#97: The Brixton

The Bar

The Brixton. 1412 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 7/22/17 @ 1am.

UPDATE: The Brixton has closed.

The Drink

Brixton mule. Tito's vodka, ginger beer, lime, jalapeño. $8.

A fairly standard take on the Moscow mule, with the daintily floating jalapeño the lone deviation from the mule script. Nothing fancy, which suits me - despite Tito's not actually being "handmade" (it's just as industrial an operation as you'd expect anything selling over a million cases a year to be), it and fellow hometown hero Deep Eddy are my favorite vodkas, and they don't need any special twists to shine in a drink. One thing that I've learned throughout this journey is that it really doesn't matter much to me how closely drinks adhere to their traditional formulas. I've had excellent drinks that fit the dictionary definition to a T, and excellent drinks that share nothing but the name with their supposed archetypes. That infamous American Standards Association Safety Code and Requirements for Dry Martinis document which declares that vodka "is never employed in a dry martini" is both a laudable attempt to provide some clarity to drink preparation, and a Sisyphean struggle against the human desire for novelty. Sometimes you want a classic, sometimes you want to roll the dice, but either way, only the skill of the bartender and the quality of the ingredients stands between you and disaster. I survived this experience just fine.

The Crew

Aaron, Alexis, Chris.

Notes

I first knew The Brixton as a punk-themed bar, named after the Clash song of course! They've undergone some changes in the years since they've opened, most famously due to their appearance on Bar Rescue. I'm not sure how accurate this account of that interaction is, but I'm glad they declined to stick with the stupid "Rocket Room 6" name that the show suggested. It's one thing to spruce up the interior, get nicer cups, and add some higher-margin drink options to attract more patrons, even if that's hardly the "punk" thing to do; it's another thing to pick a name that was almost certainly inspired by some consultant literally just looking around the room ("The name was inspired by a rocket tattoo on Tim’s arm with the number due to the bar being at Sixth Street"). 

In its current form, The Brixton is somewhat cleaner than it's been, with the hardly the scuzzy atmosphere you'd normally associate with punk. I vividly remember it being the very first place I ever saw Shiner Ruby Redbird on draft, which converted me from a hater to a fan. They've usually got multiple movies showing on the TVs around the interior - I've seen everything from Godzilla to Escape From New York to Independence Day playing. To even further enhance the viewing experience, they've also added a projection screen outside, which was showing The Craft when we were there. Also not the most punk movie! Oh well, at least the bartenders are still friendly, and if you can hang onto that, then you've got most of what counts.