#104: The Grackle

The Bar

The Grackle. 1700 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 7/29/17 @ 9pm.

The Drink

Old-Fashioned. Draft. $10.

Before this bar crawl, the idea of an Old-Fashioned on draft would have blown my mind. Just imagine - the nectar of the gods on tap! Ingredient quality and mixology skill be damned, the convenience alone could be revolutionary, worthy of a slot in the Pee-Wee Herman breakfast machine. Of course, now that I've become an impossibly jaded drinking veteran, who's even received Old-Fashioneds in a can on Sixth Street, an Old-Fashioned on draft is a bit less revelatory than it might have been before. If you suspected that this wouldn't be the most immaculately prepared Old-Fashioned you've ever seen you'd be right - at least the ice and the peel were added by hand - but it was still a worthy cocktail, since The Grackle is justly famous for its liquor selection and there's no way they'd skimp of the underlying ingredients. I got a smooth, strong Old-Fashioned for about what a regular Old-Fashioned would cost, and it was very similar. I wouldn't call this the world's greatest innovation, compared to all the other great labor-saving inventions in history, but it was one of the more drinkable cocktail advances I've come across.

The Crew

Wolf, Jessica, Rome, Chris, Aaron, James, Will, Jackie, Anthony (not pictured).

Notes

In terms of animals in Austin, the grackle is far from the most loved. Armadillos, salamanders, and even golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos have traditionally gotten more respect than the grackle, which is just what you'd expect from a bird whose mass noun is an "annoyance". Yet maybe those heroic attempts to hipsterize the grackle have worked - even I have grackle socks from KUTX - and so perhaps we should learn to love those feathered hustlers as much as this bar does. They've been around for a little over 6 years, working as both a bar and a concert venue. I've seen some great bands like Magnet School and Peelander-Z here, as well as plenty of other SXSW bands; their outdoor seating is spacious and comfortable, to say nothing of the big caliche front lot where the bands actually set up. I dig the interior too, which gives their impressive liquor selection top billing while allowing for enough seating for you and your crew. I'm not sure what the mass noun is for drinkers, but either way, The Grackle is a good place to roost for a while.