Strange Brew, Austin Coffee

Coffee is OK, nothing special. Older crowd tends to hang around, sometimes a lot of parents with young kids. Breakfast food is pretty bad, had a stale old muffin that was inedible.
Overall has a dirty underwhelming vibe.

You know, I really wanted to love this place as I walked in with my boyfriend and a friend of ours. The positives about this coffee shop, is that they were pretty nice, explained what kind of beer they had to my boyfriend and helped him find the right one that he wanted, their sandwiches were delicious, and the place is really big so you can always find somewhere to sit. They also have a really nice room for live music. What I didn’t like about this coffee shop was that when we checked in and received our 10% off discount, they told us that they don’t take it anymore so we didn’t get to use it. Also we arrived about an hour and a half early for open mic. We asked what time we were supposed to sign up and they just kept telling us to go into the music room at 9:30. When 930 rolled around, we went into the lounge area where the music is and there were already a line of about 30+ people. So, if you want to do open mic there you need to get there about an hour early and wait in line as soon as you get there and wait for the lady who takes the sign-​ups to arrive. We were in able to do open mic, so we stayed to watch if you acts. You can tell that there was a bunch of people who go there every week and really great friends, they’re open mic is more than older scene.

If the music is good as their Strange Brew Coffee, I’m in! Coffee is one of a kind, rich in flavor. This place has a classic South Austin vibe and I love that it so close to my old high school.

Loved studying here in the designated study room. It’s so quiet. It’s the best of both worlds: a coffee shop and library study room all in one! I hear they have pretty cool music and events to! Def check it out

If you start with a beer and finish with the Jelly Doughnut steamer (trust me, try it), it’s like you had dinner and dessert. Comfortable and easy-​going, you have permission to come as you are. There’s a study room if you need quiet but much more fun to do your coffee sipping/​people watching/​eavesdropping/​pretending to work in the main rooms where the action is. The Lounge next door gives you the live music option if you decide to scrap the work pretense altogether. Go ahead and come to Strange Brew when you just shouldn’t be at home anymore. It’s okay, they understand, it’s open 24 hours.

coffee house, table abundance and plenty of large tables to get your study on.

This place was recommended to me by my leasing agent when I moved South. However, I’ve been twice and had bad experiences both times. Apparently if you don’t look hip enough, you don’t get good service. The staff were dismissive and snobby both times and the products overpriced and inferior.

Love this place. A little more hippie than I usually do, but they are always friendly, always have great coffee, and today the jalapeño breakfast biscuit sandwich was fantastic.

Busy little place, that has a good size parking lot in south Austin. Awesome cold brew — choices of «all the milks!» Hooray! Food smelled and looked delicious, they support music there too! Can’t go wrong, they are not overly hipster– super friendly and non-​pretentious! Love it!

One of my favorite coffee shops to work remotely at and they even have a quiet room! Place is legit :)

Great place to see live music. The listening room is small, but acoustics are awesome. Plan to get there early if you want a seat. The shows are reasonably priced, and their Sunday morning show is awesome-​and helps fund the food bank via donations and part of the proceeds from purchasing mimosas. They have food, beer (tap and bottle), and wine.

I’ve been here a few times, both for coffee and for shows. The music venue is great. When you’re seated, it feels like you’re in a downtown music venue. Very well done, great acoustics.
What I’m not a big fan of is the other side, the coffee shop. For being such a huge area, it seems that the seating arrangements are lack and kind of odd. It just never seems put together — to me it looks like they drove around some neighborhoods, grabbed whatever seating and tables they could find on the side of the road, and threw them in the shop for a quick open. They could put a lot more chairs down to accommodate more people, which would help make it feel less open and sterile. For me, I like a warm, inviting coffee shop to hang out in, do some reading, whatever. If I want cold, I’ll go to a fast food joint and sit in a booth. I don’t think it would take much to make this place look and feel really stellar, but I don’t know if they ever will. Because of this, it’s never my first choice for coffee even though it’s close by to my house. Sorry, I’m a sucker for a relaxed, warm, comfortable atmosphere.

I like Strange Brew mainly because they are open ²⁴⁄₇ and they have a terrific music venue. The regulars here are friendly. The coffee house is spacious and the quiet area is useful.
However, like many gathering places in Austin, it gets crowded. The parking lot gets crowded too. I could not imagine trying to study here during busy hours, yet many people do. You may have to wait in a long line to order during peak hours, although the staff works at a fast pace to accommodate the customers.
There are usually smokers out front which means you will get smoke on your clothes when you enter and exit. This is unfortunate, but pretty standard for any bar, coffee house, or music venue in Austin.
The wi-​fi is slow during peak hours, too. There is not a lot of bandwidth for the amount of traffic.
In a nutshell, I like this place but always avoid it during busy hours. I appreciate the quality of the music they present. Their wi-​fi has served me well during late nights and early mornings.

So… This place is tough to review. The concept is interesting, sort of a hodgepodge mix of someone’s interests. I can only guess the owner wanted to do a bunch of things and the randomly decided «why not do all of it in one place?» Which seems sort of ok, until you’re having a cup of coffee with a friend and people keep leaning right over your table to squint at a painting on the wall because your coffee bar is inconveniently located in the middle of their art show. Or, when you’re getting a beer at the bar… But have to wait for your bartenderista to make a latte and macha frapawhateva before they can hand you a can of beer. Or when they have live music and the website says tickets are at the door, but when you get there the angry old guy chews you out (unprovoked) because you should have bought tickets online… While he sits at a ticket booth jammed directly in the doorway which is NOT marked sold out.
In addition to the music ticket booth being directly in the way of the entrance, the staff asks the line for their tiny coffee bar with one register to walk away from the door to the back of the room because the bar/​coffeebar/​register/​kitchen is also awkwardly located just a few steps inside the front door.
The coffee is only so-​so and the baristas/​bartenders are nice enough, but overall it’s less than worth the hassle most of the time. It’s really ideal for people needing hours of free wifi for the cost of a cup o joe. So… Stoners & students… That’s about it.

Hip place that gives you a choice of a chilled coffee bar, study room or a music filled atmosphere. We enjoyed our drinks and just lounging around.
It’s south of the main austin scene but definitely worth visiting if you just want a nice drink and a place to hang.

This venue is pretty cool, but there was a recent bad experience. A big group of us went to a show there. We had a person in our group who needed to sit down due to some recent medical problems. The venue all but refused to accommodate this person’s request for a chair and the encounter humiliated him to the point that my friend cried.
If someone is handicapped and asks for a chair give them a chair! That’s just heartless. There’s no handicapped seating or section at this venue.

I want to love Strange Brew… and there are things that I do like about it. It’s the only coffee shop remotely close to my neighborhood, it’s 24 hrs, free WiFi, a «quiet» study area, they showcase local artists and they’ve expanded their business to do cool things like supporting live music and opening a restaurant. These are all very cool things. but there are some things about the place that are «meh» and a couple of things that seriously f’n suck.
The coffee and food are okay. A couple of things are really good – the peanut-​butter frap drink and the «strange brew» drink come to mind – but everything else I’ve had is basically standard barista fair: decent and about what you’d expect (a.k.a. much better than ⁷⁄₁₁ coffee but not appreciably different from any other coffee house.) And there is almost always a line for service, which isn’t a big deal, but it can get really long and when it does, they don’t handle the volume especially efficiently. Most of the baristas are friendly, though, and acknowledge the long wait.
The first thing that drives me nuts about the place is the smell – I’m not exaggerating when I say it smells funky ALL of the time. There is a faint moldy, mildewy funk about the seating area rooms and especially the quiet study room. I’ve been several times – in different months and in different weather conditions — it’s just an old building that has deep-​seated mold issues. After awhile you stop noticing it so much but whenever I first arrive, it hits me like a wall and I have visions of toxic black fungi particles wafting thru the air.
The second thing that drives me nuts is the live music that’s pumped into the main seating area. 9 out of 10 people in those rooms are there to study — not check out a live band. It’s distracting in a couple of ways. First, live music isn’t the same kind of back-​ground hum as an album or Pandora station (what they usually have pumping through the speakers.) There is a conversational, staccato, and noise level variance to live shows that make it an anathema to background sound. What’s worse though is that the live shows sound levels are actually attenuated in such a way that they come through the the room speakers a few decibels louder than the Pandora stations. I repeat — almost everyone there is there to quietly study, NOT to listen to a live show.
I’ve complained about it and I was told that there «was nothing they could do about it.» If it was a Friday or Saturday night, I wouldn’t even have complained. But this will happen during the middle of the day on a Sunday – it doesn’t matter. If there is a band playing, everyone in the building has to listen to it. Why Strange Brew wants to force everybody in the building to listen to the live music, too, is beyond me. If it’s a marketing idea, it’s a bad one.
It’s worth nothing that the «quiet» room doesn’t have speakers. The noise from the speakers in the next room do bleed in there as well and as aforementioned, it’s the smelliest room in the joint. It’s also rather poorly lit. The main seating area is much more comfortable.
I honestly think that a good deal of the popularity of the Strange Brew is a direct result of the fact that those of us who live in south of Ben White Blvd. have precious few options in the ways of coffee houses (and bars and music venues for that matter.) Strange Brew is helping fill a much needed void — and I’m grateful for that. They are clearly promoting art and culture in South Austin and I truly find that both admirable and great for the community. But I dearly wish some other businesses would come help fill the void to give us additional options. Are there any entrepreneurs out there reading this? Please come open a truly student friendly coffee house in South Austin!!!
I, for one, will never return to Strange Brew again… unless there’s a band a wanna check out. That said, I am still eagerly anticipating the opening of their new restaurant. My fingers are crossed for the owners that all is going well and on track. I hope the food is good — if it is, I will become one the first regulars.

Two things!
GREAT Austin music venue. You never know who will show up.
GREAT Rueben’s! I split time in NY and Austin and I would put it against anyone’s but Katz of course.

For a 24 hours study lounge, I really like Strange Brew. A lot. I’m not even sure if I would say I prefer their coffee, but compared to Epoch and Bennu, the place is way less crowded and a really nice drive to and from campus. Meaning, when you want to leave, you really have to make the effort of wanting to leave (which then, I hope, should propel you to continue with your studies).
Upon entering Strange Brew, to your left is a live music lounge for those chill nights. My nights are never chill, and I have yet to actually visit for the music alone – but hey, at least you get the option. The music is loud when you order, and I was afraid it would be loud when I studied but once you enter the study area, the music dissipates into background noise. Nice.
I like Strange Brew because I NEVER have to worry about parking, and I have yet to come and never find a seat – which is, honestly, the worst things about Bennu and Epoch. So Strange Brew is a little far from UT campus (10 – 15 minutes?), but it’s worth the drive (to me).
The study area is big with lots of open space. Tons of tables. Tons of seats. And, people are usually gone by ¹²⁄₁ AM, giving even plenty more seats/​tables to choose from. A little on the dim side, but there’s an even quieter and brighter silent study room with a door to shut off the world!
Their espresso/​coffee is hot. Like, scalding hot. It takes a while for it to cool down. Their Strange Brew was really good – I quite enjoyed it. It kind of reminded me of Epoch/​La Tazza Fresca’s vanilla latte but WAY better, less sweet, and creamier. I also previously tried their iced vanilla latte, and I feel like it could have been good… with more espresso, less milk, and less ice. So maybe I’ll ask them to switch some stuff around next time, lol.
Only thing I really don’t like is that there’s only one cashier, so it sometimes takes a while to even order your drink, especially bc of the fact that they brew/​create your drink right then and there before they charge you (aka, holding up the line even more). It’s alright though because the baristas are just so friendly!
Also, their wi-​fi is a little jank. It takes a while for it to get working, and once it starts, it’s a little laggy and goes in and out. But once it starts up, it stays pretty consistent – although, this could also be because people have disappeared by 2 AM and less people means better wi-​fi. Who knows.
All in all – for a study lounge, I would say Strange Brew has been my favorite so far. Thumbs up, Strange Brew.

I love this place. I’ve been coming for 3 years, since I moved into the neighborhood. It’s 24 hours and the double strangebrew with white chocolate is dreamy. The guys behind the counter always remember me and my modifications. I love that it’s always a familiar face. I’ve watched them expand over and over. It’s cool to see them grow. The Internet was my only complaint about this place but the situation has been fixed and now my phone automatically connects to the wifi when I walk in. They seem to have heard and understood people’s frustration with the system and will never do that again.
I think they should focus on developing the backyard more. It’s a great space but needs some love and thought. Some plants would help, more seating or something decorative and welcoming. These are just ideas though. Strangebrew is my favorite coffee shop in town.

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