US - South Austin

Probably the wrong thread, but figure it will get some local Austin attention and can’t hurt. Nothing on discogs 😢

Looking for a copy of this record if any of you come across it. They’re local to you…

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol - “Burger Babes From Outer Space”

Will pay up to $100 plus local beers/records/hugs/hot sauces for procurement.

IMG_6808.webp
 
Probably the wrong thread, but figure it will get some local Austin attention and can’t hurt. Nothing on discogs 😢

Looking for a copy of this record if any of you come across it. They’re local to you…

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol - “Burger Babes From Outer Space”

Will pay up to $100 plus local beers/records/hugs/hot sauces for procurement.

IMG_6808.webp
Huh that might be an interesting assignment. If I have time I'll stop by Waterloo Records and Antones and take a look.
 
I'm bored, so I figured I'd report back on my Austin trip.

Breweries: Oddwood, Hold Out, Zilker, Lazarus, ABGB, Pinthouse (Burnet Rd.), Jester King, Meanwhile, Live Oak

Oddwood was... odd. Got there kinda late thanks to having to sit on the tarmac at AUS for 80 minutes after landing. Anyway, KG BBQ was closed (bummer) so we opted for the pizza. It was good, not great. Vibe was super weird. When we walked in, the place was almost completely dark & silent. Turns out they were showing some foreign language film with subtitles & there were probably 20-25 people watching in complete silence. Thankfully they have outdoor seating, so we did that. The bartender seemed put out that we wanted to order beers & food, so not the best welcome to Texas. Beers were good though.

Hold Out had the best brewery food of the trip. We tried the wings one night and ended up going back for more the next night. Best wings I've ever had, and I consider myself a wing snob. Lagers were good, but they only had hazy IPAs and I didn't even finish the couple I tried.

Zilker was cool, but we only hung out for one beer. It was pretty busy though for early on a Friday afternoon.

Lazarus had a great vibe & the beers were solid. Drank lagers again. And quite possibly the most attractive bartender I've ever seen waited on us.

ABGB was cool. More lagers. Could have stayed longer, but we had to get to the Phish show.

PInthouse was fine. My buddy and I ate some complimentary tacos in the hotel lounge before the Phish show Friday night, and both of us ended up with food poisoning. Thankfully we were able to work out way through it pretty quickly, but the Pinthouse stop was while we were still trying to power though it, so we both struggled through a beer before bailing to nap at the hotel for a couple hours.

Jester King is a cool concept and I'm glad I got to go, but I don't think I'd need to go back. Almost all the beers were canned. They had maybe 4 beers on draught? Thought that was weird. The table beer I got on draught was extremely meh. Got a pizza as a snack, and that was probably the highlight of the trip.

Meanwhile was huge, nice, and crowded AF. Children everywhere. There must've been a ton of money behind that place though. Good beers and a cool environment despite the aforementioned children.

Live Oak was an obligatory stop before flying out. I was kind of bummed because I'd already had everything on their taplist, so no new tikks there. Might've been cool to play disc golf there, but it was blazing hot, I didn't have discs, and I had a plane to catch. The taproom itself was fairly unremarkable.

I think my favorite beer of the trip ended up being Zilker Icy Boys. Just clean and easy. It was around at a couple of the bars we went to, so I drank a few of those over the weekend.

Part 2 of this post is upcoming...
 
A couple other Austin highlights:

* Stayed at the OMNI downtown and drank frozen drinks by the rooftop pool a couple times, which was nice.

* After a couple beers at Lazarus on Friday afternoon, we decided to swing by Franklin BBQ. This was around 2 and we knew they closed at 3, so we figured we'd most likely be out of luck but figured we'd check it out since we were nearby. Well, the line wasn't too bad (only one person outside), but that guy told us they said they might run out before he got his turn. So we said fuck it and started to leave. Then some random dude was like, "hey are you guys hungry?" Turns out he and his wife ordered everything on the menu and had way too much food. We joined them and had brisket, ribs, burnt ends, coleslaw, & potato salad. We offered them money several times, but they refused. They must've spent $250.

* Walked over to the Blind Pig on 6th street Saturday afternoon after we slept off the food poisoning. We wanted to play Golden Tee, and they have a giant GT screen there, but there was already a group on the machine and they were terrible, so we decided not to wait. Had an obligatory Lone Star there though. And I can say I visited 6th street. I could see it from the hotel balcony, and could absolutely tell it is not my vibe at night, so that was enough for me.

* Drank Icy Boys and played Golden Tee at Mean Eyed Cat. Pretty cool spot. I dug the divey roadhouse vibe & the Johnny Cash theme.

* My buddy lives in Chappell Hill and ended up going home Sunday night after dinner, so I was solo. I figured I'd walk over to the Driskill for a cocktail or two, only to find out they're closed for renovations. I found an open door next to their entrance, and poked my head in. It was a very small bar and there was nobody in there except a guy behind the bar. He told me about the Driskill, then I asked if I could get a drink from him. He said he was closed (which made me wonder why the door was unlocked), but then proceeded to tell me to go around the corner and look for a black & white graffiti'd wall where there's a buzzer. Ring the buzzer for a cocktail bar, he said.

So I said fuck it and set off to find this buzzer. Took me a little looking, but I found it and was buzzed in. Went down a set of dark stairs and into a similarly dark entry way. Turns out it's a speakeasy called Here Nor There. The hostess poured me a prosecco as a palate cleanser, then showed me to a seat at the bar. The bartender was super cool, and their drinks were definitely high-end and delicious. The bartender couldn't believe that I just randomly stumbled into the place & that I didn't even know it existed until 5 minutes earlier. Anyway, enjoyed a couple 20 dollar gin-based cocktails before heading back to the rooftop pool at the OMNI.

Hold Out wings
1000005192.webp

Here Nor There entrance
1000005215.webp

OMNI pool & fruity frozen drink
1000005202.webp

(some) Free Franklin food
1000004961.webp

OMNI balcony view
1000005035.webp

Fun trip. Would Austin again.
 
A couple other Austin highlights:

* Stayed at the OMNI downtown and drank frozen drinks by the rooftop pool a couple times, which was nice.

* After a couple beers at Lazarus on Friday afternoon, we decided to swing by Franklin BBQ. This was around 2 and we knew they closed at 3, so we figured we'd most likely be out of luck but figured we'd check it out since we were nearby. Well, the line wasn't too bad (only one person outside), but that guy told us they said they might run out before he got his turn. So we said fuck it and started to leave. Then some random dude was like, "hey are you guys hungry?" Turns out he and his wife ordered everything on the menu and had way too much food. We joined them and had brisket, ribs, burnt ends, coleslaw, & potato salad. We offered them money several times, but they refused. They must've spent $250.

* Walked over to the Blind Pig on 6th street Saturday afternoon after we slept off the food poisoning. We wanted to play Golden Tee, and they have a giant GT screen there, but there was already a group on the machine and they were terrible, so we decided not to wait. Had an obligatory Lone Star there though. And I can say I visited 6th street. I could see it from the hotel balcony, and could absolutely tell it is not my vibe at night, so that was enough for me.

* Drank Icy Boys and played Golden Tee at Mean Eyed Cat. Pretty cool spot. I dug the divey roadhouse vibe & the Johnny Cash theme.

* My buddy lives in Chappell Hill and ended up going home Sunday night after dinner, so I was solo. I figured I'd walk over to the Driskill for a cocktail or two, only to find out they're closed for renovations. I found an open door next to their entrance, and poked my head in. It was a very small bar and there was nobody in there except a guy behind the bar. He told me about the Driskill, then I asked if I could get a drink from him. He said he was closed (which made me wonder why the door was unlocked), but then proceeded to tell me to go around the corner and look for a black & white graffiti'd wall where there's a buzzer. Ring the buzzer for a cocktail bar, he said.

So I said fuck it and set off to find this buzzer. Took me a little looking, but I found it and was buzzed in. Went down a set of dark stairs and into a similarly dark entry way. Turns out it's a speakeasy called Here Nor There. The hostess poured me a prosecco as a palate cleanser, then showed me to a seat at the bar. The bartender was super cool, and their drinks were definitely high-end and delicious. The bartender couldn't believe that I just randomly stumbled into the place & that I didn't even know it existed until 5 minutes earlier. Anyway, enjoyed a couple 20 dollar gin-based cocktails before heading back to the rooftop pool at the OMNI.

Hold Out wings
1000005192.webp

Here Nor There entrance
1000005215.webp

OMNI pool & fruity frozen drink
1000005202.webp

(some) Free Franklin food
1000004961.webp

OMNI balcony view
1000005035.webp

Fun trip. Would Austin again.
There's a few speakeasies in downtown Austin. Here Nor There is probably the best one (and the easiest one to get into... a lot of them have keypads with frequently changing codes)

Was surprised you had a bad experience at Oddwood. We end up there a lot for their lagers.

Meanwhile is a spin-off from Breakside Brewing out of Portland. And yes that place has made money hand over fist since they opened. I heard their initial setup cost was $7M so there's some money behind it. I think Tender Robot is one of the better hazies in town. We sell a lot of that in cans.

Just a funny story your picture reminded me of...

I used to work at Omni Austin Downtown about ~15 years ago when I was a much more junior hotel/restaurant finance manager having to work overnights.

A lady calls during South by Southwest fucking mad out of her mind wanting to speak to the manager. I was the only one around so I had to go up there (ugh).

I go up there and she's pointing out the window asking me to "make them shut up! I gotta sleep!"

I look down and there and that lot in your picture had a full stage and a band playing at 1am. Elbows to assholes full of people.

I almost laughed. I definitely did after she slammed the door in my face when I tried to tell her the largest music festival in the country was going on (she was unaware? Durp.)
 
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Also, for next time, you should have stopped at Spicy Boys at Zilker and had an Icy Boys. That beer is named after that food truck.

Best spicy chicken sandwich you'll ever have. They use this Szechuan Pepper based seasoning for their Tingly Gai sandwich with spicy pickles that is so freaking good. Very spicy! I get the same seasoning on the tots and whew that makes you wanna drink some beer.

One of the few things I actually crave and return back to constantly. They also have locations at St. Elmo Brewing (2 locations north/south) here in town.
 
I'm bored, so I figured I'd report back on my Austin trip.
How long was the trip?

St. Elmo instead of Lazarus is what I would've done differently, but still very impressed with how much you got done and you hit a ton of good spots

Way back when Zilker allowed outside food (pre Spicy Boys truck), out of town groups would bring their Franklin takeout orders over to the brewery - I had a lot of saturdays getting to eat leftover Franklin since these groups would always order way too much bbq
 
How long was the trip?

St. Elmo instead of Lazarus is what I would've done differently, but still very impressed with how much you got done and you hit a ton of good spots

Way back when Zilker allowed outside food (pre Spicy Boys truck), out of town groups would bring their Franklin takeout orders over to the brewery - I had a lot of saturdays getting to eat leftover Franklin since these groups would always order way too much bbq
I think my crew went to Draught House with Franklin’s. Good times…just wish we had thought about plates/napkins.
 
How long was the trip?

St. Elmo instead of Lazarus is what I would've done differently, but still very impressed with how much you got done and you hit a ton of good spots

Way back when Zilker allowed outside food (pre Spicy Boys truck), out of town groups would bring their Franklin takeout orders over to the brewery - I had a lot of saturdays getting to eat leftover Franklin since these groups would always order way too much bbq

Thursday evening - Monday afternoon. Probably would've got even more in, but also went to the Phish shows Friday & Saturday night.

I did manage to have a St. Elmo kolsch at Franklin, but yeah, we didn't make it to the brewery. We'd also intended to go to Draught House, but the food poisoning recovery torpedoed that plan.
 
If there are any SNL fans coming to town the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas just put the recently-donated Lorne Michaels Collection on exhibition for the public this week. Runs through the end of March. Not many details here on what is actually on display but I'm definitely checking it out soon.


Apparently the collection is bigger than just SNL btw. They have Kids in the Hall stuff as well as items from all the movies Lorne has produced over the years.
 

Microcenter's construction has begun as of last week. Permit has a construction estimated completion date of the beginning of January. 36k square feet so it's definitely not taking up all the space in the former Fry's Electronics location (which had to be like 100k square feet that place was massive).
 
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