#54: Shakespeare's

The Bar

Shakespeare's. 314 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 2/24/17 @ 9:30pm.

The Drink

Long Island pitcher. $5.50

A $5.50 Long Island pitcher is the Platonic ideal of a Dirty Sixth drink, the single vessel for inebriation that shows off all the sides of the street at once:

1. It's strong. You might expect to be shortchanged on the alcohol, but Shakespeare's makes a real potent potable. Dirty Sixth is all about making bad decisions, and this has plenty of fuel.
2. It's a little too sweet. The first few swigs are fine, but by the bottom of the pitcher you are filled with a cloying tinge of regret, which I don't have to remind you is endemic here.
3. It's cheap. $5.50 for this is a hell of a bargain. It's definitely possible to spend lots of money on Dirty Sixth, but ideally you shouldn't be breaking the bank. Remember, you need to come back!
4. It's excessive. You quite frankly don't need a giant drink like this getting put into your drinking rotation. In the same way that large portion sizes warp our ideas of healthy eating, a comically oversized drink like this will inevitably lead to a real bender, and then a ruinous hangover.

So it's basically perfect at what it does, and on Friday night it's $5.50 all night long. Ask for it by name!

The Crew

Kathryn, Nick, Aaron, Travis.

Notes

As Shakespeare's Long Island pitcher is the quintessential Dirty Sixth drink, the bar itself might have the same claim on drinking venues. It attracts a broad cross-section of people, so you can experience the full spectrum of the evening's wanderers. It's deceptively large, with plenty of room for your crew on the ground floor or in one or another nook upstairs. You can even gaze from the rooftop patio at the craziness below, hearing obscenities, sirens, catcalls, comeons, the whole business. There isn't any food, but you will feast on the night instead. Go from having a long argument about Big 12 expansion politics with a drunk guy in the bathroom line next to you, to eavesdropping on bachelorette party drama on the stairs up, to watching the cops tow someone foolish enough to park on the street from the roof. What a street.