Austin-area bars, restaurants, hotels and venues reported $136.5 million in mixed-beverage receipts for September 2026, the highest September total in the state's records back to 2007, according to Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts. That's up 15.8% from September 2025. Most of that jump didn't come from busier bars. The venues that filed in both Septembers grew 3.6%. The rest came from newly permitted venues, catch-up filings and one $4.66 million filing on a UT stadium permit that we can't fully explain.
What Were Austin's Highest-Grossing Bars in September 2026?
2,169 venues across the five-county Austin metro (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell) reported receipts above zero for September 2026. That's the latest complete month in the state's data as of Nov. 9, 2026. Together they reported $136,502,268 (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026), up from $119,266,410 in August and $117,860,786 in September 2025.
| Rank | Venue (as filed with the state) | Area | Sept. 2026 | Aug. 2026 | Sept. 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Premier Hospitality @ Mike A Myers Stadium * | UT campus (78712) | $4,664,114 | $3,303 | $43,074 |
| 2 | Moody Center at University of Texas | UT campus (78712) | $2,410,087 | $2,065,934 | $0 ** |
| 3 | JW Marriott Austin | Downtown | $1,550,695 | $1,114,300 | $1,532,553 |
| 4 | Proper Hotel | Downtown | $922,414 | $852,478 | $865,156 |
| 5 | Ojos Locos Sports Cantina | North I-35 (78752) | $897,151 | $882,697 | $1,020,824 |
| 6 | Kalahari Resort | Round Rock | $881,842 | $1,214,916 | $844,210 |
| 7 | Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa | West Austin | $835,700 | $724,406 | $848,302 |
| 8 | Fairmont Austin Hotel | Downtown | $805,636 | $478,864 | $727,743 |
| 9 | Lost Pines Beverage, LLC (Hyatt Lost Pines Rd) | Bastrop County | $780,700 | $710,892 | $565,030 |
| 10 | Matt's El Rancho | South Lamar | $692,997 | $716,892 | $640,885 |
| 11 | WLS Beverage Company (304 E Cesar Chavez) | Downtown | $686,441 | $510,876 | $670,115 |
| 12 | Twin Peaks Restaurant (E Stassney Ln) † | South Austin | $644,901 | $0 | $193,632 |
| 13 | 80 Proof LLC (Circuit of the Americas Blvd) | Del Valle | $637,457 | $383,288 | $694,983 |
| 14 | Levy at Austin FC (Q2 Stadium) | North Austin | $615,297 | $964,506 | $216,395 |
| 15 | Twin Peaks (S I-35) † | San Marcos | $525,994 | $0 | $158,755 |
Source: Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026, August 2026 and September 2025. Names appear as filed with the state. * See the next section. ** Moody Center's permit reported $0 from July through December 2025. † Catch-up filing after two months of $0; see "What Else Moved." Every venue is on the Austin bar revenue tracker.
Hotels and resorts take six of the top 11 spots. The highest-grossing place most people would call a bar is Ojos Locos Sports Cantina on North I-35, at #5 with $897,151 (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
The $4.66 Million Filing at a UT Track Stadium
The #1 line in September is a permit filed as Premier Hospitality @ Mike A Myers Stadium, at 707 Clyde Littlefield Dr. on the UT campus. It reported $4,664,114 for September 2026, against $3,303 in August and $43,074 in September 2025 (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts). We checked the raw row on data.texas.gov, and that's what the state shows.
Three things make it unusual:
- It's mostly liquor. $4,390,915 of the total (94%) is liquor, $175,358 is wine and $97,841 is beer. This permit's earlier filings leaned less on liquor. In May 2026, for example, it reported $712,919 in liquor and $235,966 in beer (75% liquor), and its July 2026 filing was almost all beer.
- It's larger than anything this permit has filed before. Its previous high was $1,078,899 in April 2025.
- The same company files for several UT and airport locations. In the state's data, Premier Hospitality, Inc. (Comptroller taxpayer 17519750495) also files for two airport club lounges, a new location at 1971 San Jacinto Blvd. and locations named "Sodexo at DKR." The DKR-named locations have reported almost nothing since 2015: about $14,000 in total, nearly all of it in March and April 2026.
We can't tell from the filing itself which events or stands the $4.66 million covers. It may combine receipts from more than one venue, or it may be revised later. We're ranking it as filed and flagging it. Without it, the metro's September total would have been $131.8 million. See the permit's full filing history.
Austin's Record September Came From More Venues, Not Busier Ones
September 2026 beat September 2025 by $18.6 million. Here's where that came from (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026 vs. September 2025):
| Source of the change | Change |
|---|---|
| 1,829 venues that reported receipts in both Septembers (+3.6%) | +$4.08 million |
| Permits that first appeared on the rolls since October 2025 (222 venues) | +$8.39 million |
| Other venues with receipts this September but none last September | +$3.51 million |
| The Mike A Myers Stadium filing | +$4.62 million |
| Moody Center (no receipts on its permit in September 2025) | +$2.41 million |
| 17 catch-up filers with $0 in both July and August 2026 | +$1.08 million |
| Venues with receipts last September but none this September | -$5.45 million |
| Total change | +$18.64 million |
The venues already open a year ago grew 3.6%, a modest gain. Most of the rest came from new permits and filing quirks. The 222 newer permits include about 27 short-term event permits (campaigns and nonprofit events), each reporting a flat total of about $44,775.
1 Hotel Austin Ranked #19 in Its First Month
1 Hotel Austin opened Sept. 3, 2026, at the base of the 74-story Waterline tower at 96 Red River St., with 252 rooms and three food-and-drink spots: Alteño, the rooftop-level watr and Neighbors Café and Wine Bar (Community Impact). In its first month on the state's rolls, it reported $506,757, #19 in the whole metro (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
How it split: $394,011 liquor, $95,111 wine and $17,635 beer.
Its neighbor had a strong month too. Fairmont Austin, at 101 Red River St., reported $805,636, up 68.2% from August's $478,864. Together the two Red River Street hotels reported $1,312,393 in September. A few blocks west, JW Marriott Austin reported $1,550,695, up 39.2% from August (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026). See 1 Hotel Austin's filing page.
Dirty Sixth vs. West Sixth: The Gap Shrank to $217,000
Last month we tracked Rainey Street against East 6th east of I-35. This month the closer contest was downtown: the original 6th Street bar blocks between Congress Avenue and I-35, against West 6th Street (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026 vs. September 2025):
| Strip | Venues reporting, Sept. 2026 | Sept. 2026 | Aug. 2026 | Sept. 2025 | Same venues, year over year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E 6th, Congress to I-35 | 46 | $5,434,858 | $4,767,509 | $4,858,625 | +13.1% (45 venues) |
| W 6th St | 34 | $5,217,271 | $3,840,939 | $4,847,440 | +3.8% (31 venues) |
| Rainey Street | 17 | $2,079,994 | $1,623,800 | $1,027,454 | +100.0% (10 venues) |
A year ago the two 6th Streets were within about $11,000 of each other. In August the east blocks led by $926,570. In September West 6th closed most of that, up 35.8% in a month, and the gap shrank to $217,587.
On West 6th, Buford's led at $519,500, up from $195,734 in August. The Original Hoffbrau reported $377,736. On the east blocks, Mala Fama ($525,053) and Comedy Mothership ($482,193) were the top two (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
Rainey Street is still much smaller than either 6th Street, but it doubled again. The 10 Rainey venues that reported in both Septembers went from $791,098 to $1,582,210. Victory Lap Rainey Street led the street at $424,152, three times its September 2025 total of $140,138. That's its second-best month, behind June 2026's $429,051 (filing history).
What Else Moved in September 2026
- Moody Center was the top venue with a normal filing pattern. The arena reported $2,410,087, its second-best month of 2026 after May's $2,490,297. The City of Austin's September listing shows 13 event dates, from Koe Wetzel on Sept. 3 to two nights of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival on Sept. 26–27. Moody's beer ($1,040,563) nearly matched its liquor ($1,088,159) (filing history).
- Twin Peaks' three-location jump is filing timing, not a boom. The Twin Peaks permits on East Stassney Lane, Round Rock's Louis Henna Boulevard and San Marcos's South I-35 reported $0 for July and August, then a combined $1,653,191 for September. Each normally reports $140,000–$200,000 a month, so these look like catch-up returns covering several months (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, June–September 2026).
- Downtown grew faster than the metro's established venues. ZIP 78701 reported $34,251,665 across 276 venues, up 12.4% from September 2025. Downtown accounted for a quarter of the metro's total (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
- Every category rose, liquor most. Liquor reached $82.4 million (+14.2% from September 2025), beer $33.3 million (+10.6%) and wine $16.0 million (+8.8%). Without the Mike A Myers filing, liquor rose 8.1%. Caveat: 102 September filings ($4.0 million) came in as a total with no category split, against 18 a year earlier (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026 and September 2025).
Method & Sources
Every figure comes from the Texas Comptroller's mixed-beverage gross receipts filings (dataset naix-2893 on data.texas.gov). We read them through the research database behind ATX Things' /bars tool, which covers Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties. September 2026 is the latest complete month as of Nov. 9, 2026. We checked the #1 filing against the raw Socrata row.
How we did it:
- Rankings use each permit's reported total receipts for the month, as filed.
- Same-venue comparisons only use venues that reported receipts above zero in both months, and leave out the catch-up filers and the Mike A Myers filing.
- Street clusters match the filed street address: E 6th St addresses below 900 (Congress to I-35), W 6th St addresses below 1300 and every Rainey St address.
- Late filings change totals. August 2026 now comes to $119.3 million. Our last edition, run Oct. 9, said $120.4 million. Compare within a single edition.
- "Record September" compares the five-county September totals in the state's data from 2007 through 2026, in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
A filing reflects receipts reported for a permit. It isn't a profit figure, and it doesn't say whether a business is doing well. Want the permit and ownership records behind an address? Zabalist's public directory is the home of that filing data. Earlier editions: June 2026 data, July 2026 data and August 2026 data.
FAQ
What was the highest-grossing bar in Austin in September 2026? By total receipts, a permit filed as Premier Hospitality @ Mike A Myers Stadium on the UT campus topped the metro at $4,664,114, an unusual filing explained above. The top venue with a normal filing pattern was Moody Center at $2,410,087. The highest-grossing stand-alone bar was Ojos Locos Sports Cantina on North I-35, at $897,151 (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
How much did Austin bars make in September 2026? Austin-metro venues reported $136.5 million in mixed-beverage receipts for September 2026: $82.4 million liquor, $33.3 million beer, $16.0 million wine, plus cover charges and filings with no category split. That's up 15.8% from September 2025 and the highest September in the state's data (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
Did Austin bars actually sell 16% more in September 2026? No. Venues that reported in both Septembers grew 3.6%. Most of the increase came from new permits, catch-up filings and one very large stadium filing (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026 vs. September 2025).
How much did 1 Hotel Austin make in its first month? 1 Hotel Austin, which opened Sept. 3, 2026, reported $506,757 in mixed-beverage receipts for September 2026, #19 in the metro (Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage receipts, September 2026).
Where does Austin bar revenue data come from? Every Texas bar, restaurant, hotel and venue with a mixed-beverage permit files monthly gross receipts with the Texas Comptroller, which publishes them as public dataset naix-2893. ATX Things tracks every Austin-metro venue on its free /bars tool, with month-by-month history back to 2007.
When will October 2026 bar revenue be available? Only about 140 October returns had posted as of Nov. 9, 2026. The next edition will cover October, the month of ACL Fest, once those filings are complete.
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