East Sixth Street-the binge drinking collegiate crowd you described. Though if you really think the Chicken is the pinnacle of watering holes, you may just ignore the rest of my post.
Red River Street-the most eclectic blend of bars in Austin ranging from blues bar, tiki bar, dance clubs, irish pubs, roadhouse-style, to manhattan bars.
West Fourth Street/The Warehouse District-upscale, posh bars. 25-35 crowd, saucey women, see/be seen. Kind of pretentious especially coming from B/CS, but the women, the originality of the bars, and the drink strength make up for that.
If you like dive bars, let me know. I am the Austin expert on the subject. Depending on what part of town you're in, I can give you the low-down.
North Austin bars suck though. The guy-to-girl ratio is so unspeakable, nobody bothers to figure it out.
As far as what else to do in Austin:
-Live music capital of the world. Personally, I like the blues, jazz, and international stuff and Austin does not dissapoint. You can go see a different band every night of the year and never repeat the same act.
-Incredible restaurants. Not just BBQ and tex-mex, but truly impressive cuisine from the downtown spots (Roy's, Louie's 106, and Crimson) to little known joints (Basil's, Wink, and Zoot); there is no more wide range of vast selection in a city of this size anywhere in the country.
-The Highland Lakes. I'm assuming if I told you 3 days a week during the spring/summer/fall, you were just minutes from a scene out of "Girls Gone Wild", you would be interested? Boats, lakefront bars, topless girls, and crazy all-day parties are the rule, not the exception on Lake Travis and Austin.
-The Hill Country. Great for dates. Great small towns, restaurants, wineries abound. If you take a girl out there for the day/weekend and can't get laid, I weep for you.
-Art offerings. When I tell aggies this, I get made fun of; but sorry for trying to be cultured. I hate musicals and opera, but I'll do theater, galleries, and comedies. Every weekend, there's a new offering or festival of some kind. Check it out. The museums alone could take up a month of your time.
-Outdoors. Barton Creek, Campbell's Hole, Pace Bend, the area greenbelts, the town Lake trail. If you like camping, biking, running, or paddling/kayaking; you probably can't find a more condusive city to do it in.
-And if you're just really bored: 3 comedy clubs, a dozen movie theaters, shopping malls, a great and rejuvinated downtown, record stores (I find myself in these quite a bit looking for obscure albums now that Napster is gone), the UT campus has great exhibits and performances even if you hate Longhorns, good non-chain store shopping, Central Market is actually a cool way to blow a Sunday, bookstores up the wazzoo, plus the spring is just full of great festivals like:
Old Pecan Street Arts Festival
Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival
South by Southwest
Austin Film Festival
Austin Fine Arts Festival
KLBJ Shore Thang Concert
Bob Marley Festival
Austin Swamp Romp (Cajun Party)
Mardi Gras Austin
Austin Blues Festival
There is no place I'd rather be between the ages of 18-55 than Austin. It takes more effort to be bored here than to get out there and see what's happening.
P.S. A hot blonde who's also your soulmate really helps...
