Tuesday, February 21, 2017

#47: Parkside

The Bar


Parkside. 301 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/21/17 @ 8pm.

The Drink



Attitude Adjustment. Bulleit rye whiskey, yellow chartreuse, fernet branca amaro rinse, Angostura bitters, flamed lemon. $12.

Now here's what I'm talking about. After some back-and-forth discussion about my tastes with the bartender, I ended up going with his very first recommendation over the others on the list, though they all looked excellent. He was absolutely right about my eventual selection: it was "boozy but complex", exactly the kind of high-end cocktail you want to be able to savor yet still taste some booze in. This isn't the first drink with amaro I've gotten, yet it's finally dawned on me how badly I've been missing it, since it's vastly improved every drink it's been present for. I guess I just need to embrace my inner elderly Italian man and seek it out in more drinks. Amaro starts off tasting similar to bitters but then turns slightly sweet, so it and the bitters have kind of a good cop/bad cop relationship in the background while you enjoy the whiskey and the chartreuse, which have their own duality going on. The bartender even did the flaming lemon peel trick again, which has yet to get old for me. Great drink, one of my favorites so far. Travis got the Perspective, which was also delicious.

The Crew


Travis, Aaron.


Notes


Parkside has the same owners as Backspace, the upscale pizza joint next door. Backspace had more of a beer and wine focus, so it makes sense to have a complementary cocktail bar next door, even though Parkside has its own high-end bar menu. The interior is exactly what you need with drinks like these: upscale while still being cozy, the glass exterior giving way to a brick, glass and brushed metal interior. Much of the brick walls are given over to either portraiture or alcohol, which is the way I like to see it. I know I keep talking about how it's really the patrons who make a bar great, and not any particular interior design element, but there was something about the mix of typical Sixth Street brick and more modern touches underneath the soft lighting that gave it an inviting atmosphere that was still well-polished. We didn't have many companions, it being a Tuesday, but everyone around us seemed to be having a good time, and maybe their subliminal good vibes enhanced our experience as well. Often I get into a bar tunnel vision where I don't really pay attention to other people, and that was true here to some extent, but everything felt all right. My drink certainly did. We watched some of Indiana @ Iowa until it was time to leave, which we did with regret. I will definitely return here.

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