XL Night Moves

A shot of bourbon on Sixth Street

By Jonathon Goodsell
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Thursday, January 12, 2006

I have often heard Sixth Street called a "scaled-down Bourbon Street." Both streets are flush with bars, clubs, restaurants and revelers. But there's a difference in attitude. Now Sixth and Bourbon have a bit more in common with the recent opening of Bourbon Rocks on East Sixth Street.

Club owner Phil Uson is the successful operator of three bars on Bourbon Street, all of which survived the 2005 hurricane season. There's Razzoo, home to Bourbon's twentysomething crowd; Bourbon Street Blues Company, a popular hot spot; and Famous Door, standing proudly as one of the longest-surviving clubs on Bourbon Street.

Uson plans to make Bourbon Rocks one of several in a new national chain of clubs. "I took the best elements of all three clubs when creating Bourbon Rocks," Uson said. He's considering opening clubs in party districts in cities such as Atlanta and San Diego, but insists that Austin is the best place to try out his prototype.

I met up with my friends Katie and Vanessa to judge for myself just how authentic the New Orleans-style club is. Vanessa, unclued on the theme, called it right away: "Does this place remind anyone else of Bourbon Street?"

"Yeah," I told her, "that's kind of the point." For the most part, Bourbon Rocks is on the money. The open warehouse setup is very NOLA. There's plenty of room for dancing at the foot of a small stage, and there's a large, elevated bar that snakes around the back of the club.

The three of us sat near the bar listening to Rock Box, a '70s and '80s rock cover band from Southern California. I thought the band was pretty good for the most part, even though the AC was giving the lead singer a cheesy wind-blown look, and it skipped over Katie's Metallica request for an Abba rendition. "Fernando" is a good song, I guess, but it's not the same as "Enter Sandman."

Requests granted or not, after a few stiff drinks served up by Drew, our bartender, it was time to dance. We walked to the front of the stage to dance to Aerosmith and Rolling Stones covers. Vanessa, Katie and I waved our hands in the air along with other Bourbon Rockers as waitresses strolled around carrying trays loaded with test tube shots.

As far as the eye could see, fusion was king. The crowd was formed of mostly thirtysomethings, but there definitely were older and younger partiers in the mix. The dress code was downtown casual, as collars and ties mingled with blue jeans and open shoes. It was a case of classic Sixth with a heavy splash of Bourbon.

After working up a good sweat, Katie, Vanessa and I decided to breathe some fresh air on the outside patio, which was blissfully unoccupied by fellow clubgoers. A slight but steady breeze blew. "I still can't believe they didn't play my song," Katie mumbled while lighting her cigarette.

"I don't think this is a Metallica kind of place," answered Vanessa, then in the spirit of optimism continued with: "but you never know."

We headed back in and paid Drew the bartender, then headed out to cap off our night of Bourbon with a Sixth Street chaser. The band never honored Katie's request, but it didn't really matter. After all, we had our own shot of Bourbon Street served with all the convenience of downtown Austin.