The Grand

This is a decent after work spot for drinks and pool. The tables are ok, sticks are plentiful and furniture needs updating. Lighting is soft, patio is nicely covered with greenery in the back. Parking is good. Only pool hall on airport dr

I have been coming to The Grand since it was Eric’s. This is by far my favorite pool hall in Austin. Many of the bartenders and waitstaff have been there for months, years which says a lot about the work environment that the owner/​managers have created. Drinks are reasonably priced. Cocktails are potent and flavorful and the have a nice stock of local beers. The back patio is comfortable, if you’re a smoker.
Took a star off because the men’s bathroom needs a ton of attention and some of the tables need a little maintenance.
Go on a Wednesday, or any day before 7 for half-​price pool. Super inexpensive.

I’ve started doing tips on their house cues & occasionally I bring my cue lathe to the club to retip 2 piece cues for players. The Grand is my neighborhood pool hall and my home office is near by. I’m happy to help the players and be a part of what makes this Austin landmark great. I sell supplies in addition to service work. If you need me please text me. 512−228−4550.
Thanks, Paul. Central Texas Billiards

Better than what I expected. The security bars on all doors and windows had me a little stand off-​ish. Pretty chill place if you just want to hang out and play pool and other billiards. We were there for about 1 ½ hours and had 2 beers-​total was $ 18.50 which was not bad. Service was great. I didn’t want to ruin the okay experience by using the restrooms there.

I first found The Grand when I traveled to Austin in early 2009 … I have been back several times and like the ambiance of the place … It is a great little ol’ room … !~

Capsule review: The Grand is a really nice little niche pool hall for North Loopers and Hyde Parkers who want a reasonable evening out without the hassle and expense of Downtown. Full review below.
Sometimes you just want a chill night out: no shots with seven ingredients, no night buses full of open containers back from East Sixth, no frills, and no bullsh*t. The Grand is one of the better options around for this, either as a solo option of part of an Airport/​North Loop crawl.
For starters, the place is huge. You won’t wait for a pool table, and you even get to pick your flavor: coin ops for casual, single-​serving games, or by the hour on either regulation or bar-​sized tables, depending on your skill and BAC. Tables and sticks are well-​maintained and hourly rates are affordable.
Setup is full bar and cocktail service, with nightly specials even on weekends (e.g. cheap beer and a well shot for $ 5 on Fridays, $ 3.50 craft pints on Saturday). Prices are super grad-​budget friendly like that, although the sheer size of the place makes the cocktail service a little slow. If you like to drink fast, skip it and order from the bar. There’s an even cheaper happy hour every day until seven, but I’m never organized enough for that.
The Grand is a dive, but not in dangerous way, and people mind their pool etiquette pretty well. Well, not dangerous except for the bathrooms. I could see terrible things happening in there. Google «worst toilet in Scotland» and you’ll get the idea.
Some crappy bar food is available if, like me, you’re annoyed that In and Out Burger is the last chain on earth not to have heard of a veggie burger. But I digress. There’s also a seating area away from the pool tables if you just want to booze/​play electro-​darts and some pinball. I must confess that I also find these charms worth exploring. So, especially given the relative paucity of neighborhood options with a 2AM license in this part o’ town, I say the Grand is a keeper.

Pool is one of those things that seems to go in and out of fashion all the time. First it’s cool to go hang out at a seedy dive and then a few years later there are all the high end fancy schmancy pool halls and so it goes back and forth. I imagine that this place weathers both pendulum swings and stays right there in the middle. My only prob, no one in a pool hall wants to hear Taylor swift. Ever! Full bar. None of the typical Austin douches. Oh and I’ve been drinking. Devo is playing. That’s hilarious.

This place is pretty cool for the most part. $ 4/​hr pool until 7pm and then it goes to $ 8/​hr. They do have hand chalk but you have to ask for it. The barkeeps are cool and laid back and the atmosphere is pretty chill during the day and is comprised mostly of people there to play pool. The music, and I use that term loosely, is serious lacking. For some reason this place plays more radio commercials than actual music. I have even witnessed the bartender change the station from a commercial that is ending to another station with another commercial. This aspect is completely unorganized and mind boggling. I don’t go somewhere to play pool to listen to radio commercials and advertisements on blast. It makes it difficult to concentrate and becomes seriously redundant over time. The music situation, and again I use that term very loosely, makes me want to drop a few stars from the rating. The bathrooms are obscene and third world. The Omeletry just opened next door after moving from their location on Burnet Rd. so this is cool. The place allows people to vape e-​cigs inside which is a huge turn off as I often have to walk through lingering clouds of mystery chemical vapor within the building. Overall it is a cool place with serious lacking music. Can we fix this?

Good drinks, lots of room. Pool, pinball and darts if you are into that. Great neighborhood bar, probably not worth it if you have to drive too far (except for Mutant Rock Mondays!).

Avoid this place. Went there on a Sunday night with my wife and friends looking for a regular pool hall place to get a beer and enjoy a few games before heading into the work week. Boy was this place mistake. The first ten minutes were fine, until the worst DJ in Austin began blaring music that split the air like a air raid siren. It felt like a Jr. High School kid with his first amp playing his 45s in mom’s basement with the volume cranked. No mixer… just LOUD. Headache generating LOUD. We asked the waitress and the bartender to at least get him to turn it down a notch, but they said it’s the owner’s nephew or something and did nothing. They did apologize a lot, which seemed like something they were used to doing. We left early. Will not go back.

Music, pool tables, full bar… nice.
This place is pretty fun when you are looking for something different to do. We decided to head here after happy hour and we easily got a pool table. You will be greeted at the door and asked for ID no matter how old you look.
The server takes your drink order and you either pay or start a tab much like any bar. We played a few rounds of pool and went to use the ladies room. Here’s where the YUCK factor comes into play. You walk in the bathroom door to be greeted by another door right in your face. The bathroom has grafitti all over the walls and smells of urine. To boot, it obviously has not been cleaned in some time and I wouldn’t even do the hover to go. We left half of our party and ran down the street to Wendy’s to go to the bathroom.
When we got back we ordered some more drinks and found out there was an outside patio on the back that you can smoke on. We decided to check it out and it’s small but, nice. On the way by we saw some pinball machines and a foosball table! We couldn’t help but, insert our money in the change machine and play a few rounds. They have 2 that are 50 cents per play for 3 balls and the rest are 75 cents per play for 3 balls. I felt that was a bit overpriced but, it was enjoyable for the 60 seconds that we did it. We also played foosball which was only 75 cents so, that lasted a bit longer.
Our server was prompt with refills and they had some specials going on, ie. $ 2.50 lonestars! Our tab wasn’t too bad and the tables are only $ 8.00 an hour. I feel like you come here to hang out and people watch too!
I would come back but, I will make sure to slow my drinking roll so, I don’t have to use the bathroom ever. PS the guys that were with us said the men’s room wasn’t much better!

Very interesting crowd, great diversion from daily life and great music

I love the Grand. I played on a league here for a year and generally come by a couple times a week.
The Grand is just a few blocks from my apartment so I tend to come here at the end of a night to cap things off. Sometimes I’m a bit hazy by the time I get there («did we go to the Grand last night?») and the staff are pretty tolerant, as I know most of them by name at this point.
One of my favorite half-​memories, «OK everybody, we’re closed, time to go. Joe…»
The only complaint I have, as someone mentioned before, is the DJ on Sunday nights. The real problem is the sound system they are using. It’s really loud and shrill. They play classic rock and r&b music. I just don’t understand what’s cool about that.
On Mondays they have punk bands and the place is flooded with punk hipsters which is OK with me, but the Sunday night DJ doesn’t seem to have any subculture appeal in particular and to me is just unnecessary raucousness.
Overall, I love the Grand and I don’t know what I would do without it!

FREE POOL SUNDAY NIGHTS!
Smooth tables, a Great DJ, and cheap drinks; what more do you need?

This place has been around FOREVER. By ‘forever’ I mean since I moved here. Even then it was called Eric’s Billiards and now it’s called The Grand but if you use a card it’ll show up as Eric’s Billiards. These things are not important. What’s important? .75 $ foosball, coin op pool tables, standard/​league sized tables, video games, pinball and dart boards. What’s even MORE important? A full bar with local drafts for $ 4.50 a pint and Lone Star specials all week and during happy hour. When’s a good time to come? Honestly, weekends if you’re looking for a low key place to drink that’s not chock full of weekend warriors. They also have punk/​metal shows on Monday’s I think and Sunday’s are SIN nights. I’m super glad to have known about this place and plan to utilize it for what it is. Also, not a bad place to go watch some Football as well. I think I came here alone last season to watch the Saints v. 49’ers game and caught myself mumbling and pseudo shit talking and humoring the dude sitting next to me. Seriously, if you want laughs, watch football with me.

I love a good pool hall. From the outside, this might look like a shady, smokey place, full of tough guys. There are some tough guys but they aren’t scary!
They have really nice tables. Some 8s and some 9s. The staff is friendly and the waitress is always around when you need her! Beers are cold and drinks are stiff and very reasonably priced.
I believe they serve food also. I saw the waitress bring a pizza to the next table.
Ladies, beware of the bathrooms. They can be a little scary.

If this isn’t proof that time machines exist, I don’t know what is. Step back in time to the 90’s (or is it the 80’s?) when you walk through the door. There will be about 20 pool tables in front of you. Cocktail waitresses will card you and take your drink order. Mostly a sausage fest. The bathrooms are a step above Spring Break port-​a-​potties; wear rain boots if you can. They serve «food» there, if by «food» you mean reheated frozen pizzas from HEB. If pool is your thing, and you are a dude, you’ll have a blast here.

Pool, drinks, DJs, and very nice staff provide for a great place to hang out. They even have a Foosball table and some pinball machines if you’re not in the mood to play some billiards. Drinks are delicious and reasonably priced. This place is my go to hangout.

When I walk in this place, I think of the Fleetwood Mac song «Gypsy» for some reason.
«So I’m back, to the velvet underground
Back to the floor, that I love
To a room with some lace and paper flowers
Back to the gypsy, that I was
To the gypsy, that I was
And it all comes down to you
Well, you know that it does
Well, lightning strikes, maybe once, maybe twice
Ah, and it lights up the night
And you see your gypsy
You see your gypsy»
If you’re a hardcore pool player, you are probably already aware of this place. Why? Because it’s awesome and has everything. There is a sea of pool tables, always one available unless you walk in on a tournament. Then there’s always the coin slot tables instead of being charged by the hour. Someone will come by and bring you your drinks so you don’t have to miss your next shot. They’ve got some tables and couches for those just wanting to watch a game on TV or sit at the bar. Even a strange loungey area that I’ve never ventured over to. A patio for the smokers in the back parking lot for your viewing pleasure. Perfect location too, quite CENTRAL, near Hyde Park and easy 35 access.
Look, I’m no good at pool. But I’m getting astronomically better. I’ll never be a shark, but I’ve got distracting skills for whomever I play. But I’m really looking forward to coming here during ROT rally. And through some observations, I’ve determined that any business that has a Crypt Keeper pinball machine and carries Red Stripe is more than A-​Ok in my book.

Hold up, wait a minute. I was totally surprised by this place. Expecting a dark and smoky, gangsters in the corner, squinting to see your pool ball kind of place. We joked in the parking lot that we were about to enter realms never before experienced and then…
I walk in to a huge bar (huge) with pool tables as far as the eye can see, very well lit, TVs for sports, dart board for playin’, patio for smokin and lots of drinking, natch. Also, instead of smoke, it smells like… pizza! They serve Digiorno’s style meat lovers, supreme and cheese pizzas for $ 8 every night. Lemme tell ya – after a couple of drinks, that pizza begins to worm it’s way into your brain until you HAVE to order one. And it tastes like heaven.
We shot some pool, shot the sh! t, gossiped and drank and laughed about this lady’s mirrored pants. And as a total bonus, the bathroom graffiti was hilarious. One thing I neglected to mention: They answer the phone. I call at 11:30 on a Friday night and they answer the damn phone. No fax line, no pre-​recorded, outdated message, just a nice lady letting you know that they’re open til 2. And that is a star in my book.