#91: Shangri-La

The Bar

Shangri-La. 1016 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 7/19/17 @ 8pm.

The Drink

Shangri-lada. Mount Gay black rum, Finest Call piña colada, cherry. $8.

Forget for a moment that the "real" Shangri-La was situated somewhere near Tibet; to judge by the drink that the bartender chose to represent it, Shangri-La is actually somewhere in the Caribbean. A frozen drink seemed right for the season. I'm generally not a huge fan of frozen drinks, due to the annoyance of brain freeze (I get my margaritas on the rocks), but in the Austin summer, colder is better. I first tried Mount Gay rum back in college, when someone gave it to me as a "hilarious" birthday present. It's actually a really good rum, which is unsurprising since it's the oldest rum still in production in the world. As for the piña colada portion, I don't think I'd ever heard of Finest Call before, but they make a totally serviceable pineapple/coconut mix. There are far worse drinks to consume in this miserable heat, but in case you're not feeling something frozen, they have a few draft beers and some pretty cheap cocktails as well. But then you'd miss out on the jaunty umbrella perched on the rim of this cocktail, and wouldn't you feel silly then!

The Crew

Aaron, Davis.

Notes

If the drink was drawn more from the Caribbean than the Himalayan, the rest of the bar is positively Polynesian. Though the tiki theme isn't overwhelming, in fact it might be more accurate to call it tiki accents, it adds a bit of color to the divey interior, which is typically dingy and underlit. It's a slightly different aesthetic than the other bars in this family, the Grackle, the Liberty, and the Brixton. I've mostly come to Shangri-La for post-show beers, because it's cheap and their pours are strong. There's a pool table off to the side of the main seating/standing area, on the other side of the jukebox, in case you get bored of talking to your friends or watching whatever movies they're playing on the TV.

Outside is where you want to spend most of your time though, on their enormous patio ringed by a palisade of rattan fence topped by lights. Interspersed among the big beautiful old oak trees there are long rows of picnic tables, a seating style I've always appreciated since it's both space-efficient and conducive to serendipitous conversation. They have always had consistently excellent food options available; though I miss the superb East Side King, you can't go wrong with Baton Creole, which is currently parked out back. Some bars do enough things well that they're natural magnets for meetups, and Shangri-La is definitely one of those go-tos.