Austin Food Blogger Alliance serves Austin locals and visitors alike, by providing helpful resources related to a myriad of food-related needs in Austin.
The organization is made up of around 60 Austin-based bloggers supporting each other, and Austin businesses, through cross-promotion on the Austin Food Blogger Alliance website and social media outlets. At least once a year, the alliance publishes a themed blog-along mostly made up of recipes.
The organization also publishes the annual Austin Food Blogger Alliance City Guide in March before SXSW, featuring several masterful roundups on various places to eat, drink, and take day trips from Austin.
What Austin Food Blogger Alliance Offers Readers
Austin Food Blogger Alliance members share recipes, restaurant reviews, favorite/new places to eat in Austin, cool watering holes for wine, beer, or cocktails, travel adventures, and even the best deals in town.
If you love cooking—or hate it and need some help—there are professional chefs, bakers, home cooking experts, plant-strong, and gluten-free cooks sharing recipes with you. You can check out the organization’s website posts and archived blog-along posts for recipes.
If you’re curious where some of Austin’s most popular and interesting food bloggers go to eat, then the Austin Food Blogger Alliance website is a fantastic resource for that, too. You can read articles from The Austinot and around 60 other bloggers. You can also read happy hour summaries and the City Guide for #atxbesteats.
How Austin Food Blogger Alliance Promotes Members
Each blog is reposted on the Austin Food Blogger Alliance website, along with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages. All happy hour posts are reposted on the alliance’s Instagram account, and in a summary article on the main website.
Austin Food Blogger Alliance further encourages members to support each other through weekly Link Love posts for articles in a private Facebook page. And members show up for each other, like when Jane Ko of A Taste of Koko and Kelsey Kennedy of So Much Life Blog published books.
The group also shares media invites and volunteering opportunities when they arise. And members often recruit from within the organization to collaborate on their own creative projects or events.
I personally have been a guest on a podcast, “Locally-Sourced Joey,” by local food blogger Phat Phoodies, and on a live streaming taste test cocktail kitchen by Mark Gardner of “This Doesn’t Suck.” These opportunities are fun ways to get to know and support each other in our creative endeavors.
How Austin Food Blogger Alliance Supports Local Businesses and Nonprofits
Happy Hours
One way Austin Food Blogger Alliancee supports the Austin community is through happy hours and brunches. These are hosted events to try out a restaurant, bar, co-working space, and/or food truck(s).
In return, each attending blogger helps get the word out about the business through a social media post or blog article. Through the shared content, Austin locals or tourists to find out what’s on the menu at local locations.
There were 10 Austin Food Blogger Alliance happy hours in 2019. Here’s a rundown of a few of them!
1/ Reset and Tillery Kitchen & Bar
Reset, a unique meeting and co-working company, utilizes restaurants during the day, when the participating restaurant isn’t open yet. This way, both businesses benefit.
Reset and Tillery invited Austin Food Blogger Alliance members to co-work during the day and then indulge in Tillery’s happy hour. We had cocktails, happy hour bites, and s’mores by the fire pits on Tillery’s stunning deck overlooking the Colorado River.
2/ Shady Grove
For this happy hour, we all got to sit outside in the eponymous shady grove. The restaurant treated us to drinks, a massive selection of new and classic menu items, and even dessert.
3/ Teal House Coffee & Bakery and Duke’s Adventure Golf
Teal House, an adorable and popular breakfast/brunch food truck down south, invited Austin Food Blogger Alliance out for brunch. Our bloggers tried the famous cinnamon rolls, and both sweet and savory croissants, then popped next door for a round of mini-golf at Duke’s.
4/ Z’Tejas
Z’Tejas invited Austin Food Blogger Alliance members out for happy hour, where we tried four types of margaritas and four specialty dishes, including cast-iron skillet dumplings and street tacos.
5/ Thicket Food Park
BYOB Thicket food truck park brought group members to the shaded park for a feast from Thicket vendors Artipasta, SimpliThai, and The Perfect Bite ATX, with BYOB wine.
Hawaii Nei Cafe also participated, though they’ve since moved, as has the now closed Liberty Press Coffee. We even had dessert from a full-service hair salon there, La Casa of Beauty.
6/ Gabriela’s Downtown
Switching it up with brunch, Gabriela’s won us over with a delectable brunch menu, featuring delights such as the French toast with sweetened condensed milk and dulce de leche drizzles, choriqueso with the cheese pull that does not stop, carnitas, and more.
We washed this satisfying food down with coffee, non-boozy horchata, pineapple mimosas, fruit-topped micheladas as big as our heads, and margaritas. To be honest, we didn’t want to leave the cozy patio with its enviable view of downtown.
7/ MezzeMe Turkish Kitchen
MezzeMe hosted AFBA for a holiday party. We enjoyed a large, tasty feast, with the near-unanimous favorite being a winter menu item, the moussaka.
MezzeMe is known for its efficient assembly line-style bowls, wraps, and salads, where you choose a protein, two mezzes (small dishes like hummus), and toppings. We all raved about the Turkish coffee service.
These gracious restaurants with locations in Austin also invited AFBA for happy hours in 2019:
8. Napa Flats
9. Malibu Poke
10. Becks Prime
Educational Events
Austin Food Blogger Alliance members have access to educational events to sharpen their skills. Recent events included the following:
- Mediavine: Super informative and helpful SEO class with co-founder Amber Bracegirdle at The Hive co-working space
- Faraday’s Kitchen Store: Wusthof Knife Skills class and cooking class with Chef Scarleth
- Faraday’s Kitchen Store: JURA coffee experience
- Infinite Monkey Theorem: Wine class, tasting, and tour of the east side location
Philanthropy Efforts
In 2019, AFBA participated in three organized philanthropic efforts, carried out over several months.
- Group volunteer shift at Central Texas Food Bank
- Cookbook drive for donations to the ongoing drive by Austin-American Statesman, for teenager chefs in training at Culinary Arts Career Conference
- Cooking supply and gift card donation drive benefiting Bake A Wish Austin, an organization whose volunteers bake birthday cakes for children and adults in Austin who are in need of birthday joy
Check Out Austin Food Blogger Alliance
The Austinot has been a proud member of Austin Food Blogger Alliance for many years now, and it’s my privilege to serve as the current Marketing Chair of the organization. Whether you’re a food blogger or a foodie always looking for new suggestions, I encourage you to check out this Austin-based organization.
@theAustinot wants to know:
Are you a food blogger? Check out Austin Food Blogger Alliance!
The original version of this article was published Sept. 15, 2016.
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Thank you for featuring my Instagram post from the Curry Cookoff. That was such a unique event, drawing an enthusiastic and diverse crowd.
As a food blogger, I can say that it is not hyperbole to offer that AFBA has added so much enjoyment to my life in Austin. To connect with others of all ages, traditions, origins, and approaches over a shared passion has enriched my life.
I think I am my own favorite blogger…
That’s the way it should be, @thesmokingho:disqus!