Back Lot
Twenty-nine taps, about half of them Texas, and the price list does not move: US$4 wells, US$3 tall boys, US$3 select drafts, all day, every day.1
Why go
The Workhorse team bought this building in 2017. It had been Nasty's for 32 years and had just closed.1 The bar sits directly behind Flamingo Automotive, which is where the name came from, and the interior takes the hint: license plates, three-color silk-screen prints of car parts, exposed cinderblock, wood beams, a Rowe AMI jukebox and a pool table.1 One artifact survived the handover. Behind the bar, on top of a cooler, sits a matted taxidermy mount called Jack Nasty. Co-owner Steve Ettle on what it is: It's a bear, or a dog, or wolverine, maybe a chupacabra? We don't know.
And on why it stayed: He's a holdover from Nasty's, and a sincere tribute—but we don't know what he is.
1
Order this / avoid
- A Texas draft. Twenty-nine taps, roughly half of them Texas beer.1
- A tall boy and a rack of pool, because that is the arithmetic here. The spirits shelf is more than adequate and there are no signature cocktails, no drink specials and no happy hour, because the everyday price is already the cheap price.1
- Avoid: planning to eat. The address holds a food establishment permit, and I haven't found anything, the bar's own site included, that names a single thing it cooks.2
- Avoid: coming for a night out with a schedule. Ettle's own framing is that customers should know what to expect whenever they arrive,
without fear of trivia nights, karaoke, or dart leagues upending the ambience.
1
What locals & experts say
- Anthony Head in Austin Monthly, verbatim on the room:
Quite frankly, it looks like an unfinished basement—a place thrown together simply to have a reliable, familiar spot to hang out with friends.
He means it as praise, and the piece runs in The Deep End, the magazine's standing column on the dive bars that keep Austin a city of neighborhoods.1 - The same feature, on whether that is an achievement:
Ten years from now, if this place doesn't look and feel exactly the same, then something's gone horribly wrong.
1 - Steve Ettle on the design brief, verbatim:
We're not remaking the wheel. The neighborhood dive bar is a proven concept.
And on the neighborhood:They're looking for a place to walk to, get a couple pints, socialize. Because people in Austin are just looking for community, we don't bother with any distractions.
1 - I haven't found anyone who has written about the food. Head's feature covers the beer, the pricing and the room, and it names no dish.
Good to know
- Hours: open every day, 3pm to 2am.1
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health registers the kitchen at
Back Lot
, 606 Maiden Ln, scoring 95 on 6 November 2025 and 93 on 4 April 2024. Austin's failing threshold is below 70, so there is no finding.2 - Getting there: 606 Maiden Lane, off Guadalupe, tucked in behind Flamingo Automotive.1
Verdict
could-visit — RE-SCORED 2026-08-08. The Workhorse team took over Nasty's in 2017 after a 32-year run and rebuilt it as the thing it already was: cinderblock, a jukebox, a pool table, a taxidermy chupacabra of uncertain species called Jack Nasty, and twenty-nine taps with about half of them Texas. Austin Monthly's Anthony Head, who wrote a book on Texas dive bars, calls the room an unfinished basement and means it well. The pricing is the argument: US$4 wells, US$3 tall boys and US$3 select drafts all day, every day, with no happy hour because there is no need for one. No published review covers the food, though the address does hold a food permit, so eat first. It is a very good version of a common thing rather than a reason to cross town.