Austin: Driskill Grill (July 2013)

Recognized as a top US hotel bar by Food and Wine magazine, and one of the top 50 bars in the South by Garden and Gun magazine the Driskill Bar has long hosted politicians, business leaders, ten-gallon hats, boots, the occasional scandal, countless dates, and Texas society drinks. Today, a selection of Austin's finest performers offer six nights of live music per week, inventive craft cocktails, paying tribute to the bar's historic past (including a stint as a Prohibition-era speakeasy) and a well-loved menu of Texan favorites along with a rotating list of inventive specialty bites. The Driskill, a Romanesque-style building completed in 1886, is the  oldest operating hotel in Austin, and is one of the best-known hotels in Texas. The Driskill was conceived and built by Colonel Jesse Driskill, a cattleman who spent his fortune constructing "the finest hotel south of St. Louis". The Driskill is a member of Historic Hotels of America.The hotel's 60 rooms included 12 corner rooms with attached baths, an almost unheard-of feature in any hotel of the region at that time. The hotel included an open design to encourage airflow throughout the building and keep it cool; its primary feature was an open rotunda at the center that extended from the first to the fourth floors and culminated in a domed skylight. Other  embellishments included an electric bell system, marble bureaus and washstands, steam heating, and gas lighting. The gas pipes throughout the building particularly led Driskill to make the hotel as fireproof as possible, with 18-inch-thick walls between the rooms and two layers of iron between each floor. The steam boilers, kitchen, and laundry facilities were relegated to the back (north) side of the hotel to prevent their odors from permeating the hotel. The building is also said to have been built with a special ladies' entrance that allowed female guests to proceed directly to their rooms, thereby avoiding the rough talk of the cattlemen in the lobby.