Augustine Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Austin

EDIT TO REVIEW: I'm editing this review from the one I posted last weekend. Instead of 0 stars, I think this place actually deserves the 1 star for reasons I will state later. My friends and I were visiting from out of town and were looking for a fun night out. Augustine was the second stop of our night. The area right outside the indoor bar was really cute -- there was a telephone booth to take pictures with and several groups of people chilling outside. When we entered the main indoor bar, we were surprised at how empty the place was (mind you, this was around 1 am on a Saturday night). It was just our group and a couple sitting down in the corner. There was so much room from the lack of people that we could probably do cartwheels in that bar. My friends were dancing and having a good time and started pointing (in the air btw, not with their actual fingers) at some of the cocktails on the chalkboard drink menu. The female bartender probably assumed that we were smearing their chalkboard work from where she was standing, but instead of kindly asking us not to touch the wall menu or maybe even stepping a bit forward to examine if the wall menu was actually being destroyed, she came out from behind the bar and very rudely ordered us to "back off" with her hands flailing at us. The other male bartender joined in with her and my friends reacted how anyone would when someone barks at them like that unexpectedly. Needless to say, we left the bar immediately and went to another bar on Rainey Street that had a better vibe. Later that night, we passed by Augustine again, but this time the manager was there. We approached him to explain what happened and how rudely we were mistreated over something so small. He was very professional and polite and offered to meet at a later time over lunch to try to see what he can do to help us change our minds about his establishment. We pointed out the bartenders who were at fault and he assured us that he will do better on behalf of Augustine. We unfortunately did not have the time to meet with the manager as we were all leaving town the following day.

Unless the staff here gets some remediation for their actions last weekend, I wouldn't recommend this bar to anyone. There are plenty of other bars on Rainey Street that will treat you with respect, and thankfully our night out was not completely ruined thanks to the plethora of other bars and food joints on Rainey Street. Looking back at other negative reviews posted before last weekend, I can see that the "rude" bartenders at this joint are nothing new.

I would like to add that I find it so interesting that six 5-star reviews popped up for this place all on the same day 7/16/19 with several reviewers going out of their way to mention "Jacqueline", the same female bartender who lashed out my friends last weekend. Hmm. Coincidence much? I'll...

Walking around on a Sunday around 3pm, decided time stop in - wrong move. Worst bar on all of Rainey Street that we tried (8 total). Over the last couple days we had frequent a couple bars a day - Rainey Street is awesome - highly recommend it. As we walked in, it was completely empty which seemed like a red flag, regardless decided to pursue the adventure of exploring new places. Sat at the bar, talked to the bar tender about drinks etc, everything was blown off as semi blase in terms on question about drinks etc - which generally would completely understand if they had had absolutely anyone in the bar. Was reassured that the drinks I was ordering would not be adjusted to remove sugar fillers to reduce sweetness and would be adjusted etc, tipped out $4/cocktail .. and - the sweetest drinks we'd had all week (maybe all year?), unreal. Maybe it's the bartender (?), who knows, seems like a larger problem at the bar as all adjacent bars had people (not packed but filled) . In all honesty this bar might be great for some times late at night, just for the vibe but don't come for the drinks and especially not the cocktails. Will not return here ever. If you want cocktails go to Half Step, on point and great...

I went there for "happy hour" which was $2 off Native Texas Drafts. I order a couple Karbach Weekend Warriors since they were what I assumed Native Texan Drafts. Bill comes up $18, I kindly ask if they're usually $11 per draft -- Bartender responds in a very annoyed fashion saying they're always that price. He then explains that there's a draft called Native Texas Pilsner. I laugh and say ahh that's confusing. Bartender continues to be smug af. $9 pours that other bars charge $3-5 for. Crazy overpriced

I asked for a menu for prices, he says they don't have one. I'd never advise going here to anyone, not...