Austin’s 2025 Eater Award Winners | Eater Austin

"A pitch-black, art-lined room doubles as a gallery where each menu is built around a featured (usually local) artist, with cocktails drawn directly from the work on display or a questionnaire about taste and memory. Opened in December 2024 by co-owner Eric Schild with partners Corey O’Neil and bar manager Dragan Milivojević, the bar is already on its fifth menu, featuring Adreon Henry. The Liquid Kolache channels the artist’s love for the Czech pastry, milk-washed for silkiness and fat-washed with condensed milk for richness, landing on layers as nuanced as its inspiration. Techniques here require time, skill, and discipline, so the concept is inseparable from process. In the expanded back room, Konbini serves a tight lineup of mostly nigiri and sashimi in a bright, pop-culture-filled space, even a salmon roe–topped hot dog—tasty, just filling enough, and designed to let the complex drinks remain the star. Bartenders bring the art to life in liquid form, and the bar flirts with perfection as a baseline." - H. Drew Blackburn