Tiki Tumble

4 tiki bars from across the country throw down at Austin's Roosevelt Room

UnderTow, Navy Strength, Sunken Harbor Club, and Strong Water Anaheim will battle it out for their chosen charities at a Roosevelt Room takeover.

Photo courtesy of UnderTow

Some may be ready for fall foliage, comfy sweaters, and PSLs, but summer isn’t over yet! If you want to cling to the season a bit longer, what better way to keep it on your mind than with a tropical drink in your hand? Texas Tiki Week returns to Austin and it’s kicking off with one epic tropical cocktail experience.

The multi-venue cocktail festival was held in 2012 for the first time, founded by the Austin chapter of the United States Bartender’s Guild to celebrate Tiki drinks and culture. In 2023, the schedule promises fun, on-theme events like happy hour at Tiki Tasyu-ya, live surf rock by 3 Balls Of Fire, a tiki marketplace at Cavalier, and even a boat tour.

To kick off the week's festivities, leading Austin bar the Roosevelt Room and its sister event space, The Eleanor, have offered up their space to other mixologists for a one-night-only, rum-filled adventure featuring four of the best tiki bars in the nation. The Roosevelt Room has been hosting the kickoff event for the past four years, but this is the first time this many bars are taking over. The visiting bars, which are well-known within the industry, were selected by the hosts for their geographical diversity and varying cocktail styles.

From Phoenix, Arizona, the renowned UnderTow will be serving modern tiki vibes with a nautical twist. Navy Strength from Seattle, Washington, is bringing its laid-back and modern tropical cocktail menu. New York City’s Sunken Harbor Club will be showing off its new take on classic tropical cocktails. And Strong Water Anaheim from, you guessed it, Anaheim, California, is bringing its nautical cocktails inspired by legendary sea tales.

The ticketed event welcomes guests for two hours per reservation, which includes four libations — one at each bar — plus tropical-inspired bites. Guests can also buy more drinks and extend their reservation by an hour if they want to keep exploring what each bar has to offer.

At the end of their visit, every attendee will vote for the bar that brings the best and most delectable cocktail experience. The winning bar will receive a $2,500 donation to support a charity of their choice. These charities cover needs in the hospitality issues or in Maui, after the devastating wildfires.

UnderTow will support Maui Strong Fund by the Hawai’i Community Foundation
Strong Water will support Another Round Another Rally
Sunken Harbor Club will support Nā Wahine Toa Foundation for Maui Wildfire Relief
Navy Strength with support Chris Patino Hero Fund (via Another Round Another Rally)

UnderTow and Navy Strength will take over the Roosevelt Room, in the main-level bar and the mezzanine bar, respectively. Sunken Harbor and Strong Water will be over at The Eleanor's main-level bar and mezzanine bar, respectively.

Tickets ($95 - $125) are available via Eventbrite. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door. Texas Tiki Week runs from September 21-24. A full schedule of events is available at texastikiweek.com.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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