Masterminds Behind Birdie’s, Kitty Cohen’s, and White Horse Are Opening a New Bar

The teams behind buzzy neighborhood wine restaurant Birdie’s, East Austin patio cocktail spot Kitty Cohen’s, honky-tonk dive bar the White Horse, East Austin retro bar High Noon, and East Riverside bar Frazier’s are opening a new bar in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood. Day Dreamer will open at 1708 East Sixth Street sometime in January 2023.

The menu will focus on classic and house cocktails. It’ll make use of a fancy-pants Crawler Champion Shaker, which is operated through a hand-cranker. Expect Singapore Slings and Ramos Gin Fizzes, among other cocktails, to be made using the machine. The wine list will include a lot of sparkling and champagne options.

Food-wise, the founders formerly of pizza truck Sammataro, Townsend Smith and Daniel Sorg, are opening a new counter-service pizza spot behind the bar, along with Zak Drummond of Rhode Island hot dog pop-up Zee’s Wiener System. Allday Pizza will serve up 16-inch Neapolitan-New York-style pies, plus salads, meatballs, and soft serve. The menu will include set toppings as well as build-your-own options plus diet-friendly versions. This is their first planned location.

Day Dreamer’s partners include Jeremy Murray (co-owner of High Noon and Kitty Cohen’s), Nathan Hill (co-owner and partner of High Noon, Frazier’s, and White Horse), Jonathan Faulker (general manager and director of operations of Kitty Cohen’s), Arjav Ezekiel (co-owner of Birdie’s), and Jessica Tantillo (co-owner of Kitty Cohen’s). They decided to all work together because, according to Ezekiel, “Quite frankly, ’cause we thought it would be fun to do something together and bring together our varied interests, whether it was construction, wine, cocktails, or operations.”

The bar menu and look are inspired by the team’s favorite hotel bars. “Hotel bars are some of our favorite bars in the world,” explains Ezekiel, “because they feel just a little fancy without feeling over the top,” citing the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, the bar at the Connaught Hotel in London, and the now-closed Nomad Bar in New York as their inspiration examples.

The forthcoming bar will be open from noon to midnight Monday through Sunday. Allday will be for lunch and dinner services.

Hill opened White Horse in 2011. Murray, who had co-owned the closed Rainey Street whiskey bar the Blackheart, opened Kitty in the summer of 2016. Hill also opened East Riverside bar Frazier’s in early 2019. Then, Murray and Hill partnered together to open East Austin bar High Noon in the former Craftsman bar space in the fall of 2020. Ezekiel opened Birdie’s in July 2021 with co-owner and wife chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel, to much acclaim, including an Eater Award later that year. Smith and Sorg opened Sammataro in late 2020 with Isaac Flores (who now solely operates the pizza truck).

Update, Friday, October 28, 10:03 a.m.: This article, originally published on June 23, has been updated to reflect the bar’s new projected opening month.