Local news and fun, every day 6am.
Featured
austonia newsletter
Most viewed
Three Austonia writers walked into bars with the mask mandate lifted. Here's what they saw.

An unmasked employee at UnBARlievable on Rainey Street takes down social distancing signs around the bar as it is no longer enforcing COVID restrictions.
When Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the mask mandate and said businesses could open at 100% capacity, some Austin bars rejoiced. For bars that have opened as restaurants for months now, however, shifting back wasn't something they felt ready for.
Going against the governor's wishes, Austin leaders are urging businesses to follow the local order that keeps the mask mandate even as Abbott's restrictions are lifted statewide. On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton even threatened legal action on the city if Austin continued to hold the order in place.
With tensions high and a city in limbo, Austonia staff visited several bars across the city to see how both businesses and customers have reacted. But it wasn't exactly the roaring 20's the day the order was lifted. Here's what they saw.
West Sixth Street
No mask in sight at Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which had the most business on West Sixth. (Laura Figi/Austonia)
Austonia's Reporter Laura Figi said that much of West Sixth Street was slow or empty, with one exception. While Kung Fu Saloon saw slow business with masked staff helping masked and socially-distanced customers, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was busy and crowded with no masks in sight, Figi said. Figi said other bars, including Buford's, Star Bar and Little Woodrow's, were pretty empty, as was much of the street. UnBARlievable, which seemed the emptiest of all, had a crowd of unmasked employees standing at the entrance, Figi said.
Rainey Street
Augustine's, which usually has crowds on the weekend, was "completely dead," according to Garcia. (Sonia Garcia/Austonia)
Austonia's Senior Producer Sonia Garcia said that Rainey Street had a calm Wednesday night. At Augustine's, staff were wearing masks but customers were not required to, Garcia found. Photos have shown this particular bar with crowds on the weekend, but Garcia said that the bar was "completely dead" on Wednesday.
Unlike its counterpart on Sixth, Rainey's UnBARlievable had a good amount of people, with employees telling customers they can take off masks as they walk in, Garcia said. Live music in the back attracted the most people sitting at tables. Garcia says she saw employees taking down social distancing signs at around 8 p.m.
At Craft Pride, temperatures were checked and masks were required, Garcia said. Garcia said she could tell that social distancing rules were still strictly enforced despite having a decent crowd there.
(Emma Freer/Austonia)
At both Yellow Jacket Social Club and ATX Cocina, everyone was wearing masks except for at tables, and everyone was socially distanced, said Austonia Senior Reporter Emma Freer. Freer said signs were posted at both locations, and ATX Cocina had a makeshift outdoor tarp area as well as dining inside.
- Austin bars, restaurants respond to Abbott's reopening order - austonia ›
- Adler, city leaders call on Austinites to "mask up" - austonia ›
- Paxton threatens legal action against Austin for COVID restrictions ... ›
- Gov. Abbott: All businesses can open at 100%, masks no longer ... ›
- AG Ken Paxton sues Austin for keeping mask mandate - austonia ›
- Sixth Street shows packed street with no masks after governors order lifted - austonia ›
- Mark Escott says COVID restrictions could be gone by fall - austonia ›
- A sunny day and a cold beer: 15 Austin breweries worth exploring - austonia ›
- Complete guide to Rainey Street's bars, food and nightlife - austonia ›
- Final Rainey Street residential home cleared for demolition - austonia ›
- Final Rainey Street residential home cleared for demolition - austonia ›
- San Jac Saloon's custom doors were stolen - austonia ›
Popular
As summer temperatures continue to increase, so does Austin's "Party Island"—a hundreds-strong army of kayakers and paddle boarders who gather each weekend in the middle of Lady Bird Lake.
Born from the pandemic, the swarm of paddleboarding partiers has continued to grow each summer and can be seen from the nearby Lamar Boulevard Bridge. And while "Party Island" certainly lives up to one half of its name, it's not actually an island at all: instead, it's located at a shallow sandbar near Lou Neff Point.
With beers, burgers from portable grills and even DJ turntables in hand, more friends and strangers continue to beat the heat in new ways at the distinct Austin hangout.
- Lake Travis party boat operators see high demand after COVID ... ›
- 1 injured after small plane crashes into Lady Bird Lake - austonia ›
- Breath of fresh air: Austinites can't stay away from the party on Lady ... ›
- Photo essay: Austin's 'Party Island' on Lady Bird Lake ›
- Photo story: Austin's 'Party Island' on Lady Bird Lake - austonia ›
(Pexels)
If you are a committed, grunge-wearing resident of the Pacific Northwest, it is easy–almost automatic–to look at Texas as an extraordinarily dry, hot and culturally oppressive place that is better to avoid, especially in the summer. Our two granddaughters live with their parents in Portland.
Recently we decided to take the older girl, who is 15, to Dallas. Setting aside the summer heat, a Portlander can adjust to the vibes of Austin without effort. So let’s take Texas with all of its excesses straight up. Dallas, here we come.
Our 15-year-old granddaughter and her sister, 12, have spent summer weeks with us, usually separately so that we could better get to know each individually. In visits focused on Austin and Port Aransas, the girls seemed to be developing an affection for Texas.
Houston and Dallas are two great American cities, the 4th and 9th largest, each loaded with cultural treasures, each standing in glittering and starchy contrast to Austin’s more louche, T-shirts and shorts ways.
Three hours up I-35, Dallas loomed before us as a set of gray skyscrapers in a filmy haze, accessed only through a concrete mixmaster of freeways, ramps and exits. I drove with false confidence. Be calm, I said to myself, it will all end in 10 minutes under the hotel entrance canopy. And it did.
The pool at the Crescent Court Hotel in Dallas. (Crescent Court Hotel)
We stayed three nights at the Crescent Court Hotel ($622 a night for two queens), a high-end hotel in Uptown, patronized by women in white blazers, business people in suits, and tall, lean professional athletes, their shiny Escalades and Corvettes darting in and out, and other celebrities like Bill Barr, the former attorney general who shoe-horned his ample self into a Toyota.
Each morning as I walked to Whole Foods for a cappuccino, a fellow identified by a bellman as Billy the Oilman arrived in his Rolls Royce Phantom. Where does he park? “Wherever he wants to. He likes the Starbucks here.”
We garaged our more modest set of wheels for the visit. We were chauffeured for tips by Matt Cooney and Alfonza “The Rev” Scott in the hotel’s black Audi sedan. They drove us to museums, restaurants and past the enclaves of the rich and famous. In Highland Park, The Rev pointed out the homes of the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones and Troy Aikman along with the family compound of the Hunts, oil and gas tycoons.
The Dallas Museum of Art’s “Cartier and Islam” exhibit (until Sept. 18) attracted an older crowd; the nearby Perot Museum of Nature and Science was a powerful whirlpool of kids’ groups ricocheting from the Tyrannosaurus Rex to the oil fracking exhibit. Watch your shins.
A Geogia O'Keeffe oil painting called "Ranchos Church, New Mexico" at the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art. (Rich Oppel)
For us, the best museum was the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, a 50-minute, madcap drive away via a 75 mph toll lane along I-30. Don’t try it during rush hour. The Carter has an exquisite collection of Remington paintings and sculptures and an excellent array of 19th and 20th-century paintings as well. Pick one museum? The Amon Carter. Peaceful, beautiful, uncrowded, free admission and small enough to manage in two hours.
The Fort Worth Stockyards, a place of history (with a dab of schmaltz), fun and good shopping, filled one of our mornings. The 98 acres brand the city as Cowboy Town, with a rodeo and a twice-daily (11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.) cattle drive. We shopped for boots, drank coffee and watched the “herd” of 18 longhorns. So languid was their progress that if this were a real market drive the beef would have been very tough and leathery before it hit the steakhouse dinner plate.
The cattle drive at the Fort Worth Stockyards. (Rich Oppel)
But we could identify: the temperature was 97. “I saw a dog chasing a cat today,” said the emcee, deploying a very old joke. “It was so hot that both were walking.”
With limited time, we chose three very different restaurants:
- Nobu, in the Crescent Court Hotel; Jia, a modern Chinese restaurant in Highland Park; and Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth. Nobu’s exotic Japanese menu set us back $480, with tip, for four (we had a guest), but it was worth it.
- Jia was an ordinary suburban strip mall restaurant, but with good food and a reasonable tab of $110 for four.
- Joe T.’s is an 85-year-old Fort Worth institution (think Matt’s El Rancho but larger), a fine Mexican restaurant where a meal with two drinks was $115.
Sushi at high-end restaurant Nobu. (Crescent Hotel)
It was all a splurge for a grandchild’s visit. Now we will get back to our ordinary road trips of Hampton Inns, where a room rate is closer to the Crescent Court’s overnight parking rate of $52. And to corner cafes in small towns.
Did Dallas change our 15-year-old’s view of Texas? “Yes. I think it’s a lot cooler than I did. The fashion, the food.” So, not only Austin is cool. Take Texas as a whole. It’s a big, complex, diverse and wonderful state.