Rutamaya on South Congress serves beer. It is definitely a more hippy establishment, with a lot of Kerverts as customers. The staff is nice and the place acts as a community center as well. That’s pretty cool. There is definitely a sense of community that can be hard to break into, but if you bring extra cigarettes to bum out and keep coming back, you will make friends.

Cherrywood on E. 38th serves beer (and is probably the coolest coffeeshop in Austin). Cherrywood has happy hour every day until 7pm in which very good beers (Dogfishhead, Stone, but NO 512, etc.) go for $3!! It has the best mix of people as well, from locals, to old hippies, to young professionals, to anarchists and hipsters. It also has the largest patio of any of the coffeshops that have been mentioned. Internet can be a gamble though. Cherrywood is my favorite coffeeshop.

Rio Rita on East 6th serves liquor and beer. Rio Rita is a bit closer to Spider House in that it functions more as a bar (though I don’t think anyone really considers Spider a coffee shop do they? I mean I didn’t even know they served coffee until about my 5th visit). Rio Rita is a hipster handout and there is very little variety. Also, drinks are quite expensive here.

Also, other cities do have coffeeshops that serve beer, but Austin definitely has more than most cities. Minneapolis has a couple of coffeeshops that serve beer. Burlington, Vermont does as well.