#74: Burnside's Tavern

The Bar

Burnside's Tavern. 413 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 4/26/17 @ 8:30pm.

The Drink

Burnside's Bulldog. Ketel One vodka, Boulaine coffee liqueur, whipped cream, Coke. $8.

This drink was delicious, which is exactly what you'd hope for from a signature cocktail. The rich coffee base with whipped cream on top, livened up by a splash of Coke, means it would be a perfect after-dinner dessert-style drink, if you're one of those people who actually plans ahead to pair drinks with food. We were only there to have our one drink and leave, but it felt like something I should have been enjoying after I'd finished a big fancy dinner, my napkin folded beside the remains of my meal, the candlelight reflected in my glass, with my high-backed chair pushed away from the table to better appreciate the roaring fire beside the frost-tinted windows. They also offered a comically huge Moscow Mule in an oversized mug that requires four people to be present to order, but I'm glad we chose this instead.

The Crew

Davis, Aaron, Travis, Hannah, Rome (not pictured).

Notes

Veteran Sixth Street patrons might have a hard time getting used to the fact that this location is no longer Treasure Island, one of those magical bars that sold 25 cent wells yet somehow mysteriously stayed open. Well, not so mysteriously - when you run drugs on the side, it's really easy to run a bar as a charity. Now in in its fourth year, Burnside's seem to have established its own identity. The bartender was very proud of how popular it was among college students, proudly pointing out the Best College Bar plaques to the left of the picture of General Burnside in our photo. Of course, any title like that is going to be heavily bogus, but in the cutthroat environment of Dirty Sixth, you grab any marketing edge you can get. It's also established its own identity in the sense of being rebranded heavily around the famously shaved but infamously incompetent General Ambrose Burnside, who has no ties to Texas that I know of. Why Burnside and not Sherman, Sheridan, or Grant I don't know, but in a city that makes a big deal out of facial hair like Austin does, maybe the sideburn angle is another marketing win. While you're there you can gaze at the many pictures of the General with hilarious quotes about how inept he was, play beer pong, listen to live music, chill on the dance floor, or just hang out at the bar, safe from being sent to get blown up in a crater or be used for target practice by Confederate artillery.