Midnight Cowboy — Restaurant in Austin

This place is a very cool experience, but in my opinion, I only needed to do it once.

It is along the lines of the trend of legit speakeasys you might find in NYC, but is in the midst of Dirty 6th downtown.

I can't speak to the reservation process as a friend made those, but it is an unmarked facade on 6th with just a red bulb above the door and a buzzer board with names on it. You push the buzzer next to your name and someone "answers the door". Not going to lie, but that was one of my fav parts of the experience...

Once inside, you realize this definitely used to be a bar/brothel back in the day. It is an extremely narrow space flanked by small booths on either side as you walk in. We had a room booked, so we were escorted back to a very cozy nook that had a curtain and consisted of a boothback couch which wrapped around half the space and had a small table in the middle. To say this was intimate for 4 people would be an understatement. After you peruse the menu, you press a red button (whole new meaning to red light special) and your personal bartender comes up and takes your order.

Ours was a very sexy little hipster with a waxed and curled mustache and fedora that might be off-putting to some, but had me wondering if he was available for dessert!

I honestly cannot remember all the things we drank. I just recall starting out with something that came in a punch bowl and then moving on to a drink that had the biggest, coolest looking round ice cube I've ever seen! I couldn't help thinking I'd finally reached the epitome of adulthood because I was drinking the equivalent of alcoholic Kool-Aid with ice cubes from the future in a room that used to be part of a brothel with an on-call bartender. If they had offered foot massages and desserts, I might have never left!

Our "booth" was only booked for 2hrs and they are very prompt about the time, so you have a quasi "last call" before the end of your res. I did not pay for any of our drinks thanks to a very generous friend, but by the look on his face, you are definitely paying for what you get.

All in all a great experience, but, like I said, for me, this place was a one "trick" (see what I did...

We ended up serving our own table. Let me preface, I am a 31 yr old female and was treated as though I was an underage hoodlum. I was surrounded by 3 other registered nurses (I am one as well) in their late 20s and my fiance who is 28 and an officer in the military. Needless to say we have the money to pay for our drinks, however were treated as though we didn't. I was asked to provide a second form of ID at the table, which was fine as I'm aware I look young and my ID is Canadian. However the rest of our experience was shameful, as someone who worked in the service industry for 8 years prior to becoming a nurse. We were given an unset table, despite having made a reservation the day before. I offered to wait till our actual reservation time of 1130, however the hostess stated the table was ready at 1115, so we sat down. It took the waiter 20 minutes to serve us with our first drink, however were told there were no clean water glasses and would have to wait for those, which would normally be fine, however the empty tables next to us received clean glasses for water before we did. My fiance had to ask for a water decanter and was handed a pitcher of water and told "here ya go". In 1 hour we were given each 1 drink with no check in and honestly made our table feel like we were unwelcome in the facility, though we were paying customers. I was extremely excited to try this cocktail bar and was very disappointed. I can not even speak to the quality of drinks as we were not given the opportunity to try more than 1 in the time spent there. I would recommend this to noone and I left feeling as though I was not welcome. As someone who travels the world and loves visiting different cocktail bars, the manager and owner needs to check in with the quality of service provided, otherwise this will be nothing other than a flash in the pan of Austin nightlife. At least the old establishment left customers with a...

This one is a hard one to review simply because the establishment and idea of this swanky bar is unique and definitely a place I will take family/friends who are visiting from out of town. But I definitely won't be a regular because the servers can be condescending and just flat out rude.

The Good:

The concept is cool, it's like an easter egg hunt on 6th st. You are looking for a lone red bulb directly above a door on a street full of bars. Once you find the door you have to buzz a certain resident for them to answer the door. They check to make sure you are on the reservation list then let you in the door. It's a small, cozy, intimate place with limited seating. Very knowledgeable staff and they even bring a cart to your table to make your drink in front of you.

The Bad:

Because of limited seating you can only make your reservations for a party of 8 max. There is a 2 drink minimum per person and the drinks typically start at $13 each. Very limited beer selection but they do have a $22 bottle of beer if you're interested. You are only allowed to stay a certain amount of time, I think 2 hours max before they kick you out for the next party.

The Ugly:

When I say kick you out I mean literally kick you out. Once the bill is paid then they apparently don't have to be nice to you. Maybe it's a way to get you out faster. Of my party of 8, 2 hadn't finished their $13 drinks but that didn't stop them from picking them up and dumping them out. Simply stating "oh well". From beginning to end the waiter started out friendly but with each visit he got more and more snarky before becoming rude after the...