Lazy Bones Kava

Lazy Bones sits on the South Lamar strip in 78704, and the useful thing to know about it is the shape of its day rather than its drinks list. The bar's own framing is "cafe by day, lounge by night": the same room works as somewhere to take a laptop in the morning and as somewhere to spend an evening, without a bar materialising in it at six o'clock. That is the specific thing an alcohol-free venue can offer and a normal bar cannot, and it is why the room reads as a social space rather than a coffee shop that closes late.

The drinks are kava first — served in the traditional way — alongside botanical and exotic teas, kratom and coffee. The room is built for staying: a free pool table, board games, and a programme of live music that includes a recurring DJ residency from KOOP 91.7 FM, Austin's volunteer-run community radio station, which advertises the night to its listeners as "a sober-forward setting." A community station choosing to put its residency in a kava bar is a fair signal of what the crowd is like.

The standard kava caution applies here as everywhere. Kava is not alcohol, but it is psychoactive: a mild sedative that should not be combined with alcohol or sedating medication, can slow reflexes enough to affect driving, and has been associated with liver concerns in heavy or prolonged use.