The Driskill Bar

"Grand" and "luxurious", this Downtown "true Texas bar" in the lobby of the "historic" Driskill Hotel boasts an "über-masculine", "old-school Western elegance" (think "leather furniture and animal heads") along with regular live music and "terrific" drinks and bar bites; "local power broker"–appropriate prices don't dissuade a crowd made up of the "young and seasoned alike", all of whom receive...

The famous and notorious, from Lyndon B. Johnson to Bob Dylan, have swept through the bar on the way to their various rendezvous. And the room still seems to reverberate from their passing.

The Driskill Hotel is an ideal spot for wedding receptions, political victory parties and romantic weekend getaways.

This venerable Austin hotel is known for its rooms and its restaurant, but the very best part of it might be the evocative bar, which transports you to the days of the Old West. Everything's done up in cowhide and polished copper, the barmen are genteel, and the crowd is all Texas money. There's live piano music some evenings, and always enough activity to make the place feel lively, even on a...

A stately lounge fit for a cattle baron. Take a date there for an after-dinner drink. She’ll have the white-chocolate martini. You’ll have a Laphroaig. Split a dessert under the gilded ceiling. Let the cowhide couch cradle you while the lounge singer croons. Excuse yourself to the men's room. Clean up with a luxury towelette. Check your wallet for a condom. No-go? Call the front desk. No...

In Short
Lean against the carousel-shaped bar and it's as if you've stepped back in time to an era of cattle barons, cigar-puffing politicos and oil-patch wildcatters. Completing the...

Austin's most renowned hotel, The Driskill is stylishly grand and opulent. It has recently had the mother of all makeovers. It is an ideal abode because of its proximity to both the corporate as well as the entertainment districts of Austin. The rooms are splendid; each of the 205 guestrooms have been done up in turn-of-the-century Victorian design. If you spend the night look out for the...