Bon Appétit names Austin cocktail and vinyl bar one of country’s best new bars

Tucked in the basement of the Hotel Magdalena at 1101 Music Lane, just off South Congress Avenue, in a space that used to be used as equipment storage, is the transportive Equipment Room, a handsome and elegant homage to the style and tastes of Japan.

The cocktails are impressive, from the classics like a stout Vieux Carre to the creative original cocktails like the Texas Sun, a pineapple-infused gin sipper made with Cocchi Americano, tiki bitters and aged white tea.

But what sets Equipment Room apart from similar high-end cocktail bars around town is its wood-laden mid-century design and its commitment to hi-fidelity vinyl sounds, both inspired by 20th century jazz kissa bars of Japan. Enter through the furtive hallway passage on any given night and you may hear anyone from John Coltrane to Willie Nelson, the rich texture of their music pouring through an impeccable sound system complete with Klipsch Speakers.

Conversation in the space rumbles in low tones, but if you want to commune directly with the tunes, pick up a set of the noise-canceling headphones stationed throughout the dimly lit bar, and have your own private listening session while you snack on a Japanese-inspired food menu that includes chicken karaage and an okonomiyaki waffle.

Wishing that the DJ stationed in the bar's corner would stick with one album the whole night? Then you might want to dip into one of Equipment Room's "omakase vinyl sessions," where the bar, in collaboration with its partners Breakaway Records, plays an entire album — maybe Joni Mitchell's "Blue" or A Tribe Called Quest's "Midnight Marauders" — while serving up conversation about the album and themed cocktails.

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The intimate experiences feels like the kind you want to keep as a secret, but the secret's out. Bon Appétit is the latest out-of-town media to take note of the bar located on the Bunkhouse property off South Congress Avenue. The publication recently named it one of the Best News Bars in America. Equipment Room was the only Texas representative on the list of 11 bars that stretches from Seattle to Miami.

"The menu is similarly two-pronged, offering A Sides — classics including a Martinez and New York Sour — and B Sides — inspired cocktails incorporating ingredients like green plantain and aged white tea," Bon App's Elazar Sontag writes. "These drinks are whisked through the room and presented with panache: a smoldering piece of palo santo to go along with one, a cloud of mesquite smoke enshrining another. It’s easy to forget your hushed surroundings as all this plays out and let an audible gasp escape."

Reservations for Equipment Room can be made on Resy.