Summit

Standard rooftop club. With ok DJ.
I wonder what they’ll do if it rains.
I generally club to get DJ’s ideas on what’s good to dance to and to people watch. Nothing new here.

I have no idea why this place has low ratings. It’s so much fun! Came here for a bachelorette party and everyone was so nice. Great music, it’s the same dj from amped so a good mix of edm and top 40. The layout is great with the bar when you walk up and the dance floor further out with tables. All the tables were sold out and everyone looked like they were having so much fun!

Not sure why the ratings are so low. Summit has the music of the moment — EDM/​not-​so-​deep house, and a hot crowd to boot. It was a bit underpacked on a Friday night, but as it got closer to 11 – 12 the people started coming in. Your typical club drinks, typically mixed. But you’re not coming to Summit for the drinks — you’re here for the music and the people: D Have fun and let loose.

I am just writing this because I am deeply disappointed in the bar tender that helped us out tonight. We wanted to have a good night and we chose to spend our money here because we always have a great time. I am deeply disappointed by the bar tender on the left side (the one right by the entrance as you go up the stairs to the left) with blonde hair and a side pony tail. She was extremely rude and decided it was ok to yell at me in front of everyone. I was waiting with my card and she not once acknowledged me. First time she does she yells and everyone looks at me as she screams «I SEE YOU». As a fellow bartender I deal with plenty of drunk people but that is no excuse to be that way to people. She made me feel embarrassed to buy a drink and mind you it was my first one of the night. Horrible bartender and it ruined my night. Horrible experience. Will not come back.

Had my birthday party here at the beginning of April– had an amazing time! We reserved a table and in no time the place was poppin! Good DJ, good crowd, nice setting and dance floor, bouncers were on top of it and all in all it was nothing short of epic. I can see how things could get out of hand from time to time, but it’s a downtown night club in a big city, things happen from time to time… It should be a given. Anyway, complaints come easier than praises so hopefully this helps balance the spectrum a bit. Summit is an all around solid place to go clubbing at!

Came here for the first time last night and a fight broke out and my friend who happened to be nearby was stabbed in his leg — scary to think that people in a drinking environment are carrying around knives and pulling them out. Won’t be going back.

Sadly, right after I wrote Summit a 5 star review, I ran into a REALLY sketchy issue with the bouncers during Labor Day weekend. Don’t get me wrong– I still love Summit overall and every point I made in the previous review still stands. However, management needs to know what the bouncers are doing and fix it immediately – or if management already knows and supports it, they seriously need to check themselves before they wreck themselves… err, or something like that.
Again, Summit has been my go-​to spot for about half a year now. I usually start my night there and end my night there, so I’ve had no trouble getting inside in the past. However, during Labor Day weekend, I was hosting friends, so we started at Rainey, hopped around Dirty, then finally ended in the Warehouse District with Rain and Summit at the end of the night. We arrived at Summit just a little past 1am, and there was a crowd just standing around.
I squeezed my way to the front to ask the bouncers if the club was at capacity or if they were still letting people in. They reassured me that they were still letting people in. Weelll… our group (half guys and half girls) stood around and saw no method to the madness… until we started paying close attention. The only people who were getting in were those who were paying the bouncers off. After people watching for a solid 15 minutes, we realized that NO ONE was getting in unless you slipped the bouncers cash. It didn’t matter what you looked like or if you were male or female. Finally, one of the guys in our group bit the bullet and straight up asked how much it would take for us to get in. They were visiting from out of town, and were looking forward to ending the night at my favorite club, so they were willing to play the game if it wasn’t going to cost too much.
$ 10 per person. It’s not a whole lot when it comes down to it but wrong is wrong is wrong. Think of how much these two bouncers are making every weekend by doing this to the late night crowd! Summit, if you want to charge a cover then charge a cover and make it clear– just don’t be sketch about it. I love you, but you’ve left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. Le sigh, at least my friends did have a good time though.

I’m not the type of person to normally denounce a business for being «not Austin» or «too Dallas» or any of the usual caterwauling you might hear related to that because I generally feel hey, to each their own. I can have a great time and roll with it at anywhere from the W bar to The Ranch to Donn’s Depot, to the grungy east side Lonestar can type bars to even shots on dirty sixth if that’s what my friends want to do. It’s all good to me. With that said, this bar sucks. A lot. This bar used to be called Roial and was shut down for being part of that Yassine brothers drug ring that included murders, extortion, kidnapping, guns, and drug smuggling. It’s now reopened as Summit.
I showed up here on a regular (non-​event) Saturday night because a friend got a table with bottle service for his birthday. There was a crowd of probably 20 people waiting to get inside. The bouncer wasn’t letting anyone in despite the fact that they were nowhere near capacity, which is red flag #1. I finally got the chance to talk to the bouncer in the crowd despite everyone else just standing around still waiting, and he told me it was a $ 10 cover charge to get in. Keep in mind this isn’t an 18 and up dance club or an after-​hours place where it might make sense to charge a cover — I’m literally paying money just to get into a bar to buy its drinks. I told the guy my friend is having his birthday here with a group of 20 and booked a table and I doubt we’re supposed to pay cover when he’s spending that much money. So do you know what the guy did? He lied to me. He pretended to check his list, told me my friend never showed up and that they already sold his table to someone else so I would have to pay the cover. I was literally texting all my friends inside at the table that moment as he was telling me they never showed up and «he» sold the table to someone else. I had to get people to come down and fight with the guy just so I could get inside. Once I did it was again, nowhere near capacity. I’m starting to think the bar doesn’t even charge a cover and it was just this douchey bouncer extorting money. I had dressed the part in nice pants, a nice shirt, and a sport coat, so it’s not as though they didn’t want to let me in for being in cargo shorts and flip flops or something.
Later another friend showed up and I went down to try to get her. By now the crowd was probably 40 people at the door all waiting around, all for no reason because there was room inside. I don’t understand why people want to do this to themselves rather than just go somewhere where they can just go in after the standard I.D. check and have fun.
The atmosphere is cool as far as the design and layout — I actually really like it. And the service at the bar wasn’t bad. The bartenders were nice enough, made the standard drinks just fine, and with multiple bars it didn’t take too long to get a drink. But with this being an outdoor rooftop bar, they missed their chance to have a cool, laid back, rooftop/​loungey vibe and instead are going the hyper-​douchey wait list and bottle service route so that the people inside can feel like they are better than all the people waiting to get in. I don’t need that crap. Like Rio, this was a bar that had the opportunity to be great and sounded like so much fun in concept but missed the mark completely because of its LA-​styled pretentiousness and fake importance.
There is no place in Austin for bars that keep a line outside but when you get in its empty. There is no place for bars that charge a cover (if there isn’t a live band playing). There is no place for spikey-​haired bros in cheap suits looking at clipboards to see if you’re on the list. There shouldn’t be a list. Take that bullshit somewhere else. Please help me boycott this bar, Rio, and any other newcomer that starts with this kind of behavior. Go somewhere fun. Go somewhere with a patio and hula hoops in the back and a welcoming vibe. Go to the W if you want swank, Rainey if you want a patio, the East Side if you want culture, go wherever you want; but let’s send these types of places packing back to whatever land of insecurity they came from.