Uptown Sports Club
The bread is Leidenheimer's and the mayonnaise is Duke's, both brought in from New Orleans for the po'boys.1
Why go
The menu covers the New Orleans essentials: a raw bar, gumbo, po'boys stuffed with everything from fried green tomatoes to Gulf shrimp. Zapp's and Crystal Hot Sauce sit on every table.1 The room is a long-vacant building at Waller and East Sixth. Aaron Franklin and a group including Hot Luck Fest partner James Moody refurbished it and opened in March 2023. Inside there are mosaic tile floors, a marble wraparound bar and bow-tied bartenders.2 Nicolai McCrary rates it 8.2 and puts the raw bar at the top of the menu.1 The house sums up its own aim in one line: a bar you can eat at and a restaurant you can drink in.3
Order this / avoid
- The Petite Plateaux, a two-person sampler that covers most of the raw bar. McCrary's pick if you are in for drinks and snacks.1
- The fried Gulf shrimp po'boy, and the double-patty Uptown burger, where the dijon and pickles cut a heavy sandwich.1
- A martini, which is printed nowhere and which the bartenders will build. It is the drink McCrary pairs with a dozen oysters.1
- Avoid: the hot roast beef po'boy. McCrary's answer to the question everyone asks is that the brisket debris gravy is good and
ends up making the whole thing a little too rich in sandwich form.
1
What locals & experts say
- Nicolai McCrary, The Infatuation, April 2025, 8.2, setting the expectation plainly:
Uptown might never draw the same lines as Franklin Barbecue, and that's perfectly fine. Nobody needs to wait four hours in the sweltering sun for a po'boy or a platter of oysters.
1 - Melanie Haupt in the Austin Chronicle, March 2023, reported the opening for the 27th, with red beans and rice, po'boys and brisket boudin on the first menu. That is an openings column, so it records what launched and judges none of it.2
Good to know
- Timing: open Tuesday through Sunday, with happy hour on weekday afternoons and brunch at weekends. The all-day-and-most-of-the-night schedule announced at opening in 2023 no longer holds.3
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health scores the kitchen 85, inspected 10 February 2026, after 87, 80 and 91 back to August 2023. Austin runs a 100-point demerit scale where higher is better and 70 is the failing line. So none of this is a finding. The city lists it as Uptown Sports, and the full trading name returns nothing.4
Verdict
should-visit — Walk in. Aaron Franklin's name is on the building and none of the barbecue standing travels here: what crosses from the pit is one gravy.