#143: Valhalla eSports Lounge

The Bar

Valhalla eSports Lounge. 710 B W 6th Street, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 8/31/19 @ 11:30pm.

UPDATE: Valhalla has closed.

The Drink

Gamer Fuel. Deep Eddy vodka, Midori, Mountain Dew, lemon, sour candy. $10.

As we've all learned from long experience with superhero movies, anything this unnatural shade of green will usually either kill you instantly or give you some pretty cool powers. In the case of drinks, it could also give you a hangover that will make you wish you were dead, but more likely it will make your teeth hurt and cause your dentist's eyes to transform into big dollar signs the next time you come in for your checkup. Gamer Fuel is the flagship of Valhalla's line of "boozy slushes", which taste exactly like what they sound like. The real highlight of this drink was the Sour Patch Kids-esque candy ribbon that I wisely saved for the end - the tartness of the candy was a welcome distraction from the melon sweetness of the Midori, which I have liked in other drinks but wears out its welcome over time as you're heroically attempting to empty your glass, like a figure from Greek mythology whose punishment for getting on Hera's bad side was to eternally drain the Aegean with a straw (no, I'm not bitter I got another comically oversized novelty frozen drink, why do you ask?). I wish I had come at happy hour when this would have been half price, but at least it was plenty strong.

The Crew

Elijah, Aaron.

Notes

Valhalla had just opened when we visited, replacing the bar-by-numbers predictability of J Black's with a gamer bar. A gamer bar? Austin already has Recess a few blocks down on Sixth, Kung Fu Saloon practically next door, and Vigilante Gastropub up north, but this is an esports lounge, which caters to a different breed of gaming enthusiast entirely. I am not really a gamer, so I'm not the best person to judge how well this bar fulfills its mission of providing a gamer-friendly drinking environment (as you can see, we were fresh off of watching Texas beat Louisiana Tech, a sport which is more my speed), but it was friendly enough for civilian drinkers. The typical sports bar ring of screens is supplemented with consoles you can play, and there are little gaming niches off to the sides. If you actually follow esports then this seems to be the place to go, as according to our bartender they plan to have watch parties for tournaments and so on. Nobody was playing much games when we were there, instead celebrating the Longhorns win with us, but that was just fine by me.