DOWNTOWN AUSTIN

Neighborhood & Lifestyle

The hot bed of culture in Austin. Rapidly transforming right in front of our eyes into a scaled down metropolis that is the business hub and playground for all Austin residents and visitors. After you spend some time wandering the streets, you may get the feeling very quickly that the Austin Downtown scene isn't quite as huge as one would expect. This demand for a more walkable city has caused rapid evolution since the early 2000’s. Since that time, new neighborhood districts have been created. These include 2nd street, 4th street, Rainey street, Dirty 6th, West 6th,  and more! The downtown area has everything from Austins signature Toy shop, Toy Joy, to Austin’s premier and independent theater, Violet Crown Cinema, but nothing is as exciting at the live music you can catch. Some of Austins best listening rooms are venues that lie in the most unexpected places but if you don't feel like hunting for good tunes, the red river district “Austin’s historically rebellious music district is an excellent place to venture. 

Shopping & Lifestyle

What makes the Downtown area now such an extraordinary place is new amount of shops, grocery stores, and public area’s to hang out in. That might sound like obvious things for a city to have, but going back in time ten years, Austin, as we have come to know it today, was a much, MUCH slower paced city, “that felt more like a large town.” With the evolution of SXSW now proclaimed as the largest festival in the world, Austin has done a fantastic job at adding the "city" vibe to Austin, while still working hard to preserve the smaller town vibe. 

Dining & Drinking

We aren't really sure where to start. The dining in downtown has continuously expanded over the past few years into an array of diverse food options to choose from like La Condessa, True Food Kitchen, Lamberts "fancy" BBQ, Wu Chow, and Lonesome Dove. All these are some of the trendiest, and sometimes called hipster influenced restaurants but there are also many that are not as “posh” that have much to offer. Some of these "classic Austin" options are spots like choices Waltons Fancy and Staple, Huts Hamburgers, Veggie Heaven, and Nau Enfield Drug. Hunting for your next meal is often a question of what type of tasty adventure do you want to have next. Make no mistake, Fancy comes at a price, but luckily deliciousness doesn't have to!  

Now let's break Austin's drinking scene up into 3 "styles" of bars. You have Dirty 6th-type bars, where you can find 2 dollar shots at a lot of bars on Tuesday, 5 Dollar pitchers at Shakespears most nights of the week, and get Wells that won't break the bank if it's not a weekend. If you are on the hunt for more posh and pretty party bars, West 6th and Rainey street are absolutely worth checking out. Some of the hot spots that you're sure to come across would be Kung Fu Saloon, Hangar Lounge, Clive, and Lucille's. These will be places that you can get a little rowdy without the "Dirty" 6th vibe. Then there are a few hidden Gems in the city like, The Roosevelt room and Garage that specialize in craft/ prohibition-like, cocktails. Those are two of the most unique bars in the downtown scene if you are looking for the craft cocktail vibe. Not only that, but they will be sure to impress your Tinder date to boot!

Apartments & Accessibility

The downtown region sits between the two highways that go to North and South Austin, which are Mopac and IH-35, and borders Town lake, aka Ladybird Lake, and expands north from there till you reach just beyond the Texas capital approximately. After 2000 the need for housing increased in the downtown area because of the larger office buildings and job infrastructure started to rise. Thus, Apartment housing went up and up and up. The Downtown apartment options range from nice to nicer! With most housing options being build with modern necessities in mind, you will most the time have everything your heart could desire and more, and all while being located in the middle of the best city in the world.