For Memorial Day weekend, we joined some friends in Austin, TX (a perfect meet-in-the-middle location, since we’re all coming from the coast). Austin is a sprawling town in central Texas, known for it’s Hill Country barbeque, swimming holes and great live music. It is also really, REALLY hot here. Our plane’s thermometer seemed to short-circuit upon arrival (and honestly, I don’t blame it – as I write, it’s almost 7pm and the outside temp is “feels like 106” due to the immense humidity).
We were in Austin for ~5 days (give or take flight times) and were able to sample a number of the culinary, aquatic, and cultural offerings during our time in town. Since the “husbands” on the trip were working remotely the first two days of the trip, the women opted to spend the first day orienting ourselves to Austin and doing some casual exploration.
First up, we claimed our rental car at the airport (we originally thought we’d have 6 people on the trip and had rented an SUV, and of course, SUVs feel even bigger in Texas!). With our tank of a vehicle secured, we made our way to the first stop of the day: Taco Joint. It was an excellent start – we ordered a couple tacos each: breakfast tacos (which seem incredibly popular in Austin and available on many all-day menus), migos, and a chicken fajita and fried fish taco (among the best I’ve had recently!).
After our taco adventure, we decided to brave the heat and walk towards downtown Austin via the Congress Street bridge (we are staying on South Congress – apparently Austin gets even weirder the further south you go!). The view was nice, although it was too hot to fully cross the bridge on foot.
Ultimately, we decided to head back to the Airbnb to get out of the heat. My husband finished work and was in search of lunch, so I decided to go with him to Brown’s BBQ, which is a food truck located off of 1st street and situated in the Corner Bar parking lot (along with Kiin Thai, which we tried later in the week!). Fortunately, we were able to order the bbq to eat inside the air conditioned Corner Bar restaurant (and complemented with a mezcal margarita and some local beer). The barbeque was delicious – we ordered both brisket (fork tender) and the candied bacon bites (absolutely delicious). The charro beans, mac and cheese and garnishes (jalapenos, pickles) were also fantastic. We’ve heard from a number of people that since Austin has SO many amazing bbq joints, they really differentiate on the sides.
Half the group headed to the famous Barton Springs (within Zilker Park) and my husband and I spent the evening with one of my best friends and her fiance (!), who live here in Austin. We had a few minutes to kill, so we headed to Meteor Cocktails on South Congress for a quick glass of wine while we waited – it’s a beautiful space with an amazing wine selection. They took us to the St. Elmo brewery, which had lovely live music, great beer (and strong frosé!) and was situated very near the San Gines churro truck (San Gines being the best chocolatería in Madrid, so a big deal to see them establishing a presence here!). For food, we enjoyed the Spicy Boys food truck (in residence at the brewery), which offered amazing Asian fusion chicken (chicken sandwiches, sichuan spiced tots, delicious chicken tenders with a variety of Asian-inspired sauces). Sadly by the time we were done enjoying the drinks and music, the food truck had closed, but they are opening a storefront in Austin, so hopefully we can stop by on our next visit.
The following day, the other women and I decided to do a little shopping trip, including visiting a wonderful local bookstore (Book People) and a record store across the way (Waterloo Records). Then, we did a nice little driving tour through the UT Austin campus (huge, especially for a group who attended a small liberal arts school in the Northeast!). We went to June’s for lunch, which was a nice French-inspired menu.
In the afternoon, we decided to brave the heat and headed for the Texas State Capitol building, which is an imposing structure visible from pretty much the entire downtown area. The area surrounding the building is lovely, although probably best viewed when it doesn’t feel like 107 outside (not an exaggeration). Inside, it’s a lovely stately building that feels ’70s inspired with deep colored marble and an amusing array of vaguely phallic-shaped details. We did appreciate seeing the portraits of the former governors of Texas within the rotunda – apparently Texas had female governors in the 1920s, 30s and 70s – who knew!
For dinner, we celebrated the start of the weekend by going to a showing of Esther’s Follies, an Austin tradition (apparently, the show used to partially take place in a pool, hence the nautical decor). The show is essentially a Vaudeville-style variety act, blending bawdy situational comedy with political commentary in the form of skits set to popular songs as well as a bit of magic. Overall, well worth the trip if you’re in Austin.
The show is located right off of the popular 6th Street “party” district, so we decided to partake in a couple stops while we were in the area. The first was Vaquero Taquero, which was essentially a taco stand located on the patio of a live music venue. The tacos were good – folks generally liked the tinga and nopal tacos, while the bistec wasn’t a crowd favorite. Then, we wandered slightly further down 6th Street (under the highway) and visited Jewboy Sliders, which was widely recommended by everyone we spoke to. It didn’t disappoint. The sliders are simple but pack a lot of flavor.
The following day, Saturday, we decided to beat the heat and simply bought pool passes to enjoy a day poolside at the Four Seasons. The heat was immense, but the mezcal margaritas were strong and plentiful (and I’m sure other patrons got a kick out of seeing our group of nerds reading physical books in the pool since it was almost too hot to enjoy sitting on the loungers).
On Sunday, we decided to hit a couple of Austin’s museums to continue our trend of staying out of the heat. To fuel up, we started with brunch at Bar Peached, which offered a really tasting combination of Asian fusion dishes. We ordered way too much food (classic), but it was all generally delicious. Among us we shared: roasted brussels sprouts with a delicious Asian glaze and fried shallots; matcha beignets; Hong Kong-style milk toast (we were expecting a small piece but it was the size of two waffles); pork belly buns. In addition to this feast, we ordered individual entrees (a choice!) and tried the udon (basically a carbonara with udon noodles instead of spaghetti), the fried rice with beef and kimchi (not great, but the kimchi was at least flavorful), the Thai-inspired salad (with arugula and glass noodles), and the fried chicken and pancakes. The drinks were also good, especially the Bloody Samurai, a take on the classic Bloody Mary with Asian spices in the mix.
Completely full and ready for a mild coma, we proceeded to the museum portion of the day. Since they were located across from each other near the “Capitol Mall”, we decided to head to the Blanton Museum of Art and the Bullock Museum of Texas History. Half the group went to one, half to the other…and I, of course, made it through both.
The Blanton Museum of Art is a beautiful building and has certainly made the most of the space to curate a variety of exhibits in the relatively limited space. The space itself was also beautiful.
The collection was somewhat small, but there were some interesting pieces. The first that caught my eye was an exhibit by an indigenous artist, who had created incredible sculptures using the metallic tassels traditionally worn on clothing during dances. Guests are encouraged to lightly interact with them and a video played showing the traditional attire and dance being performed among the sculpture pieces, which was a nice addition.
I also really liked the way they highlighted “lesser observed” items as art as well. The two that I enjoyed the most were a frame (the back was shown to highlight the intricacy of the woodwork, such as dovetail joints and restoration over the years) and a “cluster of charms” from Brazil. The charms were worn as amulets by both enslaved and free women of African descent and became a fashion statement.
The other exhibit I really enjoyed highlighted ecclesiastical painting differences between Europe and Latin America. It was fascinating seeing the similarities and slight differences between a painting from Peru and Italy from similar time periods and of similar subjects (Peru on the left below, Italy on the right).
The last painting that really caught my eye was The Sugar Shack, which graced the cover of a Marvin Gaye album and depicts a Black dance hall from the artist’s youth.
Once I was done with the art museum, I headed over to the Bullock Museum of Texas History. It was well done, although it was extremely clear that they had to toe the line between objective truth and crowd-pleasing narrative (for example, there were very few references to slavery or its legacy within Texas and the words “enslaved” or “slaver” were basically nonexistent even in exhibits referencing the slave trade). Similarly, the museum leaned heavily on written descriptions and had oddly few artifacts on display (oddly enough, they seemed to have more artifacts for the early periods of Texas history versus those closer to modern day). That being said, it was an informative museum and worth a stop in Austin.
I really enjoyed the early history section, which included artifacts from both the French and Spanish occupations of Texas (and, thankfully, they did have a large exhibit showcasing the variety of indigenous peoples who historically lived in Texas and then-Mexico). Some of my favorite items included:
- A Spanish soldier’s hat, which still has intricate details showing a crucifix
- Items to establish Spanish Missions in Texas, including a communion wafer “press” (to create the shapes / stamps), as well as crucifixes with daisies and other floral decor
- Spurs and wooden stirrups used for early ranching
- A leather set of armor
- Agave sandals
- A wooden ship that the French sailed across the Atlantic over to the Gulf, ultimately sinking just off the Texas coast; stunningly, the ship was clearly intended to be shipped itself via a larger ocean-going vessel and then assembled for primarily river or lake voyages; unfortunately the lighting was too poor for clear photos, but you can still see Roman numerals on the different pieces of the ship that were labeled to facilitate that assembly process
There were also a couple interesting indigenous artifacts / a nice display.
Another exhibit I greatly enjoyed was the history of Mexican “lowrider” culture within Texas. The cars on display were incredible and I enjoyed that they also had some kids’ items, such as a decked-out trike, bikes, and other toys.
The more modern exhibits from the museum were relatively sparse in terms of artifacts, but they covered everything from the Civil War to the Texan response to the Chinese Exclusion Act (spoiler: sadly, American citizens who married Chinese folks had their citizenship stripped and later reinstated).
I also thought it was interesting to see a small window into how the Mexican population responded tot the various changes in the territory over the years. The modern exhibit also had a good deal of artifacts from the “space race” which was nice to see.
After the museums, we headed back to the Airbnb to get out of the heat and relaxed for the remainder of the day. On Memorial Day, the last “real” day of the trip, we decided to divide and conquer to ensure everyone could check their last Austin items off their lists. Half the group returned to Barton Springs for another swim and myself and my husband headed to Terry Black’s Barbeque, another famed Austin location. Sadly, we didn’t realize that there was a major bike race (which honestly felt irresponsible given the heat), so parking and traffic were a disaster. We did beat the line at the BBQ stand itself, and tried a variety of their offerings, including the fatty brisket, pork sausage, turkey and classic sides including beans, mac and cheese and coleslaw. Of course, we had to get the garnishes as well – the pickled whole jalapenos were a treat! Oddly enough, we actually thought that Terry Black’s was slightly overhyped for the quality. The brisket wasn’t fork tender, the pork rib was fine but nothing special, and we’ve had deli turkey more flavorful. To balance things out though, the pork sausage was absolutely delicious and the beans were great. We wouldn’t say Terry Black’s was bad by any means, but given the massive amount of hype, we were a bit let down.
To celebrate the culmination of the trip, we had drinks at the creatively decorated Tiki Tatsu-ya and then dinner at Odd Duck, both within the Zilker neighborhood.
There were a couple things we didn’t have the chance to do in Austin that we’d like to the next time we’re in town: Black’s BBQ (apparently the brother of the owner of Terry Black’s), La Barbeque (Mexican fusion), the San Gines churros, and the Mexic-Arte Museum. We also had hoped to take a day trip to San Antonio, but opted not to due to the heat and the distance. Overall, a great trip to Austin!