Russell Davis, a co-host of the Spike TV reality show “Bar Rescue” and former bar manager of Peche, opened a new bar on Dec. 8. Academia, which is located at 208 W. Fourth St., Austin, “was designed as a figurative faculty lounge for an Ivy League university of drinking where the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson could be found,” according to an October news release.

www.academiaaustin.com. [email protected]