinine, but I will end this digression by saying this was unquestionably the least medicinal/bitter G&T I've ever had, even less than the one at Gin Bar, and I would highly recommend it in spite of its price tag. 

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Aris just opened in January, and while I can't speak to whether it lives up to its name as the best restaurant in town (I haven't tried them all), it is unquestionably really nice, although the luxe quality of its interior is somewhat incongruous with the weirdly bland office park that surrounds its building on the south side of West Sixth. This is in the brand new Treaty Oak Square development that replaced the old AISD headquarters, across the street from where Sixth & Blanco is replacing Z'Tejas. Anyway, I have nothing but compliments for the high quality of the interior, which is clearly calibrated for the upper tier of business diners, but my attention was captured by the huge meat room you walk past in order to get to the bar that is just to the right in the picture of me above. The Sof Hospitality group that opened Aris specializes in steakhouses (though I have to say I haven't ever encountered a Mediterranean steakhouse before), and it's worth it to take a detour to gawk at all the cuts of beef hanging around waiting to be devoured. Even the bar is nice. 

One thing I was pleasantly surprised by was the friendliness of my fellow barmates. You probably have your own stereotypes about the kind of person who would frequent an establishment like this, but though statistically there must have been some Worthington's Law believers in the joint when I was there, everyone sitting around me had great fun commenting on the project and talking about their own favorite drinks and establishments nearby, whether they were longtime residents or had just moved here. Whatever you think of this latest wave of upscale "stores with a philosophy", as always, the real measure of a bar is its patrons, and this one was great. 

#202: Blindside Lounge

The Bar

Blindside Lounge. 211 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 9pm.

The Drink

Penis colada. "Four kinds of rum", "green", pineapple juice. $7.

The name of this drink, which our bartender selected, is the kind of joke that probably lands really well with the bachelorette parties who are one of the main target demographics of this kind of establishment. Heck, it landed well with us; when you go bar-hopping on this stretch of Dirty Sixth on a Friday night and start asking bartenders complex questions about which drinks best sum up the bar, you're just asking to be Rumple Minze'd, so a prank cocktail might as well be a Manhattan in comparison. His choice was perfect - affordable but alcoholic, striking to the eye yet easy on the palate, just as a good piña colada should be. Even better: in a reverse of the usual shot + chaser formula, after we drained our cocktails he gave us a round of shots of "his favorite breakfast tequila" afterwards. 

If you're wondering why I didn't record more details of this drink (or the breakfast tequila), it's not just because this was the fifth stop of the night, although that didn't improve our memories - it's because even though we were essentially the only patrons in the whole place, the bartender kept wandering off to different zones of the bar to concoct our beverages while in mid-hilarious monologue mode on his surprisingly eventful life story, and, being attentive and appreciative patrons, we did not want to interrupt his story for such nitpicky details as "what's in this drink?" or "what do you mean by 'breakfast tequila'?" What you read is what he said. A+ would recommend.

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The fifth and final stop of the evening. Blindside Lounge is one of those rare new bars on Dirty Sixth that did not directly replace a previous bar, instead having been founded earlier this year as an adjunct of the Blindside Tattoo & Piercing establishment in the same building. There was some sort of interesting but hard-to-decipher situation going on with the ownership, who were evidently semi-absentee but also very committed to making the new establishment successful, although like I said above this seemed to be an off-night. Having just come back from a trip to Panama and Peru, I appreciated the Mesoamerican/Pre-Columbian art theme of the interior decoration over the classic legacy Austin stone; according to the bartender this art had some sort of deep meaning to the owners. Quite frankly all of these nightclub bars on Dirty Sixth are essentially indistinguishable to the average patron wandering in off the street, so having a friendly bartender and any kind of distinctive motif at all is a huge product differentiator, to use a marketing term. They might need more of that business speak; when I was doing my typical post-visit research in order to write this post I really couldn't find much on them even though they've been open for half a year, which is usually plenty of time to build a media footprint. I hope they make it.

#201: The Dead Rabbit

The Bar

The Dead Rabbit. 204 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 8:30pm.

The Drink

Irish coffee. Teeling Small Batch Irish whiskey, coffee, demerara, whipped cream, nutmeg. $16.

The Dead Rabbit was one of those venues where the bartender was not amused by my standard request to give me the drink that they felt best represented the bar. I never hold it against them, as a Friday night on Sixth Street is usually neither the time nor the place to force a bartender to plumb the depths of their soul to isolate the essence of the establishment, but in my defense, they had a lot of cocktails, including not one, not two, not even three, but four distinct Irish coffees. I have to commend the bartender for not simply giving us two shots of Rumple Minze the way that her counterparts at Friends and Barcelona did in the same Friday night scenario, because she gave me their standard Irish coffee and it was delicious. She couldn't tell me much about the coffee, but Teeling is a newish Irish distillery, and this was one of  their entry-level whiskeys, which are often underrated compared to their fancier siblings. 

Not that it's generally possible to make a bad Irish coffee, of course, because it's a drink with a very high floor. You read a lot about the important role that hotel bars have had in the history of the cocktail, but the Irish coffee was invented in an airport bar in Foynes Airport, near what is now Shannon Airport, which is possibly unique in cocktail history. I have had an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista in San Francisco, which popularized the drink in the US (apparently the story that inventor Joe Sheridan brought the recipe with him is untrue), and this one was right up there. Elijah got the frozen Irish coffee, and while it was not quite up there with the version from the Erin Rose in New Orleans, which is one of my favorite drinks of all time, it was excellent too. They theoretically have some Austin-specific special cocktails, but those will have to wait until next time. 

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The fourth stop of the evening, and certainly the most upscale. The Dead Rabbit replaced BD Riley's, an Austin-native bar which was one of many tragic COVID casualties, though luckily they still have a location up in Mueller. I always find it amusing when one bar is replaced by a very similar bar - I mean, I get that the Irish Consulate is 2 blocks away, but is it in the lease that you have to follow the same theme and keep the same goofy shit on the wall? It makes a bit more sense when you consider what a globally successful business "Irishness" is. Earlier this year I had the privilege of spending St. Patrick's Day at Paddy's in Cuzco, Peru, the self-proclaimed "highest 100% Irish owned pub on the planet", which was possibly even more Irish than the Irish bars I've been to in Ireland. The reason why there are a zillion Irish bars all around the globe and not the equivalent number of, say, Welsh or Scottish bars, is in large part due to the Irish Pub Company, which has done a very good job of meeting and encouraging consumer demand for their product by airlifting prefab Irish bars to every corner of the planet, but they couldn't have done it without the existing impression of Irish bars as being cozy, intimate, friendly, joyous, convivial spaces for pints of plain and good craic. Or, for a musical explanation, please consult the Irish Pub Song.

Interestingly, the OG Dead Rabbit in Manhattan (named after a questionably historical gang that was further embellished in the movie Gangs of New York) was founded as a bit of a reaction to an overly strict definition of Irishness, as owners Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon came from Belfast, where they ran "the world's best cocktail bar" at the Merchant Hotel, although touches like the sawdust on the floor allude to the stereotype that Irish pubs involve spilling a lot of blood and beer. Less true to the stereotype are the high prices (people are minding their manners around $25 fish & chips), but this is where you would start to rhapsodize over how the slow transformation of the humble Irish tavern into an extravagant gastropub mirrors the metamorphosis of Austin from a working-class college town to a high-priced metropolis, the upscalification of the bar a metaphor for the gentrification of the city... and on that note, in search of a more affordable pint to ponder over, we made our way to the next bar. 

#200: Mala Fama Rooftop

The Bar

Mala Fama Rooftop. 422 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 8pm.

The Drink

Paloma. Tequila, agave, lime, Squirt, Tajín. $5.

I've mentioned several times before that one of the many fun things about doing this project is getting to explore many of the drinks I've been served in various different forms. Like all famous standard cocktails the paloma is a very simple drink in essence - tequila, grapefruit, and lime - but while I of course enjoy the more refined versions I've been served in other joints, even the more elemental version you see here can be just fine, especially for $5 (it would have been $9 were it not on special). Sort of in the way that a Coke from McDonald's can be better than the same Coke from a can, sometimes a paloma with well tequila in a plastic cup can hold its own against the more upscale paloma you'd get in a fancy glass further west on Sixth Street. 

This is the first time I've been served a cocktail with Squirt as an ingredient (a more upscale version might have used Jarritos). I had not thought about the grapefruit soda in years; evidently it originated in Arizona in 1936 as a sort of Mountain Dew of the desert, a cocktail mixer that was basically a way to sell excess grapefruit. It's currently owned by Keurig Dr. Pepper, like so many other smaller brands that have been conglomerated over the years in order to enjoy the advantages of production, distribution, advertising, etc. You don't need me to tell you about the taste of such a ubiquitous childhood staple, but when I was looking up its story I found a great anecdote about its inventor Edward Mehren:

During its 86-year reign as a pop star, Squirt briefly became the topic of political debate during two days of hearings by a U.S. Senate subcommittee on intermediate coinage in 1950. Mehren led a movement to split nickels by creating three new coins with values of 2 ½, 7 ½, and 12 ½ cents. He claimed these new fractional coins called “Bens,” “Links” and “Bits” would cut inflation by saving consumers more than $8 billion annually in overpriced goods since prices tended to jump by 5 cents. 

The coinage would also make buying a soda easier. At the time, Squirt cost a nickel from a vending machine, but this price wasn’t profitable. Mehren wanted to keep it a one-coin transaction, but doubling the cost by charging a dime would hurt sales. “Mehren thought the world would revolve around vending machines,” Dobbins says. “With the new coins, he could charge a reasonable 7 ½ cents.” The proposal failed, despite Mehren giving President Harry Truman a bowtie with hand-painted images of the new coins, which included thrifty Ben Franklin on the 2 ½-cent coin and Abraham Lincoln on the 7 ½-cent denomination.

"Give me three Bens for a soda" has strong vibes of Grandpa Simpson's "give me five bees for a quarter" onion belt story, but you have to love a guy who tried to get the country to adopt several entirely new denominations of currency just so that he could charge more for his soda. 

Elijah had a tamarindo lindo, a mezcal cocktail with tamarind, which was also quite good.

The Crew

Aaron, Elijah.

Notes

The third stop of the night. Mala Fama used to be Buckshot until about a year ago, when it was sold to Gabriela's Group, who own a few bars and restaurants around town, including the similarly-named Mala Vida down the street. When we stopped by it was by chance, in yet another instance of shoe leather reporting being the ultimate guide to Sixth Street. It's hard to tell from the picture, but Mala Fama has spruced up the interior from the Buckshot days a bit and moved away from the shot bar vibe by leaning in to the Latin dance club market, much like its sibling Mala Vida. There are music posters all around, incredibly loud reggaeton music, and interior decor conducive to dancing, although we were the only folks there. We did not get to check out the titular rooftop to see if they had also changed it up since it was Buckshot, but our bartender assured us that it was still a highlight of the establishment. Everyone loves a rooftop bar, but we had more bars to head to, so with regret we departed.

#199: Marlow

The Bar

Marlow. 700 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 7:30pm.

UPDATE: Marlow has closed.

The Drink

Angel w/ a Shotgun. Ford's gin, sake, black sesame, grapefruit, lemon, pho spices, sakura. $15.

After the tasty but filling burger we just had at NADC Burger, a dessert-ish cocktail hit the spot. Every so often I will drink a cocktail that I change my mind about halfway through. This was one of their house specialty cocktails, which I generally have had great luck with whenever a bartender recommends one (they're specialties for a reason!). This one didn't really land with me until I was deep into the back half of it, when all of the more subtle flavors - Ford's gin, sake, sakura (which means cherry blossom) - finally coalesced into something I enjoyed rather than merely ingested. As indicated by the sakura ingredient, the name of the drink appears to be some kind of anime reference, which is apt given the Japanese theme of the drink. Periodically on this project I'll have a fleeting thought that I wish I had stuck to a standard gin and tonic or something else super basic, for ease of comparison if nothing else, but bartenders serve me just what I need enough of the time that I'm glad that I've stuck resolutely to Dealer's Choice. Plus, this is really just a fancy gin and tonic anyway, although not with the typical G&T's price tag like I would have gotten at Waller Ballroom. 

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

The second visit of the night was a new discovery to me. The opening of a new bar is always cause for celebration at this blog, but sometimes the pleasant introduction of a new bar involves the sad discovery that a previous bar has closed. Marlow replaces Edwin's, which was apparently a COVID casualty, which had in turn replaced Waller Ballroom. While the preceding two names honored Edwin Waller, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and most importantly Austin's first mayor, Marlow breaks the pattern: rather than being Waller's middle name or something, the new name honors the owner's daughter, which is a charming touch. I have always known the bars in this space as concert venues and nightlife bars; the new owner evidently has plans to make it cozier and a bit more West Sixth-like, which is just fine with me. Marlow is one of the properties owned by Stream Realty, which has ambitious plans to make this stretch of Dirty Sixth a bit less scuzzy, and from the looks of it they've gotten ahead of the game. When we visited the evening rush had not yet begun, so we had time to chat with the other patrons and the bartender, which was a welcome surprise on a Friday night. We had a good chat about Bangladesh, which I'd visited back in 2019, enjoyed our drinks, and then headed on out.

#198: NADC Burger

The Bar

NADC Burger. 1007 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 8/2/2024 @ 6:30pm.

The Drink

Night Fever. Mezcal, musk melon, cucumber, lime. $12.

By looking at old pictures of the menu I see that this exact same drink used to be called the Disco Flip; I'm not sure what the reasoning behind the name change was (both seem to be Saturday Night Fever references?), but whatever you call it, it's a solid well mezcal cocktail. "Well mezcal" is not a phrase you usually see, because even as mezcal has come out of nowhere over the past decade to appear on most bar menus, it still has an aura of an exotic "special occasion" liquor to it, with a price tag to match. Unfortunately the exact brand wasn't specified on the menu and the staff didn't know either, so it was probably towards the Del Maguey end of the quality spectrum. Whatever it was, it was a relatively faint backdrop to the musk melon flavor (much as tequila is a type of mezcal and not the other way around, musk melon is a broad category that includes cantaloupe) and the cucumber lime, resulting in a pleasantly smoky/fruity/fresh/citrus balance. $12 is pretty reasonable for this cocktail, even if every few people would come here just for the drink.

The Crew

Aaron, Elijah.

Notes

As you have doubtless already inferred from the name, Not a Damn Chance Burger is primarily a burger joint. It's native to Austin, originally located in a trailer out back of Idle Hands on Rainey but now with an additional brick and mortar here on East Sixth, following in the now well-trodden path of Austin trailer success stories like Via 313, Torchy's, etc. As I mentioned above, drinks are not NADC's primary selling point, most people instead being lured by the promise of a premium wagyu burger from a chef with a Michelin star, but even though we were in that very unusual group of patrons visiting for the booze, we each still got one.

Now, the very premise of a "wagyu burger" has sparked fierce debates - the entire selling point of wagyu beef over regular beef is that the more delicate marbling of fat among the muscle makes for a better taste and sensory experience, which is completely obliterated when you then chop it up to make ground beef. Furthermore, when you then slather on sauce, cheese, pickles, onions, and jalapeños (no modifications allowed!), what's the added value of wagyu compared to any other ground beef with the same fat:muscle ratio? Great questions, especially given the $16 price tag for the burger alone. My answer is that the burger was really good (for a more comprehensive review, see here), and deserves to become a classic along the lines of Casino El Camino's burger just down the street. I would say that something like $12 would be a more appropriate price for it... except that somehow $16 has become the average price for a burger (almost double the mere $8.41 for a fast food burger), and this is certainly way above average quality. However, if you want cheap, you should be eating at Sandy's like a real Austinite anyway. 

#197: The Statesman

The Bar

The Statesman. 710 B W 6th Street, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 5/3/2024 @ 8:30pm.

The Drink

Dos osos, one cave. Por Osos vodka, brandied berry jam, lemon. $17.

The name of this drink, which our bartender selected from the specialty menu, is apparently a reference to the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, which I'd never heard of. Evidently the two titular gentlemen have a vodka, which claims to be distilled in Texas even though the hosts seem to be based in the LA comedy scene. Despite the ursine name, the drink is not particularly fierce or strong-tasting or any adjective that might remind you of bears; there's just a vaguely fruit and citrus taste (so at least the vodka is appropriately tasteless). I can't think of anything to say about this drink other than it's essentially a fancier, more expensive, completely competent vodka soda that's light on the carbonation. 

A drink that might have made an impression on me was the one they had on their dessert menu: a "Forty Dollar Espresso Martini" which had gold listed as one of the ingredients. I did not feel like dropping $40, but if you want to impress your friends, that might be one to order.

The Crew

Aaron, Elijah, Rome.

Notes

Far be it from me to tell a bar what to name themselves, but I have to say that "The Statesman" is not exactly a choice optimized for SEO in this town, even if our newspaper has been gradually dwindling down to a shell of its former self for years. In January The Statesman replaced Valhalla eSports Lounge, which had closed last June. It's a supper club, which Austin has had plenty of for a while (though not typically on this stretch of West Sixth), so it has high-end food to accompany the high-end drinks. The new ownership has drastically altered the interior from its former gamer-friendly state to match the new menu, attempting to evoke the atmosphere of, to quote their website, "a sanctum of gastronomic and social alchemy where the finest flavors meet the art of conversation, each meal transforms into an event – a place where stories intertwine, alliances are formed, and futures are shaped, all under the veil of utmost discretion and exemplary service." I didn't form any new alliances (maybe I should have ordered the fried mozzarella), but I did enjoy the new decor, which looks a lot classier - nice art, leather booths, exposed brick, brass lounge accents - basically a Prohibition speakeasy sort of setup, except much better-lit. 

#196: Tiki 311

The Bar

Tiki 311. 311 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 12/21/2023 @ 6pm.

UPDATE: Tiki 311 has closed.

The Drink

Mai Tai. Appleton Estate Signature rum, Kuleana Huihui rum, Grand Marnier, almond orgeat, lime juice. $12.

Now this is a Mai Tai. Part of the drink's charm is that Trader Vic's didn't publish its recipe for several decades in an attempt to prevent knockoffs, thus ironically guaranteeing that all of the inevitable knockoffs would be a little bit different and potentially even more popular than their own. One good way to make a cocktail popular is make it strong; all of the Sixth Street versions of the Mai Tai I've been served have had multiple rums, and Tiki 311's rendition is no different. Appleton Estate Signature rum gets solid reviews for its mild smoothness, while Kuleana Huihui is a higher-proof mix of several different rums, making it the rum equivalent of a blended whiskey. Toss in some Grand Marnier, and this was an excellent Mai Tai, especially for the price, although as always I would have preferred a tiny bit less ice. This was either the 3rd or the 5th Mai Tai that I've been served so far, depending on how you count some similar drinks, and my favorite of the lot.

We also had a round of their Zombie cocktail to accompany our garlic shrimp plates, both of which were also delicious. I think I actually slightly preferred the Zombie over the Mai Tai, but both were great.

The Crew

Kason, Misty, Aaron, Travis (not pictured).

Notes

A dive bar to tiki bar conversion would ordinarily be a generally regarded as yet another sad step on the relentless road of gentrification, but not this time! Not to dance on a bar's grave, but I will shed no tears for the closure of The 311 Club, given their habit of putting bugs in my whiskey, although according to the comments on their later posts the employees may have gotten screwed by some sort of sudden sale and closure way back in 2017. The building itself appears to have lain fallow until earlier this year, when it became the newest member of the Bucks bar family (they evidently had trouble fitting the name into the established naming scheme of Two Bucks, Buck Wild, Buck Shot; oh well). It is a vast improvement on the previous occupant even aside from the lack of bugs in my drink; the decor is better, the vibe is more welcoming, the staff is MUCH friendlier, and they even have some awesome food (don't miss the garlic shrimp plate). Their sole blemish might be that they're a Dolphins bar for some reason, but no matter - this is a dramatic upgrade no matter how you look at it.