Between the return of football season and the arrival of Halloween pop-up bars, Austin's brewery and bar scene is saying goodbye to summer and welcoming the fall months with open arms.
Here's what we know about where to grab a drink this month.
Openings
ICYMI: Texas coffee roaster Cuvée Coffee recently opened a new all-day coffee and cocktail bar inside The Code hotel and residences in South Austin. The new café, located at 2323 South Lamar Blvd., will operate as a coffeehouse during the day and transform into a bustling cocktail bar at night. Other than the typical coffee offerings, Cuvée will serve espresso martinis, frozen drinks, and specialty cocktails like the "Twisted Old Fashioned" and the paper plane-inspired "Paperwork."
Happy hours, specials, and new menus
An East Austin neighborhood bistro is making its popular summer happy hour a permanent daily deal. Starting September 7, Bar Toti's apéro hour will be offered every afternoon from 5-6 pm. Guests can get $5 off aperitivos and select signature cocktails, plus $2 off snacks and half-price "smashburgesas." The current lineup of featured apéro hour cocktails include the Toti Tinto, Martini Provençal, Negroni Ribalta, and a seasonal spritz.
Saturn Cocktail Club has unveiled a new look and a new menu that questions patrons on the origins of their desires, but will fulfill them regardless. The new "Mimetic Desire" menu is based on the thought-provoking theory that the things we desire "are not original or internal; we often only want things because someone we admire wanted them first," explains a press release. Specialty drinks are divided into two sections — "Desires" and "Imitations" — and there's an "Old Friends" portion of the menu dedicated to Saturn's staple offerings like the "Freezer Martini," "Saturn Old Fashioned," and the "Firing Squad."
One of Saturn Cocktail Club's new cocktails, My Rosary, contains a coffee cacao acid, a pectinase-clarified raspberry syrup, Amontillado sherry, and egg white.Photo courtesy of Saturn Cocktail Club
Photo by Dimitri Staszewski
Bar Toti's summer Apéro Hour is becoming a permanent menu staple.
Pinthouse is rejoicing in the return of college football with a new drink special during every UT game this season. Every Austin Pinthouse location will open early at 10:30 am on game day, and offer $5 pints of its flagship beers, including the Electric Jellyfish, Training Bines, Magical Pils, Scorpion Disco, and Burro’s Breakfast Mexican Lager. Longhorn fans can pair a pint with a pizza to round out their game day experience.
Events and pop-ups
South Austin brewery Meanwhile Brewing Co. is setting the scene for a special fifth anniversary of Lagers and Literature, its annual adult book fair, on September 6. New activities added for this year's event include local author signings, flash tattoos, and a bilingual children's storytime. The brewery will also release its seasonal Bookworm beer, a 4.5 percent ABV coffee cream ale. A portion of the proceeds from every Bookworm sold will be donated to local nonprofits Inside Books Project and The Library Foundation.
In honor of Mexican Independence Day on September 16, St. Elmo Brewing Co. will host its own celebration at the Springdale taproom from 5-8 pm. The brewery will release its seasonal Frida beer, set up a Latin vendor market, and host live performances from DJ Mijo Grande, Akins Mariachi Band, and Guzman Ballet Folklorico. The event is free to the public, and attendees can RSVP via Eventbrite.
Spooky season isn't quite here yet, but for three bars around town, now is as good a time as ever to roll out the orange carpet for Halloween-themed pop-ups, running until November 1:
- Sign Bar will turn into Fear Fair starting September 19, featuring a fully reimagined maze, upgraded sets and decor, new scares, and even more live scare actors. A family-friendly daytime experience without actors offers calmer, yet still spooky photo-ops. Matinee tickets are $6.50 and the live actor maze is $14.50.
- Gibson Street Bar will transform into the Twisted Carnival starting September 17, with themed drinks, DJ performances every Saturday night in October, and "a menagerie with creepy and terrifying beasts lurking from their cages." For an even more frightening experience, guests can reserve one of two private tables inside a cage in the center of the circus tent.
- The Fieldhouse at the Crossover in Leander is getting its own terrifying makeover September 19 with a new haunted walk-through experience called the Trail of Terror. Expect plenty of jump scares among eerie sets and fog. Other experiences include fall-themed cocktails, Friday night vendors from September 25 to October 30, and tarot readings throughout the week. A family-friendly matinee walk is also available during the day until 6:30 pm. Matinee tickets are $6.50 and the live actor maze is $14.50.
