Saturday, February 4, 2017

#21: Concrete Cowboy

The Bar


Concrete Cowboy. 719 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/4/17 @ 5pm.

The Drink



Cowgirl punch. Coconut rum, tropical vodka, orange juice, fruit punch, champagne. $12.

After I delivered my routine about my mission and my drink request, my bartender gave me the house special, which was pretty great. I've always had a weird affection for beer-ritas. Not so much for flavor reasons, although I've yet to have a truly awful one, but after a dozen years of legal drinking the mini-game aspect has never failed to amuse me. I've finished my drink... and I still have a level boss drink to get through? Dude, sweet!

I got warned about how strong these were, but since this was only the first of six bars, I have no way of calculating the exact contribution this drink made to my hangover the next day. Perhaps that old "sailors take warning" rhyme should be updated:
Color is blue
I'll take two
Color is pink
Beware that drink
Color is green
Sir, you're causing a scene
Color is orange
Only a drunk starts rhyming with orange
Alright, I'll stop.

The Crew


Aaron.


Notes


I spent almost all of my visit here talking with the bartenders about college football, which is far from the worst way to spent a night of solo barhopping. I think college football has the greatest culture of fandom in all of sports, which I wrote a bit about in my review of Season of Saturdays, a book I can't recommend enough. The bartender was from Michigan, so we watched Ohio State at Michigan while rhapsodizing about sports, their attraction, their meaning, and so forth, transitioning smoothly into what would not be the final round of shots for the night.

The same people who own this also own Clutch Bar in Dallas and Houston, but not Austin (yet?). It was a fairly cloudy day and there weren't many people out yet, so we had time to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of a bar specializing in one particular thing versus trying to cater to as many kinds of people as possible. I think you can break patrons into a few basic types of people:

  • Barflys - loyal to cheap drinks
  • Scenesters - loyal to bartenders
  • Special occasioners - not loyal at all but willing to drop money for a good time

A person can be a different type on various occasions, but it's hard to maintain a reputation for cheap drinks AND cool bartenders AND fun atmospheres at all times, which is why bars tend to specialize. Concrete Cowboy shifts around a bit, welcoming both casuals like me as well as the bottle service crowd. I was thankfully spared those people, but I could easily see myself returning here.

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