Container Bar Will Open 'Early Next Week;' Here's Everything You Need to Know

Bar maven Bridget Dunlap's epic Rainey Street undertaking Container Bar will finally open its doors next week. Dunlap confirms that the perpetually delayed bar, which was first announced three years ago in March 2011, will open before SXSW. She cannot confirm an exact date at this time.

Eater Austin has obsessively tracked what Dunlap has called her 'last' Rainey Street Bar over the past three years. Here is everything known and rumored about what Thrillist once called "the white whale of Rainey Street."

News first broke that the bar would be made entirely of shipping containers in March of 2011. Soon after the reveal, Dunlap said Container Bar would be her last Rainey Street bar. Dunlap later swore off Rainey entirely in order to focus on new East 6th restaurant Mettle. The original projected opening date was October 2011.

Eater listed Container Bar as one of early 2013's most anticipated openings, when the bar was slated to open in "April or May" of that year. Dunlap finally got the permits to start construction in May 2013, and the bar's opening was pushed back to "late fall."

The mythic containers finally arrived in September 2013 and Dunlap revealed that an in-house trailer called Thaitanium would join the project. Dunlap told Eater the project had taken so long because:

a ground-up project is always a pain in the ass. It's been a beast. There's been a million times when I've thought, "I don't want to do this any more." But then I'd look at the renderings and think, "I can't quit now." It's a love/hate thing. You know what I mean? The human in your life that you both love and hate at the same time, but you don't want to quit, because you're worried you'll miss 'em.

In December, construction kicked off in earnest. Mettle chef Andrew Francisco will craft the menu for Thaitanium. Not much is known about the drinks program yet, but Dunlap previously told Eater it will move away from the current rage for all things "local." Meanwhile, Mettle opened in June 2013, and Dunlap is working on another untitled East 6th restaurant.
· All Container Bar Coverage [EATX]
· All Bridget Dunlap Coverage [EATX]

Container Bar

90 RAINEY STREET, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701