Discover Austin Texas! An Austin blog with hundreds of unique articles.
Halcyon by night
We categorize most coffee shops as appropriate for a specific purpose, at a specific time of day: late night chill hangout with friends, outlets-galore study spot.
But I long ago discovered a local staple that is all things to all people. Located in the Warehouse District of downtown Austin, Halcyon manages to wear a typically chaotic persona with magnetic flair. [Read more…]
Find Carmelo’s at 504 E. 5th St.
Want a taco? Austin has a million places to go to get one. Some BBQ? Absolutely. But until I visited Carmelo’s downtown, I wasn’t sure that I could experience really wonderful Italian food in our southern capital city.
The trope of the romantic Italian restaurant is pervasive in movies and TV. Sadly most Italian restaurant experiences don’t measure up to their cinema counterparts, and we just have to be glad that they don’t simulate scenes from The Godfather and that we can walk out alive. From red and white gingham table cloths to greasy, undercooked garlic knots, a lot of Italian restaurants are too cheesy in every sense of the word. [Read more…]
This guest blog post is by Stephen Perl.
With the Brown Bar closed due to flooding, I needed a new spot for a Martini downtown. I decided to take an excursion to Midnight Cowboy. Owned by the folks who brought us Alamo Drafthouse and Highball, both places I love and frequent, I knew it would have personality. [Read more…]
Caffe Medici is a local Austin coffee shop that has succeeded through its customer loyalty. This place has been recommended to me more times than any other coffee shop. Since the majority of the recommendations were positive, I decided to place it high on my list of shops to check out. Here is what I found out:
Founded in 2006, Caffe Medici opened up shop with a Clarksville location. The company was started with a simple mission: be responsive to customers, their neighborhood and the environment. Customers quickly began to appreciate Caffe Medici for its myriad of available coffee styles. You can get anything from an espresso, to drip coffee, French press, or latte. Moreover, the employees of Caffe Medici take the time to study each type of coffee so they can explain and customize for their customers. Soon, however, Caffe Medici’s reputation outgrew its small seating capacity. It was time to grow. [Read more…]
Forget meeting people at the SXSW parties. People watching is the best way to experience all the different personalities SXSW brings to Austin.
There was a soft, hungover buzz in the air when I began watching my fellow festival-goers today. The city stirred back to life after yet another night of company-sponsored parties and after parties. Crushed Monster and Red Bull cans lined the sidewalks like breadcrumbs back to Sixth Street. I watched bleary-eyed twenty-somethings in suits stagger from their hotel rooms and toward the Convention Center.
You can tell a lot about these people. Despite their partying, they have the self-determination to get themselves out of bed the next morning. These are the movers and shakers of my generation. They burn the candle from both ends. Interactive technology is a new and powerful market to capture, so only the smartest and most dedicated people can handle the lifestyle.
Sixth Street is eerily quiet as tourists wander zombie-like from their hotel rooms.
The quiet hum of the morning slowly grew into a roar as people flooded into the streets and toward their [Read more…]
Recently we were INVITED to check out Austin Carriage, the original horse-drawn carriage company in the city of Austin.
These folks, who provide Austin tours via horse-drawn carriage, are fantastic. And no, they haven’t paid us a penny to say this.
So read on, fellow Austinot, and learn a little more about this company and what they are all about.
First off, let us tell you about the owner Cherie Cunningham. She’s been in the horse business since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. And given the chance she will animatedly tell you stories, with a sparkle in her eye, about her childhood growing up around horses. It is obvious that she has a love and respect for the horses she works with and [Read more…]
A windy bike ride down the Drag and through downtown brought us to the Austin Farmers Market this past Saturday morning. The Market runs every Saturday from 9 AM-1 PM at Guadalupe and 4th (Republic Square Park). You can’t miss it.
Seattle (where the Austinot moved from at the end of 2011) has an extraordinary number of farmers markets year-round and takes great pride in every one. My personal opinion is that the Austin Farmers Market rivals or surpasses what I experienced in Seattle.
Fruits and vegetables, bread and bakery items, meat, honey, cheeses…the Austin Farmers Market has it all. [Read more…]
