Clive is one of those bars where you can go with your friends, or your bachelor / bachelorette party, or just go alone and meet someone new. My friend and I sat at the bar, ordered our drinks. Bartender was awesome. Red Sox game was playing inside on the TV. We chatted a little then walked around. The patio was playing a different baseball game on the big screen. The DJ was playing music. The couches had a couple people sitting and watching the game. Bathroom area had a written mural. Was a great night to be outside. Wasn't windy even though the patio was open. Dos have walls to cut the wind down. I believe there is an upstairs area too, but it was roped off. But it is a pretty large bar with an upstairs area. L read more

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Clive is a one of the better bars in the area. It's a house that has been converted into a bar. Few years back, they added a third level to the place which is where I spend most of my time. Each floor has a different vibe and plays different music. It gets chiller the higher you go. The bottom floor is definitely more DJ / House / Clubby type vibes. I dont think they host live bands (never seen any but could be wrong. Their outside area would be great for it) but they'll definitely have the occasional live DJ. I've been here a few times and each time they have a semi different menu each time. Drinks cost around 10 dollars. They do have happy hour starting as soon as you open and last until 8pm and you can save a few dollars. The back area is chill. They have some picnic style tables. I like coming here and people watch when I had enough of the music inside. Its definitely a chill dancing bar and always a place I swing by when I'm in town. The line does get pretty long on bigger nights, so expect a wait. read more

Amazing bar service, great DJ, I partied my teets off! I met so many fun people... This was a total surprise hit! We popped in late-night and found an amazing DJ spinning everybody's favorites, people dancing everywhere, and the vibe was pure fun. It felt like a mini Vegas pool party, without the pool, but in the rain, and no one missed a beat. Everyone was friendly, the bartenders were great, and the energy was just right. A must-visit if you're in Austin and want to end the night on a high! NOTE: I didn't notice any food options. read more

Love Clive Bar! The best bar in Rainey and it's always a good time. Staff is amazing and love that they have different levels to experience. My fav is the rooftop level. read more

Clive - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

Came in during the day on a Friday. The bartender was very rude and more interested in chatting with his friend about the basketball on TV than anything else. We were trying to be friendly and ask questions about the bar, but he just gave us a nasty look and short responses. The cocktails were surprisingly much much worse than similar cocktails we had next door. We were initially excited to visit, but we left very disappointed. tldr; this place sucks. read more

Great little bar hidden away in Rainey. Had fun with the bar staff and some banter with the locals when the football was on... decent drinks although we drank them out of cider! Rooftop space also available if it's busy. read more

Stop number one on our Rainey Street experiment. As we were going to drink, we left the pick-up truck home and grabbed Lyft. The Lyft driver let us off about a block over and we were a little confused about where to go, which we shouldn't have, because they had music blasting and lights flashing on the top. The staff was cool about me just having a photo of my passport on my phone since I left my wallet back at the house. The crowd seemed like a mixture of young twenty somethings and some older folks. The music was mostly hip-hop and everyone seemed to be having fun. They didn't have the greatest options for drinks-- if you're a Seinfeld fan, it was reminiscent of the Seinfeld episode where they were in the Bizzaro diner. Everything I suggested, they didn't have, but they had an alternative for. We ultimately did have fun, and the place was the largest place, that we visited on Rainey Street. read more

My husband is a sucker for rooftop bars, and their very dog friendly atmosphere on a hot day made Clive our first stop on a Rainey Street adventure. Very fun, spacious layout. The Bartenders were friendly and extra attentive to our pups! They even brought out a fan for them in addition to ice cold water! read more

Clive - Clive on Rainey - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

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Most of the Clive is open air, or semi open air. (Semi Open Air = Outdoor Porches with windbreaker walls, window like gaps in said windbreaker walls and no heat.) We froze our ass off. The Clive is more fun in the summer than in the dead of winter. * * * The Clive also "starts late" with crowds not showing up till 10:30 at least. Pours are quite generous - a fact which was much appreciated by this Yelper. Prices are kind for management. The space is par for the course for Rainey Street ... Which is not a surprise since it is owned by the same lady who Runs a huge percentage of the bars on Rainey Street. * * * You can do worse. You can also do better. read more

Cool vibe, nice bartenders, good music.. Upstairs was closed when we went and DJ did not allow music requests and said "I am not working your party." read more

Came here during the lull between NYE and Christmas and it was OK and if this is the norm then Friday's before 10:30pm is still the dead period in Austin night life and hasn't changed in years. Mostly groups coming in bar hopping on Rainey. They did have a DJ playing as the evening progressed that played 2000-2010s pop hits so the music definitely would cover most age groups. The venue has three levels with the orignal rainey street house on the first floor. This venue is mostly outdoors except the house portion so in the winter season definitely bring your jacket or heavy coat depending on the weather as there are no heaters outside. If you want to have a conversation, i suggest the top floor which has views of the street below and there is a slightly enclosed area up there and there are tables as well inside the house that is kept toasty in the winter month's. Though once the DJ starts around 9ish it did become harder to keep a conversation. Drinks are the same. I would say expect tourist prices and with their signature cocktails leaning on the sweet side but you wouldn't be here just for the drinks. I had a different experience during South by Southwest when it was packed and there was live entertainment and much warmer so looking forward to our short winter to be over. read more

Highrise livin'! This is one of the tallest bars I've ever been in! There's so much going on, on so many levels! This place has certainly diversified their vibes with lots of lounges and places to hang. You can hangout in the lodge area indoors, where bottles of Patron and bare wood abound. From here there's patio after patio, small intimate bars. Upstairs, there's narrow walkways where you can literally look down your nose at the crowds below, while sipping a cold cocktail. On the roof, like 4 stories up, there's patio drinks from the horseshoe shaped bar with a stuffed longhorn over it, or the beer bar on the other side. Be sure to sit out on the deck on the tippy-top deck- pull up a saddle and check out the mayhem below on Rainey Street. One of the things that this bar lacks is enough seating. They have all this room, but usually a shortage on places to rest your heels. The restrooms are usually clean and private here, where everyone has their own little room! Aaah!! read more

Bottom Line: Multi-level indoor-outdoor bar with a variety of music. Let me preference this review by saying I was here on a Sunday afternoon and evening. A group of six of us went to Clive based on a recommendation from our server up the street. Most of my party immediately made the climb to the top floor for the DJ and dancing but one of my fiends and I enjoyed the live band on the ground floor. Whereas the DJ was playing modern dance music the band was playing 70s rock so definitely two very different styles of music. On that note, shout out to The Motts who were a fun band attracting a more mature crowd at Clive. In addition to enjoying the band on the lower level, I also enjoyed watching everyone come down the stairs, some more graceful than others. We witnessed many stumbles and two total wipe outs on those stairs. Ouch. Service at the bar was friendly and Clive is pet friendly. read more

Great place to start a long night out. Halloween weekend was the right time to come for sure. We grabbed some great seats on a perfect night for the rooftop bar. Surprisingly decent drinks for this type of bar, great music, and tons of dance floor room. Fun place for a larger group. read more

Great staff from the security at the door to the bartenders. Drinks? I had a bartender recommended Mule and it was the bomb:) Cool vibe with plenty of room;tables, stand-alone seating, a large community floor space, which as it turns out, was taken over almost completely by a bunch of us Tesla fans on the night I was there:) Location was great! I left my group at the bar for a little while and strolled Rainey Street's other bars and eats. On top of that, Rainey Street was close enough to my Airbnb that I could just walk east and be at my rented space in 15 minutes. Now that is cool. read more

Felipe deserves a raise and he's is so nice and such great customer service! Made us SKOLdiers feel at home! Love him! SKOL read more

Clive - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

Clive is a fun three story bar. The DJ can be hit or miss, but I'd say for the most part, my friends and I enjoy dancing there! Fun place to make a stop at during your night. They have no straws which is unfortunate and their drinks are overpriced which sucks, but it's a fun place with great views of the city read more

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Great bar! Great vibe for my most recent sxsw trip! The staff were beyond lovely and great energy. This is a must stop when you wanna meet amazing energetic people. Austin was the best! Made us feel welcome :) love from some Cali kids! read more

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I enjoy coming to Clive, but like all the bars on Rainey Street, drinks are pricey. Clive is a bit reminiscent of the old Rainey days, as the inside of Clive is similar to the traditional historic homes that use to grace Rainey. The inside of the bar is tiny, but has a spacious sized patio for dancing (or standing since the Rainey crowd really doesn't dance, & no, swaying back & forth is not a dance). read more

Cheap drinks and great space on Rainey. Three floors (ground, second, and rooftop) with a open floor layout. Cans and well drinks are $5 and specialty cocktails (and select cans) are $10. I would say it's worth dropping by for a drink and watching a game on one of the tv screens. read more

We visited Clive while in Austin for a Bachelorette weekend. When entering and showing our IDs at the door, the staff member dropped my friend's ID and it fell through the cracks of their staircase where we couldn't get it out without removing boards. This was a huge bummer, but not the reason for a 1 star review. My 1 star review is for the way the staff handled the problem. Instead of being apologetic, helpful, or even kind -- the staff was condescending and aggressive. They offered no solution besides emailing the bar the next day. Not even a free drink. Without an ID, we had to end our bar hopping for the trip. read more

I am here visiting and being told "we are a strawless bar" was a little shocking. No alternatives, just "no". Would at least recommend biodegradable straws. read more

Best place to play bags. Felipe is an awesome Bartender! SKOL We enjoyed our night at Clive's, happy the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets!

Great service and great ambience. I would go again and recommend it to friends and family,

Fun place! Great live music and a lot of people played Corn Hole. The place wasn't obnoxiously loud. read more

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This bar is located on the popular Rainey Street. My visit here was to check out Bar Ilegal, a small mezcal based bar that is located in a small shed-like building in the back. Both bars were popular as there were a good amount of people hanging out in the area. I ordered a Mexucan Mule and it was great. I liked the bite that it had in the drink. The bartender was super friendly and also suggested a couple of other bars that I should check out. read more

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Great 3 story bar with a cool rooftop. Every staff member I've ever had has been nice, and friendly. The remodel looks great, bathrooms are nice and always clean. Drink prices are high compared to other bars on Rainey. If they start doing happy hour specials, or just adjusting prices to the rest of Rainey we would visit more often. read more

I go out most nights, and this is the place where I want to be most of the time. What you get here is a very classy place, nice decor clean bathrooms, great music. You wont find super cheap drink specials... that's good it keeps the douche bags at bay. You wont find any Budweiser or Bud light as the bar does not carry this. More ways of keeping the bar hopping d-bags away.. What you will find is a great beer selection the beers are all from 3.50-5 dollars a fair price for the selection. They have many local brews such as 512, Circle, Real.. and lots of other great stuff. I think another highlight of this bar is its bartenders. You could go as far as to call them Mixologists. I've had the best Sazerac that I've ever had from the bar tender John here and I often walk in and see him and he suddenly makes some new concoction using his mad skills. The liquor selection is also premium, they have everything from Blanton's Whiskey to Absinthe. My favorite drink is something I haven't seen any where else, its a frozen peach tea vodka drink served in a mason jar. The patio at Clive is awesome and sitting out there on a hot night drinking frozen peach tea vodka is amazing! The candle light adds to the whole thing. They are currently installing a Mezcal bar on the patio which is sure to end me drinking insane amounts of Mezcal every night. Do yourself a favor and go to Clive bar and see John, drink some peach tea vodka and sit on the patio you wont have a more pleasant bar experience in all of Austin. I don't like giving out 5 star reviews, but I'm going to this time. read more

I was there on my bachelorette weekend and the bouncer dropped my license down the stairs. They provided no solutions aside from emailing the manager. This was early in the night so it disrupted most of our evening plans. Staff was rude and condescending. read more

Don't go to Clive bar The door guy would not let me in unless I allowed him to SCAN my id. I'm 40 years old with gray hair and a valid Texas drivers license to view and hold...there is absolutely no reason to scan my dl barcode other than data mining. Don't fall for this scam, the information on this 2d barcode invades your privacy don't let them them profit off your information it's none of their business, just bad business. Austin has wayyyy too many really cool bars that do not scan your id...it's not the law so why? it's sad I liked the old school Clive bar especially bar illegal. Data mining is a trillion dollar a year industry..you don't want to get denied health insurance for your track record at bars that don't even sell food. read more

This place was okay but I spent 3 hours here and I couldn't reg a super cold to save my life. The bartender gave me one that wasn't regging at all and I told her to toss it back but she said tough luck. To make matters worse I didn't hear a single Greg Kihn Band song while I was there. read more

Nice atmosphere. Good margarita and fun crowd. Music was good and loved the upper deck for people watching.

I'm here hella faded anyone on the 3rd floor got a cigarette I got like $3 in quarters read more

Clive - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

I have some mixed emotions about this place. I went at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon and had a great time drinking and watching the game on the patio with my friend. Well if I'm honest, she was watching the game, I was people watching! The location is great. It's on a corner and has a good view of the street below. The rustic vibes and good music made for a nice time. The bartenders were all very kind and worked quickly. The drinks were made very very well. I had their signature Mule and my friend had a Strawberry Fizz. They were $10 each and I felt worth every penny. Now by 4:00 a younger rowdy crowd came in and the relaxed vibe changed. They stood in front of the tv and those of us watching the game quickly decided to leave. I am not taking away any stars for this because I had a really good time and the bar itself cannot be held responsible for the how people act. Just go early read more

Clive - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

Came here a couple of times recently and definitely enjoyed myself. First, the bar has both an inside and outside area - the outside area is reasonably large, so that's where we spent most of our time. One point I want to make is that the bartenders were really nice throughout our visits there. They were friendly, remembered my name, and just did a great job in general. One fun thing about this bar is that they have cornhole outside. Of course, it's only one set of boards, and you'll have plenty of other people wanting to play, so you can pretty much play a few games max. But a few games of cornhole is better than no games at all! One small negative about the place is that they had some pretty subpar BBQ restaurant serving food there (on a Thursday). Granted, it's not like the bar itself is serving the food, but I would have preferred they allowed a better restaurant to take up real estate. Overall, I definitely recommend people come here and have a drink. And if you don't like it, you can go to one of the other many bars on Rainey St. :) read more

Been to Clive Bar several times, and is usually one of my first go-to's if I'm in the Rainey area. Their bar itself is not one of the biggest bars there is but the overall atmosphere seems to be a mix of chill and lively without being too much at times. Located just a stone's throw away is the elusive Bar Ilegal, which used to be a really subtle and unnoticed mezcal bar before Rainey became what it is today. Overall Clive Bar is a great place to warmup for a night out on Rainey, esp with Container Bar just across the street. read more

Neat spot - good music, good drinks, lots of space and a speakeasy {Bar Ilegal) to boot! I only visited once while staying in Austin for a week but would definitely come back. read more

Clive - Mexican Mule - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

The majority of Clive Bar's seating is outside, which can prove problematic on a particularly chilly evening, but we made the most of it and actually had a pretty decent time. The inside is on the dark side, which is fine except for the fact that I have pretty poor vision and that means trying to read taps proves to be nearly impossible. The bartender was such a sweetheart and told me what each tap was after my repeated questions of, "And what's that? Next to the Live Oak one?" or "And that one? Next to 512?" He even gave me a sample of a beer when I asked him what he thought of it, which I really appreciated. After a couple more questions, I settled on a beer. Writing it out, the process seemed like it took a long time, but in reality, it only lasted about a minute or two. I really appreciated his patience, though, and he never seemed annoyed or bothered by my questions. If he was, then he hid it well. I'd come back to Clive Bar if I was on Rainey just because of that level of service. After procuring some drinks, we headed back outside because there was no seating inside. At first, we sat away from the heaters because I didn't want to sit next to people, but we quickly moved due to the cold. The band playing was great and I felt bad they were playing in the cold, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. We stayed out there the longest and gave them a nice tip, so they chatted with us a bunch and talked with us on their break and that was cool. Granted, the band has nothing to do with Clive Bar and it could have been literally any other band in Austin, but since it happened at Clive Bar, it's a nice memory and still gives off a good impression. Added bonus? They accept Tabbed Out here! (I love Tabbed Out. It's a brilliant app.) I'm not on Rainey much, but I feel like Clive Bar just earned its way into the rotation of bars I have to visit if I happen to be out that way. read more

Clive - Bars Near Me - Austin, Texas

I'm a huge fan of mezcal, so when I heard a bar had a speakeasy-ish room in the back that specialized in it, clearly I had to pop in and check it out. I do feel like it would make more sense for it to be its own yelp page, as while it is owned jointly and running under the same liquor license, the purpose (tasting high quality mezcal) and menu (just a long list of mezcals) are totally different from the main bar. I didn't visit the main bar, just Bar Ilegal. Anyway, unsurprisingly, it's tiny (could fit maybe a dozen people before it'd start to get uncomfortable), but when we were there, around 9 PM on a Saturday, it only had about 6 people in it - I suppose a bar for just tasting mezcal is pretty niche (they do have 4 mezcal cocktails as well, but they honestly didn't look like anything particularly spectacular). The bartender clearly knew his mezcal very well, and prices are actually surprisingly reasonable for a spirit-focused bar. I asked to try the smokiest reasonably-priced mezcal he had, and got one - Del Maguey's San Luis del Rio - that I absolutely loved, a half-pour for $6.50 (I also love that they do half-pours, for if your primary motivation is "sample new mezcals" rather than "get crunk"). Based on previous experience with places like this, I assumed it was a truly ludicrous markup and that I had just found my new favorite affordable mezcal, but nope! It's a 70 dollar mezcal. So, happy that I got to try a 70 dollar mezcal (it was delicious), but also a little sad because now I'm still looking for my "can always keep a bottle at home" affordable type mezcal. Oh well. But anyway, yeah, if you like mezcal, you have to check out Bar Ilegal. Really wish my favorite mezcal bar locally would do mezcal samplings like this one does. read more

[Note: This review concerns Bar Ilegal https://www.facebook.com/BarIllegal, the mescaleria in the backyard of Clive. Yelp decided to merge those reviews to Clive's listing, but this is actually a separate bar with a separate menu.] Maybe my favorite bar in the Rainey Street area since it opened in September 2011. Yes, it's kinda ridiculously expensive and your choices are mescal or mescal or mescal, but the service is perfect, the environment is interesting, and the high prices mean that it will never be as crowded at 11pm on a Saturday night as anything else within comfortable walking distance. Every time I am with a group in this area, I manage to herd them all over to Bar Ilegal. Without exception, I hear, "Mescal? Isn't that the stuff with the worm? Yuck!" But, since I rarely take no for an answer, we inevitably wind up in the packed back yard of Clive Bar and then I say, "It's not too crowded in there... come on, try it out! It's like sipping fine scotch, except out of little gourd bowls!" Most of my friends chicken out of the progressively aged mescal flights ($15), but every one of their sophisticated palates has agreed that the spicy Mexican Mule cocktail (ilegal joven/ pineapple/ jalapeno/ lime/ ginger for $10) served on the rocks in a silver-toned cup is delicious. Hasta la vista, mi amigo. Tip: check out the Bar Ilegal FB page for complete menu and special events info. read more