#160: Qi Austin

The Bar

Qi Austin. 835 W 6th St Unit 114, Austin, TX 78703

Visited 11/22/20 @ 4:30pm.

The Drink

Wild Orchid. Gin, beet and lemon simple syrup, Cointreau, coconut cream, Sichuan peppercorns, lime zest. $13.

"Balance" is a subjective but valuable quality in a cocktail, whether it's the result of distinct flavors harmonizing with each other or the individual voices blending smoothly together. The Wild Orchid leans more to the first tendency, with multiple discrete sweet ingredients counterposed against the botanicals in the gin and the Sichuan peppercorns. In a town like Austin jalapeños are the typical go-to source for adding heat to a drink, but naturally the bar of a scrupulous restaurant like Qi would lean on something a little closer to home, even in a drink like this. Sichuan peppercorns, which have been used in cuisine for millennia, are genetically unrelated from chili peppers like the jalapeño, and so its distinctive numbing effect on the mouth works via a completely different mechanism from capsaicin's heat. I appreciated when that familiar tingle appeared as I drank this cocktail at the same time as the rest of the ingredients cooled and sweetened against it, the different tendencies working perfectly together. Even a simple gin and tonic fan such as myself can enjoy a cocktail like this. It looks great too.

The Crew

Aaron.

Notes

Qi is a new restaurant in the shadow of Whole Foods from the same folks who brought us Lin Asian Bar further west down the street. Much like its older sibling, Qi serves excellent Chinese food, but while Lin is focused on dim sum, Qi is more high-end, so expect to see more truffle fried rice and scallop caviar than egg tarts and fried bao, though Qi also does dim sum as well. I had salt and pepper tofu at the bar and it was fantastic. In terms of ambience Qi feels exactly like a nice Asian restaurant, with clean exposed wood cross-braces amid attractive red and yellow floral patterns everywhere. I wouldn't go here to get drunk, but I will definitely come back for more drinks when I eat.