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Whether you're in dire need of some deliciously priced food or your favorite cocktails with a twist, Austin restaurants are here to make the best of happy hour.
Here are 9 happy hours around town worth trying.
Licha's Cantina, 1306 E. 6th St.
If you find yourself at Licha's Cantina from Tuesdays to Fridays, we completely understand. The killer happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. is filled with great deals on cocktails, beers and delicious Mexico City-inspired soul food. For drinks, Licha's Cantina offers $6 cocktails such as margaritas, palomas and vampiros as well as deals on Corona and buckets of beer. For a snack, you can enjoy $6 sopecitos, huaraches and quesadillas and $5 exquisite and camote.
Black Sheep Lodge, 2108 S. Lamar Blvd
If you're looking for a reason to enjoy happy hour deals everyday of the week, Black Sheep Lodge has you covered. With different drink specials every day, the bar and grill offers over 120 different beers and cocktails. From Monday to Sunday, you can enjoy $3 Texas pints and liquors, $2 off tequila shots and drinks, $1 12-ounce cans of white trash cans (Lone Star, PBR Tallboys Schlitz, Pearl and more) and so much more. You can check out the full list of specials here.
Parkside, 301 E. 6th St.
A downtown favorite, Parkside has a weekday happy hour from 5 to 6 p.m. that will knock you out of the park. On Mondays, specialty martinis are half off, and from Tuesday to Saturday, you can get half off beer, cocktails and food including fries and oysters from the bar menu. Plus, you can get half off oyster platters and sparkling wine every Wednesday night.
Olive & June, 3411 Glenview Ave.
As part of Chef Shawn Cirkiel's Parkside Projects Restaurant and Hospitality Group, Olive & June is another great choice for getting a great deal during happy hour. From 5 to 6 p.m., you can get half off beer and cocktails plus snack on delicious antipasti options.
Café No Sé, 1603 S. Congress Ave
Rosé lovers will be happy to know there is a place in town where you can get 25% off all bottles and great reverse happy hour specials. Café No Sé offers a reverse happy hour everyday from 6 to 8 p.m. with $2 off beer, wine and menu cocktails, plus a speciality treat of 25% off bottles of rose everyday. That's seven days a week to enjoy great deals on wine and get the most out of happy hour time.
Uchiko, 4200 N. Lamar Blvd.
Uchiko, the upscale sushi restaurant connected with the beloved Uchi, has a sake social everyday from 4 to 6 p.m. that might be one of the best deals in town. Award-winning chef Tyson Cole's blended knowledge on Japanese food and creativity in dishes is worth a visit any day of the week, but sake social is a happy hour not worth missing. You can find the menu for the sake social at Uchiko here.
P6, 111 E. Cesar Chavez St.
At the LINE austin, you will find a rooftop lounge with great happy hour specials, tasty cocktails and a great view. P6, located at the way top of the hotel, has a list of specialty curated Mediterranean small plates such as artisanal cheeses, whipped feta roasted tomato dip and more as well as seasonal cocktails that will make your visit worth it. Happy hour is Monday through Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. You can find the menu for happy hour at P6 here.
Clark's Oyster Bar, 1200 W. 6th St.
Clark's Oyster Bar has a happy hour that will cheer up any Austinite, and on any day. From 3 to 5 p.m., any day of the week, you can find yourself ordering an unhealthy amount of oysters as they are 50 cents off. On weekdays, the happy hour includes half off burgers, $5 martinis, oyster shooters and draft beer. On weekends, Clark's has half off bottles of wine and $5 oyster shooters.
The Peached Tortilla, 5520 Burnet Road #100
From 5 to 7 p.m daily, The Peached Tortilla offers a happy hour with delicious bites and great cocktails. The happy hour includes $5 beers, $6 wine and cocktails, $4 tacos, $5 snacks such as shishito peppers and crispy fries and a $9 burger with peached sauce, american cheese, miso caramelized onions, japanese pickles and lettuce. You can find the menu for happy hour at Peached Tortilla here.
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Popular
(Pexels)
Austin parents and grocery store shelves are feeling the effects of a nationwide baby formula shortage.
Caused mostly by a February recall due to contamination issues, followed by the Abbott Nutrition factory closure in Michigan, the shortage has left Austin shelves barren. However, earlier this week, U.S. officials announced a plan with the facility to restart production.
In the meantime, local parents in crisis have turned toward the Mother’s Milk Bank to keep their babies fed.
HEB on East 7th has been picked clean of formula and is limiting purchases. (Laura Figi/Austonia)
The milk bank—which takes donations from lactating mothers and dispenses milk to babies in the NICU—has been helping feed upwards of 30 families in need as the formula supply tightens.
According to the bank’s executive director Kim Updegrove, Mother’s Milk Bank has seen an uptick in calls from parents with healthy babies in need of help since the shortage began.
“We aren't used to hearing from families with healthy infants,” Updegrove said. “They're typically very upset, angry, frustrated, sobbing—it's scary to not be able to feed your infants. So in the past few weeks, those calls have been significantly increasing.”
Mothers are only able to donate if they are within a year postpartum, so Updegrove said they are constantly bringing on and retiring donors. While donors had been on a 30% decline leftover from 2021 when the shortage began, Updegrove said the shortage has led to mass community interest and more than 90 prospective donors in just the past few days.
“We and other milk banks are experiencing significant interest from the community—becoming milk donors and helping to turn around this crisis,” Updegrove said. “Every infant needs to be fed, every one of us can relate to that need, and we need to make sure as a community that it happens.”
Whole Foods downtown was also cleaned out of typical formula. (Laura Figi/Austonia)
While you may still be able to find formula at places like Whole Foods—which currently has goat milk, soy and plant-based formula in stock—Updegrove said it might not be what a baby needs.
Updegrove said it is best to buy types that say “infant formula,” as they are FDA approved and will provide the nutrients, vitamins and minerals a baby needs. Plant-based, homemade, non-cow's milk or diluting formula may not provide the same nutritional value.
As the community navigates the shortage, Updegrove said the most important way to help out is to not panic buy or stockpile.
“This is a crisis for families,” Updegrove said. “This is the time for the community to gather together and figure out what everyone can do to help families with young infants.”
(Argo AI)
Next time you’re sitting at a red light in Austin, you may look over and see a car without a person at the driver’s wheel.
Autonomous vehicle tech company Argo AI has brought driverless operations to Austin and Miami, starting out with only company employees using the service. Later on, tests with Lyft and Walmart will carry out ride-sharing and grocery delivery services, with the help of a human safety operator. The company has already made moves on this front in Miami Beach where some Lyft passengers have used its autonomous vehicles with a human operator.
While its platform is designed for integration with multiple vehicle types, the test fleet uses the Ford Escape Hybrid and VW's all-electric ID.Buzz.
The Pittsburgh-based company says this progress on its autonomy platform has been more than five years in the making and boasted about reaching this milestone before others.
"Argo is first to go driverless in two major American cities, safely operating amongst heavy traffic, pedestrians and bicyclists in the busiest of neighborhoods," said Bryan Salesky, Founder and CEO of Argo AI.
Expect to see the autonomous cars on the road during daytime business hours as the tech aims to learn from a diversity of road infrastructure and driving behaviors.
The company, which is testing in eight cities in the U.S. and Europe, has brought its tech to Austin as the company looks to expand in densely-populated cities. In particular, Argo is looking at ridesharing, delivery and logistics companies for integrating its autonomous vehicles into their digital services.
Argo anticipates its service availability to someday cover more than 15 million people in Austin, Miami and Washington D.C.
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