The Bar
Visited 11/19/21 @ 5pm.
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.
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