by Quani C. on My friends and I refer to this place as "The Door." This is because the entrance is a very conspicuous door on a very plain wall on 5th street. The wall is white and the elegantly carved door is the only thing on it. You enter the door and decend some stairs to enter the lounge (I guess the stairs lead to the address on Congress). This place is pretty cool, I must admit. The reason I opted for 3 stars (more like 3 1/2) is because of the weird hours they have...even on St. Patrick's Day/SXSW. They are open at 8pm sharp until 2am, Wednesdays through Saturdays. I like a dependable place that's open every day or almost every day...it's like a source of comfort to me. Upon descending the stairs, you come into a pretty vast open area...complete with stripper pole, as my intoxicated friends pointed out. The layout is awesome with a long, two sided main bar in the middle and a little corner bar...duh, in the corner. Opposite the corner bar is a semi private curtained area with incredibly comfy couches, which is where we decided to rest our feet before continuing to other ventures. The atmosphere when I was there was pretty quiet, really laid back. They have live music a couple times a week, as is shown on the website. It's incredibly dark with a few gargoyles looming on the walls. There's lots of shades of red, purple, and blue...most of them pretty deep shades, actually. I had a pomegranite martini, which was pretty damn tasty...even if I cost $7. I actually don't think that it was too much to pay. They have an impressive martini list and a moderate beer list (not a list actually, you have to look at the cooler behind the bar). I accidentally forgot to close my tab, so after my friend and I rushed back to close it the bartender, I think his name was John, offered us shots. I said yes and he whipped up some flavorful concoction of his own...really yummy. I hope to be coming back to "The Door" soon.
