Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons

Photo by John Anderson

Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons

You just can't talk about the Four Seasons in Austin without mentioning the Lobby Lounge. A sprawling expanse of comfy conversation areas adjacent to the hotel lobby, this is unquestionably one of the best bars (with some of the best bartenders) in the city. You can order a drink with confidence, from a classic cocktail such as a sidecar to a Batini (Austin's official tipple) to a seasonal Partridge in a Pear; these bartenders know their business, and drinks are made strictly from scratch. The bar food, delivered from the TRIO restaurant kitchens downstairs, is light, fresh, beautifully prepared and presented, and designed to complement drinks.

The bar's ambience is a cocktail of city-style elegance (high-backed armchairs, polished wood, embossed linen drink coasters) and cattle-baron-chic (longhorn head mounted over the fireplace, equestrian statuary, cowhide upholstery). Ceiling-high windows face the lake, creating a prime location for bat-watching in the twilight.

There's often something of a show inside, too, and I'm not referring to the regular performances on the gleaming grand piano. The Lobby Lounge has been informally called "Austin's living room" for long enough that the Four Seasons calls it that now, too. Politicians, socialites, visiting celebrities, musicians and music moguls, local movers and shakers all seem to pass through at some point; the bar's been witness to many a meeting, many a deal, many a late-night tryst. It's served as the locus for the annual Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival for many years, and it becomes an automatic afterparty for events in the hotel. During the South by Southwest and Austin City Limits festivals, the lobby bar is a teeming crossroads. And at the same time ... you're likely to see a higher concentration of expensive suits there than any­where else in the city. Austin's living room, indeed.