Rainey Street – Austin, Texas

Image source: Randall Metting

While visiting Austin, Texas recently, I had the opportunity to visit Rainey Street, an incredibly funky street and a clever piece of urban design. Rainey Street features about 20 single family bungalows that have been transformed into a spirited indoor, outdoor, backyard bar, restaurant and music scene teeming with life. It is a must see for anyone visiting Austin and is surely an interesting prototype for decaying urban neighborhoods on the edges of downtown. On Rainey Street visitors meander through backyards, sit a picnic tables, listen to “backyard bands” and sample a seemingly infinite array of micro brews that Austin supports in droves. Visitors can also venture inside the bungalows to discover wonderfully intimate and carefully crafted cozy spaces inside the houses. All the houses and spaces indoor and outdoor are a little bit different.  At night, life on the street functions as a singular organic whole, where it is equally interesting to take in the goings on as it is to dive into one of the bungalows, or visit “neighbors” in the backyards. Austin and Rainey Street are in fact a little bit weird and thank goodness, I’d love to go back!

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In Austin, Bungalows and Brews