The Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons

Let me just brush my shoulder off and adjust my monacle… oh what’s that? Oh yeah, no biggie, just having a drinking at the MuthaF#!ing Four Seasons Lobby Lounge!
Seriously though, this place is swaaaankay. We like sitting here as the sun sets, waiting for the bats to come out in droves, crossing our fingers to see a tourist mauled this time around. The appetizers are good, and the beer/​wine selection is not too shabby. I’m not a wine expert by any means, but hell, I like to drink with my pinky up in the air once in a while.
Make sure to come at happy hour (before 7 pm) so you don’t end up spending your month’s rent on your drinks. Oh wait– this is Texas? Fine, two months rent.

This was always my last stop after a night on the town. I love the fireplace on cold Austin nights. It’s great for people watching too. Especially during SXSW.

I can’t believe I haven’t written a review for this place! I’m a fan. They service is so great. I mean, I return twice in a weekend, and they remember my order! I had a yummy Austin Hippie Salad and later I came back for an Almond tea. It was all so perfect with the serenity the hotel provides. I always feel transported here and never bothered by those trying to engage in unsolicited conversation.
Next time I’m Austin, I know I’ll be stopping here!

After googling for afternoon teas in Austin (just for fun and because I am a nerd/​huge tea fan) I came across the afternoon tea here and made a reservation. There was a mix-​up so when we arrived we were informed that there is no tea service on Wednesdays. Rather than sending us off, they asked us to patiently wait and proceeded to set up a table in front of a set of the large glass doors that overlook a view of the river – linen tablecloth, yellow rose petals, the works. It was our own private, adorable party. They also provided us with complimentary cava to enjoy as apologies for the delay. Once we were seated, we were able to choose some yummy teas (the texas blend black and the vanilla roiboos were our choices) and then they brought out a lovely three tier platter with scones, jam, clotted cream, lemon curd, finger sandwiches of all types and some yummy pastries (I loved the french macarons and the german chocolate cake was my favorite.) I was so impressed with how quickly workers in the kitchen pulled such a delicious tea service together on an off day! I was also thrilled to have several concerned servers stop by, and a manager, multiple times to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. And to make matters even better, we had our valet parking comped at the end.
I know that a normal visit to the Lobby Lounge does not usually include such perks, but I have a feeling that the level of care, pride, and compassion the staff exhibited is a constant. Thank you! I now plan to bring every visitor I have in town to this establishment… and to maybe plan a birthday brunch there too!

If you can get a seat this can be a great place to have a meeting, snack, or a business happy hour. We’ve also been here a few times at night to hang out and enjoy some Scotch.
They have a well stocked bar, solid bartenders, and most of the staff is responsive. I am also in love with their little tray of nuts, pretzels, and okra. Bring your wallet (or your friends room number) because after a night of drinks and sliders, and dessert it adds up.
There’s always some good people watching to be had and also plenty of comfortable seats and sometimes a piano player.

While their specialty coctails ($ 14) sound interesting on paper, there is no comparrison to Bar Congress, DrinkWell, Half Step. Those places all make much more nuanced drinks, for less cost ($ 11 avg). If you’re a craft cocktail fan, I cannot recommend the LL at 4 Seasons, especially at that price.
Also, the décor is kinda Dallas-​westerny. Not a fan of that either.

Afternoon tea!!!
So there aren’t many places to get afternoon tea in Austin :(.
Steeping Room has some tea sets, if you’re going for a casual simple version. Full English has a more down to earth/​cozy afternoon tea. But, if you want the ambiance and flair of afternoon tea, you got to go to the Four Seasons!
Planned a birthday afternoon tea here and the service was great! They accommodated our group of ten, set out a beautiful table with special table cloth and chairs, and even threw on some flower petals!
You have to make sure to call ahead for reservations 24hrs in advance, which is my only complaint: The food isn’t prepared fresh on the spot. They basically warm up the scones and plate food prepared previously :(.
So this isn’t the yummiest Afternoon Tea set I’ve ever had, but it’s worth it for the experience and service. Would definitely recommend a visit!

One of my go to spots for an after work drink. A large, well appointment bar with ample space to find a spot to have a conversation in private and enough energy for a good bar scene. Excellent service and good drinks to boot.

Averaging out two experiences here.
Stop #1: bartender amazing, drinks amazing, good stories from said bartender re: celebrity sightings. 5 stars.
Stop #2: unable to sit right at the bar due to presence of bros. 2 waitresses waiting on us. one of them asked my husband if he wanted another and then walked away with no response after saying «yes». We thought she didn’t hear or didn’t care, so we ordered with waitress #2, and so we ended up with an extra. Service was a little weird this time, but are worse things in life than an extra tequila beverage. 3 stars this time.

As a former New Yorker, I love nothing more than passing time in a well appointed hotel bar. So on Monday, when I found out Freedmen’s was closed, a bourbon loving friend and I headed to try the off menu Barrel Aged Cocktail that I had just read about in Tribeza.
The lobby bar was busy enough to be interesting, but not overcrowded. The service was friendly if slow.
The off menu cocktail was amazing! boozey and strong, but not overbearing. Please note you are in the Four Seasons and ordering off menu so it’s not a cheap cocktail, but if you’re a bourbon lover its worth leaving your usual happy hour watering hole to experience!

I was in Austin during SXSW again this year, and after days of taking in long showcases of loud indie bands and thumping DJ set, my friend and I needed a break from all the live music. We just wanted a nice, relaxing lounge where we could order cocktails and not be forced to listen to loud, intrusive hipster rock. Believe it or not, this is actually a pretty tall order in Austin during SXSW. Incredibly, the lounge at Four Seasons was pretty much the only bar in town that had not been turned into a venue.
The Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons Austin was exactly what we wanted. Comfortable chairs and couches in elegant surroundings. Nice atmosphere contributed by mood lighting and a relaxing soundtrack of piano standards played live on a baby grand. Competent and efficient service by cocktail waitresses. Extensive, well-​stocked bar; I ordered a Campari & soda, as well as a Sazerac, and they didn’t bat an eyelash. The cocktail prices are a little steep, but you’re paying for the stellar ambiance as well as the liquor. All in all, a welcome respite from the chaos of SXSW. Recommended.

The Lounge is stunning. Beautifully decorated, and extremely comfortable. I love lounging on the couches. It really feels like you are in someone’s living room.
The drinks are a bit steep, with cocktails running for around $ 10 – 16. They do offer some interesting drinks though. Last time, I had the Devil Went Down to Texas which was spicy and delicious! Be sure that you get the nuts too! They are complimentary and soooo good! Perfect snack to accompany your drink.

Elegant service.
The lounge setting is amazing; piano, fireplace, couch, plenty of seating. The staff were dressed very nice and pleasant. I overheard the bar tenders giving out advice on where to go to guests visiting and they were right on point.
I’ll be back for a beer and the lounge setting.

My family spent three nights at the Four Seasons in Austin, and during that time, I made a few separate trips to the Lobby Lounge. The five of us used the comfortable seating area to kill time with a few drinks, even with the fourteen-​year-​old in tow, and my brother Andrew (23) and I lingered later, putting drink after drink on our parents’ tab. I love family vacations.
It was a nice lounge, roomy and welcoming, with a great live pianist who played a random assortment of popular tunes in later hours. Service was excellent, and I liked the complimentary snack dishes we got on every visit. Japanese crackers, crunchy wasabi beans, and spiced peanuts — classy stuff.
The drink menu was big, with a number of house cocktails as well as beer and wine and whatever else you might think to order from a full bar. I tried a few of the cocktails, and they were solid, if not $ 14 amazing. I liked the Roasted Texas Peach Mojito, with rum, Texas peach purée, mint, and simple syrup. It was over 100 degrees in Austin about the whole time we were there, so this cool sweet drink hit the spot. The Hipster was another solid drink, made with cognac, yellow chartreuse, strawberry, lemon, and simple syrup, strong enough, not too sweet, with pretty good balance. It came with a big stick of pink rock candy to use as a swizzler. That was fun. I also liked the Z Firing Squad, a tequila drink with lime, housemade grenadine, and bitters. Drinks with grenadine are pretty hit or miss for me, but I liked this one. If you’re a Bloody Mary person, I also definitely recommend the Bloody Mary. Nothing crazy, but very good, spicy and satisfying, garnished with olives, a lime wedge, and a celery stick, with a thick salt rim.
But since we were spending so much time and (parents’) money in the lounge, Andrew and I drank a lot of beer. These were well priced compared to the cocktails, at $ 6 a bottle. Nothing on tap, but the bottles were good. There were about a dozen on the menu, all Texan beers I hadn’t tried before. We drank most of the available beers, pale ales and brown ales and IPAs. My favorites were the Spoetzel Brewery Shiner Bock and the Independence Bootlegger brown ale, but they were all solid, poured out of the bottles into tall glasses.
We didn’t do too much damage in the absence of the rest of our family, and I like that we were able to spend hours in the Four Seasons lounge drinking $ 6 beers. The Lobby Lounge was a great feature of our Austin vacation, and if I get to stay here again, I’ll be sure to come back for more easy good times.

I wasn’t actually planning on writing a Derby Day review since I felt like Nathan and Keyla summed it up eloquently, but since I was the «organizer» of a 20+ person party (including one real Kentucky Colonel! No kidding!) who came to the Lobby Lounge for the event, I thought there was a few things worth mentioning.
The first is that I called the number the Four Seasons posted on their Twitter account to get reservations and was specifically told by the gentleman on the phone that they were NOT taking reservations for the event. I thought that was odd since they had made sure to mention on Twitter to call for reservations, AND I had 20+ friends coming. The gentleman seemed unconcerned and told us to merely show up and pay our $ 10 each.
Of course when we arrived and told the waitress that we would have 20+ people, she had nowhere to put us. Our party ended up split into 3 or 4 factions, which I wasn’t terribly upset about, since I had previously learned that they weren’t taking reservations and a 20+ person party is difficult to seat.
Service was very slow and disorganized, but that really wasn’t the waitresses fault. bless their hearts. They were slinging out those mint juleps as fast as they could.
The one thing I’d hoped the Lobby Lounge had improved over last year was the number of TV’s. When I saw on their newsletter that the Lounge would have «tv’s» — PLURAL — for viewing the race, I got excited. Sadly, it turned out to be false advertising. There was only one TV again, the line of sight was terrible, and 80 people were trying to cram around it. They didn’t have the sense to turn on the closed captioning, so you couldn’t hear the announcers making comments about which horses were gaining from the back. (I suppose it’s possible the race didn’t have closed captioning. if that’s the case, I’ll give them a pass there.) But still. only one TV? There are hundreds of TVs in that hotel…
As for the Best Hat and Best Suit contests — I attended the inaugural Derby Day event at the Lobby Lounge last year and enjoyed it so much that I invited all of my friends back this year. Last year, my dear friend won the hat contest with a stellar (and creative) hat, so it was a safe assumption that this year the Lobby Lounge would reward folks who actually put work into their hat. rather than picking one up at a department store. I think my friends felt vindicated when they had several complete strangers come up to them and tell them they should have won the hat contest. The Suit contest was a similar travesty, but it sounds like the manager handled it well.
I think they were supposed to announce on Facebook who was closest to guessing the race winners, but I haven’t seen that announcement yet…
I like the Lobby Lounge, and I like the Four Seasons, and I LOVE Trio (probably an unhealthy amount). So I’ll certainly be back, probably just not for Derby Day. Which is sad, because for two years running we’ve attended the Lobby Lounge event and Trio afterwards… I was looking forward to making it a tradition. Alas, we are serious Derby enthusiasts and for the amount of money our group ended up spending at the Lounge to have a sub-​par experience, we could have thrown the race up on a projector and had a hell of a party at home.

Saturday May 5^th, 2012 saw the coming together of two time honored traditions: 1.) Cinco de Mayo, where people shamelessly use an obscure Mexican victory to justify drinking and acting like fools at their nearest Tex-​Mex chain restaurant; and 2.) The Kentucky Derby, billed as «The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports». Seeing as my sombrero was in the shop, and two minutes is about as long as any sport can ever grab my attention, I decided to join Jenny O’s Derby Day gathering at the Lobby Lounge at The Four Seasons. Fancy hats, mint juleps, and The Four Seasons? Clearly, I celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the most wildy WASP-​y manner possible.
Let me explain the 4 Stars. The 4 Stars is referring to my cumulative experience with this bar over the years. I’ve always felt it was the perfect place to meet someone in a more subdued, elegant environment. It’s the kind of bar you go to for one drink (maybe two) before heading off to dinner downtown. Live music – whether a piano player or band – are quite frequent. The staff has always been very courteous, and they certainly do their best to make you feel relaxed. Drinks are set at approx. $ 10 a piece, but you get a higher level of service. Plus, soda & tonic is served in glass bottles that you mix into your liquor with swizzle sticks. You know, little touches like that. This is not the place to tie one on, nor sling back shots. It’s an elevated locale for more sophisticated imbibing.
That said, their Derby Day event was somewhat enjoyable, but also left much to be desired. I found some of the ladies in my group already seated at a table for 4. Noelle D. had remarked that they had given prior notice of our group of 20, but the host sat them down at that particular table. Where our friends would be sitting remained a mystery. The mystery was solved when they DID arrive, and were told to either sit in a few extra chairs haphazardly brought over by the host or mill about, separated from the group. They did a little of both. I’m not exactly sure the details on reserving seats, but the lack of seating contributed to a slight disjointed feeling among the attendees.
I freaking hate mint juleps. Always have. I hate sugar in alcohol, I hate mint, I hate mint in alcohol, and I think that drinking bourbon through a straw is weird. Still, tradition is tradition, and I began with a mint julep. At least it was poured very strong. I got my $ 10 worth, then switched to a vodka tonic.
Earlier in the afternoon, I had chosen the horse I’ll Have Another, mostly because it’s one of my favorite phrases. I mentioned this in a timestamped Facebook update, so there is no revisionist history going on here. At 12 – 1 odds, however, I didn’t hold out much realistic hope. So when it came time to make our picks for the contest, I filled out my racing slip with the horses that Vegas favored: Union Rags and Bodemeister. I’ll Have Another I placed in 3^rd.
I was in mid conversation when the Derby abruptly began. It was in the final seconds when my jaw dropped and I almost pissed myself when I saw I’ll Have Another take the lead from the outside. And win. Dear God – I called it. Naturally, I hadn’t placed any real bets (damn it), but from now on, I think I’ll have to start taking on gambling.
Let me tell you a little something about their Best Hat/​Best Seersucker Suit context. It was complete and utter bullshit. The ladies in my group had certainly outdone themselves with their hats; I was sure that one of them would win. I personally did not have a seersucker suit just lying around, so I instead wore a pastel pink shirt with pink socks to match, and a fedora that actually looked cute on me. I wasn’t in it to win, but I saw one guy with seersucker and a bowtie, and I figured he would easily nab the guys’ suit prize. Not. Even. Close.
The hat that won was one of the plainest in the room, and an unremarkable tan color to boot. It was elegant, but certainly not stunning in any way. Not contest winning worthy. The woman looked well-​heeled, though, so my BS detector went up big time. This was only confirmed when the host abruptly changed the guy’s contest from «Best Seersucker Suit» to «Overall Best Dressed Man», and gave the award to some old fart in a nondescript shirt, regular tie, and khakis. Oh, come on. This thing was so brazenly rigged, it wasn’t even amusing. If we want to talk betting, I’d bet anything these two were some sort of VIPs and the Lobby Lounge was kissing their ass. I felt sorry for the guy I chose to win, whose female friends were all as astonished as we were. In the grand scheme of things it means absolutely nothing – but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
I’ll be back to the Lobby Lounge, but probably not for this event. I thought I’d chosen a winner for Derby Day, but it looks like I misjudged that call.
Maybe I’ll hold off on that gambling thing after all.
Still, 4 Stars.

My first visit to The Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons for their Derby Day gathering and it was a resounding disappointment that had me fleeing the premises early determined never to return.
So many things were just wrong with the experience. From the price of the drinks ($ 10 for a simple Mint Julep that was nothing special) to the lack of seating and comfort in the room (we were in a party of 20, and told them that, yet they choose to seat us at a table for 4), there was just nothing to recommend about this place.
But by far the biggest disappointment was the best hat and best dressed guy contest. Everyone left there feeling as if the entire contest had been rigged. I don’t know if it was or not, but the guy who won the contest was wearing khakis and a button down shirt. Mind you, this was a Derby contest. When you think Derby you think seersucker, pastel shirts, bow ties, and such for the guys. There was a guy there (not part of our party) who was wearing exactly that. And, we all thought for sure that he had this contest in the bag. I mean, you couldn’t look at the guy and not think Kentucky Derby, but the guy that the Lobby Lounge management selected looked like college-​frat-​trying-​for-​fancy-​night-​out-​on-​town, you know the look, nothing special and certainly not Kentucky Derby theme.
Same thing for the woman who won the best hat. I was not able to participate in the contest but I was impressed by some of the hats that some of the ladies created. These was a truly beautiful one with red roses everywhere that just looked like a run-​for-​the-​roses hat. But again, the hat that won had nothing special to recommend or even remember it.
Like I said, it was so bad that the other people there all commented on the contest, feeling that it seemed as if the contest had been fixed for a reason because no reasonable, impartial person could have made the selections that were made.
Lastly, I felt that the room and the atmosphere at the Four Seasons was not conducive to a Derby party. Those who have been to Louisville for Derby Day know that this is a truly festive affair that highlights all the best of the city. It is more than just a run for the roses and this place failed to do it justice.
Anyways, I think I will check out the Driskill for next year’s Derby.
Edited to add:
The manager responded to this post below. The change in stars is not a response to his comment. I had decided to make the change based on Nathan I’s argument for 4 stars, basically saying that even though Derby Day sucked the place is basically nice. Agreed. It’s just hard to appreciate a place when the event is so bad.
Now as for the managers comments, I appreciate the gesture. But I would like to say that our group’s coordinator tried to make reservations and was told they were required. Why say it if it isn’t true? And, if we are trying to make the reservation, please take the reservation.
Though, I can appreciate the manager’s position. We won’t be back next year.

OK. Enjoyed the live music. Drinks were average and service was a little perfunctory.

This is my go to spot for terrific drinks and service. I have a beloved client who mentioned to me that she loved having tea when she lived in England. As it turns out, the Lobby Lounge serves tea daily! We booked a reservation and felt like princesses the entire time we were there. The service was excellent, the tea selection impressive and the food was divine. My favorite was the curry chicken sandwiches and the shaved fennel and smoked salmon sandwich. I could have tea here every single day of my life. Do yourself a favor and gather some friends and go enjoy a spot of tea, it will leave you feeling fantastic and pampered.

We visited during the madness that is SXSWi week in Austin.
Completely loved it. Impossibly polite, professional, and welcoming service despite the obnoxious crowd that we were, and in the grander scheme of things really reasonably priced (at ~$ 40ish for a bottle of Cava). A genuine treat.