Stationary, swiveling diner-style stools provide standard spacing to seating at the bar, track lighting providing special presentation to the decorations here. A few round tables fill in the main room, all of it under string lights and culminating in one of the bar’s two pool tables in back. A small offshoot of a space can be found back here, housing the entrance to the bar’s bathrooms and the linoleum-lined, dedicated pool room. A classic cigarette machine and even more classic jukebox anchor the rear of Deep Eddy Cabaret, the jukebox an amazingly affordable five-song-for-a-dollar bargain.
The Deep Eddy Cabaret exterior does well to set the stage for the dive bar density found inside, a striped awning sitting over a black, painted wall that holds separate signs reading “Deep,” “Eddy” and “Cabaret” with musical notes replacing some of the letters. The red neon sign that hangs off the building proclaims everything it needs to proclaim, reading simply as “Beer.” A few dedicated parking spots can be found in front for those visiting before the considerable crowd assembles, this small lot adjacent to a front patio area separated by red carpet-style ropes.
Thankfully, Deep Eddy Cabaret has been allowed to persist as it always has, the only real additions coming in the way of liquor and allowed credit cards. In a city notorious for its constant battle between Austin’s past and its future, Deep Eddy Cabaret is certainly a throwback to a simpler time in the city’s history and a welcome, dive bar oasis that just so happens to serve towering, frosted pitchers of beer.