One of the newest gay hotels in Austin, the Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt has a fantastic location in the Rainey Street Historic District. The gay-friendly Kimpton Hotel brand is no stranger to the LGBT community with luxurious properties in cities like Portland, Washington DC, and London. Leisure spaces include an outdoor pool and whirlpool, fitness center and three dining options. The Hyatt is a popular event space and has a ballroom on the 17th floor. Complimentary toiletries and a host of other amenities are available for guests’ convenience. The outstanding feature in the decor of the rooms is the black and white music theme artwork. Spacious rooms decorated in soft neutrals offer great views of the lake and the city. Guest rooms received a complete makeover in 2016 and it shows. Public spaces at the hotel are lit up by the 17-story sky-lit atrium and huge floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s a 10-minute walk to the center of downtown from the Hyatt while the Sixth Street Entertainment District is about a 15-minute walk. Predictably, the views of the lake and the city skyline are quite stunning from the hotel. The hotel has a great location on the shores of Lady Bird Lake. There is no shortage of classy LGBT hotels in downtown Austin as is evident from the Hyatt Regency and other swanky hotels gay friendly hotels in the area. If you’re going to be visiting Austin during any of the festivals, bear in mind that hotels fill up quickly and prices skyrocket. The city also hosts a number of annual events that bring in a deluge of people.
If you’re interested in seeing the sites and learning more about what makes Austin tick, we recommend the Austin Art Walk. A great way to experience Austin’s music scene is on the Austin Live Music Crawl. However, there are no exclusively gay hotels in Austin but plenty of gay friendly options to choose from.Īustin’s tourism is booming because of its unique mix of cowboys and hipsters, great food, stunning natural attractions, and abundance of live music venues. Many of these are clustered around downtown and the South Congress neighborhoods where many of the gay bars and clubs are located. As such, you’ll find plenty of LGBT hotels in Austin. Touted as one of the ‘Gayest Cities in America,’ Austin is one of the most popular destinations in the South among the LGBT community. With the great success of restaurants prior behind them, the partners have plans to open yet another restaurant: a high-end omakase restaurant called Shokunin in Dripping Springs later this fall.The ‘live music capital of the world,’ Austin, is definitely one of the most gay friendly places in America with its progressive, liberal approach and creative mindset. “That is around the time that Margarita and I decided that this is where we wanted to make our home going forward.”
“Austin was so amazing in wanting to support us that I felt responsible to stay until everyone had the opportunity to dine with us, so we kept prolonging and prolonging our pop-up until eventually, it became apparent that we needed to just make it permanent,” Lee said. The pop-up was so successful, that they opened up a waitlist and decided to put down roots. The pair dipped into Austin in December 2020 for a five-week pop-up after the California government shut down outdoor dining for the second time. “Pasta Bar has been a runaway success and we just continue to be so grateful to this city and everyone here for making us feel at home and supporting us,” former Top Chef contestant Lee told Austonia.Ī longtime team together, Lee and Kallas-Lee first met in middle school before reconnecting in their early 20s and starting their lives, and businesses, together. Scratch Restaurants chefs, owners and married couple Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee opened Pasta|Bar, 1017 East Sixth St., for business as of March 13, shortly before welcoming a new daughter in April.