10 New Austin Bars to Visit This Summer

Summer in Austin always comes with sweltering temps, and the city’s bartenders take the job of cooling down (and cheering up) weary and overheated Austinites very seriously. This year, you can enjoy a wide array of brand-new drinking dens complete with vibrant cocktails, crisp beers, and impeccable vibes. These 10 new bars, lounges, breweries, and hybrid cafes, all of which opened (or are scheduled to open) this summer, will keep you nicely-quaffed and refreshed until well past Labor Day. 

Lovebirds 

What: A vibrant East Austin cocktail lounge with brightly-colored decor, intricate glassware, and well-crafted beverages.
Where: 2337 East Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX 78702

Lovebirds in East Austin has, in its very brief tenure on East Cesar Chavez Street, made a name for itself as an Instagrammable destination with vividly-painted walls, neon signs, and glasses shaped like birds (you drink out of the tailfeather, in case you were wondering). Whimsical house cocktails like the Puppy Love with sotol, grapefruit cordial, lime juice, and soda water and the Old Flame with blanco tequila, arbol chiles, blood orange cordial, and lime juice keep the energy up, and the space’s picturesque looks make it an ideal spot for a date, a night out with friends, or just a stylish locale for a solo nightcap.

Community Garden

What: An all-day café in Chestnut with açai bowls and coffee by day, beer and wine by night, and plenty of music.
Where: 1401 Cedar Ave, Austin, TX 78702

The owners of Coconut Club, an iconic dance club in downtown Austin, recently opened Community Garden in Chestnut with the goal of serving patrons from morning through night with nourishing açai bowls, cold brew and kombucha, international wines, and locally-brewed beers. Because the club is also owned by the founder of the Growth In Decay record label, music is a major focus here, and evening programming will involve sets from skilled DJs and plenty of room for dancing.

Fast Friends Beer Co.

What: A South Austin brewery with hand painted murals, a sizable taproom, indoor and outdoor seating, and a vegan-friendly food menu.
Where: 7313 North Interstate 35 Frontage Rd NB, Austin, TX 78744

Right off of the I-35 frontage road in South Austin, you’ll find Fast Friends Beer Co., a brand-new brewery seeking to attract guests of all ages (yes, kids and dogs are welcome during the day!) with an open and communal space and house-brewed beers ranging from IPAs to cream ales to amber ales to saisons. Their food menu focuses on pizza with both vegan and gluten-free options, and they’re hoping to draw a clientele based both in Austin proper and in the neighboring towns of the Hill Country.

Sign Bar

What: Kitsch is cool again at Sign Bar, a bar and neon sign “museum” in far East Austin.
Where: 9909 FM 969, Building 3, Austin, TX 78724 

A project that leans heavily on nostalgia while also serving up boozy beverages, Sign Bar in far East Austin allows guests to enjoy beverages and bites both indoors and outdoors amidst an impressive array of signs, placards, and advertising sculptures from Austin bars and restaurants both past and present. Cocktails take a classic direction, but with plenty of summer-appropriate lightness; think berry-infused mules, spicy margs, and gin-spiked lemonades.

Bodhi’s Hideaway

What: A “surf bar” in South Menchaca with tropical cocktails, draft beers, and chill vibes.
Where: 10402 Menchaca Rd, Austin, TX 78748

The impressive growth of the bar district on Menchaca Road below Slaughter Lane shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, and its newest arrival will soon be Bodhi’s Hideaway, an urban spin on a beach bar inspired by 90s surfer flicks like “Point Break”. The menu will include tropical libations like pina coladas and daiquiris along with draft brews, and Bodhi’s Hideaway also hopes to have an onsite food truck for snacks between sips.

Saturn Bar

What: A bar focused on “disco cocktails” from Nashville hospitality pros.
Where: 906 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701When: Opening this summer

After a series of successful pop-ups at bars like Whisler’s, Little Brother, and Nickel City, the team behind Saturn, a laid-back bar that revels in brightly colored “Day-Glo” cocktails popular in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, will open a permanent location in the heart of Downtown Austin. Saturn is the brainchild of Steven Smith, who bartended and managed at a number of bars in Nashville before relocating to Austin and working behind the stick at Whisler’s. His cocktail expertise will come in handy at Saturn, where bartenders will craft spins on kitschy-cool drinks like the Pornstar martini and the Miami Vice.

Hopscotch

What: The sister bar to the very hotly-anticipated South Lamar restaurant Elementary, Hopscotch will focus on natural wines, cocktails, and light bites.
Where: 2032 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78704

One of the most exciting restaurant openings of the year is bound to be Elementary, a brick-and-mortar evolution of an inventive New American pop-up restaurant led by alums of Two Hands, Proud Mary, Paperboy, and Golden Hour. In addition to the restaurant, the team is planning to launch Hopscotch, a new companion bar on the same South Lamar property that will serve natural wines, cocktail snacks like tinned fish and loaded toast, and regularly-changing cocktails in a dark, moody, date-perfect space.

Origin Studio House

What: A self-described community space in Rosewood with coffee, wine, beer, cocktails, and art exhibits and live performances by Black artists.
Where: 2925 East 12th St, Austin, TX 78702
When: Opening this summer

Since 2021, Origin founders Brittney Williams and Dante Clemons have strived to create welcoming and engaging spaces for Austin’s Black community through their seasonal pop-ups, which have included food trucks, cocktail bars, and musical performances helmed by Black creators. This summer, they’ll be opening a permanent brick-and-mortar space dedicated to their vision with a bar & barista counter, plenty of open walls for art displays and installations, a beautifully-designed space (Williams is an alum of McGuire Moorman Lambert Hospitality’s interior design team), and warm, nurturing, and creative vibes.

Uchiba

What: A new bar and small-plates restaurant from the Uchi team focused on shareable dishes and Japanese whisky.
Where: 601 West 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701
When: Opening in August

The unstoppable hitmakers behind Uchi and Uchiko have another Austin project in the works: Uchiba, a second location of their successful Dallas cocktail bar inspired by Japanese izakayas. Uchiba’s beverage menu emphasizes Japanese whisky, and guests can even order a whisky “omakase” flight that shows the breadth of what this unique spirit has to offer. As far as dishes go, menu exclusives at Uchiba will include Wagyu beef bulgogi with radish kimchi, sake crudo with salmon, golden beet, nasturtium, and pistachio, and pickled green tomatoes with gochujang aioli.

Radio/East

What: Everything that you love about Radio Coffee & Beer, but in a much larger Southeast Austin location with multiple stages for live music.
Where: 3504 Montopolis Drive, Austin, TX 78744
When: Opening in August or September

South Austinites already love Radio Coffee & Beer on Menchaca Road for its spacious lawn, its specially-roasted coffees, its impressive beer list, and its top-notch food trucks. At the end of this summer, the Radio team is planning to spread its wings in a big way with Radio/East, a much larger outpost in Southeast Austin that will feature two outdoor stages for larger-scale musical performances, an array of single-origin espressos, two tap towers with eight craft beers and 4 rotating cocktails, two service windows for beverage orders, and food trucks from Veracruz All-Natural, Shortwave Diner, and Side Eye Pie (in the form of Side Eye Slice, a slice-focused version of the Meanwhile Brewing original).