31. The Crown & Anchor
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 322-9168
Address: 2911 San Jacinto Blvd.
Description: This UT campus–area pub is popular among students and perennial campus habitués. The aim here is to re-create an English pub, hence the dartboards and the wide selection of beers. Patrons can play pinball, Foosball, and video games and order a burger if they get hungry after a lively game. In balmy weather, patrons can enjoy a beer on the patio.
32. The Dog & Duck Pub
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 479-0598
Address: 406 West Seventeenth St.
Insider Pick:
Description: This Central Austin bar is as close as Austin gets to an authentic English pub. The food here reflects a mix of English pub grub and popular American dishes, and the bar offers, like any English pub, a wide variety of beers on tap and in bottles.
33. The Draught Horse Pub and Brewery
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Address: 4112 Medical Pkwy.
Description: From the outside it looks like a reproduction of an English country town pub. Inside, the cozy atmosphere attracts a loyal clientele. In addition to stocking 80 different beer brands, the pub has been experimenting with several homemade brews.
34. Fadó Irish Pub
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 457-0172
Address: 214 West Fourth St.
Description: Stepping into this Irish pub in the downtown Warehouse District, you almost expect to see John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara at the next table. It’s not because the place looks like an old Irish pub, but because it looks more like the Hollywood-set version of an Irish pub. In addition to a menu of Irish-inspired dishes, the bar offers a wide selection of beer and whiskey, and the televisions in the bar tune in to satellite transmissions of rugby games, Gaelic football, hurling, and other interesting sports.
35. Lovejoy’s Tap Room and Brewery
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 477-1268
Address: 604 Neches St.
Description: The tables here are created from manhole covers, a coffin serves as a coffee table, and the walls are covered with the work of local artists. The seating ranges from comfy couches to tables and chairs where patrons can enjoy bar food and sample an extensive menu of bottled beers plus several homemade brews. A house specialty is Insomnia Coffee Stout, a strong brew made with coffee.
36. Maggie Mae’s
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 478-8541
Address: 512 Trinity St.
Description: This well-known Sixth Street bar has grown with the years from a narrow, single-room pub noted for its live-music offerings to a major presence in the downtown nightlife scene. The pub has taken over adjacent buildings and has a rooftop patio for Sixth Street viewing.
37. Mother Egan’s Irish Pub
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 478-7747
Address: 715 West Sixth St.
Description: Imperial pints and frozen margaritas—no place but Texas! Mother Egan’s has the feel of an Irish pub, with its wooden floors, cozy nooks, and dark paneled walls, but it also has an outdoor deck and large back room where patrons gather for bluegrass Sunday brunches, Celtic music, pub trivia games, and fish-n-chips nights—buy one, get one free.
38. North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 467-6969
Address: 10010 North Capital of Texas Hwy.
Description: Located just behind the Gateway Shopping Center in northwest Austin, this sleek, sophisticated restaurant and bar features several seasonal brews made on the premises. The glass-and-stone surroundings reflect the quality of the food and the on-premises brews. North by Northwest also offers beer to go.
39. Old Pecan Street Ale House & Soccer Bar
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 474-6722
Address: 310 East Sixth St.
Description: The name says it all here at this cozy Sixth Street alley pub, where the emphasis is on soccer. It serves a variety of beers, mixed drinks, and snacks in an old 19th-century building with limestone walls and well-worn floors, cozy seating, and dimmed lighting. The pub’s television sets feature national and international soccer games.
40. Opal Divine’s Freehouse
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 477-3308
Address: 700 West Sixth St.
Description: The original Opal’s is housed in an old stone building on Sixth Street, next door to Austin’s 24-hour deli, Katz’s. This pub is named in honor of the owner’s ancestor, who apparently enjoyed the good life as represented by pub food, a wide selection of single malt whiskies, and a large variety of beers. Two additional Opal’s have opened, one at 3601 South Congress Ave. (512-707-0237) and the other at 12709 North MoPac (512-733-5353). All 3 have both indoor and outdoor seating and offer live music several nights a week.
41. Scholz Garten
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 474-1958
Address: 1607 San Jacinto Blvd.
Insider Pick:
Description: This old German beer garden is many things to many people. In addition to being a popular restaurant, a historical landmark, a favorite postgame gathering spot for University of Texas sports fans, and a political watering hole, the old stage in the shaded garden is also a music venue. A variety of live music is offered here. Check local listings in the Austin Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman.
42. Scoot Inn
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 478-6200
Address: 1308 East Fourth St.
Description: This East Austin beer garden lays claim to being the oldest bar in Austin. Back in 1871, wagoneers drove their loads to the railroad yard and cooled off with a beer in the saloon aside the tracks. The bar remained a working man’s hangout and now the joint has been revived as a cool hangout for central city dwellers and visitors. A sign of the times: Capital Metro light rail now runs along the tracks.
43. Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 476-0100
Address: 1530 Barton Springs Rd.
Description: Brian Peters is a home brewer turned brewmaster with experience gathered at several Austin micro-breweries. Now he is serving up a wide variety of handcrafted beers—his own and other popular local beers—at this South Central Austin barbecue joint-hangout. The outdoor deck is popular and the menu features beer-appropriate noshes like barbecue sliders and all-you-can-eat ’que on Mon. The take-out menu even offers Peters’ handcrafted jugs of brew. A second location on Lake Travis has opened.
44. Cork and Co.
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 474-2675
Address: 308 Congress Ave.
Description: A welcome addition to the downtown nightlife scene, this wine bar has an affordable happy hour and offers wine tastings for groups, small and large, plus classes in wine selection. There is also a retail shop on the premises.
45. Cru
City: Austin, TX
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (512) 472-9463
Address: 238 West Second St.
Description: Several businesses in the Second Street District are Austin branches of Dallas and Houston ventures, as is Cru, a popular wine bar. In addition to flights of wine, the bar and cafe offers “sharing plates” that can be paired with specific flights for optimum taste pleasure.