Even though it embarrasses me a little, I really love Hula Hut. The Texas Martinis are the primary reason, but the mango salsa is pretty addictive as well. Hula Hut is also a great place to take out-of-town visitors who may not be ready for some of Austin’s more eclectic places. Last week when a couple of old friends showed up for a quick weekend visit, I picked Hula Hut to ease them into 48 hours of drinking. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a buzzkill.

The buzzkill wasn’t caused by the dreary weather or the table of baseball cap wearing frat boys who ended every sentence with “bro” who were sitting behind us. The real downer was there was no water. I realized we were in the middle of a drought, but I didn’t realize that Hula Hut’s deck would be on dry land. I snapped a few photos with my phone to illustrate.

Here’s a shot of the outside bar and restaurant section. If you look closely you can see the rubber tires which are usually at least half submerged by the water.

This shot is of the boat dock which is usually filled with small sailboats.

Granted this was a little over a week ago, so hopefully the water levels have risen, but somehow I doubt it.

The City of Austin website offers a few tips on how you can help conserve water:

• Shut off your automatic irrigation system
• Repair leaky faucets and fixtures
• Replace old toilets with high-efficiency models
• Take shorter showers, and turn off the water while brushing your teeth
• Scrape, don’t rinse, plates before loading the dishwasher