First Impressions: Brew Exchange

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride recently for West Sixth Street. Katz’s Deli and Momo’s closed; 219 West moved in as Union Park packed up and relocated to The Domain, and this Thursday, Brew Exchange will open in the old Annie’s West.

The Brew Exchange concept is simple enough: drinker demand sets the price of the beers. Everyone is ordering Great Divide Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti? The price climbs. No one is ordering Thirsty Planet Buckethead IPA? The price drops. (Based off that, this probably won’t be the cheapest place in town to get a Lone Star.)

We stopped by for the soft opening on Sunday. Though the ticker wasn’t running yet — which was fine since the beer was free — we were able to get a first glimpse at the newest addition to West Sixth Street.

The Good
  • The bartenders: The bartenders we interacted with were attentive and totally knowledgeable about all the beers on tap. When we asked for suggestions, they delivered deep cuts from the menu and never appeared to be annoyed at our carefree/it’s-all-good-to-me approach to ordering beer. Perhaps most importantly, even with a big crowd to deal with, the bartenders never made anyone in our group feel ignored.
  • Private viewing: There are three booths facing TVs that are available for reservation. These tables are topped with what appears to be a light but what is actually a clear plastic dome housing several speakers. It’s not exactly hypersonic sound cool, but it’s a sweet (and probably much more affordable) solution that allows for each table to hear what’s on the TV in front of them.
  • What’s on tap: Brew Exchange offers an impressive beer selection. We’re not talking about the best selection in town, but even the snobbiest of beer aficionados should be able to find something on tap that will please. We found plenty of beers not typically stocked at bars and enjoyed everything we tried.
  • The layout: The bar is shaped nicely and winds down the length of the room. This makes it easy to access from anywhere in the bar and allows for plenty of places to squeeze in to place an order.
  • The look: The interior is masculine but not douchey. The color palette seems inspired by the muted metallic colors of the brews behind the bar with a mix of wood, cooper and dark subway tiles.
  • Bathrooms: As you’d expect from a brand new higher-end bar, the bathrooms were clean.

The Not So Good

  • The ticker: The ticker wasn’t running at the soft opening, which kept us from seeing the fluctuating prices in action, but the management says everything is in order for the Thursday opening. Word is prices can dip as low as $2 for a beer. We’re anxious to see if that really happens.
  • Seating: There’s not much in the way of seating for groups. That’s not a deal breaker, but if you’re looking for a place to sit and chat over a pint, this may not be the ideal location. 
  • It’s West Sixth Street: To be fair, the block isn’t exactly our scene, but Brew Exchange and 219 West could change that. Brew Exchange is actually a cool bar, and with 219 West’s wondrous happy hour within walking distance, we may need to reconsider our position on things west of Congress Avenue.

The Bad

  • Give me a hand: Though the bathrooms look immaculate, there’s no good spot to place your beer while you’re using the facilities. This is a minor gripe, but for guys who like to walk around with a pint in their hand, going No. 1 turns into a bit of a juggling act if there’s not a shelf or ledge above the urinal.

The Verdict
We were worried Brew Exchange would be too bro-y for our taste, but the crowd seemed more chill than the ones we’ve encountered at Kung Fu Saloon (same owners). Not once did a bumped shoulder escalate into a bro-down, and no dudes in tight polo shirts popped up to randomly grind on any females around us.

The concept is fun and seems to lend itself well to a more mature drinking game — one based on exploring new brews as opposed to duct taping a pair of 40-ouncers to your hands. We’ll be curious to see how the fluctuating drink prices, which don’t apply to mixed drinks for the time being, work out. We’ll find out this week. Brew Exchange’s “opening bell” is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m.

www.brewexchange.com
Twitter: @72Beers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brewexchange

—Eric Pulsifer and Whitney Diehl

First Impression: The Beauty Ballroom



Better late than never, the Beauty Ballroom, a spinoff of the Beauty Bar on 7th Street, is celebrating its grand opening tonight with Theophilus London, Treasure Fingers, L.A.X, Vegas Banger and Rickey Jean Francois.

We stopped by last Saturday during the soft opening to catch RAC (Remix Artist Collective), a group of DJs who put a slick, often minimal dance twist on indie rock tunes. It ended as all good Beauty Bar sets do with a majority of the crowd on the stage. Good times.

But what did we think of the heir apparent to that glittery Red River District staple, the Beauty Bar?

The Good
• Cheap drinks: Drinks are reasonably priced. When we were there, 16 oz. cans of Tecate were $3 and some abysmal-tasting lager out of Pennsylvania we had never encountered before called Stoneys was free while it lasted. They also offered well drinks for $2 from midnight to 2 a.m.

• Smart layout: There’s a long list of things I like about the 7th Street Beauty Bar, but size and stage visibility have always been a big negative. The Ballroom is much larger without suffering from the same boxy warehouse vibe of Emo’s East. There are tables and chairs on a slightly raised level at the back wall from the stage, perfect for chatting with friends while keeping an eye on the action. The bar and bathrooms are easily accessible near the entrance and their lines never poured into the crowd. While the upstairs area was roped off, I can envision a nice VIP vibe similar to the upstairs viewing area at Dallas venue Trees.

• Fun crowd: The dance floor, which is probably about as big as the entire floorspace of Beauty Bar, was lively as far back as I could see from near the stage. Highlights included: two guys rubbing their shirtless abs together, a girl sitting down on a dirty-dancing hipster (not in a sexual way, but rather sitting down on him like he was a chair), and the aforementioned stage rushers. From everything I witnessed, folks were having a good time and inhibitions were low.


The Not So Good
• Location: The new venue shares a parking lot with Emo’s East at 2015 East Riverside, and while there’s no place in Austin I’d rather be than neighboring Rosita’s Al Pastor, I rarely find myself in that neck of the woods, especially on the weekend.

• The look: While the interior is much better than Emo’s East, it’s still a little off. The glitter on the walls looks a little cheap and the color scheme just doesn’t feel right to me. I want the pink and gold sparkles of the Beauty Bar, not primary colors and sickly orange-colored wood.


The Bad
• Parking problems: While there appears to be ample parking outside of Beauty Ballroom and Emo’s and in neighboring lots, if there’s a show going on in both spaces, as there is bound to be on most Fridays and Saturdays, those spaces get snagged up quick. We arrived at 9 p.m. and circled the lot twice before looking elsewhere. Many neighboring lots have signs promising to tow, reading, “No Emo’s parking.” (And as much as I’d love to argue with a tow-truck driver that I was technically parking for Beauty Ballroom, I have a feeling it won’t get me out of that fat towing fee.) The big, mostly empty lot just west of the building is reserved for Bingo parking. Try going south on any of the residential streets and you’ll find most of the space is off limits. We managed to grab a questionably legal spot curbside just in front of the club. Hopefully the owners can work with nearby businesses to make sure there’s enough parking space to accommodate the Ballroom’s 700-person capacity.


The Verdict
The Beauty Ballroom isn’t quite ready for full-time drunken revelry just yet, as it’s only open on a show-to-show basis, but it makes me a little more confident about the future of Riverside as a destination for live music. There will be no replacing the Beauty Bar, which is reported to be closing some time after SXSW 2012, but the Ballroom definitely offers some big improvements over the original. Now to see how these guys handle SXSW.


—Eric Pulsifer

ListenAustin: Fanfarlo, Freelance Whales at The Independent

Fanfarlo, Freelance Whales at The Independent (12.02.09)
By @SupercoolEric

Last night, the gang reluctantly watched me battle giant scorpions in Fallout 3 while we drank cheap beer in preparation for the Fanfarlo show at The Independent.

If you’ve never been there, The Independent is a surprisingly barren venue resembling a black box theater. It’s located on East Fifth just west of Progress Coffee. The inside is all black and curtains cover the walls, which go up two stories. Paper lanterns from IKEA spot the ceiling and are illuminated with blue bulbs. A short, smallish stage is in the back corner. The beer is reasonably priced ($3 for a tall can of Lone Star) but the barely elevated stage leaves something to be desired. Even though I’m well over 6 ft. tall, I have trouble viewing the stage unless up close. Luckily, the sound is pretty good and there’s plenty of room.

We arrived just after Freelance Whales went on to a crowd that was larger than expected. Though I was a bit distracted — like I said, the view from the back sucks ass — Freelance Whales put on an enjoyable set of joyous, quirky pop with a slight country twang driven by a cornucopia of instruments, choral harmonies and hushed, high-pitched male vocals (sounds like The Format, Loney Dear). They also win points for a spot-on cover of Broken Social Scene’s “7/4 Shoreline.”

Pushing up close for a better view of the stage, we were treated to a set of beautiful music from the lovely London five-piece Fanfarlo. The band’s sound will immediately strike a chord with fans of Arcade Fire and Beirut but has a more poppy delivery not unlike that of Coldplay circa 2000.

The band has toured extensively and has played SXSW several times over the past few years. The experience on the road shows. The percussion, violin and guitars, all softened on the album and tucked away under layers of male and female vocals, were far more vibrant live. Fanfarlo played every track from their debut Reservoir, and without exception, every song was an improvement over the album. An unreleased song was included on the set list as well, a tune the guys said they wrote when stuck in the tour van one day.

The band started their set with a stripped down version of “I’m A Pilot” but turned up the heat on “The Walls Are Coming Down,” opening with a minute of percussive stage stomping before the rest of the band jumped in.

The guys came out for a planned encore of “Ghosts,” but as the crowd begged for even more, the band whispered among themselves to find a song they all remembered (sadly, it wasn’t “We Live By The Lake,” which several people in the audience requested but the band said it had forgotten how to play) before settling on “Sand and Ice.”

LISTEN
Fanfarlo on Hype Machine
Freelance Whales on MySpace