School House Pub — Restaurant in Austin

I had been meaning to check this place out as it is literally down the street from a friend's apt on Manor and having investigated almost every other place on the block, my FOMO was kicking in when I would see this place packed to the hilt every time we drove by. Luckily, I came on a quiet weekday evening and barely made it for their HH (the bartender was nice enough to honor it since it was but a minute over).

I like the vibe here, it is very trendy eastside but w/o the pretension or self-importance of other places nearby.

I had my sights set on the Montreal fries as I am a poutine enthusiast (and purist, to be truthful) , so I will establish right now these are not traditional poutine, but a conceptualization. First off, the serving was massive and I probably reached my sodium quota for the week by finishing every last bite, but I'm not a quitter and setting this heap of short ribs, gravy, cheese curds, and fries in front of me was instantly "Challenge: Accepted!". It took me almost an hour and a half whittling away one bite at a time and having to take literal breathers in between, but it was ::MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:: (in the unironic non-Bush sense) and I had 0 regrets.

In the 90mins of unleashing my hardcore Fatty for all to see, I got to interact w/the staff and other patrons and I have to say, there were no judgements (aamof, I got several nods and eyebrow raises of approval at my endeavor). I'll admit, everyone I encountered was a very Austin-y version of splendid! We laughed, I cried (when I finally finished the Montreal Fries), and even rebuked the very handsome bartender's insinuation I would even think about a to-go box!

All in all, I enjoyed my visit here and can see myself coming back on an off/quiet night. The seating inside is pretty cozy and the patio is smallish as well, so I can only imagine how chummy you have to get with your fellow "students" when the Friday bell sounds and weekend recess...

I live nearby to school house pub so I find myself there on occasion. I've been a handful of times and have never been blown away but also never been completely disappointed like the visit I had today. First of all a big chalkboard sign greeted me on my walk in that read "happy hour: select drafts $3" I arrived around 5:00pm when there are probably 100 other happy hours in town I could have gone to and I wish I had. Once I walked in an inquired which drafts were on happy hour the bartender responded "that one is the only one". I did a double take. One draft?? That's not a happy hour that's barely even a special. To make it worse it was some foofoo raspberry fruity beer that they probably couldn't give away and the keg was probably a year old. I ended up ordering a pale ale that also tasted like it was from a year old keg. I didn't even finish it. My friend had ordered a dirty martini, probably one of the most simple classic drinks on any bars menu. She winced when she took a drink and said "it's awful it tastes like they forgot something" I had to see what she meant so I took a sip. I practically spewed it back out. It tasted like poison. I told her she should definitely take it back and tell them but at this point there was a long line at the bar, not because they were super busy just because the bartender was slow. She eventually decided it wasn't worth the trouble to take it back. Not to mention there were more flies buzzing around us than if we'd been sitting in a barn filled with cow manure. We got up and walked to salty sow and made the last 30 min of their happy hour. I paid $6 for one of the best whiskey sours I've ever had at salty sow. When I closed my tab at school house I was shocked to see they charged me $6.50 for a pint of beer. During happy hour!!! My friend paid almost $10 for a glass of poison. As we sat and drank at salty sow, huge upgrade, we kept repeating how much school house pub had...

If you are reading this, I sincerely hope that you never go to School House Pub. They treated my wife and me terribly. We got married in April and were supposed to host our Friday welcome drinks here. We reached out to them in September of last year and ended up booking the place in December. We signed a credit card authorization form with all the details. Everything was set for months. Four weeks before the wedding, we reach out to them to them to check in. They told us that in order to proceed with our event, they would have to charge us TWICE the amount that we had agreed upon. We tried to reason with them and find a middle ground to no avail. We had already invited everyone in our wedding to join us at the School House Pub! Three weeks before the wedding they fully canceled on us. Not only was it rude but extremely unprofessional. When were they going to tell us they wanted to charge us double the price?? When we showed up for our event? Fortunately we found a better place to host our drinks very last minute. Needless to say that we will never be returning to the School House Pub and hope that...