Chuck Smith's Blog

Congress St and the Capital Building

Last weekend we took our yearly trip to a previously unvisited city: Austin. The lure of live music, Texas BBQ, and eclectic shops was too much to resist! We’d heard lots of good things about Austin previously: that it was the most liberal city in Texas, that it has a wide variety of delicious food, and there were fun things to do. So we booked our plane, picked our hotel, and made a weekend out of it!

Food Network Redux

One of the inspirations for our trip were our Food Network Friends, Rachael Ray and Gui Fieri. Rachael had visited Austin a while back on $40-a-day and bought some cowboy boots that Amanda was jealous of. Guy had visited a dive bar named “Casino El Camino” with some big burgers, so we just had to go there.

The Highlights

Salt Lick BBQ

• Barbecue. More specifically Salt Lick BBQ and Lambert’s BBQ. Texas is known for it’s brisket and both of these places had wonderful examples. Was everything you’d expect out of a roadside establishment that’s clearly grown with its fame: plastic dishes, no alcohol served, but excellent food. Lambert’s was more gourmet and located downtown, but was equally tasty. It makes me wonder why these types of places don’t exist in San Diego. Is it we don’t have access to the cattle? Or we can’t get licenses to smoke meat?
• Friendly Folks. Everywhere we went people were friendly, helpful, and smiling, like they were happy you were visiting! From the gentleman at the Enterprise-Rent-a-Car kiosk and the bartenders at all the dive bars we hit, to the cleaning staff at our hotel and the museum curators, we really felt welcome.
• Austin Museum of Art. They only had two exhibits but both were awesome. “Chair” was a collaborative exhibition featuring chairs that fit into 8″x8″x8″ cubes constructed by dozens of artists. “Workers” consisted of black & white photographs by Salgado celebrating/commemorating manual labor around the world.

• O’Henry House Museum. Best known for his story “The Gift of the Magi,” O’Henry was an author who stayed for a while in Austin and then eventually fled the country on embezzlement charges. The modest house featured fun period objects, furniture, and wallpaper (some actually owned by the O’Henry family) along with a friendly curator to help explain it all.
• Mansion at Judge’s Hill. Our hotel of choice used to be a treatment center for alcoholics. In spite of the ironic appropriateness of this, it was quite luxurious and conveniently located.
• Interesting shops on South Congress, such as the Uncommon Objects store and a couple Latin American (a.k.a. dia de los muertos) shops. Also this is where Amanda bought her COWBOY BOOTS so she could be like Rachael Ray.
• The Draught House Pub & Brewery. The beer scene wasn’t as great as we had hoped (see below), but this pub had a great selection albeit an overly cautious bartender who kept warning us the beers we were ordering were high in alcohol. (Yes, we know, that’s why we’re ordering them. Don’t worry, we’re from San Diego, we can handle it!)
• Book People. An awesome book store on Lamar St. Took a couple hours to make it through. In spite of my goal of not buying books until I get my to-read shelf down to 10, I just had to buy a book about how to entertain my indoor cats (including building an in-home jungle).
• Lovejoy’s. An utter dive. No-smoking signs that everyone ignored. No food served. I watched them cool a 6-pack of Guinness in a dirty bucket full of ice. BUT they had a great selection of beers and friendly bartenders. Amazingly enough, recommended!
• Music. The selection of live shows was overwhelming (no way to see them all), and the one we did choose at Amsterdam Cafe was great. I think that it was the singer’s mom that kept going up to people to ask if they had paid their $5.00 cover charge–hilarious. Having this selection of dozens of bands all within walking distance is a great plus!

What Didn’t Impress

Austin at Sunset

• The Beer. Apparently Texas law prevents breweries from selling or offering tasters of their own beer. In order to dispose of their beer they need to run a restaurant or give it to bars! So we weren’t able to visit any true breweries. Furthermore, the brewing culture just doesn’t seem to be as developed there. The local beers we did try were more on the fizzy-yellow side of the spectrum, and when we ordered dark beers we got strange looks. There were some real winners at the Draught House, but overall I would say Austin is not a beer city.
• Warehouse District. This is the sleezy bar district of Austin, where all the college kids go for a good time. Think of it as the Bourbon Street of Austin. That’s not a good thing. They apparently never power-wash the streets (which they seem to do weekly in San Diego). The buildings are run down, so don’t go during the day.
• Casino El Camino. I like Guy Fieri and all, but he was off on this one. The burger was mediocre after a 45-minute wait. Chili cheese fries were good. Beer selection was bad. It was like a normal bar plus a couple of gargoyles, black paint, and 3/4 lb burgers (best split between two people).
• Tex-Mex Food. Between Taco Xpress (another Food Network recommendation that fell short) and Torchy’s Tacos, I think I can definitively conclude that Tex-Mex food has absolute nothing on San Diego Mex food. The El Pastor was good at both places, but I definitely give Torchy’s tacos the edge in this battle of two touted taco establishments. But overall nothing matches the glory of San Diego mexican.
• The Bats. They are supposed to fly out from Congress Ave bridge around sunset but were apparently on holiday or had already migrated.

The Verdict

Chuck by the University of Texes at Austin Longhorn

We had a great time in the short time we were in Austin! We had some of the best BBQ we’d ever had and got to try a new selection of beers at the local breweries. It seems like this would be a city in which you could always find something to do, whether that’s eating, drinking, listening to music, visiting historic buildings, or viewing art. It’s a big city with little geographic features, so I found it somewhat less aesthetically pleasing than Colorado Springs or Portland, two of my favorites. Those were both incredibly green, which I guess comes from all that rain they get! We look forward to our next visit to Austin, and in the mean time I will enjoy crossing “Visit a new state” off my 101 things list!