176: Simi Estiatorio

The Bar

Simi Estiatorio. 106 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 11/19/21 @ 5pm.

UPDATE: Simi Estiatorio has closed.

The Drink

Spicy Dynamite. Del Maguey mezcal, sour, cucumber, lime, jalapeño, Hawaiian salt. $17.

I appreciate when the bartender listens politely to my "what drink best represents the bar?" spiel, reads my mind, and picks the drink I was wanting anyway. I will never turn down a spicy cocktail to lead off the night, and one with mezcal is even better. I've had Del Maguey mezcal a few times before, so I was pleased to see it again here in the form of a spicy sour. I was intrigued by the "Hawaiian salt" on the ingredients list, so I asked about it: amusingly, much like Hawaiian pizza was created by a Greek-Canadian and has nothing to do with Hawaii, the Hawaiian salt this Greek restaurant uses is also completely unrelated to the islands, consisting merely of garlic, oregano, paprika, dill, and salt & pepper. You don't see oregano in a cocktail context very often, but it's not nearly as controversial as putting ham and pineapple together on pizza, that's for sure.

I also had their Signature Old-Fashioned, and it was excellent. If I wasn't so determined to stick to bartender's recommendations for this project, I would happily suggest it instead.

The Crew

Karen, Aaron.

Notes

Simi Estiatorio (Simi as in the Dodecanese island, Estiatorio as in the Greek word for fancy restaurant), officially stole the crown of "first Sixth Street bar east of Congress" from the Driskill in May of this year, but it took me a minute to get around to trying it. Ensconced in the ground floor of the Littlefield Building, Austin's very first skyscraper, it's a very nice place, with an elegant interior and good view of the street, though as you can see we sat at the bar in blissful ignorance of any and all passersby. Neat white booths, clean wood accents, interesting lighting, an exclusive-looking upper floor - it feels almost like one of those old-school famous hotel restaurants, like Delmonico's, back when they were centers of innovation for both food and drink (the owner is from New York, so that connection makes sense). And on that score the establishment definitely lives up to its name, serving a ton of upscale seafood and Mediterranean dishes, with plenty of focus on specific Greek dishes. We went to town on their appetizers, having "the spreads" (pita with tzatziki and hummus), garlic oregano fries, crab cakes, and loukoumades for dessert. It was all really good, particularly the hummus and crab cakes. We didn't order any of the whole fish that they advertised heavily, but I feel certain that we would have enjoyed it if we were in the mood to spend $60 on snapper or whatever. Actual Greek food in Austin is tough to come by, so you take what you can get.

175: Sammie's Italian

The Bar

Sammie's Italian. 807 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78703

Visited 7/2/2021 @ 8:30pm.

The Drink

Sammie's martini. Hayman's gin, Noilly Prat dry vermouth, citrus oil, Maldon sea salt tincture, olive, orange peel. $16.

For such a simple drink, martinis present an unusually large number of options for drinkers to have strong opinions about: gin vs vodka, dry vs sweet vermouth, olive vs no olive, martini glass vs something less stupidly inconvenient to drink out of, etc. Sammie's made it easy for me by picking correctly on every option (with the exception of the martini glass, but oh well), using top-shelf ingredients and the level of care you would expect for $16. I hadn't had Hayman's gin before, but it had excellent botanicals, and likewise Noilly Prat was a great dry vermouth that backed up the gin well. I wasn't familiar with Maldon salt before - evidently it's a particularly sought-after brand of sea salt used by highfalutin chefs everywhere - but Sammie's makes a tincture out of it in order to make the martini just the right amount of salty. Three of these would put you on the floor, like a Dean Martin tribute act.

The Crew

Aaron, Karen.

Notes

It would be unfair to spend too much time in this review lamenting an institution as beloved as Hut's Hamburgers, which used to occupy this space, so I will try to be as fair as possible. Its replacement Sammie's is another outpost of the now-ubiquitous MML empire that brings an upscale version of the classic neighborhood Italian restaurant you find in the northeast to Austin, which is not exactly known for the quantity or quality of its Italian food. Those who were used to the old interior will be in for a shock - completely gone are the wall-to-wall pennants, flags, helmets, and other sports paraphernalia. Instead it looks almost exactly like Home Slice North, with a classed-up spread of linen tablecloths and tasteful decorations, along with the expected amount of Frank Sinatra-type music and faded photographs of old Italian-ish people adorning the walls in order to trick your brain into thinking it's an "authentic" Italian joint. In an unsubtle visual metaphor that might have some people muttering unhappily about "old Austin", the clientele was similarly more dressed-up on this Friday night than the sweatpants-and-sports-apparel-clad crowds at the old joint were. 

However, the food at Sammie's was spectacular, from the focaccia bread and Italian salad to the chicken parmigiana, which was one of the best I've ever had, and the lemon cannoli was an excellent dessert. It reminded me of old-school Italian joints like Chef's in Buffalo, NY, though of course being an MML property it is a different kind of restaurant than neighborhood institutions like that, or its predecessor. But on its own terms it fits comfortably into the nice date night tier, and you have to admit that Sixth Street doesn't have nearly as many of those as it does, say, shot bars. Replacing a legend is always difficult, and you could do far worse than Sammie's Italian has done in terms of delivering a solid meal, though I will of course miss two-for-one burger Wednesdays. Sammie's could easily bribe its way into my heart with two-for-one tiramisu Tuesdays. Ceniamo!

#174: Bull & Bowl

The Bar

Bull & Bowl. 501 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 3/8/21 @ 10pm.

The Drink

King Pin Kicker. Mango & habanero infused Lunazul tequila, Aperol, agave syrup, lime, orange, chile arbol, Tajín. $12.

Gotta love those spicy tequila drinks. This is effectively a paloma, or more precisely its cousin the cantarito, with Aperol subbed in for the standard grapefruit juice. The idea behind these drinks is that you have some lightness and sweetness (and bitterness) to balance out the booziness of the tequila, and some additional spiciness doesn't hurt either. Lunazul is a solid middling tequila of the kind that infusion can drastically improve, so the mango and habanero in it were a great match for the syrup, citrus, and dried chile on top. Definitely recommended if you like palomas and other similar cocktails.

The Crew

Davis, Aaron.

Notes

Bull & Bowl has not been open very long at all, barely a month. It sits on top of the same building as TenTen. Interestingly, the building was supposed to have been developed as the new location of the sadly shuttered Goodnight, much like Unbarlievable down the street, until the vagaries of the Austin commercial real estate market led to its current development. Bull & Bowl is a similar concept, but as their website brags, they have "the first restaurant, duckpin bowling alley, bar, and mechanical bull venue ever established", and you know what, I'll bet that they're right about that. Duckpin is a close cousin of the more familiar type of bowling that we all remember from The Big Lebowski, although it is evidently dying out in part because it's more difficult than regular bowling. We didn't try duckpin on our visit, but it probably wouldn't have helped our concentration that there is a big mechanical bull in the dead center of the floor. As an entrant into the "boozy afterwork gaming hub" market along with Punch Bowl Social down the street and others, Bull & Bowl is solid.

#173: Thirsty's

The Bar

Thirsty's. 325 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 1/30/21 @ 10:30pm.

The Drink

Kickass margarita. Tequila. $30.

I am not going to rehash my numerous litanies against these oversized novelty frozen cocktails again - by now you are all too familiar with my belief that these monstrosities are generally overpriced, under-boozed, hard to drink, impossible to enjoy, and so on. This rendition did nothing to change my opinion. I was all but begging the bartender to pick something other than this inverted cone of frozen woe as the drink that "best represented the bar", but they persisted, and I suppose that in the end it was the correct pick. We sat at our table chugging away at our trough of sorrow until we couldn't stomach another drop and we departed. It's a common trope for unwary travelers to get stuck in quicksand, but imagine if you had to drink the quicksand. 

The Crew

Aaron, Karen, Mark.

Notes

Much like with Moose Bar, I was confused by yet another semi-rebranding of a bar. I did some sleuthing and discovered that both Thirsty's and Moose Bar renamed themselves in mid-2019. This seemed uncoincidental, and so I was not surprised to find that they are both owned by the same company Twin Bar Management. I learned this fact thanks to the unhappy discovery of an unpaid wage lawsuit brought by their employees about 2 months before the name change occurred, so keep that in mind when you're deciding what bars to hit up. 

Quite what the company is thinking I am not sure, but as with Moose Bar, both the old name The Thirsty Nickel and the new name Thirsty's compete for mind share in terms of branded items in the interior, with merch both updated and not scattered about haphazardly. I say mind share, but only weirdos like me would even notice anything had changed - since the new joint still has the same layout, lighting, beer pong, etc, most patrons there on a busy Saturday night were perfectly content to, like us, slurp on their tubs of woe and listen to the really loud house music until, like us, they just couldn't take it anymore. Visiting on a Saturday is always different than visiting on, say, a Wednesday, but a bar where you can't hear yourself think is a bad time no matter what day of the week.

#172: Moose Bar

The Bar

Moose Bar. 406 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 1/30/21 @ 10pm.

The Drink

Deep Eddy. Deep Eddy lemon & cranberry vodka, soda, Sprite. $8.25.

Over the course of this project I have consistently praised Deep Eddy many times for its excellent flavored vodkas, and I will do so again here. Cranberry and lemon are not common flavors to mix, but to be honest you could probably pull the childhood suicide drink game with all seven Deep Eddy flavors and still come away with something drinkable. I am not sure why the bar was so uncreative with what they called it, but I have to admit that it might be the single most honest name I've encountered yet. Perhaps the ultimate first round "something to sip on while I ponder what I actually want" cocktail you could find, although we didn't stay for more.

The Crew

Mark, Karen, Aaron.

Notes

This was a really tricky one for me. As we were walking along Sixth away from Mala Vida intending to hit up Soho Lounge, I noticed that Mooseknuckle had changed their sign to Moose Bar. It was a crowded Saturday night, but I stopped dead in my tracks right there and asked the door guy if this was really a different bar. He said yes (as if he would have said no and lost potential customers), so we went in, expecting to see a rebranded establishment. There was still a ton of Mooseknuckle stuff adorning the walls (and, as I discovered while googling on my phone, the old website, Instagram, etc are all still up), but there was enough new Moose Bar paraphernalia to assuage my doubts. The interior of the ground floor bar (we didn't check out the other two) remains eerily similar to how Mooseknuckle had it, so perhaps the bar has merely pivoted away from the unsavory crassness of the old name to something a little less unpalatable, if less memorable.

Postscript: I checked and the credit card receipt was updated with the new name, so it does count as a new bar. Apparently the bar rebranded in the middle of 2019, perhaps due to an unpaid wage lawsuit brought by their employees, so keep that in mind when deciding on your next bar stop.

#171: Mala Vida

The Bar

Mala Vida. 708 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Visited 1/30/21 @ 10pm.

The Drink

Balleta shot. Tequila, watermelon, pineapple, cranberry, Tajín. $5.

"Balleta" means "ballet", which fits in with the other dance-themed drinks that Mala Vida has on special. I did not catch the exact brand of tequila that was used, but it was a decent pour, especially for only $5. Reasonable prices for shots are rare on Sixth these days, especially for ones that taste as good as these - just the right blend of fruit flavors to cover up the unmistakable taste of well tequila, and some Tajín at the end for flavor. You can't ask for a more solid shot than this.

The Crew

Karen, Mark, Aaron.

Notes

Tonight was my birthday and this was the first stop. One of the unhappy aspects of Sixth Street that usually doesn't come up on this blog is the violence. I don't intentionally minimize it, but for me it really doesn't usually ever come up. Whether due to luck or drinking patterns, I can go many visits without ever having to having to think about anything more pressing than the next drink. However, Mala Vida vividly reminded me of the darker side of Austin's main entertainment street via the incredibly thorough patdowns that the security guy gave us on entry. Mala Vida replaced The Gatsby sometime back in 2018 (RIP); I don't know if there was some sort of incident here that prompted them to do mandatory weapons searches, but any kind of screening at the door is enough to give off bad vibes for someone who just wants a stiff drink and good times. 

Unlike The Gatsby, which was your generic general purpose bar that had typical Sixth bands play, Mala Vida is much more focused on the music venue portion, specifically contemporary Mexican dance music, which is a whole other world from your average country/blues-focused bar band. I have talked a bunch before about how great it is that Austin has room for all genres of live music, but unfortunately they had the music in the bar area blasting WAY too loud to be comfortable. Even worse, there was a $25 charge to go out back on the patio where the DJ was actually spinning. Faced with incipient deafness and wanting a better birthday scene, we downed our drinks and beat a hasty retreat for quieter and more relaxed bars. 

#170: Low Down Lounge

The Bar

Low Down Lounge. 1412 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 1/6/21 @ 5:30pm.

The Drink

Tropical Depression. Goslings dark rum, passionfruit, lemon, sadness. $9.

An obvious riff on the infamous hurricane cocktail, this drink drops one of the rums and adds the ingredient "sadness". Thankfully the sadness did not affect the taste, which was great. Passion fruit is not a common ingredient for some reason, but it should be - it has an excellent and unique sweet/tart flavor that's different enough from other fruit flavors that it should be a bigger part of the cocktail repertoire. I had thought that it was native to Asia, given its use in Southeast Asian dishes, but as it happens the fruit is actually originally native to Brazil. Sadness on the other hand seems to be endemic everywhere, but a few of these cocktails should take care of that, at least temporarily. 

We stayed here for more rounds discussing the late unpleasantness, and I can vouch that their other craft cocktails are also fantastic.

The Crew

Adrienne, Hans, Aaron.

Notes

Low Down Lounge replaced The Brixton in March, which is unfortunate because I quite liked the former establishment. It's always a drag when you discover that a bar you liked has closed, but one thing this project has taught me is that change is a part of life, and all you can do is cherish the memories of the old place while still trying to give the new place a chance. Low Down makes the transition easy by largely retaining the interior of the old place and adding a neat red-orange-yellow striped color scheme that reminds me of the Houston Astros-themed color palette that 8th Wonder Brewery uses, as well as maintaining a similar laid-back ambience. It makes sense that the new place would would be likeable, as the new owners also own the similarly good Sixth Street bars Shangri-La, The Liberty, and The Grackle, all of which I enjoyed. This early in the evening there were not too many people around, but the bartender had some cheerful banter with the other patrons, which is always a good sign. Next to quick service and low prices, a strong rapport with regulars is one of the best signs that a bar is going to be around for a while to come.