BEST BARS IN AUSTIN

 The Mockingbird has been through several incarnations in its decades long habitation on the drag. You may remember it as The Local, then Texas Showdown and briefly Little Woodies, until it came to its current namesake in 2019.

 It's rumored that Lil Woodrow's didn't keep it because of the ebb and flow in business generated by neighboring UT. Students come to school. Students go home for the Summer. Whoever's interested in cultivating loyalty though should come here because one thing has remained the same: The regulars.

 They've got a program where if you hang out long enough you're assigned a number and a mug. When you walk in the door you give them your number and the mug is pulled off the wall and your beer starts going.

 During the week they have "Happy Minutes" which people come to for the event alone. From 3 to 3:15 you pay a dollar per beer from the list of 'Cheap Ass Beers' hanging on the wall behind the bar.

 Go outside. They have a huge patio where you can watch people play a variation of washers done with sandbags. Behind the players you'll notice a sign reading "Hippies use the back door." Once you go past the door you're in a parking lot and you're on your own...to enjoy a different kind of smoke.

 Go back in the saloon and look over a meandering group of students, bartenders and hot twenty something's. For my female readers there are good looking guys who hang out too.

 The music varies quite a bit and is played over iTunes but its mainly rock and roll with an occasional country song. There are couches plopped down in front of huge tv's across from the bar and if you're a Denver Bronco's fan then you're in heaven. The owner is either from Colorado or he's a rabid fan because memorabilia is all over the place.

 You can come here with a group or wander in solo...either way you are fine. So check out the refreshing AC and friendly customers in this down home saloon called The Mockingbird.