Best of Austin®

Best Set of Precarious Bar Stairs

Barfly's

click to enlarge Best Set of Precarious Bar Stairs
Photo by Todd V. Wolfson

Yes, they’ve got cheap (strong) drinks, billiards, and a great jukebox, but there’s a high level of expertise covertly embedded in this charmingly divey bar above Burger Tex on Airport Blvd. There are not one but two metal staircases on which you can (and must) practice your balance and hone your stability skills. One leads up from the parking lot and into the very dark bar; the other leads down from the bartenders toward the outdoor back patio. Their namesake Bukowski poem reminds us: “... no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn’t find anybody exactly like you. And neither can I.”