The Bar
Toulouse. 409 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701
Visited 4/20/17 @ 1am.
The Drink
Adios, motherfucker!. Tequila, whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, triple sec, blue curaçao, sour. $5.75.
I honestly thought that these drinks were a joke when I first encountered one at Peckerheads, but now that I've found another specimen in the wild, it's apparent that they're real, and they're spectacular. At a whole $.25 more than the Peckerheads varietal, Toulouse's rendition of what is somehow a standard cocktail does not offer the cheapest Adios, motherfucker! you can find on Sixth Street. That might be a real drag for those of you saving your quarters for laundry day, but at least for my money they added a lemon garnish, which I appreciated since I'm one of those people who puts a lemon or lime in basically everything I drink, especially ice water. Did you know that the discovery that citrus prevented scurvy caused a global boom in lemon prices, eventually leading to the foundation of the mafia as a protection racket for Sicilian lemon growers? It's true. I'm not sure what you'd do with that knowledge, since to the best of my knowledge the mafia has moved on to other activities besides beating up fruit rustlers, and citrus cultivation is no more or less exploitative than that of other globalized agricultural commodities, but it's something to think about as you enjoy a drink with a lemon in it, especially a drink like this which will shortly remove your ability to think about anything at all.
The Crew
Stephanie, Gary, Aaron.
Notes
This is evidently the second incarnation of the Toulouse brand on Sixth Street, although I didn't have a chance to speak with anyone in charge to get any more backstory on their departure in 1996 or their later return a few doors down the street from their old location (which is now Peckerheads, funnily enough). They also don't seem to have much of an online presence either. Theoretically Toulouse has a Mardi Gras theme; in practice it's more of a generic party theme, and when we were there, the main area was dance party central. If you're the kind of person who minds random girls dancing up on you while you're in line for a drink then stay away, but normal people should be just fine. Once we'd gotten our massive drinks we took a quick visit to the back patio to check it out, but we quickly retreated. It's larger than you would expect, but enclosed in a way that makes it feel claustrophobic, and although normally cigarette smoke is just one of those things you put up with in smoking areas, the smell was oppressive here. Plus, the patio is still cozy enough that you're close to the other clusters of people, and you end up making that awkward eye contact with them as you unavoidably eavesdrop on whatever they're chatting about. It's just not the kind of place you want to spend a lot of time, so we didn't. The dance floor is a good place to watch drunk girls grind on each other, though.
Hi, there! I grew up in the original Toulouse, as it was owned by my mother, stepfather, and their business partner. The Toulouse that you visited is not the same Toulouse that was at Sixth and Trinity---the owners of the current Toulouse bought the DBA in order to open a bar that capitalized on the name recognition of the original. It's not even close, really.
ReplyDeleteThe original was a French Quarter-themed restaurant and bar, a very upscale sort of place similar to a seafood and steakhouse in the French Quarter, with a brass-plated baby grand being played by a jazz pianist. There was a full menu of Creole, Cajun, and other NOLA-styled favorites in a kitchen run by none other than now-renowned Austin legend, Hoover Alexander (now of Hoover's Cooking on Manor). There was a giant mural of a Mardi Gras parade painted along the length of one wall upstairs, dark wood and brass fixtures everywhere, and a huge courtyard complete with fountain in the back. It did not have a dance floor. Eventually, the original Toulouse expanded next door into the space that is now Jackalope.
My mother and stepfather sold their stakes to their business partner, Rick, sometime in the early 1990s, when they got divorced. I am not sure why Rick closed Toulouse, but I do know that Texas raising the legal drinking age to 21 had a major impact on the business, and Sixth Street slowly started to decline from a district full of upscale bars and restaurants to what is appropriately called "Dirty Sixth" now, so I suspect that played a part in his decision to close up and sell the space to Bob Popular's (which is what it became before the space eventually turned into Peckerheads and Jackalope).
I misspoke: Rick sold Toulouse, and that group decided to close it down, renovate, and reopen as Bob Popular's.
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