For the last several years, I have made the prediction that the current year was going to be "the year of the cocktail" for Austin. I meant it each time, and the last several years have been awesome for our bar and restaurant community. We've watched the opening of several fabulous places, some of which (Congress, Haddingtons, Contigo, Franklin BBQ) have been garnering national media attention. We even closed out the final year of our Wine & Food festival with such a bang that we attracted the attention of Food & Wine Mag, who will now help run an Austin festival. Our humble USBG chapter has grown, we've hosted some notable dignitaries from the bar world (Tony Abou-Ganim, Tobin Ellis, and many more) and we are hosting our holiday party at Franklin BBQ--Not having to wait for Franklin BBQ is definitely a signifier that you have arrived.
Not to break with tradition, I'm going to announce my early excitement for 2012. I got news this am that our pal Jason Stevens is going to take over the bar at Bar Congress next month.
More on this following the jump...
Stevens has become a man-about-town over the last year or so, working simultaneously at some combination of The Tigress, East Side Show Room, Little City and probably a few more places I'm not even aware of. He participated in our Tipsy Tech class last year and has now founded an Austin-based bitters company called Bad Dog Bar Craft with Tipsy Tech co-founder Lara Nixon. They appear in a nice spread in the current Edible Austin magazine.
I do not know what current Bar Congress manager Adam Bryan (who also brought his west coast sensibility to the East Side Show Room) has up his sleeve, just that his new venture is going to be in East Austin, which is kind of a given these days. I suggested a craft cocktail titty bar would go after an under-served niche market; he intimated that he might actually reopen La Bare. I think he was just teasing, knowing that I am totally a sucker for a good all-male revue. Whatever he does I'm sure it will be great.
One of the most interesting developments to me is the move earlier this year of Bill Norris to Alamo Drafthouse/High Ball. That organization is opening a tequila/mezcal bar early next year, which is in itself exciting, as I know Bill has an intense passion for the subject. But the bigger picture is actually more intriguing to me. It is very telling about the status of craft and education-based mixology that a company like Alamo has hired someone like Bill to head up their programs. Alamo properties are an example of the way in which the concepts of craft cocktail bartending are trickling down and out from elite cocktail bars to more mainstream, casual, and non cocktail-centric concepts. It's becoming more conventional--people's expectations have matured--which signifies a shift, not just a trend. The other thing we're seeing is that these ideas are shifting outward from the centers of major cities to secondary and tertiary markets; it is my understanding that many new Alamo properties will feature a Norris-designed cocktail program. That Alamo is leading that change suggests to me that we will see a lot of other organizations following suit.
I am also excited about the early-2012 opening of Drink.Well., a new American tavern from Mike and Jessica Sanders, opening across the street from Foreign & Domestic. I am working with them and will be posting more updates as they develop.
