HERE

The Downtown Austin
Happy Hour Guide

Words by Kelly K

There’s really only one way to spend late afternoon in downtown Austin, and it starts on a rooftop. Four o’clock hits, the light goes gold, the city exhales, and suddenly an hour feels like plenty of time to do nothing but sit with a good drink and a better view.

Lucky for you, the best of it starts right at home. At the LINE you can chase golden hour without going far at all, up top at P6 or downstairs at Cantero and Kristen Kish’s Arlo Grey. Start here, then let us point you the rest of the way across downtown.

Happy Hour at P6, All Year

Here’s the one you can count on any week of the year. Once a parking garage, now the best rooftop seat downtown, P6 runs happy hour Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 PM, with cocktails, wine, beer, and a lineup of shareable Mediterranean small plates to enjoy over panoramic views of Lady Bird Lake and the downtown skyline. Two full hours, five days a week, no season required. See what is pouring on the P6 summer menu.

Summer Martini Happy Hour at P6

Then, for summer, we layer on the good stuff, and it is one of the best martini offerings in Austin. Sunday through Friday, 4 to 5 PM, the martini list gets refreshingly easy on the wallet:

$4 martinis: Lemon Drop and the Mexi
$5 martinis: Classic, Dirty, Espresso, and Manhattan

Note that this is the summer window only, so if you want a four-dollar martini with your golden hour, now is the season. Come for the first pour right at four, watch the light change, and let the view do the rest. Stick around past sunset and the evening throws in a free show: around dusk, close to a million bats stream out from under the nearby Congress Avenue Bridge, one of the best sights in Texas.

If you want the full picture before you come up, the P6 page has the details.

Happy Hour at Cantero

Downstairs, Cantero, the LINE’s poolside bar, runs happy hour Monday through Friday, a generous 4 to 7 PM, which makes it the natural place to land the second our martini hour wraps. The food comes from Veracruz, famous for some of the city’s best tacos and started by sisters Reyna and Maritza Vazquez, who bring the flavors of their hometown in Veracruz, Mexico to downtown Austin. The drinks lean agave and bright, a House Margarita at $10, a strawberry-basil Tagetes at $12, a hibiscus-and-mint Agua de Jamaica at $12, and, fittingly, a sparkling Golden Hour at $13 with a chili-salt rim. There is $2 off draft beers, frozens, and wines by the glass, plus chips with molcajete or guacamole if you want something to snack on.

Happy Hour at Arlo Grey

Also in the building, Top Chef winner and host Kristen Kish’s Arlo Grey runs its own happy hour Wednesday through Sunday, 4 to 6 PM. The bar list is short and considered, with seasonal cocktails rotating through alongside the standbys: the AG Margarita at $10, draft beer at $5, and cava or albariño by the glass at $10. The bites are where it really sings, from fried steamed buns and grilled shishito to an AG BLT with smoked pork collar and blue corn fried chicken flats with jalapeno honey. See the full happy hour and new bar menu.

Where to Land Before or After

Part of what we love about happy hour in downtown Austin is that it does not have to be a single stop. Here is where a LINE regular would head next, chosen for a different craving or a different room.

Craving something from the sea instead of the sky? Bill’s Oyster on West 3rd leans New Orleans, all raw bar and classic cocktails. Bill’s runs happy hour daily from 3 to 5:30 PM with $3 oysters, a $10 burger, and half-price bottles of wine. For something older and more Texan, The Driskill Bar sits up the grand staircase inside the 1886 landmark on Brazos, a room with genuine cattle-baron swagger. It has been named one of the country’s best hotel bars, and its happy hour runs daily, 4 to 7 PM, usually with live music going. Stay for dinner and The Driskill Grill is right there, newly reimagined, with dry-aged steaks and a properly chilled martini.

In the mood for sushi? TenTen on West 6th does modern Japanese, sashimi and nigiri and maki alongside grass-fed Texas wagyu and robata. Happy hour runs Monday through Saturday, 4:30 to 6 PM, with half-price cocktails, beer, wine, and sake, plus discounted small plates and hand rolls. Their cocktails lean Japanese, so it is a real change of pace from a martini.

And for the long-game crowd, two picks. Las Perlas is our agave answer, a mezcal and tequila bar with happy hour daily from 4 to 8 PM and draft margaritas and palomas around $7, so it holds the whole evening. To end somewhere quieter and a little more serious about the craft, The Roosevelt Room is a proper cocktail room with happy hour every day from 3 to 6 PM.

Wherever you point yourself after, start where the light is best, at the LINE. The best hour of an Austin summer is waiting for you, and in summer that martini only costs about four dollars.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:

What are the best happy hours in downtown Austin?

A:

Downtown Austin’s best happy hours pair a good drink with a sense of place. Start at the LINE, where P6 pours cocktails and Mediterranean small plates over Lady Bird Lake, Cantero leans agave, and Kristen Kish’s Arlo Grey turns out chef-driven bites. From there, branch out to Bill’s Oyster for a raw bar, TenTen for sushi and robata, or Las Perlas for mezcal.

Q:

Does P6 have a happy hour?

A:

Yes. P6 runs happy hour year-round, Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 PM, with cocktails, wine, beer, and shareable Mediterranean plates. In summer, P6 also adds a Martini Happy Hour, Sunday through Friday from 4 to 5 PM.

Q:

When is the Summer Martini Happy Hour at P6?

A:

The Summer Martini Happy Hour runs Sunday through Friday, 4 to 5 PM, throughout the summer. Martinis are $4 for the Lemon Drop and Mexi, and $5 for the Classic, Dirty, Espresso, and Manhattan.

Q:

What time is happy hour at P6?

A:

P6‘s year-round happy hour runs Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 PM. The seasonal Summer Martini Happy Hour runs Sunday through Friday, 4 to 5 PM.

Q:

Where can I get the best martinis in Austin?

A:

P6 at the LINE is a standout for martinis in summer, with $4 and $5 pours during its Summer Martini Happy Hour and panoramic rooftop views of downtown Austin and Lady Bird Lake.