#135: Teji's

The Bar

Teji's. 616 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 12/27/18 @ 9pm.

UPDATE: Teji's has closed.

The Drink

Dream tea. TW Samuel's bourbon, peach schnapps, sweet & sour, ginger beer. $4.

One of the most cost-effective drinks I've been served yet, discounting gimmick booze tureens like the Adios, motherfucker!, this hefty Moscow Mule variant that I got for practically nothing was quite solid. For a long time peach schnapps was one of those "never again" liquors for me thanks to one of Those Nights back in college, where poor planning on on my part meant I entered the night with nothing but a bottle of the syrupy liquor and then exited the next morning with a saccharine migraine, but I gradually rebuilt my shattered relationship with schnapps (relationschnapps?) thanks to its inarguably excellent taste, at least if you like peach as much as I do. I had never had TW Samuels before and I liked it a lot. This was one of those drinks that made the phrase "well-balanced" pop into my head as I was drinking it because of how well the three supporting ingredients backed up the bourbon. I was initially confused why it was called "Dream tea", because it couldn't have tasted less like a tea, but it turned out that Dream was the name of the bartender! I'm all for naming things after yourself, logic be damned - a great name for a great drink.

The Crew

Travis, Aaron.

Notes

I'm not sure what the minimum number of locations to be considered a chain is, so let's just call Teji's a local mini-chain of Indian restaurants/groceries, though unlike the others this location eschews the grocery part of the business model. This location is a bit over a year old, and it brings a welcome change of pace from the other neighboring bars by virtue of its existence as a fairly normal and quiet restaurant. You'd hardly even know there were people drunkenly staggering around outside, except for the occasional person entering and leaving. We did not eat during our visit, but I have eaten at the location on the Drag and enjoyed it. Austin hasn't historically had a strong focus on Indian food, though that's now changing; I haven't made it part of my drunk food rotation, but I could easily see myself tearing through some curry after a few bar stops, especially at a convenient safe haven location like this. I love bars as much (or more - let's be real) than the next guy, but it's nice to change it up every once in a while.