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Austin speakeasies + hidden bars actually worth getting dressed for
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items I LOVE a good speakeasy and Austin is FULL of them! I go to speakeasies all the time, so this is my list of the ones worth getting dressed up for. Some have a buzzer. Some have a password. One is behind a bookshelf. Most are in Austin, plus one piano...
Map
One of my favorites. If I'm leaving my house to go out, this is the kind of place I want to go. Dark, pretty, a little dramatic, and it feels like you're actually going somewhere. It's tucked into the back of Manny's downtown. Your phone gets checked...
Powder Room
The most unique room on this list. It's a hidden hi-fi listening room in the basement of Hotel Magdalena, inspired by Japanese jazz kissa bars. Go for the vinyl and the sound. This is a sit, sip and actually listen kind of night, not a loud one. Rese...
Equipment Room
This is the one you plan for, and that's part of the fun. It's a basement bar tucked next to the Driskill with a life-size stuffed bear holding a tray of champagne. Dark, moody, and the cocktails are creative and pricey, so treat it like a special ni...
Here Nor There
You ring a buzzer at an unmarked door on 6th Street and that's your first clue this is a good night. It's a former brothel turned cocktail room with tufted leather booths, and some drinks get made tableside from a rolling cart. Reserve ahead. Walk-in...
Midnight Cowboy
Hidden inside a downtown parking garage at 503 Colorado St. Follow the cocktail sign to the neon sign under the ramp. The room is moody and industrial, but the staff is warm. The Indian Paintbrush, with vodka, grapefruit, rosemary and lime, won an Of...
Garage
Go here when you want to actually hear the people you came with. It's small and cozy, with velvet chairs, mostly two-person tables and a martini menu where you build your own. The way in is a discreet set of stairs off a parking ramp downtown. Reserv...
Small Victory
The entrance is a bookshelf. You walk through a hostel lobby, slide it aside, and the bar is right behind it. It's inside a former fire station built in 1885, and the room is dark and red-lit. It's 21 and up and walk-ins are welcome, so it's an easy ...
Firehouse Lounge
An Argentine-inspired basement bar under Buenos Aires Cafe on East 6th. Teal walls, red velvet and low lamps make it perfect for a dressed-up night, and the cocktails lean on amaro. There's live music some nights. Reservations are strongly recommende...
Milonga Room
Look for the purple doors in the alley behind Dirty Sixth. Inside is a small, dim, red-lit room with velvet seating and brick walls, and a bar about the size of a walk-in closet. The menu is sin-themed, with drinks like Fruit of the Forbidden and Nak...
Eden Cocktail Room
It's tucked into an alley off Salina in East Austin, and the room has a Marfa, Texas look, with desert plants and adobe tiles. The cocktails are Western-themed, like the Rattlesnake Sour, and it only seats 49. The official site has a page just for ho...
Trona
This one isn't a secret door, and I'm including it on purpose. It's a low-lit spirits library in a historic cellar under Moonshine Grill, with hundreds of bottles, about 20 seats and a communal table. Cocktails are organized by style and era, and you...
Kinfolk Cocktail Lounge & Spirits Library
Round Rock, not Austin, but I'm counting it. This is a piano bar inside Kalahari Resorts and it is so cute. Performers play at the piano every night. You can sit at the piano and sing along or just relax with a cocktail. You don't have to be a resort...
Redd's Piano Bar and Lounge
An upstairs mezcal bar that you reach from the side patio of School House Pub on Manor Road. It's low-ceilinged and candlelit, with mezcal flights and a frozen guava agave margarita. Wildsam named it one of the 50 most essential bars in the US. Hours...
Techo Mezcaleria & Agave Bar
A tiny candlelit mezcal room above Whisler's in East Austin. You walk through Whisler's and head upstairs. This is more of a sipping bar than a cocktail bar, with around 180 mezcals to choose from. Go if you want to learn what good mezcal tastes like...
Mezcalería Tobalá
The best pick if you live in South Austin and don't want to drive downtown. Look for the daisy painted on the front and walk through a converted lobby. Inside is a lounge that looks like a library, with cozy chairs and hardback books built into the w...
Daisy