Garage
The Queen Anne's Lace is G'Vine Floraison gin with sarsaparilla bitters, carrot, maple, lime and peach, and the list it sits on is split into Custom, Vintage and Refurbished.2
Why go
The room is a former valet ticketing office inside the parking garage at 503 Colorado St, and you get to it by following signs past parked cars.1 Nicolai McCrary's line for The Infatuation: Walking into Garage Bar feels like you're entering the secret lair of a Fast & Furious movie villain.
1 Inside it is dark and high-ceilinged with tables around a round white granite bar, pouring a blend of classics and house builds, and the bartenders are pretty good at coming up with something on the spot
if you would rather describe than choose.1 The Chronicle's critics listed it as a Best of Austin pick in 2019, in Nightlife, as Most Aggressively Hip Cocktail Bar.3
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Queen Anne's Lace, if it is still on. Gracie Salem's 2014 write-up describes it as
smooth and delicious as layers of flavors kept revealing themselves
.2 - Or: the Japanese Cowboy, built on a two-ounce pour of Yamazaki, which was an unusual thing to find in an Austin bar when it was written up.2
- Or nothing at all: describe what you want and let the bar build it.1
- Avoid: a weekend walk-in without a reservation. It gets packed.1
What locals & experts say
- Nicolai McCrary, The Infatuation Austin, page dated 20 July 2022:
Walking into Garage Bar feels like you're entering the secret lair of a Fast & Furious movie villain.
1 - Austin Chronicle, 26 June 2014, ran the piece under the headline
Downtown's Garage Is a Hidden Gem.
2 - Gracie Salem, Austin Chronicle, 26 June 2014, on the Queen Anne's Lace: it was
smooth and delicious as layers of flavors kept revealing themselves
.2 - The same piece, on why the bar is built the way it is. Head barman Chauncy James, as at 2014, ran three independent stations for speed:
I don't care how good your cocktail tastes, if I waited 15 minutes for it, I hate you.
2 - Austin Chronicle, Best of Austin 2019, Critics Picks: Most Aggressively Hip Cocktail Bar, in Nightlife. This is the staff-picked half of Best of Austin, not the readers poll. The award page itself would not serve to our fetchers, so the year, half and category come from the Chronicle's own index and URL and no citation text is quoted.3
- No score, and that is policy not silence. The Infatuation does not rate places where you cannot eat a full meal.1
Good to know
- How old the record is: the drinks above are documented in a 2014 feature and the room description in a 2022 review. Whether the Queen Anne's Lace is still poured, and whether Chauncy James is still behind the bar, was not established by any source read here.
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health scores the kitchen 82, inspected 16 January 2026, with 86 in December 2024 and 94 in April 2024 behind it. Austin's failing line is 70 on a 100-point demerit scale where higher is better, so there is no finding here.4
- Not the other Garage: the register's name sweep also returns Empire Control Room & Garage on E 7th St, a different business. This is the Colorado Street Garage.4
Verdict
could-visit — A cocktail room carved out of a former valet ticketing office inside a downtown parking garage, with a list split into Custom, Vintage and Refurbished and bartenders The Infatuation says will build you something on the spot. The Chronicle's critics named it a Best of Austin pick in 2019. The specific drinks on record, the Queen Anne's Lace and the two-ounce Yamazaki pour, come from a 2014 feature, so the room is better documented than the current menu.