Eat Drink Local Week Inspires Austinites to Expand Their Palate

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Kick off Eat Drink Local Week tomorrow morning at the SFC Farmers’ Market downtown

Click on the Play button above to listen to this week’s episode of the Austinot Podcast.

Old news: Austin is big on local. But we still tend to get into routines, visiting our favorite restaurants, eating our favorite meals and only occasionally stepping outside the bounds of the familiar. Part of the problem – at least for me – is that I don’t want to go out of my way to try something new…and then be disappointed.

Eat Drink Local Week is my solution for you. Edible Austin has put together an amazing, week-long event with the help of many local businesses and organizations. This is your opportunity to tour and taste local restaurants, urban farms and farmers’ market vendors that you have never experienced before. You’ll enjoy the experience even more once you know that your participation in this week-long event supports the Sustainable Food Center and youth development program Urban Roots.

Eat Drink Local Week Events

The week kicks off tomorrow, December 1st, with the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour. Meet at The Triangle at 9 AM or the downtown SFC Farmers’ Market at 10 AM and you’ll get to experience 8 urban farms and farmers’ markets, and over 10 community gardens. There will be chef-prepared snacks at every stop…and you’ll be taking the whole thing in by bicycle! You can get your ticket here.

Join a flock of bicycling Austinites for the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour

The Urban Bicycle Farm Tour is the first event of many. You’ll also have these opportunities:

• Join the kickoff with our mayor, 10 AM at the SFC Farmers’ Market downtown
• Experience at evening with New York Times best-selling author Raj Patel
• Feast to Sideways at The Alamo Drafthouse
• Visit a pop-up happy hour from 5-6:30 PM, all week long!
• Bid to bring an Austin celebrity chef into your home

More information on all these events can be found on Edible Austin’s site.

Beyond the Events: Eat Drink Local

Urban Roots Farm: Eat Drink Local Week supports Urban Roots, a transformative youth development program

This week is your chance to try a local restaurant that you’ve never tried before. Over 50 restaurants are participating in Eat Drink Local Week this year, offering entree specials made with locally-sourced ingredients.

The full list of restaurants and their delicious dishes are listed here.

We hope you’ll participate in Eat Drink Local Week this year. Thank you to Edible Austin for getting behind this community cause, and thank you to the IBIZ Districts of the Austin Independent Business Alliance for sponsoring this episode of the Austinot Podcast!

@QuasiBrit asks:

What is your favorite local farm, market or restaurant in Austin?

Photos courtesy of EdibleAustin.com and via Flickr CC by stereogab and fletcherjcm.