Thursday Thoughts – Inside the Still Austin Quarter: Chris Seals on Recreating Austin’s Legendary Steamboat

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Still Austin Whiskey Co. co-founder and CEO Chris Seals gave Bourbon Lens a room-by-room tour of The Still Austin Quarter, the distillery’s new live music venue in South Austin, on this week’s Thursday Thoughts. The Quarter’s public grand opening is Thursday, Nov. 5, with Shakey Graves headlining.

Why Still Austin is expanding

“Our biggest problem today is that people love our whiskey and they are drinking it like crazy,” Seals said. “If they keep drinking it like this, we’re gonna run out.”

Still Austin is growing from one and a half buildings to ten buildings on six and a half acres. The old backyard fence came down, and the Quarter is now the distillery’s front door.

What’s inside the Still Austin Quarter

The 15,000-square-foot venue is built as the home of “The Musician,” the figure on Still Austin’s flagship bourbon label. Each room follows a stage of an Austin artist’s life:

  • The Atrium: black-and-white portraits of Austin musicians at age 17, before they were famous
  • The Vinyl Lounge: more than 5,000 records and a bar shaped like a Stratocaster
  • The Music Room: a recreation of the Steamboat, the Austin venue that ran from 1977 to 1999, filled with concert posters donated by its owners

“It is a room where literally anything can happen,” Seals said. “That is the narrative arc of the life of an Austin musician, from inspiration to anything can happen.”

Still Austin Quarter grand opening: Nov. 5
  • Where: 4211 Willow Springs Road, Austin, Texas
  • Music Room: Shakey Graves, 7:30 p.m.
  • Vinyl Lounge: Adrian Quesada DJ set from 7 p.m.
  • Hours: Wed–Thu noon–10 p.m., Fri–Sat 11 a.m.–midnight, Sun 11 a.m.–9 p.m.

For the full lineup, cocktail menu and food, read our Still Austin Quarter grand opening guide.

Listen to the full episode

Hear the whole tour in Thursday Thoughts: Still Austin Part 2, out now on the Bourbon Lens Podcast and YouTube. Start with Part 1, where Chris Seals explains how Still Austin brings Kentucky-style bourbon to Texas.

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