Austin and surroundings

[therese]

Spent the Thanksgiving weekend in the Austin area. Had a lot of fun, and some unexpectedly great food, so figured I'd share.

Wednesday PM: Checked into our hotel in downtown Austin, tucked our teenage kids into bed, and headed out to check out the neighborhood. I'd intentionally chosen a hotel near 6th St., having heard that Austin had a great live music scene. So far as I could tell 6th St. is perhaps not the ideal place to experence said live music scene, as most of the venues featured one or another version of obnoxious recorded music, with the only evidence of "live" being the touts in front chanting "$1 well drinks, $2 beers." Thanks, but no. Average age of the street crowd hovers right at 21. We finally found a place for grown-ups, B.D. Riley's, that featured decent beer and decent music (blues that night). Kitchen was unfortunately closed, but the ambience was nice. Husband had Guinness, I had Smithwick's.

Thursday noon: Thanksgiving with family in Georgetown (which is about 30 miles north of Austin on I-35). The usual, nicely executed.

Thursday PM: Beers at Sholz Biergartenprior to the UT v A&M game. Turns out you can't drink in the stadium, so everybody throws down as many beers as possible before entering. I had two Fireman's Number Four (from Blanco, TX)---buzz lasted about 3/4 through the game.

Friday noon: Lunch in Austin at Lamberts. Very upmarket bbq, an idea that would normally make me vaguely panicky, but this was actually very good. Starters of deviled eggs and (very greasy) fried shrimp and potato chips, followed by various iterations of bbq. I got brisket because it's the Texas thing to do (and my husband is from San Antonio) but probably would have been happier with something else. Ridiculously cheesy mac'n'cheese, nice slaw. Desserts were amazing, with my son getting something called banana pudding which was actually rum-flavored custard topped with meringue (excellent) and me getting the pistachio-lemon cake. The cake was very dense, and featured even denser buttercream frosting, lemon curd, and lovely slices of candied lemon. I could have shared this item with three other people.

Friday PM: Dinner at The Broken Spoke. This isn't so much a restaurant as a honky tonk that happens to serve food, and while I give it extremely high marks for atmosphere the food was nothing special. Chicken fried steak is billed as the specialty, but my cafeteria here at work serves (much) better chicken fried steak. Others in the party said the bbq was okay, and mexican also okay. As per the waitress everything is prepared in house. Absolutely fantastic venue for music and dancing, though (separate room in the back), with great live music, plenty of tables and cheap beer. The mayor of Austin was there that night as well. ,

Saturday noon: Another late start to the day (hmm, wonder why...). We were meeting family in Georgetown for dinner, so stopped on our way north at Round Rock to shop for boots (yes, cowboy boots---didn't I say that my husband is from Texas?) at Allen's, and realized we needed to eat. So we looked around at millions and millions of chain restaurants and chose a non-chain option,Chola, largely on the strength of the crowded interior. Buffet service was in effect, and it turned out to be some of the best Indian food I've ever eaten. Good representation by both meat and veg specialties, everything very fresh, nice selection of condiments and desserts as well.

Saturday PM: Dinner with extended family (13 of us) at Walburg in, you guessed it, Walburg, TX. Walburg's just outside of Georgetown, and this restaurant is just about all there is to the place. Huge hall with huge tables (our party was seated at a single large round) and a band (the Walburg Boys, featuring a yodeling accordion player). In the interest of convenience we chose the buffet, and it turned out to be a lot better than you might think: home-made sausage was terrific, and schnitzel was crispy enough to stand up to sitting out for a few minutes. The usual sides: red cabbage, spaetzle, etc. Lots of German beers on draft. All in all a good fix if you want some German food and a large dose of atmosphere to go with it (many of the communities in the area were settled by Germans, my husband's family being one of them).

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