Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Annies Bar & Late-Night Menu

We used to live in the urban Northeast, and the bar at Annies is almost identical to the little tuck-in neighborhood bars we liked to haunt around Boston’s Copley Square or Manhattan’s Nolita. These ground-level places had windows open on the world and busy bars full of friends and regular customers. Most had music, and the best had low-key jazz. Bartenders displayed a sense of pride, lavishing their creations with the extra attention you never find in pick-up joints. Whether they chose new inventions or tried-and-true classics, everyone got a great drink. Ultimately, customers became regulars as they kept coming back for top-notch ingredients, careful attention to recipes, and a roster of creative drinks.

The bar at Annies certainly has the feel of one of those places. We recently sat at a window table where we could see the crowds outside but still enjoy the music inside from Ephraim Owens’ ingenious improvisation on his tilted-bell trumpet. Annies turned out to be a great place to sample classic cocktails. I asked for a Manhattan ($8), expecting the standard “which bourbon do you want?” query. Instead, they offered a choice of rye whiskies. Our server was even conversant in the flavor differences! Finding rye anywhere in Austin is a struggle, so this felt like paradise. We decided to press our luck and see if the bar could possibly deliver a classic Sazerac ($9). Indeed, there was the requisite rye, Peychaud’s Bitters, and the once-again legal absinthe.

Here are just a few things that set Annies’ bar apart from most of the competition:

• The bartenders frequently refer to antique bar books, hunting for the oldest – and therefore most accurate – version of a drink.

• They carefully measure with real jiggers instead of the faster but much less accurate “count and pour” system.

• Annies bartenders make all the classic cocktails as well as their own new creations, but all are made with an almost obsessive fixation on quality.

Annies joins a very small group of bars where things are done right.

Annies Bar & Late-Night menu is available from 3pm to closing and has a number of welcome choices, perfect for someone wandering the late-night streets of Austin looking for generous portions of comfort food. The menu describes the steak frites ($18) as “bar steak & pommes frites.” On the night we were there, the bar steak was a hanger cooked precisely to order, with just a hint of a rich dark savory sauce and served with a substantial portion of crispy fries. The whole thing was simple and classic, but the quality of the ingredients, careful preparation, and fair price (you can pay more for appetizers than this whole entrée within a few blocks) make it a winner. The moules frites ($12) are also a bargain. The sauce has a nice hint of saffron, and the quantity of chorizo is well chosen so as not to interfere with the sweet freshness of the mussels. For the ultimate comfort food, Annies’ mac and cheese ($6) spends its last few minutes in the pizza oven so that it comes to the table bubbling hot with a crispy top.

And what about wine? Though we were disappointed to discover that Shelly Schmidt had no input in Annies’ wine program and had already moved on from the restaurant, we found some pleasant surprises that work nicely with the menu, two-thirds of the choices being food-friendly, European wines. In most cases, the prices are very fair, especially by Downtown standards. In the whites, the Masi Masianco ($6.50/glass, $26/bottle) has light, lemony aromas which match up nicely with the moules frites. Char­don­nay lovers should try the Drouhin Saint-Véran ($7, $28), a quaffable Burgundy at a bargain price. Château de La Chaize ($20) is always a bargain for red-wine lovers, full of cherry and black pepper aromas and ideal with the grilled sal­mon ($20). If you want something a little stouter, say, for the steak frites, Alvaro Palacios’ Herencia Remon­do La Montesa Rioja ($9, $36) is a blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha that is a great example of how wonderful inexpensive Rioja wines can be. Between the atmosphere, the music, an interesting wine list, and an obsessive-compulsive devotion to outstanding cocktails, Annies’ bar is the type of place that makes me wish I lived Downtown. – Wes Marshall

This article appears in September 25 • 2009.

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Wes Marshall is the author of What's a Wine Lover To Do? (Artisan) and The Wine Roads of Texas (Maverick), as well as the Executive Producer of the PBS television series of the same name. Wes has written for The Austin Chronicle since 1999, covering wine, cocktails, food, and travel.