The woman gracing Still Austin Whiskey Co.’s flagship bourbon bottle has always been more than a label. With flowing hair that doubles as the strings of her instrument and the voice of a brilliant red summer tanager, The Musician represents the individuality and creative spirit Still Austin sees in its hometown.
Now, guests are about to step inside her world.
Scheduled to open at the end of September, The Still Austin Quarter is a 15,000-square-foot hospitality destination that expands the South Austin distillery into an ambitious combination of cocktails, food, live music, and storytelling.
“We wondered, what would it be like to go to her house?” co-founder and CEO Christopher Seals says. “What would she serve in her house? What if you were invited for a jam session in her kitchen?”
That question became the creative foundation for a space designed in collaboration with Weiss Architecture. The Quarter unfolds through distinct environments, including the Atrium, Vinyl Lounge, and Music Room, each capturing a different chapter in The Musician’s imagined journey.
But the expansion also solves a decidedly practical problem: Still Austin has outgrown its home.
Seals estimates that roughly 100,000 people visit the distillery annually, drawn not only by whiskey but by the opportunity to experience a distinctly Austin place. “We’ve just run out of space,” he says. “People love to come and see us and see where their whiskey comes from.”
The Quarter gives them considerably more room while widening the invitation beyond whiskey aficionados. Seals envisions it as something of a “living room of Austin, Texas,” where locals and visitors can discover the artists, flavors and creative community that define the city.
Perhaps nowhere is that mission clearer than in the Music Room. Rather than competing with Austin’s larger venues, Still Austin hopes to preserve something Seals believes the city is losing: intimate rooms where performers and audiences genuinely connect.
Inspired partly by legendary Austin venues such as Liberty Lunch and Steamboat, renowned acoustician Steven Durr engineered the room to support emerging musicians as well as established performers. Still Austin plans to offer artists access to world-class recording capabilities, creating opportunities that extend beyond the stage.
Even the green room reflects that philosophy. When Seals asked Durr what mattered most in creating an exceptional music venue, the acoustician’s answer surprised him: how the musician feels before walking onstage. So performers get a thoughtfully designed private retreat, complete with its own outdoor garden.
It all circles back to the artists who have inspired Still Austin from the beginning. Local artist Marc Burckhardt created The Musician and the other archetypal Austinites appearing on the distillery’s labels, characters Seals says celebrate the courage to be “fearlessly unique.”
That is ultimately what he hopes visitors carry with them.
“For all of us, artists or scientists or oddballs or whoever we are,” Seals says, “I hope we will feel the confidence to be our best selves.”
And, this being a whiskey distillery, perhaps leave with a bottle, too. A new Distillery Exclusives series will offer special whiskeys available only at Still Austin, giving visitors one more reason to make themselves at home.
For more information on the Quarter’s opening, visit www.stillaustin.com/still-austin-quarter and follow Still Austin on Instagram at @stillatx.