Nickel City

Austin, Texas

Field Note

Nickel City can be a divisive topic among old school Austin dive bar enthusiasts thanks to the bar’s slow evolution from no-frills dive bar when it opened in 2017 to something a bit less rustic today. Where the bar sits on a spectrum from dive to faux dive bar is probably in the eye of the beholder, but despite the smoothing of some of the bar’s rougher edges, the drinking experience is always enjoyable in what is now a mainstay of the East Austin drinking scene.

Complicating matters is the fact that Nickel City occupies the building that once housed long-time dive bar holdout Longbranch Inn, itself only the most recent in a long line of neighborhood bars stretching back to the end of Prohibition. When Longbranch Inn eventually succumbed to the slow march of gentrification toward East Austin, partners Brand and Zane Hunt, Travis Tober and Craig Primozic took over the space, pledging to keep intact many of the elements that made Longbranch a “true” Austin dive bar in the eyes of many.

Chief among the set of preserved elements is the massive bar that sits in the center of the space, a hand-carved oak piece made for the Driskill Hotel bar in 1905. Built by Austin firm Nalle & Co., the bar was painstakingly removed from the Driskill Hotel by hand and transported across town to what is (hopefully) its final resting place. The structure is simple and classic, a long mirror supported by rows of liquor bottles and soft spot lighting.

Nickel City draws its name from the Buffalo heritage of owner Travis Tober, the ‘Nickel City’ moniker both a nickname for the city of Buffalo and the name of a now-closed diner frequented by Tober during his time in the city. The vintage beer and liquor signs that dot the space largely come from the garage of Tober’s grandfather. Rochester specialty Genesee Cream Ale is found on tap here, a rarity for a Texas dive bar and another nod to Tober’s heritage.

The Austin dive bar’s cocktail menu is divided into plain language sections Well Known, Lesser Known, Unknown and Tiki, allowing drinkers to choose their degree of alcoholic adventure. Selections range from a Dr. Pepper Old Fashioned (Well Known) to the Disco Dust (Unknown), a mixture of vodka, coconut milk and fresh fruit. The dichotomy in the Nickel City is-it-a-dive-bar experience is probably best exemplified through its cocktail menu that mixes innovative coconut milk-based concoctions with $4 Coors Banquet on tap. Not to be overlooked is the Nickel City whiskey collection that includes over 60 options.

At one point named one of the best bars in America by Esquire Magazine, Nickel City has also generated some notoriety through a string of bar takeovers, most notably a pair of Simpsons-themed events. Spanning the course of two weeks, Nickel City’s Simpsons transformation runs deep, the bar’s exterior reimagined as Moe’s Tavern. Countless layers add to the experience inside and out, including the presence of a Love Tester machine and, of course, the availability of a Flaming Moe’s cocktail. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this same level of ingenuity was expressed through “Nickel City’s” to-go packages that included a six pack and half bottle of whiskey, allowing the bar to financially navigate rolling government bar shutdowns. Dive bar or not, the Nickel City formula has proven successful enough to spawn a pair of sister locations in Houston and Fort Worth.

Not content to allow partner Travis Tober to frame Nickel City as an exclusively Buffalo-themed bar, brothers and fellow co-owners Brand and Zane Hunt introduced their Detroit roots to the space in the form of the Delray Cafe, a permanent Detroit-style coney dog on-site popup. Wings, sliders, a McRib imitation sandwich and even pizza logs (yes, pizza logs), complement classic coney dogs.