Lao'd Bar — eat you out/eat you in

Just a day ago, we feel for the viral marketing that is the Sign Bar. Off of FM 969 this is as far out of Austin on the east side that you can get before you start to hit the colonies. Maybe on the weekend people are driving through to get to it, but on a Monday night it is dead.

Starting off, our main focus of the date was food and the restaurant/building that is on the same lot: Lao’d Bar. The last couple of years on the scene they have picked up accolades from Austin and made it to the semifinals for the 2025 James Beard award.

It is an order-at-the-bar style of place, you will get a placard so you can find a spot indoors or out, and they can bring it to you. You can leave the tab open or close it, I think the internet is telling me what you choose shows your age.

It is a single room with a ceiling of plants about the bar, colorful murals depicting an elephant, and vibrant tables. It also appears that you can buy shirts or merchandise showing your allegiance to the spot. And while I type this, it just has dawned on me that people may buy a shirt at a restaurant the same way I will buy a concert tee, as a souvenir that they were there.

It seems the shirts were reasonably priced when compared to the food, but damn am I still thinking about how much I spent on our date night.

As you order, the bartenders do an amazing job of communicating with you and the kitchen on what is not available any longer. We may have got in too late at around seven or eight, since they were out of what I wanted to try: the crispy fried rice. From my look of disappointment (only in that I had to replan my meal and not really that I missed out), she explained that in order to get it to the crispness it takes about a day and a half. Which made it sound more enticing and legit.

I went with a skewer, one of the last that they had. The meat was amazing, and the sauce it came with was tangy and pungent from fish sauce. The issue was that one skewer is eight dollars. One. Skewer. Is. EIGHT. Dollars,

I also enjoyed the pork bao bun that was a refreshing taste of the different ingredients that they use. A bao bun is also eight dollars.

And the Lao-Chee martini, it was a solid vodka martini. In a beautiful short glass with a small base and wide mouth, it contained a single lychee that exploded with sweetness and the alcohol it was soaking in. Each swallow tasted of the flavors, and vodka, and had me knocking it back with a happy grimace at the fourteen dollars I spent on it.

Food wise, this was on level with Discada. Great technique, ingredients, presentation, and seems ingrained with the culture it is pulling from. Price wise, this is what I expect from Austin but will be part of the argument I make when I say that the poor/working/middle classes are getting pushed out and can’t afford the city. If you want a cheaper option there is a Sonic across of FM 969 before you get to the Sign Bar. It will be cheaper in price, quality, and enjoyment. Although a strawberry limeade is the shit, with or without alcohol.

After dinner, we walked through the Sign Bar. More enticing as an interactive art and design space, it is filled with signs and memorabilia of current and past Austin businesses. A few signs will call to long time residents as they feel memories bubble up over the I luv Video Cabana or the Old San Francisco Steak House sign. It could be seen as drinking game, spotting which business are still around and where you have been.

Drink wise it seemed mid, there was no one there, and even the fright maze they added to the space for Halloween was dead. There may have been more employees between the maze, Sign Bar, and Lao’d Bar then there were patrons. But the couple of couples that we saw, they seemed content to have the space for themselves. And as an outdoor spot, they could smoke to their hearts content. I should have stuck around so I could creep to close and hope for the second hand waves to hit me.

For us, it isn’t too far. But for our friends, I can see them never going because of the location. Maybe we will go back because the photo opportunities are worth it, but also maybe not because it is someplace to enjoy with others.

Be prepared this month for a double posting of eating out as I have a fancy friend date at Comedor. While I be burned by the amount of money it takes to be in this city, or will I enjoy spending a ton of money for the Chef Philip Speer experience.