About Rob Jaskula

As quickly as one event ends, another begins here in Austin. With the hustle and bustle of South By Southwest gone for another year, the city immediately turns around to host a major event: the second and third rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. As the city welcomes tens of thousands of fans from UCLA, Miami, Pacific, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and Northwestern State to town, we make a complementary post to our South By eater’s guide: today we take a look at where to drink in Austin.

Photo courtesy of nfusion.com.

I’ve seen numerous blogs from the different fan bases clamoring for suggestions on things to do for their mini-vacation to town. Though others that live here have chimed in on their favorites, it’s time to throw my hat into the ring. Always game for a good time, I’d like to think the Food Buzz has a pretty good grasp on where to drink in Austin, where to avoid, and what the general vibe will be around town.

Some elements of the city might still be a little tired from the epic scale of the party during South By Southwest, and I know numerous groups of people who are taking a hiatus from their social lives this weekend. This is good for the out of town visitor: things might not be as crowded as they usually are.

Any comment on where to drink in Austin must begin with our infamous East Sixth Street, the Bourbon Street rival (or at least until they banned open containers in the streets in the 1990s). While usually overrun with college students in their Sperry Topsiders flaunting their newly minted fake IDs, any occasion that brings thousands of people to town will dilute the crowd significantly. Do not fear what they call “Dirty Sixth”, there will be plenty of other basketball fans around downtown. I’ve taken my parents into some of the worst of the college bars and they still manage to have a good time. Don’t worry about the local punters; it’s a vacation, after all. Walk around and people watch or venture to a bar with a balcony and observe the action from above.

The east part of downtown Sixth Street is also home to some more adult-minded establishments. The Midnight Cowboy was a poorly-concealed brothel until 2011 and today serves up some of the craftiest cocktails in town. Set up like a speakeasy with a secret code to get in, it’s a quiet, dark place to hide from the madness on the street outside. Be sure to enjoy a rooftop patio: Iron Cactus on the corner of Sixth and Trinity is more restaurant than bar, but their tequila list is comprehensive, the views are stellar, and they serve up the best guacamole in town.

Unless the entirety of the group is in their mid-20s, one can skip West Sixth, located downhill from the East Sixth scene. If one must venture to this part of downtown, be sure to play skee ball at Kung Fu Saloon and test the market of changing beer prices at the fun Brew Exchange.

To see where the locals are drinking these days, venture east of I-35 to the true East Sixth. The neighborhood still wears some of its roughness, but gentrification is almost complete. Shangri-La and Hotel Vegas provide an authentic Austin experience while White Horse Saloon is becoming more popular every week, with cheap beer and local Texas country music soothing the ears. Be sure to check out the many food trailers behind the bars on the East Side, a great way to satiate a late-night hunger.

Since this is Texas, a little honky tonking might be in order for visitors: the best option for this is the legendary Broken Spoke on South Lamar, in business for nearly 50 years. If leaving downtown isn’t appealing, Rebel’s Honky Tonk serves up a sanitized – but still fun – country bar experience. For other live music options, don’t miss South Congress’ Continental Club, an Austin legend. Local acts wow the crowd every week, and major stars like Robert Plant and Jimmie Vaughan pop in from time to time.

Of course, since we’re talking about where to drink in Austin we have to talk about one of the most up-and-coming bar districts in the country. When I moved here four years ago, Rainey Street was a collection of sleepy houses in a downtown alcove. Since then, high rises have popped up at a rate of one per year and the post-war houses have turned into bars and restaurants, now numbering near a dozen. Lustre Pearl is the original and best of these options, though Clive is always fun for a drink or two as well. The food options on Rainey are excellent: Banger’s offers sit down sausages while G’Raj Mahal serves up some of the best Indian food in town. Don’t miss Rainey Street, a true Austin original.

Four sets of fans will have their championship dreams shot by this time on Friday. Don’t despair! This is one of the most unique, vibrant cities in the country. Have fun and enjoy your one shining moment in Austin.

Did you like this topic? If so, tell us what you think on Twitter @ModernSkillet or find Rob @Food_Buzz. 

Every month brings new and exciting events to America’s hippest city, but nothing comes close to touching the beast that has become South By Southwest. The movie, interactive, and music festival-cum-networking-conference brings hundreds of thousands of people to Austin over the course of its 10 days, which include an overwhelming amount of official and unofficial events. The 2013 edition kicks off today.

Image courtesy of kathyphantastic.com.

After several years here I’ve become a little jaded toward the operation that basically rules downtown Austin for almost two weeks: when I lived downtown South By Southwest was a regular part of my annual calendar, now South By Southwest has become an invitation to scoot out of town for as much of it as possible.

Don’t get me wrong, plenty of fun is here for the taking and a bevy of free shows, food, and beer to keep even the most budget-minded traveler having a blast for their entire visit. For my part, I look forward to the visit of close friends in bands like The Hush Sound, Dawes, and Black Pistol Fire (look for your favorite food writer throughout that video). More germane to this space: the dining will be wonderful.

The food event getting the most buzz for South By Southwest comes from one of our favorite local chefs, Top Chef champion Paul Qui. Though new flagship restaurant Qui will not be open in time for the festival, Qui’s East Side King is gobbling up press accolades and garnering recommendations from all over the food world. This space is no different: if visitors are in town and haven’t seen what a world-class chef can come up with in a trailer, they owe it to themselves to visit one of the locations.

What has me buzzing for the week ahead is another Qui venture, SouthBites. Located in the trendy Rainey Street district (zero bars when I moved here four years ago; at least a dozen now), Qui has curated a group of what he calls “the best food trucks in the state”. Though Qui himself is on an expedition to Vietnam, I won’t be missing SouthBites. Qui expands on some of his favorite local spots in this video.

Since South By Southwest brings so many people to Austin, let’s finish this Friday with a look at some places recommended by the Food Buzz for the tourists. Enjoy your visit, but don’t forget to go home!

Sway: Chef Rene Ortiz has opened what is likely the best Thai restaurant in the state. The Food Buzz recommends it for date night, but it gets a little loud and the seating can be cumbersome for larger groups.

John Mueller Meat Company: This was a hotly anticipated opening for The Food Buzz and barbecue lovers everywhere. No visit to Central Texas is complete without barbecue, so be sure to get the best. Line’s too long? Pop over to South First and John Mueller‘s old haunt, LA Barbecue.

Counter Café: Poppy would kill me if I didn’t give a shout-out to the best burgers in Austin, put together by the excellent cooks at the downtown diner. I’ve eaten here hundreds of times and never gotten tired of the breakfast tacos or pimento cheese sandwich.

Hi Hat Public House: Not getting as much publicity as the Quis and Muellers of the world, but Hi Hat is serving up fantastic comfort food that is putting local legends like Threadgill’s to shame. Their excellent beer selection will have visitors wondering why Texas beers haven’t exploded worldwide.

Salt & Time: Straight from the farmer’s market to a brick-and-mortar location, Salt & Time makes the most delicious sandwiches I’ve found in Austin and has a butcher’s shop that delivers some the best quality meat cuts in town.

Clark’s: The new oyster bar on West Sixth is a great place to feel near the ocean, with great ambiance, wonderful seafood, and cocktails that will kick anyone in the seat of their pants. When feeling worn out from the rush of South By Southwest, Clark’s is a great place to recharge the batteries.

Elizabeth Street Café: Not as trendy as its neighbor Sway, but the French colonial-inspired Vietnamese cuisine at the upscale restaurant hits all the right notes for The Food Buzz. Located in the tiny space once occupied by Bouldin Creek Coffee House, Elizabeth Street Café continues in the tradition of delicious food coming out of the building’s kitchen.

Did you like this topic? If so, tell us what you think on Twitter @ModernSkillet or find Rob @Food_Buzz.

I started my day like I start plenty of them – with breakfast tacos and a Mexican Coke at Poppy’s diner here in Austin. I was perusing various news outlets, Reddit and the like, casually tossing around ideas in my head about what to write today. Last week was Valentine’s Day and I was on the hook for three straight days of top performance, so I figured today was going to be smooth sailing. Then I stumbled on a Bon Appétit article titled “The 20 Most Important Restaurants in America”.

Image courtesy of restaurantconnect.com.

Generally speaking, I hate lists like this. In a country this huge, with so many restaurants opening every week and chefs bouncing from kitchen to kitchen, it’s completely impossible to be comprehensive when trying to rank them. I looked at the list. I’ve been to five of the “Most Important Restaurants in America” in the past year and a half.

“Pops, Pops! I need my check. Meet me at Uchi when you get off work.” I nearly tripped over the door jamb bounding out of the diner, because here was something I was capable of discussing. The fact that I immediately disagreed with the list just served to stoke my fire.  We’re not taking umbrage for its own sake, so we’ll keep things positive.

Number four on the list is Chicago’s Alinea, ranked number seven restaurant in the world and number one in North America in 2010 by Restaurant Magazine. Make no mistake about it, Alinea is a phenomenal restaurant; but when my chef friend left Grant Achatz’s kitchen to work at L2O, my allegiance changed. Alinea might not even be Achatz’s best restaurant: in my opinion that honor goes to the dreamlike innovation served up at Next.

Alinea is certainly trendy (and a fantastic restaurant) but does something that happened three years ago still make it Most Important? I’m more inclined to follow L2O’s quest to get back to three Michelin stars – they’re busting their tails in that kitchen and innovating just as much as Alinea. Chicago’s other entry, Avec on Randolph Street, is a fantastic restaurant that is trying to bring the lack of pretension pervading Southern restaurants to Chicago, succeeding brilliantly.

The other thing I immediately questioned hit close to home. All of you Food Buzzers out there know that the author takes his barbecue quite seriously and is absolutely convinced that the best ‘cue in the country comes from Central Texas. Like clockwork, “The 20 Most Important Restaurants in America” listed Franklin Barbecue.

Here’s a tip for those of you coming to Austin for the first time: as of Saturday, Aaron Franklin will have the third best barbecue in town and the sixth best (at best) in the region. There is some sumptuous meat coming out of the pits on 11^th Street, but the ridiculous waits are simply not worth the product. LA Barbecue on South First has had its share of drama over the last year, but Franklin protégé John Lewis makes the best barbecue sausage in the world. No, that’s not hyperbolic.  When displaced pit boss John Mueller makes his triumphant return on Saturday at John Mueller Meat Company, Franklin’s pork and (especially) brisket will have to take a backseat to an operation a mile away. The inclusion of Franklin on the list made me giddy to tear it apart, but there was an entry on the list that had me thinking.

Curiously, Austin’s Uchi and Uchiko were listed as one entry despite having different chefs. The restaurants are very similar, but with a James Beard Award winner in Tyson Cole in one kitchen and a Top Chef champion ruling the roost in the other, I feel like they deserve to stand on their own merits. I’ve written recently about Uchiko, Top Chef winner Paul Qui’s dojo. It’s a wonderful dining experience, but it’s not even Qui’s most important restaurant! He’ll be opening his own upscale restaurant later this year and his current East Side King project is more vital to the masses than Uchiko, bringing upscale dining to fast food in a unique and daring way. It’s a very Austin way of operating – there are multiple world-class chefs cooking out of converted Airstreams in this town – but Qui’s brand-name recognition has the ability to potentially take high-end trailer food to a national level.

I’m lucky enough to live in one of the best neighborhoods in Austin for a foodie, less than a mile from Uchi and within walking distance of a dozen fantastic restaurants. Uchi would certainly have Michelin stars if they were awarded in the United States outside of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco; the food is absolutely worthy of a James Beard Award. The pork belly with watermelon radish, Serrano peppers and Thai basil (a criminally underused ingredient) tickled my taste buds in a way that only two or three other food items ever have. The foie gras nigiri was worth every bit of scolding, scorn, and angry glares I got from Poppy for ordering it, a luxurious treat to end the meal.

A beautiful 80 degree day with the apple of my eye and a top-end restaurant made my defenses crumble. I realized the importance of my surroundings: Uchi is like a lot of successful Austin ventures, a converted house. The other patrons were a very Austin-y mix, with an old hippy who arrived in his cliché Volkswagen bus and looked very much the worse for the wear, a young family in swim wear coming direct from Barton Springs, a dressed up young couple on a date, and an older couple in sweats who all mingled among the requisite hipsters and happy hour drinkers, forming a delightful cross section of America’s fastest growing city. The three hour line for Franklin Barbecue on a Saturday morning fits this bill just as well. If Uchi is one of the most important restaurants in America for the way it brings people together to eat some of the best food in the world, then I’ll give the point to Bon Appétit.

Did you like this topic? If so, tell us what you think on Twitter @ModernSkillet or find Rob @Food_Buzz.