St. Roch’s Bar

Do yourself a favor and stop in this tiny hole in the wall for an ice cold beer and a smile. How many bars have an actual jukebox, cheap ass beers, a cool bartender, clientele who are actual characters (in a good way) a sociable outdoor patio area, and a food truck to the side? This one does.
I’ll be back.

The food here was absolutely delicious! Wow! Great find on our vacation from Seattle.

It’s a cool little dive bar in East Austin. The drinks are cheap. The people are friendly/​laid back. It’s not really my scene, but cool place if you like dive bars.

My first choice for a neighborhood bar, great jukebox, great cheap drinks. The perfect secret spot & my second favorite New Orleans Saints bar.

Love this place! Best Cajun Restaurant in Austin, and it’s not even a restaurant. Although, a little birdie told me that they may have a food truck soon. Until then, I’ll be perfectly happy just enjoying the food that they have during Saints games.
Cheap drinks, friendly staff and dog friendly. What more do you need?

The work girls decided to check out St. Roch’s on a random Tuesday night, and we enjoyed our experience! It was casual, dark, and cheap. The bartender was friendly, and she didn’t seem annoyed when I asked for a water. Tip: A $ 1 surcharge will be added to any credit card tab under $ 10. Plan ahead!
We’ll be back.

Great staff, great jukebox, great cheap drinks. Amongst the best real dives in Austin.

Lotta hipsters and douchebags, but still some cool people. As for the jukebox, think Lollapalooza 1992. Cool outside smokers patio with awesome artwork. People bring their dogs out there. Cool drinks and drink special. Its okay, but wouldnt hang out here all the time.

Cool hole in the wall bar in East Austin… Then again, aren’t they all, lol… but really, this place is pretty cool.
Not pretentious or hipster, at all! Fabulous drink prices & super friendly bartenders.
It appears they are a New Orleans Saints bar so check them out during football season if you’re a Drew Brees’ fan.
The place is dirty, but the drinks are cold so I’ll take that any day!
Plenty of fun for everyone. Pool table also offers a lot of fun opportunities.
Outside patio if you feel like getting your tan on.

Check out boozy snow balls. Other than that nothing special. Spot is fine.

This is my go to neighborhood bar. It has a real New Orleans kind of feel, awesome drink specials, great prices, friendly bartenders, a juke box, dog friendly, the people that go are always friendly, and it’s a relaxed atmosphere. This is the place to go and kick up your heels and say f*ck it after a long day of work.

The frail store front that is St Roch’s bar looks shoddy unkept and outdated, like low ceilinged 60’s construction. The inside was blindingly dark with a few random characters sitting alone and a sweet chubby bartendress with cat glasses, all deep with back stories.
I sampled the chocolate mint slushy with delight. «What’s in it?»
«I don’t know.» It wasn’t important it tasted so good. «I wasn’t here when they made it.»
She said. Curious points for sure.
The back patio, with a graffiti wall featuring a boston terrier with a halo, and a few men in flannel busy on Mac tops gained more points.
I went here for a art gallery business meeting, and a round of $ 1.50 happy hour lone stars kept the score rising.
Credit card minimum is $ 10 though.
St rochs rocks. It’s blank canvas and grotty interior awaits you. Go there and make some stories you can tell later.
Close to much going on in the artsy and rapidly developing east side of Austin.

If you’re a regular human:
You will like this place, if you’re a Saints fan especially. Just two TVs inside, but that seems to work for folks. On a recent Sunday visit there was free brisket, rice and beans. They have beers native to Louisiana; my New Orleans born-​and-​raised companion was loving his Abita Turbodog and Amber. I nursed a 2the9s bloody Mary for a good hour, and when I say to the nines I mean it came bedecked with pickled okra, string beans, and an olive. That was a lip-smackin’-good olive. Doggies abound inside and out. One puppy named Bubbles fit in my purse. I know this because I have a secret compartment in my purse for puppies of this magnitude of cute. It’s possible that I contemplated taking Bubbles home.
If you’re a hipster:
You will love this place and make a home in it for all time. I’m talking about ankle-​booties with blood-​slowing skinny jeans; sweet dreadlocks, mohawks, and bull-​nose piercings; dudes dropping drawers in public to show off twisted thigh tattoos and questionable boxer-​brief stains; and the occasional high-​waisted short.
Net:
The staff is awesome, the game-​day crowd is fun, and you’ll make friends at the bar, on the patio, waiting by the clean bathrooms — everywhere. Everyone co-​exists under one roof, even no-​tats-​I-​showered-​today-​my-​bad kids like me.

This Saint Roch guy had something to do with the plague… I couldn’t tell you what, but it really has nothing to do with my review…
I was on my way here to meet up with some friends for drinks. I’ve never been, so I did what any other person would do… I Unilocaleded it. It seemed there was a trend of Louisiana type themes going on. Luckily, I had just finished all the seasons of True Blood and Treme, so I felt I was prepared to fit in.
It’s set back away from the traffic of of downtown Austin, so parking is easy and the douche factor is pretty non-​existent. The term Dive Bar gets thrown around a lot… too much. This isn’t a dive bar. This is what a neighborhood bar should be. Lots of regulars, cheap drinks, small patio, and a kick ass jukebox. The bartender was attentive and friendly, the patrons were all friendly and engaging. We had some great random conversations about dogs, music, pretty much whatever.
St Roch’s is the type of bar I wish I had in MY neighborhood. Bonus points for Fugazi in the juke and Zapps chips for sale…
I’d gladly go back anytime!

I’ve not visited this place often enough, and that’s my own fault.
They have a decent enough selection of beer — some you’d expect from a dive bar, some that are quite surprising (local and distant craft). Their liquor selection is pretty stellar for a dive bar, and the bartenders can make a mean cocktail.
The jukebox is pretty great. Seating is at the bar, around tables, or outside on the back patio.
The bathroom is suitably divey, enough to keep the uptights away.
They have specials of all kinds — crawfish when in season, Oktoberfest, daily drink and happy hour specials, which keep visits here easy on the wallet.
They used to have a food truck out front, but it’s no longer there, and another sandwich shop around the corner just closed, so if you need food with your drinks, you may need to eat first, or go to Gourmands after.

M’kay so I’m a dive bar girl, in fact the Double Down in Las Vegas is one of my favorite bars in ‘Merica. I can see why Double Down in Austin had to legally change its name to St Roch. Which is funny because the vibe of St Roch is truly like its original Vegas namesake and nothing like the name St Roch, which sounds like a spa resort on some island off the coast of France.
The best part about this place is the fact that they serve Purple Abita beer on tap. This beer is like candy-​beer, which may sound gross (candy and beer?) but is really good.
They have cheap beer prices, a big back yard and a laid back who-​gives-​a-​fuck atmosphere. Thank You St Roch! You should be re-​named St Rocks.

If youre not a fan of Mugshots (or bars of that sort), just go ahead and click the back button on your Internet Browser.
Olé St Roch’s! In my experience, there have only been crowds there on sundays for Saints games. I have yet to try there for an LSU game, maybe I will this coming season.
CHEAP CHEAP drinks. Abita Purple Haze on draft.
Be sure to follow their facebook page for happenings such as Fat Tuesday parties; they post regularly.

Dive bar. We are from New Orleans and came here and must say that it was like being in a dive bar at home.
Kind of dingy, so this isn’t a place you’d come if you were looking for upscale. Odd mix of locals and hipsters. Somewhat disconcerting.
Outside seating is nice but can be overwhelmed by smokers. Who still smokes? Blech!
Not trying to be something it isn’t. Dive bar at its finest.

Remember the scene from the movie Wild Hogs, when they stop at a biker bar off the highway in the middle of nowhere? They walk into the bar and EVERYONE in the bar turns their necks to look at them at the same time as if they are in the wrong place. Maybe I was not wearing enough black, maybe I needed tattoos, maybe I am too old and definitely not a hipster, but this is how I felt when I walked into the Double Down lounge to meet some folks for HH. (**Note to self, when meeting friends at the Double Down, do not be the first to arrive if you are missing black clothes, tattoos and a hipster look).
While not a biker bar, I would consider the Double Down a hipster dive bar, and the place was packed with them… hipsters that is.
Their website says: «We have Cold Beer, strong drinks, a great Jukebox and in a space that’s comfortable. We like good music, good drinks and good friends.» I think I would change it to: «We have Cold Beer, strong drinks, a great Jukebox and in a space that’s crawling with hipsters. We like good music, good drinks and hipsters.»
Not sure I would leave there with any «good friends» as I found the clientele to be pretentious hipsters (It sounds like an oxymoron, but think about it). The bar staff, however, was friendly and the drinks were cheap and strong. It is not a place I would go to for the wine (not even sure they had any), but if you like cheap beer, you cannot go wrong with $ 1 Lone Stars for HH. And boy are the drinks strong (a little too much so for me).
The Jukebox had an eclectic mix of oldies, rock, country and not a hint of the Carpenters…
Once folks I knew arrived, I felt a little more comfortable, but still out of place. Not sure I would make this a regular spot, but if you want to drink on the cheap, this is your place.

WARNING: The little entrance to the right of the building is *not* a parking lot. It’s like a weird apartment area with broken grills and lots and lots of hipsters.
I say this because as I was trying to exit my giant mistake of thinking it was a parking lot, i saw not one, not two but five hipsters pull in. The first was wearing some kind of bikini bottom, the second was riding one of those double bikes and just when I thought it couldn’t get any weirder, a pedicab hipster rode up NAKED with two other naked peeps in the back of the pedicab. Was this a dare? I don’t know but it was an interesting beginning to the night.
Double down is double drinking. The drinks are strong (the way I like em), they’ve kept a sexy chandelier from the peacock and there’s a patio area they’re working on to make booze friendly. Original pacman in the corner and some sexy skateboards add to the tableau. The nice guys behind the bar were appropriately amused and aghast at my nude discovery.
All in all, a cool space. I know they’re adding some to the décor but it’s already a viable east side option. And call your drinks double and you’ll be seeing quadruple. And when what you’re seeing is a naked dude wearing thick buddy holly glasses, well, it makes for a good conversation starter to say the least.