#133: BBG's

The Bar

BBG's. 214 E 6th St A, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 12/27/18 @ 7:30pm.

The Drink

Texas Mule. Tito's vodka, ginger beer, lime. $8.

A Moscow Mule is not quite the simplest cocktail you can make, but it's not far off. It's also one of the least likely cocktails to offend, as ginger beer is hard to hate (remember that it was included in the Moscow Mule to help sell the vodka, not the other way around), which makes the drink a wise choice for a bartender to offer to a strange patron, particularly when it's made with the vodka most associated with Austin. I know Tito's gets ragged on for being made with corn (true), for being mass distilled (true), and for being a hipster choice (also true), but I will never hate it. I have never been a vodka connoisseur to the point of actually caring about "body" and "character" and "notes" the way I do with something like scotch or mezcal, and I am fine with have a pedestrian, functional, downright proletarian relationship with the liquor that generally offers the straightest route to getting drunk out of all of the "major" types. Poured into the standard copper mug, it's just enough to trick your brain into thinking you're getting a unique drinking experience instead of an exactly average Moscow Mule. Is there another cocktail with such a low ceiling and high floor as a Moscow Mule?

The Crew

Travis, Aaron.

Notes

What's the easiest way to deal with a branding issue? Rebrand! ATX Brands, which owns Bikini's, was evidently unhappy with Bikini's self-selected image as as breastaurant bar, so they overhauled everything and reopened under the new name. The name itself is actually the first hint that the redesign was not quite as dramatic as it could have been - the acronym officially stands for "Burgers, Beer, & Games", though you could be forgiven for thinking "Bikini's Bar & Grill", as there is still the unmistakable stamp of the sports bar on its interior. Gone are the skimpy uniforms and basic bar food, in are slightly less skimy uniforms and an upscaled menu, but nothing is too unfamiliar. If you'd drunkenly passed out on your barstool in 2017 and blearily awoken a year later, Rip Van Winkle-style, the logo and the bartenders' outfits would be essentially your only clues that your surroundings had changed. Whether you'd find that comforting or not is up to you.