The 7 best bars in Austin are stirring up community

MEET THE TASTEMAKERS

DrinkWell

What makes a truly great bar in 2023? In Austin, it takes more than a cutesy name and borrowed nostalgia. A parade of Johnny-come-latelies provide plenty of distraction, but ultimately, we return to the tried-and-true.

That's why readers will see so many familiar faces amongst the seven CultureMap Tastemaker Awards nominees for Bar of the Year. Only one has opened in the past year. In a city that often seems drunk on its own buzz, it's essential to support those places that will call guests a cab at the end of the night.

Join us in celebrating the spots that have set the bar in Bat City — and welcoming a newcomer to the fold. Only one winner will be crowned during our blowout May 11 party at Fair Market, but the city would be lost without all of them. Buy tickets now before they sell out.

DrinkWell
Austin has lost much of its previous identity amongst a flurry of Hermès scarves and Patagonia vests. Neighborhood bars are needed now more than ever. One could rhapsodize at length about DrinkWell owner Jessica Sander's cocktail wizardry or how the burger still hits after all these years. But DrinkWell's je ne sais quoi lies in the sense of community, whether in driving the conversation towards healthier hospitality workplaces or simply greeting the regulars sidling up to the bar.

In Plain Sight
The younger sibling to underground speakeasy Here Nor There, this pocket bar gets its name from its street-level visibility. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to score a seat. With only eight barstools and a small standing area, the joint is packed from opening to close. What draws the guests isn't just the exclusivity or even the promenade of rainbow lights: Irish import Conor O'Reilly plays pied piper with Italian-style sippers that dazzle as brightly as the neon.

Kitty Cohen's
A nude Burt Reynolds reclines in the bathroom. Thrift store bric-a-brac crowds a wood-paneled wall. This East Austin patio bar practically wallows in its Palm Springs kitsch. Dive bars often get stuck in trucker hat grit. With an expressive cocktail menu of frozen favorites and lively originals, this one cleans house with the sweep of an Elizabeth Taylor kaftan.

Nickel City
When this East Austin bar arrived, Capital City nightlife was under the thrall of mustachioed mixologists. The Nickel City team took the piss out with a frozen Irish coffee in a Styrofoam cup. It's not that the cocktails here require a less exacting palate (a current selection employs shiitake mushrooms and seaweed), it just turns out that barcraft with a sense of humor is a hell of a lot more fun.

Small Victory
A vanguard in Austin's shift away from boisterous mega bars, Josh Loving's downtown hideaway has always provided adults sanctuary from the Sixth Street roar of "shots, shots, shots." Now approaching its 10th anniversary, the operation is a bona fide classic. Reserve a spot before an elegant dinner or revive the ancient lost art of the nightcap.

The Roosevelt Room
Sure, cocktail nerds can get an education by thumbing through a reprint of Jerry Thomas' Bartenders Guide, but we've always believed in practical learning. Patrons of this downtown bar can drink their way through decades of America's spirited obsessions, from graceful Boulevardiers to exuberant Cosmos. Lest one think a mortarboard is required for a night on the town, the bar team plays hooky with some eccentric new creations. Run the Jules could be served at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Watertrade
The opening salvo of an Otoko omakase, this South Congress Avenue lounge specializes in Japanese whiskies and carefully crafted tipples. Though there is a focus on seasonal and rare ingredients, Watertrade prefers not to namedrop. Instead, it leans into the vibe. Do you feel "fizzy and playful" or "amazing and robust?" Laze in one of the low-slung chairs and let the staff do the rest.

DrinkWell

DrinkWell is one of Austin's best neighborhood bars.

Photo courtesy of Visit Lubbock

Crafting the perfect sip-and-stay vacay in Lubbock

Bottoms Up

Did you know that around 80 percent of all grapes sourced by Texas wineries come from the High Plains AVA in West Texas? Or that Lubbock has its own signature cocktail? The city's craft beer scene has also exploded in the past five years.

All of this means that the West Texas city is now bubbling up with ideas for a refreshing getaway, whether you're a hophead, oenophile, or even a mocktail maven.

Curious to taste these bevvies for yourself? Here's what's brewing in Lubbock:

Cheers for beers

Two Docs Brewing Co.: The double doctors in the brewery's name are Dr. Eric Cunningham (a veterinarian) and Dr. Tyson Purdy (a family medicine practitioner), cousins who took their love of beer public in 2019. Located in the Cultural District, the environmentally-conscious brewery is known for its Buddy Hoppy IPA, Lubbock Light lager, and Two Docs Bock.

The Brewery LBK: USA Today crowned this newish brewery the Top Brewpub in the Nation, and it's a title head brewmaster Sally Taylor and general manager Mike Nghiem don't take lightly. The beers are a mix of classic profiles and inventive flavors, with plenty of seasonal rotations and nods to Hub City. Try the Low Hanging Fruit, made with Albarino grapes from the local Veesart Vineyards. Wine on the nose with flavors of bright citrus complement a wheat and barley backbone with farmhouse ale notes.

Good Line Beer Co.: What began as a true garage start-up is now a celebrated brewery in the historic Tech Terrace neighborhood, putting out brews with whimsical names like Catastrophe Girlfriend (a raspberry weisse), Range Life (a pilsner), and Bitter Buffalo (an IPA). Owners Chris Troutman and Shawn Phillips are heavy on community, with local artist Dirk Fowler creating the label designs.

Wine time

Syrah is one of the key grape varieties grown here, alongside Tempranillo and Grenache — two other varieties known to perform well in warm, dry climates like the Texas High Plains AVA. White grapes are also grown, but to a much lesser extent, mostly from Viognier, Chenin Blanc, and Sauvignon Blanc..

Seek out your next favorite glass (or bottle!) at Bolen Winery Vineyards, Burklee Hill Vineyards, English Newsom Cellars, McPherson Cellars, La Diosa Cellars, and Llano Estacado Winery, the second-oldest winery in the state. Adelphos Cellars will also open soon, inviting Lubbock into the city's newest winery, tasting room, and event venue.

The famous Lubbock Chilton

Called "a cocktail as bright and pure as the West Texas sun" by Texas Monthly, the Chilton is a refreshing cocktail comprised of vodka, fresh lemon juice, bubbly water, and a salted rim. The story goes that years ago, a parched Dr. Chilton instructed a bartender at the Lubbock Country Club to mix these ingredients together, and a signature sip was born.

You'll spot the Chilton all around town, with variations that range from fruity to spicy and even as the inspiration for a few seasonal beers. Here's a primer if you're not sure where to start.

Zero-proof pours

Alcohol isn't required for a great drink — just ask The West Table Kitchen and Bar and The Nicolett.

Everyone is included in the toast at The West Table with offerings such as the tropical Riki Tiki and "gin" rambler Baby Blue, among others. Each libation feels even more elegant thanks to the restaurant's location within the historic Pioneer Building in downtown Lubbock.

Photo courtesy of Visit Lubbock

Two Docs Brewing Co. was actually founded by two doctors.

At The Nicolett, 2022 James Beard Semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas and owner of The Nicolett, Finn Walter incorporated several non-alcoholic beverages into his cocktail menu to serve a craft experience for all to savor. From the botanical Garden Gimlet to the sweet-tart I Love Yuzu, each showcases an alcohol alternative in the ingredients list.

Where to rest your head

Stow your suitcase at the newly opened Aloft hotel, or check into an Airbnb managed by Home on the Range LBK, which owns four beautifully decorated properties all near Texas Tech University.

Looking forward

In the coming months, Lubbock will see the debut of Milestones Park and a new Dave & Busters. Even if you've visited before, there's always more to discover in Hub City — plan your next visit now.

Photo courtesy of Vista Brewing

Vista Brewing presents Beer Pairing Dinner

Vista Brewing's Driftwood ranch will host a farm-to-table pairing dinner experience that will celebrate their newest barrel-aged brews. This monthly dinner series features upscale farm-to-table menus centered around a rotating monthly theme.

Vista’s Executive Chef Kyle Barker has created a menu featuring the freshest spring harvest and sustainably raised proteins. Meet and hear from Vista's Brewmaster Daniel Heisler and Co-Founders Kent & Karen Killough.

Courtesy photo

East Austin craft brewer and kolache spot announces new food trailer and beer program

New Batch

There's a new batch of food and drink options brewing at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches. Owners Noah and Josh Lit announced the expansion of the East Austin neighborhood spot's new food trailer, LOTE, plus a new beer program led by Ryan Monahan.

Located in the open-air beer garden, LOTE offers a selection of Tortas made with Batch's kolache dough, burritos, tacos, nachos and bulitas. Everything is made in-house with locally sourced ingredients, and highlights of the menu include a grilled fish taco; tortas on kolache bun; an achiote pork taco; and a beef suadero taco.

Courtesy photo

The torta on koache bun features guacamole, sour cream, jack cheese, cabbage, tomato and salsa verde.

Chef Javier Montesinos helms the new project: A native Austinite, he brings years of experience from local restaurants ranging from high-end fine dining to Texas BBQ. He served most recently as the co-owner of Taco Bronco, the smoked meat taco branch of Micklethwait Craft Meats, which originally opened in the backyard of Batch pre-Covid.

“LOTE brings the best of Batch together. We wanted to create a food element that was extremely different from kolaches but that still made sense for the space,” said Montesinos in a release. “Tacos, kolaches and beer, what more could you want in Texas?”

In addition to the new food trailer, Batch will debut a new beer program from brewer Ryan Monahan. Also an Austin local, Monahan spent a decade at Live Oak Brewing and came to Batch to take the beer program to the next level. Monahan's new beers will complement Batch’s gourmet kolaches and the new menu at LOTE.

“Leading this program at Batch gives me the creative freedom I’ve wanted to brew and highlight even more traditional and non-traditional beer styles that I haven’t been able to brew yet in my career," Monahan said in a release. "My main focus is to make sure the beers at Batch are always highly drinkable, balanced, beer-flavored beers. We can’t wait to share our beers with guests who want to enjoy them in the beer garden or at home; they’re great just about anywhere.”

New Batch beers will be available for purchase on tap and to-go in cans at Batch, which is located at 3220 Manor Road. Batch is open Monday through Wednesday from 8 am to 10 pm; Thursday through Friday 8 am to 11 pm; Saturday from 9 am to 11 pm; and Sunday from 9 am to 9 pm. LOTE is open Thursday through Saturday from 3-9 pm and Sunday from 2-8 pm.

Photo by Casey Woods

Lunar New Year Party & Austin Flea Pop-Up Market

Austin Flea will celebrate the Lunar New Year with friends, family, beef, and local vendors at their special Lunar New Year Party, benefitting Austin Asian Family Services. The event will featuring a special edition beer collab release and live dragon dance.

The Austin Flea features all local vendors of handmade goods and vintage finds from some of Austin's most talented makers and foragers. Products include bath/body products, textiles, original artwork, jewelry, homewares, plants, candles, ceramics, and more.

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4 new library branches could be in the books after Austin City Council adopts new plan

EXPANDING AUSTIN LITERACY

This is a dream come true for Austin bookworms. The Austin Public Library system could be seeing a huge expansion with the recent adoption of a plan by Austin City Council.

The Austin Public Library Comprehensive Library Strategic and Facilities Plan creates new goals for the library system that includes expanding current branches and constructing new ones. With the ever-growing population in the city, the “library square foot per capita” has fallen behind neighboring cities. The facilities plan addresses this growth disparity by proposing four new library branches in addition to expanding, replacing, or relocating over half of the pre-existing branches.

Austin Public Library Director Roosevelt Weeks said in a press release that this new plan will allow the library system to continue providing necessary creative and learning resources to all community members.

“Five and a half years ago, Austin opened a new world-class Central Library in downtown, and that building remains the crown jewel of the city,” he said. “However, our neighborhoods deserve world-class library facilities too. The plan adopted by the City Council today lays out a vision for growing and updating our entire library system to meet the needs of the rapidly changing, dynamic city we serve.”

The Strategic and Facilities Plan was a year in the making, thanks to plenty of community outreach tactics. Successful methods included a survey that received over 5,400 responses, several pop-up events throughout Austin, and “listening sessions” with library staff and stakeholders.

The plan also introduces new mission and vision statements for the library, as well as five community-based strategic goals. The new library mission statement is: “Inspiring all to discover, learn, and create” and the new vision is to be “a model of equity, inclusion, access, and diversity.”

The five strategic goals include:

Provide community-centric programs and services
Design and develop spaces for community connections
Foster stakeholder relationships
Expand library access
Engage staff

“On behalf of everyone at the Austin Public Library, I am excited that the Council has adopted this vision for the future of our community’s libraries,” said Weeks.

More information about the Strategic and Facilities Plan can be found on the Austin Public Library’s website.

Texas rises through the ranks of most innovative states, says new report

MOVING ON UP

The Lone Star State has again taken a step up on an annual report that ranks the most and least innovative states in the country — this time cracking the top 15.

Texas ranked No. 15 in personal finance site WalletHub's 2023’s Most and Least Innovative States ranking. It's a steady improvement for the state, which ranked No. 16 in 2022 and No. 17 in 2021.

The report analyzed the 50 states and the District of Columbia and how each performed across 22 key metrics, including population of STEM professionals, venture capital investment activity, number of technology companies, patents per capita, and more. The data was pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Science Foundation, National Center for Education Statistics, United States Patent and Trademark Office, and other records.

Here's how Texas performed at a glance:

No. 18 – for share of STEM professionals
No. 16 – for projected STEM job demand by 2030
No. 25 – for eighth grade math and science performance
No. 21 – for share of science and engineering graduates aged 25 or older
No. 13 – for share of technology companies
No. 31 – for R&D spending per capita
No. 18 – venture capital funding per capita

For the 11th year, Texas won Site Selection Magazine's Governor's Cup, the governor's office announced earlier this year. The award, which Texas has won 19 times since its inception in 1978, recognizes the nation’s top-performing state for job-creating business relocations and expansions.

"Texas truly is America’s economic engine, and we stand apart as a model for the nation. When choosing where to relocate or expand their businesses, more and more innovative industry leaders find themselves at home in our state," Governor Greg Abbott says in a news release about the award.

"I congratulate the exceptional economic development teams at the local, regional, and state level who have worked so diligently to attract and retain these growing businesses and the jobs they create in diverse communities across this great state," he continues.

The most innovative states included the District of Columbia, which ranked at No. 1, followed by Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, and California, respectively. The least innovative state was identified as Mississippi, followed by Louisiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Arkansas, respectively.

Source: WalletHub

Access to quality education is a significant contributor to each state's innovation economy, the experts say in the report.

"Investing in education, particularly K-12 but also at the University level, it is no accident that innovative ecosystems develop in states with strong education systems and research universities," says David L. Deeds, professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. "These institutions build strong capable modern workforces that attract capital, and jobs and create innovations. The benefits do not happen overnight, in fact, they take years if not decades, but consider what The UC’s or the University of Texas at Austin have meant for the development of premier innovative ecosystems."

Austin's meat palace Fogo de Chao expands its menu with new plant-based options

Vegan News

Well, here's a twist: Fogo de Chão, the churrascuria-style restaurant concept from Brazil known for its dedication to meat, is expanding its menu in an unprecedented new direction: They're adding tofu.

Effective immediately, the restaurant will offer new plant-based and nutrient-dense dishes, alongside an enhanced Bar Fogo beverage list that has new non-alcoholic craft cocktails made with low-proof spirits (less than 0.5 percent alcohol).

Fogo CEO Barry McGowan says in a release that they're responding to demand from their younger, more health-conscious customers.

"Our young and dynamic guests consider themselves food explorers who seek new culinary discoveries with each visit,” McGowan says. “For nearly 45 years we’ve had nutrient-dense and plant-forward dining options for every occasion and dietary tribe throughour Market Table. With the rollout of our new dining choices and clean cocktails, we continue to offer our guests the variety and discoveries they crave while doing it in a wholesome and flavorful way.”

The Market Table is their famed salad bar, which has sated many a vegetarian diner or else those just not up for the whole skewered meat thing that is a trademark of Fogo and other churrascuria-style places.

Entrees
Two new plant-based innovations will join Fogo's existing Vegetarian and Pescatarian dishes such as the Cauliflower Steak, and will be available on the main dining menu available for lunch, brunch, and dinner as an alternative to the Full Churrasco Experience, as follows:

Seared Tofu with Miso Black Bean Pasta - Chimichurri-marinated tofu served atop black bean pasta sautéed with green onion, Napa cabbage, pickled onions and carrot ginger-miso dressing. Vegan and gluten-free.
Roasted Power Vegetable Bowl - Roasted eggplant, marinated mushrooms, roasted zucchini, asparagus, and baby peppers served with chimichurri spinach rice. Vegan and gluten-free.

togo power bowl Roasted Power Vegetable Bowl at Fogo de Chao.Photo courtesy of Fogo de Chao

They're also rolling out new dishes on the Market Table which for the past 45 years has showcased nutrient-dense and flavorful choices including seasonal salads, micro greens, natural and plant-based proteins, imported charcuterie, and more.

New items on the Market Table are as follows:

Spring Hummus - Fresh hummus blended with herbs, roasted garlic and citrus, topped with radish, fresh mint, edamame, and olive oil.
Baby Kale & Mango Salad - Fresh baby kale, Napa cabbage, red radish and mango, tossed in a lime honey dressing.
Miso Black Bean Pasta - Gluten-free black bean pasta tossed with green onion, Napa cabbage, pickled onions and carrot ginger-miso dressing.
Apple Manchego Salad - Granny Smith apples and Manchego cheese tossed with honey, cracked pepper and black mission figs.
Power Greens - A seasonal mix of vitamin-rich greens, fresh herbs and micro-shoots

The Bar
The Bar Fogo menu now features five new cocktails, including three made with Clean Co’s non-alcoholic spirits with less than 0.5% alcohol, as follows:

Yellowbird - Desolas Mezcal, Passion Fruit, Pineapple, Cointreau, La Marca Prosecco
Espresso Martini - Diplomatico Reserva Rum, Caffe Borghetti and Licor 43
Clean Cosmo - CleanCo V (Vodka) Apple, Cranberry, Fresh Lemon
CleanR Sour - CleanCo R (Rum), Passionfruit, Pineapple, Aquafaba, Bitters
Clean Cucumber Martini - CleanCo V (Vodka) Apple, Cucumber, Basil, Lemon Twist

Founded in southern Brazil in 1979, Fogo has seven other locations across Texas: Addison, Uptown Dallas, Plano, Friendswood, Houston, San Antonio, and The Woodlands.

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