Nickel City

East 6th Street has changed enormously since 2010. Condos have risen. Rents have doubled. New bars open every month. Nickel City has watched all of this happen and remained completely, defiantly itself. That makes it not just one of Austin's best dive bars, but one of its most valuable ones.

The bar is small, dim, and smells of old wood and cold beer. The jukebox leans toward classic rock, country, and 1970s soul. There are about 16 taps behind the bar, most of them local Texas craft beers and some of them things your grandfather drank. The bartenders know regulars by name and manage to make strangers feel like regulars on the first visit.

Unlike some "dive bars" that are carefully designed to look like dive bars, Nickel City earns the designation honestly. There is nothing curated here. The pool table is slightly warped, which regulars use as an excuse when they lose. The kitchen is limited to bar snacks, which is correct. Nickel City is one of those places where Austin locals take visiting friends to prove that not everything has changed.