Swan Dive

An Austin institution! So many amazing events here! My fav, is the Tongue in Cheek night, where local lgbtq comics can work on their material free from the homophobic, transphobic hack stuff you sometimes see elsewhere. Drinks are always on point, creatively crafted and changed up regularly. Staff is friendly and the atmosphere is wonderful for a date night or a night out with the gang.

The bar is a vibeeeeeeeee. The lighting when I went with my friends was so cute. It was all pink and plush and giving bubblegum fantasy. I do wish the staff here knew or where more aware of the events occurring the night off. Like obviously it's third party ppl planning events but they did not and we're not aware of anything of the drag that night. I'm also not used to ordering a vodka redbull and not getting the vodka with the whole bottle of redbull as well. Obvi different establishments and different ways of doing things but I just found it odd.

My wife and I came here for a special haunted cocktail pop up event. I had never been here before so I can't speak on what they are like under normal circumstances.The event started at 6:30 pm on a Saturday. We took a lyft as we usually do going downtown. Realized how close this was to Mohawks and Beerland as places we used to go to more often. We got there a decent time before the start yet all the booths and tables against the wall were taken already. We took seats in the folding chairs. Finding recently this is another reason I don't get out as they are so uncomfortable. Not the bars fault but if you are like me you may want that info.The event was fun. It had several people telling various horror related stories while 4 different shot/drinks were supplied at start of each story as well as a contest that Shana was picked to compete in. She came in 2nd! This was all through a company called Fever.The drinks were all pretty good. I had my favorites of course. It opened with a shot, Conchita's Revenge, then Humiliated and Hammered, Headless Squeeze, and Tavern Martini. All were named for the stories but you should go to hear that for yourself. Shana approved of the drinks calling them "so creative and yummy". The Tavern Martini was my personal favorite with Humiliated being 2nd.The atmosphere for this was dim and smokey. Their was a stage up front and bar in back. The bathrooms are down a hallway past the bar. They brought each drink to you but no idea if they have waitstaff normallyIt was only about an hour. It was unique and fun, especially if you enjoy stories or story telling. I would suggest checking it out.

I had one drink here for eight dollars and had to leave on an emergency. When I realized that I had left without closing out, I thought oh that's cute, they'lll probably just put a nice tip that they deserve on my card- which ended up being TWELVE DOLLARS! if that's y'all's jam, then that sux.

Been seeing some friends bands here and really came around to liking this place. Barbarella's next door is just not my scene, and Swan Dive is basically an extension of that as they're connected. But that's what makes it fun! I get to watch my friend's bands play while a parade of 6th Street'ers make their way in to Barb's. Fun people watching.

Sound is excellent, bathrooms are abundant and clean, and there is good beer at the bar. When the weather is good, the big doors are open to a spacious patio. It's nicer than 6th street and I was able to take my recent (high school) graduate to see a show. Not an easy feat in most music venues downtown.

Came straight from the airport sober looking for a few drinks before bed and dropped my ID when they wanted to look in my WALLET and got denied. Lose the ego

It pains me to write this review. Swan Dive and its counterpart Barbarella are amazing bars. Unfortunately, their bouncer staff are blood hungry, power thirsty people. I like to give bouncers the benefit of the doubt when it comes to conflicts, but when a bouncer bumped into my friend (attempting to walk through him.) I thought "wow what a rude thing to do". My friend said " that was disrespectful" to this bouncer. The bouncer's response was to grab my friend, heave him to the door. My friend, of course, tried to regain his balance and pushed into the bouncer by mistake. The bouncer's reaction was to throw him to the floor, beat him, and not only was this bouncer beating him, all the bouncers in the vicinity joined him. Resulting in two lacerations of the scalp. Needless to say, a hospital trip with 6 staples in the head later, we will not be returning to this establishment.I truly hope these people are held accountable for their actions

i love the venue but unfortunately was drugged or they put something in the liquor, after one shot and one mixed drink i was incapacitated. it was fast and i felt it as it happened. I've been drugged once in 2022 at barberella, the sister bar. I hate to put blame on anyone but i've only been to these bars 2 times in my 5 years of recidency and both times i was drugged. Ladies please be aware, i never set my drinks down but ended up here two times. I don't want to blame them but this also isn't a coincidence in my eyes as i'm very aware, always hold my drink in front of me, and keep an eye for any sketchy movement. Something does not sit right with me and sadly i will not return. stay safe ladies!!!!

When we got there, the music was great and at a reasonable volume. Place has a cool style and reasonble divey drinks. But at 10pm when a show came on they literally doubled or tripled the volume of the music. It was literally deafening. I wore earplugs and it was still unpleasantly loud. Went outside to escape and found the volume of the music outside had also been doubled and was also unpleasantly loud and made it hard to have a conversation. I would guess the music volume was around 120 decibels, no joke. That's loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage in 10 SECONDS. TBH it shouldn't be legal to play music that loud without requiring patrons to sign a waiver.