things to do in Austin?

i take it you are coming for sxsw?

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places to eat?

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hooters


rip to hotbodies

Barton Springs
Mount Bonnel
Lake Travis

Eat at The Oasis. Not the best food, but the view is amazing.

Head a few miles out if town to eat at the Salt Lick. Great BBQ. Worth the wait in line.

If the weather is warm enough, tubing the Comal in New Braunfels is a great way to spend the day.

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What are you interested in? Drinking? Hiking? Biking? Good place to eat in terms of what? High end, or somewhere with good food and good beer selection.

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Not OP, but would be interested in any hiking recs near Austin. Planning on being there in April or May.

Pedernales is not far from Austin and you can hit the salt lick on the way back. The winery near the salt lick is also pretty cool and they have a nice restaurant

Here are a few spots we visited in and around Austin this past fall.


::::: FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER :::::

Lenoir - this is a small house that the owners converted into a boutique eatery. The pre fix menu changes as frequently as the weather. Everything we ate was kick arse. Here is the menu and the items we ordered were:

Appetizer - kazu sesame bread
Field - toasted almond & chevre mezzalune
Sea - peach ceviche
Sea - royal red shrimp curry
Sea -oilve oil poached fish
Land - 5-sprice fried quail
Land - antelope heart















Outside beer garden to relax before/after your meal. We ate dinner at 7pm, as this was the only timeslot available. the restaurant only holds about 20 people.



Inside of the restaurant.





::::: FRIDAY NIGHT HONKY TONK :::::

We went to the Broken Spoke to listen to some live good-ole-boy country music. These guys were legit. It has been around forever and some might call it a tourist trap, but we stayed there for 3 hours and listened to their songs...many which were their own and most had lots of fiddle... my fav.







The bathroom even sold rings to buy your GF jewelry if you wanted to.





::::: SATURDAY BREAKFAST :::::

Counter Cafe - we went looking for a dive spot near our hotel and found this joint. Little did we know it had been featured on DDD and luckliy it wasn't packed. Guessing it aired a while back and the novelty has worn off...which I was certainly OK with. I ordered the "quail and eggs" and my wife got the "crabcake benedict". Both were kick arse and I will say their biscuits and gravy were the best I've ever had.











::::: SATURDAY DAY TRIP :::::

Blue Hole in Wimberley, TX - It is about an hour drive SW of Austin through some beautiful hill country...it certainly did not feel like an hour at all. The park is small and they only let around 150 in, so get there early (about an hour before opening) to ensure you get a spot. Aside from the swimming, they have some great trails to hike up and down the stream.













This is what max capacity looks like.




Wimberley Valley Winery - stopped by here for an hour or so. We actually ran into a girl (no pics) we went to HS with which was crazy, as we hadn't seen or talked to her in 20 years. The place certainly had that central Texas hill country feel and as you'd might expect, the staff were super friendly and seemed to really enjoy working there. My wife only ended up with 3 bottles of wine so that was a major victory for my wallet. I don't drink anymore so I enjoyed a cold Topo Chico. The place backs up to a private farm where some of their animals come over to the fence for attention, so that was pretty cool.


























::::: SATURDAY NIGHT 80's COVER BAND:::::

Cedar Street Courtyard - the band we saw was called Skyrocket. We got here at 9pm when their show started and it was KICK arse from start to finish. The band members pretty much rotate and play every instrument, sing different songs (to ensure the songs sound just like they were recorded by the actual band/artist). The courtyard felt very NOLA-ish with the ivy on the walls and brick floors.








...and last, but certainly not least, I had to stop by here and snap a photo of this beautiful thing.




...and also this beautiful thing.

Says the out of towner who goes to and recommends Veracruz All Natural lol. Stop getting all your recommendations from Eater/Zagats/Culturemap

Snooze on south lamar for bfast.

Hops and grain is the best brewery in Texas so check it out on the east side.

Don’t eat at the oasis, if you go to the oasis go to oasis brewing. Better food, better scenery, and a better beer than what’s served down stairs.

Don’t waste your time standing in line at any bbq place. Austin has a lot of great bbq, and a week (or more) in advance get online at La BBQ and place a huge order for anything. Spend $100+ and don’t even hesitate. Then go skip the whole line and pick it up and go to zilker with a 6er.

Some of the best bbq in Texas, without the wait, and a fresh local ipa looking at the Austin skyline from zilker still makes me go from 6 to midnight and I do that shite all the time.

Any hike on the green belt is good but my personal favorites around the city are hiking around Walnut Creek, and river place nature trail. River place is 5.5 miles out and back but you gotta work for it. Great hike though.

Happy hour check out Jeffery’s. For great cocktails book an hour at the midnight cowboy (speakeasy on 6th). Rainey provides great things and if you’re looking for women it’s not difficult to find them there. Craft Pride has the best beer on Rainey, bangers best food.

Pint house pizza for a pie and a beer, don’t fret on the pint house salad. Best salad around.