Gear up for Game Day

The 20 best places in Austin to watch football this season

Days devoid of football are thankfully coming to a close — fans are ready to welcome the new season of college and professional football.

To help you with the ever important decision of where to watch the big games, here is a guide of some of Austin’s best neighborhood spots for football. We hope you find a new favorite haunt, or get inspired to sample the fun offered by each establishment.

Campus Area
Posse East
Posse East has been a popular campus destination for the Longhorn faithful since 1971. Posse East is a place to enjoy no-frills pub grub, from hamburgers and tacos to signature sandwiches like the Sheriff. On UT game days, Posse boasts a passionate atmosphere of UT fans that feels like one big tailgate party. Head here on Sundays for NFL-watching and all-day happy hour.

Players
Players has hosted UT fans since 1981, but sadly it will be forced to close at the end of football season. This campus joint may only have one television, but it’s big enough so that everyone inside can see the action. Grab a burger, a few baskets of fried vegetables and a big glass of Shiner and cheers to Players' legacy.

Scholz Garten
Scholz Garten isn't short on history and tradition. The space gets packed before, during and after games, but Scholz Garten sets itself apart by simply being one of the few sports bars with numerous German brews on draft — and delicious wiener schnitzel.

Tap 24
Taking over the space formerly known as Cuatro’s, Tap 24 is one of West Campus’ newest sports bars, and we bet it will get plenty rowdy during football season. Fans of Cuatro’s will be familiar with its giant televisions and extensive drink menu, but the food menu has changed a bit. As long as you like loaded hamburgers and hot dogs, you’ll feel right at home on game day.

Hotel Ella Tailgate Series
It’s not every day that can enjoy tailgate at one of Austin’s most luxurious hotels, but this season Hotel Ella will host a series of tailgating events on its front lawn. During UT home games, guests can reserve a spot for $50 and enjoy a buffet, cocktails, beer and wine. Each party starts three hours before kickoff, and Hotel Ella will feature live pre-game and game broadcasts.

Downtown
Lavaca Street Bar
A downtown destination for sports fans, Lavaca Street Bar boasts televisions galore and a partnership with Turf n’ Surf Po-boy. Lavaca Street Bar is also the home of the official Houston Texans Austin fan club, and for each Texans game of the season the bar will serve up a special T-bone steak plate.

The Cedar Door
Watching a game at The Cedar Door means you have access to the awesome patio (once temperatures are more bearable). The Cedar Door also offers a menu with great variety, from brisket tacos to a 12-hour pot roast — and everything pairs well with the famous Mexican martinis.

Champions
Tucked away inside the Marriott, Champions boasts 24 televisions to go along with the 24 beers on tap. With tasty comfort and bar food, Champions is a great spot to meet up with local football fans or the occasional traveler keeping up with his hometown team while on the road.

East Austin
Whisler’s
This east side cocktail bar probably wouldn’t be the first place you think of to catch a game, but Whisler’s recently installed some new big-screen televisions. Whisler’s will celebrate the return of professional football with a kickoff party on Thursday, September 4 for the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers showdown, complete with two special cocktails that pay tribute to the teams.

Midway Field House
It may be one of the newer additions to the Austin sports bar scene, but Midway has proven itself as one of the best places in town to watch a game. The bar offers various specials during nearly every major football matchup, and you can always blow off some steam in the arcade filled with classic games such as bumper pool and air hockey.

Draft Pick
Another fairly new addition to Austin, Draft Pick offers a comfortable and casual atmosphere for the big game. Choose from more than 30 Texas brews on tap, order brunch for the early games on Saturday and Sunday, and watch your favorite team on what Draft Pick claims to be the largest HD screen in the state.

Rainey Street
Bar 96
This is how you make a sports bar for modern Austin. Bar 96 prides itself on spacious patios, natural lighting and an atmosphere that welcomes non-sports fans, too. And you’ll never have a bad view of a television screen while sipping on Bar 96’s classic cocktails.

Icenhauer’s
This Rainey Street bar is a good choice for a neighborhood, relaxed feel in the thick of it all. Pop in, order a craft cocktail and catch a game at the bar.

South Austin
Black Sheep Lodge
With 26 beers on top, 125 bottle beers, some of the best burgers in Austin and televisions surrounding you, Black Sheep Lodge will always have you're looking for the perfect South Austin spot to watch the game with friends.

Moontower Saloon
Travel to Way South Austin and you’ll come across Moontower Saloon, a bar that’s changed the minds of those who thought the area couldn’t be cool. Moontower has plenty of televisions for your football games, but there’s more to enjoy during game time, including live music, food trailers and games like cornhole, pool and washers.

The Warehouse Saloon & Billiards
It certainly isn’t the fanciest bar in Austin, but if you want cold beer, flat-screen televisions, billiards and maybe a karaoke session, The Warehouse has what you need.

North Austin
Mister Tramps
Known as a popular hangout for soccer fans, Mister Tramps is just as welcoming to fans of American football. Mister Tramps offers giant screens and numerous brews on tap, and some surprisingly good bar food to boot. Burgers come with homemade queso and the fish and chips are some of the best in town.

Cover 3
If you’re listing the best places to watch football, or any sport, Cover 3 has to be mentioned. With gigantic screens all around, a fantastic selection of gourmet burgers and a wide variety of drinks and cocktails, Cover 3 makes the sports bar a hip place to spend your evening.

The Goodnight
The Goodnight offers a few ways to stay occupied during halftime. Get in a game of bowling on the vintage lanes, play pool, shuffleboard or even karaoke. Plus, you can easily go back to cheering on your favorite team.

The Hideout Pub
The Hideout Pub, which has the same owners as Barfly’s and Mugshots, boasts a comprehensive bar menu of burgers and sandwiches, plus daily drink specials, six flat-screen televisions, a huge indoor projection screen and a spacious outdoor patio.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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