Skip to the bar
The 04 Lounge
Side patio at The 04 Lounge: blue wall, red umbrellas, and stools along the rail.

The best dive bar in South Austin

The 04 Lounge

Open 12 p.m. - 2 a.m. every day.

Play some pool, throw some music on the jukebox, or chill on the patio.

3808 S Congress Ave

Get directions

Noon to 2 a.m. every day

Noon to 2 a.m.

3808 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704

The 04 Lounge poster: football is back, watch them all live here.

On the TVs

Watch the game here.

Football is back. All the games, live, on the TVs.

Come watch football live. Noon to 2 a.m. Walk in.

Get directions Call (512) 444-7788

The room, in pictures

  • Blue cinder-block front of The 04 Lounge, with a black 04 painted across the double doors and 3808 on the wall.
  • Night shot from @the04lounge: the blue wall, the number 04, and an old truck in the lot.
  • Side patio: blue wall with 04 painted on it, corrugated-metal rail, stools, and red umbrellas.
  • Two pool tables under the lights in the dark front room.
  • A packed night from @the04lounge: striped wood bar, pink walls, and the TVs on.
  • The striped wood bar top, with the liquor shelves and a hand-lettered 04 Lounge sign behind it.
  • Christmas stockings with regulars' names, Benny's included, hung on the back-bar shelves.
  • Pool table in the foreground and regulars on stools at the bar.
  • Back bar: red wall, wood shelves of bottles, and the 04 Lounge sign.
  • The back bar at night, tin ceiling, bottles, and the cooler.
  • A pour on the bar with the 04 Lounge shelves behind the glasses.
  • Behind the bar: sticker-covered register, open door to daylight, and the bottle shelves.
  • Patio tables, umbrellas, and the blue wall of the building.
  • Close-up of a beer, from the bar's own photo listing.
  • The 04 Lounge painted in black on the blue wall, beside the red door. 3808 is on the wall, and the tow sign is under the mailbox.
  • Both pool tables in the front room, people around them, under the Pabst Ribbon lamp.
  • A man stretched across the near table to line up a shot, another man holding a cue behind him.
  • A man in a black cap with his cue on the rail and the balls spread on the green felt.
  • A long pour into a rocks glass on the bar mat, with the 04 Lounge cooler behind the bar.
  • Three men drinking at the striped wood bar.
  • The back room: wood tables, red seats, a red door, and Lone Star and Modelo neon under the reed ceiling.
  • The cooler under a hand-painted The 04 Lounge sign, the glass covered in stickers.
Flyer for the Glizzy party at The 04 Lounge on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Saturday, Sept. 26. Glizzy party.

From their Instagram. Free hot dogs and Smash Bros on the projector, from whenever they get there until close. Bring a pro controller if you have one.

Walk in

Google calls it a no-frills neighborhood bar with pool tables, a jukebox, and a patio. That is the whole menu of the room. Here is the order you meet it.

  1. 1. The blue building

    Single-story concrete, painted the blue you see on this page. It sits back from South Congress, close to Ben White. The cars in the front lot hide most of the windowless front. Austin Monthly's directions still work: if you are hunting a big sign on the sidewalk, you already passed it.

    Blue cinder-block front of The 04 Lounge, with a black 04 painted across the double doors and 3808 on the wall.

  2. 2. Two pool tables

    They are up front. The Statesman photographed them in 2024, and regulars still talk about the room as a place you shoot pool and stay. A wood bust of Albert Solano watches the tables. He started the bar's Veterans Day fish fry.

    Two pool tables under the lights in the dark front room.

  3. 3. The bar and the jukebox

    The long bar is mixed wood, built by customer Chris McLemore and put in during the pandemic. Austin Monthly figured it for another 60 years. The jukebox has been part of this room since it was Dee & Jim's. Full bar. Happy hour on wells and domestics. The Statesman ordered a margarita and kept talking about it.

    The striped wood bar top, with the liquor shelves and a hand-lettered 04 Lounge sign behind it.

  4. 4. The patio, then you stay

    Side patio, blue wall, stools, a little cover. Fine for a drink in the air. Most of the night still happens inside, where it is dark until your eyes adjust and then it is just people. Come enough and it turns into the family version of a bar. The rule the regulars will give you is short: don't be a jerk.

    Side patio: blue wall with 04 painted on it, corrugated-metal rail, stools, and red umbrellas.

Benny kept it a bar.

"The right people are going to find this place. The rest never will."

Italo "Benny" Pezzi, to Anthony Head, Austin Monthly, 6 Dec 2022.

Benny was a bartender and a bar manager before this, and he drank at this address when it was still Dee & Jim's. In 2008 Dee Pierce and her husband Jim sold it to him. He got a liquor license and named it for the zip code. He did not turn it into something else. The building's history is on the about page.

The concrete box is older than the name. Donna Pearl Bai opened Donna's Lounge here in 1965. After her, her daughter Dee and Dee's husband Jim ran it as Dee & Jim's and fed the regulars turkey on Thanksgiving. Michael Barnes at the Statesman wrote the longer history of the building, back through the 1950s. The useful part for you: this has been a neighborhood room for a long time, and the people who stay treat it that way.

In print

The papers already did the explaining. These are the pieces, with the line worth keeping.

Blue cinder-block front of The 04 Lounge, with a black 04 painted across the double doors and 3808 on the wall. A guide to dive bars in Austin

Austin American-Statesman / Feb. 29, 2024

Kelsey Bradshaw's dive-bar guide. Aaron E. Martinez photographed the blue building, the tables, the patio, and Benny.

Pool table in the foreground and regulars on stools at the bar. Burgers, beer and best friends

Austin American-Statesman / Feb. 29, 2024

The same visit, written up. The regulars repeated Benny's line. He said it first to Austin Monthly in 2022.

"The right people are going to find this place. The rest never will."
Two pool tables under the lights in the dark front room. The best dive bars in Austin

Austin Monthly / July/August 2026

Anthony Head and Bryan C. Parker. The 04 is one of 25 on Austin Monthly's best dive bars list.

Christmas stockings with regulars' names, Benny's included, hung on the back-bar shelves. Historic Austin dive bars

Austin American-Statesman / May 7, 2026

Michael Barnes traced this address from the 1950s through Donna's Lounge, Dee & Jim's, and Benny.

Noon to 2 a.m.

Noon to 2 a.m. every day.

Same hours every day, the way Google lists them, and the way the Austin Chronicle and Austin Monthly print them. If the door says something else, trust the door.

Weekly hours for The 04 Lounge
Monday Noon to 2 a.m.
Tuesday Noon to 2 a.m.
Wednesday Noon to 2 a.m.
Thursday Noon to 2 a.m.
Friday Noon to 2 a.m.
Saturday Noon to 2 a.m.
Sunday Noon to 2 a.m.
Call (512) 444-7788 Open in Google Maps

How to not miss it

3808 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704. Southbound on Congress, getting close to Ben White. Lot in front, street if the lot is full. The building is the blue one set back from the curb.

Before you come

Where is The 04 Lounge?

3808 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704. Southbound on Congress, close to Ben White. The blue building sits back from the road, behind the cars in the front lot.

What are the hours?

Noon to 2 a.m. every day. That is what Google, the Austin Chronicle, and Austin Monthly all list.

Who owns The 04 Lounge?

Italo "Benny" Pezzi. He bought it in 2008 from Dee and Jim Pierce, who had run it as Dee & Jim's. He drank here before he owned it.

Do they have pool tables?

Two. They sit up front, which is the first thing you see once your eyes adjust.

Is there a patio and a jukebox?

Yes. A side patio off the blue building, and a jukebox inside. Google describes the place as pool tables, a jukebox, and a patio.

Where can I watch football on South Congress?

Here. All the games, live, on the TVs. 3808 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704. Noon to 2 a.m. Walk in.