#12: Green Light Social

The Bar

Green Light Social. 720 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 1/23/17 @ 8pm.

The Drink

Treaty Oak Fitzhugh Ale. A British mild ale that's 3.5%. $7.

I was taken by surprise to see that Treaty Oak did beer, since I've only known them for their spirits (Treaty Oak rum, Starlite vodka, Waterloo gin), but it turns out that their beer has only been distributed for less than two months. It's not bad, and their official description sums it up: "As easy going as an afternoon at our ranch on Fitzhugh Road, the Fitzhugh Ale is a laidback sipper." Though that does make you think: if one beer = one afternoon at the ranch, is a case a fortnight? How many beers is a full vacation? Anyway....

The Crew

Aaron, Travis, Rome.

Notes

I'll be honest and say that I was not thrilled about entering this stretch of West Sixth. I can't count the number of times that I've heard West Sixth referred to as being "Dallas", and I was expecting some really bro-y scenes. However, I lived in Dallas for 8 years, so I'm relatively free of that particular strain of intra-Texan xenophobia, and also we went on a weeknight, when crowds were low and we had more time to talk to the bartenders like they were people, as opposed to drink-slinging automatons.

Perched on top of the boarded-up corpse of Benji's Cantina, which itself was a specter haunting the bones of the beloved Katz's Deli, Green Light Social is a newish bar that has some sort of complex relationship with Kung Fu Saloon, who will shortly be moving in to take over the ruins of Benji's. We had one of the most fun bartending duos yet serving us. They were very apologetic that they couldn't yet serve us their signature drink of alcoholic Capri Sun pouches due to some legal scenario that I didn't understand. So after being told that those Capri Suns would be available in about a week, instead we settled for an introductory round of root beer float shots, which we had to drink too quickly for me to capture a picture of. We then got our round of beers and talked drinking strategy while watching the start of OU-UT.