#65: Peckerheads

The Bar

Peckerheads. 402 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 3/29/17 @ 9:30pm.

The Drink

Adios, motherfucker!. Tequila, whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, triple sec, blue curaçao, sour. $5.50.

I love that Dirty Sixth offers drinks like these. A bunch of liquors together in a glass? Why not: no matter your preferred liquor, this drink has got you covered. This neatly solved my "drink that best represents the bar" question as well, since it's basically the Venn diagram intersection of every cocktail at once, so it was win-win for both me and the bartender. I don't see any mezcal or scotch hiding in there, but in true trash can punch style you wouldn't want to waste your higher-end liquors on this kind of slumgullion anyway. The only actual flavor you can taste in this drink is "blue", thanks to the sour and the curaçao; don't worry, underneath it, the alcohol is definitely working its magic. That they serve this giant glass with an extremely strong pour for $5.50 is either highly concerning, if you're a TABC agent, or a noble act of public service, if you're me. I had thought that Shakespeare's Long Island pitcher was Dirty Sixth in a single drink, but this is certainly a strong contender as well.

The Crew

Aaron, Vince, Davis.

Notes

Peckerheads is a kind of semi/quasi/unofficial Longhorns bar, at least judging by how often the staff mentioned all the members of the football team who had allegedly been drinking within these hallowed walls. Their amazing wall decoration, a riff on the iconic Jo's coffee shop mural, is certainly evidence that their hearts are in the right place, and as you can see, we bleed burnt orange as well (crank that song loud). I would feel right home in a bar like this - even though it's only been around for about 10 years, it feels like generations of just-turned-21 kids fresh off a victory in the Red River Shootout have been ordering gigantic drinks that cost almost no money for forever. On the Wednesday night that it was, we were the only patrons, so we had plenty of time to explore the cozy darkness of the venue, which you reach by climbing up some stairs from the street. Once I get done with this bar crawl I'm going to think on if being on the second floor changes the bar's vibe at all. There's no balcony here, and the interior has the sort of unwindowed dankness which makes it feel like it could be at the bottom of a mineshaft and you'd have no idea, but it felt more like a refuge than many other places I've been to. We watched our bartender spill a bunch of liquor all over herself and have to run to the CVS for some new flip flops and shorts, and return to talk about what it's like to have seen Austin change over the years. Good thing fandom never changes.