The BackWood Bar
The kitchen here is somebody else's truck, and the two parked in the yard are Granny's Tacos and Midway Dogs.1
Why go
Matthew Jacobs leads his Infatuation piece on the thing that decides where you drink on this strip. Past the strip of busy Menchaca bars
, he writes, you'll find this spacious indoor-outdoor spot
, and it has a parking situation that won't make you feel wrathful about the existence of cars.
1 The yard runs pickleball, live music, a mechanical bull and seasonal crawfish boils, and he saw a professional wrestling tournament staged in the middle of it.1 That block of Menchaca past Slaughter is the city's outdoor-bar corridor, and the city's inspection list returns a wall of neighbors along the same road, Moontower Saloon, Armadillo Den, Bouldin Acres, which is the company this address keeps.4
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation Austin, Matthew Jacobs, 8 April 2026:
BackWood is a good place to post up for an afternoon or evening with a big group that might enjoy, say, a professional wrestling tournament in the middle of the yard.
The page tags it Big Groups, Sitting Outside and Day Drinking. Jacobs is The Infatuation's Senior Editor in Austin and joined the outlet in 2024; he is not registered in this project's expert list, so the piece is cited under the outlet's name with his own attached.1 - Three Infatuation list placements: The Spots Of The Summer Austin Edition, The Best Patios & Backyards In Austin, and The Best Crawfish Spots In Austin. There is no score, because The Infatuation states on the page that it only rates places where you can eat a full meal.1
Good to know
- What is still not known: nobody publishes hours or a drinks list. Those two holes survive.
- Live music: the Austin Chronicle's calendar carries the room as a live-music venue, which under the Austin ruling is a date and a location and never an opinion.3
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health has no row for this address. A bar without a food operation can sit outside the inspection program altogether, so this is a gap and not a result.4
- Getting there: Menchaca Road past Slaughter Lane, roughly twenty minutes south of downtown by car and not walkable from anything.
Verdict
could-visit — A spacious indoor-outdoor bar at the far south end of Menchaca, and Matthew Jacobs makes the case for it in The Infatuation on the thing every other bar on that strip fails at: parking. Inside the fence there is pickleball, live music, a mechanical bull, seasonal crawfish boils, and on at least one occasion a professional wrestling tournament in the middle of the yard. The kitchen is other people's, which here means Granny's Tacos and Midway Dogs. The Infatuation files it in The Best Patios & Backyards In Austin and The Best Crawfish Spots In Austin. It is unrated because The Infatuation only puts numbers on places you can eat a full meal. Nobody publishes the hours or a word about what is in the glass, and Austin Public Health has no row for the address.