“Keep Austin Weird” was slogan created over 20 years ago to encourage people to shop local independent businesses. While Austin still has some weird (or should we say quirky) components, it is not as weird as on our first trip there. Still, it has a lot of things to see and do.
The Live Music Capital of the World
The city’ famed music scene, which used to support more than 225 music venues, has taken a big hit over the last decade. The city’s rapid growth has led to higher prices and has forced many musicians out of the area. Meanwhile, the pandemic forced many music venues to close and several have not reopened. Many of those that are open are without music during weekdays and pop back to live music only around weekends. And we also saw many “Musicians Wanted” signs.
Old standards, such as the bar at the famed Driskoll Hotel, still had live music nightly during our 2023 trip. And a weekend evening stroll along West Sixth Street, through the Warehouse District (at least among those few warehouses that have not been replaced by modern towers) and down East Sixth Street East provided a steady stream of nightclubs.
New clubs, meanwhile, continue to sprout in lower-priced emerging areas such as the Red Rock District. And with so many students and tourists in town, many of them are packed, especially on weekend nights and into the mornings.
As you walk by, you choose what type of music and atmosphere you want. Some of the places we have enjoyed in the past include:
- Elephant Room, just north of the River, which focuses on “cool jazz”, generally draws an older audience with relatively soft music—our kind of music and crowd;
- Friends, on 6th Street, focuses primarily on rock and blues;
- Stubb’s and Continental Club draw younger crowds with more contemporary music.
- Saxon Pub, which is well outside the downtown area, was playing country and western.
West Sixth Street, by the way, is also a great stop for a bottle of wine. Austin Wine Merchants is literally filled to the rafters. One entire wall is devoted to four shelves with nothing but Burgundy’s from Beaujolais in the south to Chablis in the North, Another half wall is dedicated to American Pinot Noirs and a samping of those from other countries. It has similar selections of Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignons and smaller selections of other varietals. And atop all these display shelves are cases piled almost to the ceiling.
Austin Downtown
Daytime walks through the city’s Congress Ave Market and Warehouse districts bear few traces of the city’s trademark Weirdness. Some lovely buildings (especially the State Capitol, the Driskill Hotel and stately homes and offices along a couple streets just south east of the Capitol). There is, of course, also a plaque noting the location that the first Austin City Limits music-based TV series was filmed. But for the most part, Austin looks like a normal business city.
Things become more interesting when you see all the bars and music venues around 6th Street (most of which are either closed or nearly empty during the day), and especially as you venture further west into the edgier Red River district, with its tattoo parlors and especially Stubb’s popular BBQ restaurant and concert venue. Although a few of these venues are active during the days on weekends, they typically don’t come alive until about 9:00 PM.
State Capitol Building
The 1888 domed building is taller than the U.S. Capitol. The current building replaced the original 1852 structure. We combined part of a guided and part self-guided tour exploring the rotunda from different floors (1-5) , the Senate, Representatives’ and Supreme Court chambers and the underground Capitol Extension.
South Congress Neighborhood
It is not that Austin is no longer weird. It’s just that the locus of this weirdness has moved south of downtown and the river to the hot South Congress (SoCo) neighborhood. The roughly 10-block stretch of Congress Avenue, which is crowded during the days and packed at nights, is filled with causal restaurants, music clubs (especially the Continental), food truck parks, fun shops and of course, the occasional busker.
Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds
Although the store is now closed, this is one of what made Austin weird. We had to include it just as an example of what Austin was. The 8,000 square foot fun store was filled with outrageous vintage clothes, costumes and disguises for purchase or rental.
LBJ Presidential Library and Museum
The Museum begins with a timeline of LBJ’s life and progresses through written descriptions, videos and audios of many of the President’s most important initiatives, including:
- Reducing poverty including the Great Society and Medicare and Medicaid programs;
- Improving the state of blacks as through the Voter Registration and especially Civil Rights Acts;
- Improving education as with Head Start and funding of Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts; and
- Along with Lady Bird, environmental issues.
It also spoke of his balanced budgets and 3.3 percent unemployment rates.
Many of his foreign affairs efforts, such as those in dealing with the Cold War, Latin America and the Middle East’s Six-Day War were discussed briefly. As expected, the foreign affairs section of the exhibit focused primarily on Vietnam. It doesn’t sugarcoat the controversial war, discussing the heavy toll on American lives (58,000 dead, 153,000 wounded and 2,500 missing) and society, and on the Vietnamese. It spoke of Johnson’s personal traumas over U.S. involvement in the war and attributed his decision to not seek reelection in 1968 largely as an effort to accelerate stalled peace talks.
The museum also provided obligatory (for Presidential museums) recreations of both the Oval Office and the First Lady’s Office and some of their mementos. And then came a touch that is very uncharacteristic of Presidential Museums—an animatronic recreation of LBJ telling some of his classic, corny jokes. Can you imagine something like that at the Nixon museum?
During our visit, the museum also had a special exhibit of some of the most interesting photojournalist photos taken of presidents over the last decade—an exhibit that certainly brought back memories.
The Blanton Museum
The UT campus houses Austin’s primary art museum, the Blanton. The museum has over 21,000 works that include modern and contemporary American and Latin American art, Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings, and prints and drawings.
The show begins with its striking acrylic walls designed by Terresita Fernandez. The walls (called “Stacked Waters) layer varying shades of blue, from deep blue through aqua, to almost white, to create an illusion of water of varying depths.
On our 2023 visit, we visited a special exhibit “Day Jobs”. It shows how the jobs that artists take to support their artistic endeavors influence their art. It provides examples of career shaping art in everything from menial services, care giving, design, law and technology.
On a previous visit, we saw a special exhibit of art that University of Texas alumni and trained artists lend or donate. It contained hundreds of pieces that span from Renaissance to contemporary art.
Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum
We began our visit in the small museum of the sculpture artist’s work which focused on three early, 1980s commissions—Supplication, Madonna & Child and Spirit of Flight which were rejected, as evidenced by letters posted nearby, that criticized the works for a piece of cloth that did not cover enough of a thigh and for a dress that was tight enough as to show the curves of the subject woman. The works in the garden, including several nudes, were apparently designed for somewhat more open-minded patrons. Although several of the 50+ works were not quite to our taste, we did find several to be intriguing. These included the aforementioned Spirit of Flight as well as others such as Hope of Humanity, St. Michael & Lucifer, The Kiss, Ballerina, Prometheus and Icarus.
Bullock Museum of Texas History
The Bullock portrays the entire history of Texas. It starts with its Native-American settlements, through the early French explorations and settlement, and the Spanish migration from Mexico as a mean of protecting its forts and settlements.
The strict plan to govern the mix of native-Americans, Spanish settlers and Anglo settlers backfired when those who had entered the area insisted on self-rule. This led to the Texas Revolution and independence in 1836 and nine years later, annexation to the United States and the Mexican-American War.
A decade and a half later, Texas’ slave-based, cotton-dependent economy led it into the Confederacy. While it greatly benefited from its sale of cotton during the war, Union’s victory brought a severe depression. Then Reconstruction led to greater native- and African American rights and a white backlash in the form of Jim Crow laws and lynchings. By the 1920’s however, these oppressed races, in conjunction with women, reasserted their rights.
Throughout this time, the economy had evolved to citrus- and rice-growing along the coast, cotton a bit inland and large-scale ranching and cattle drives. The conflict between farming and ranching, however, led to range wars. The late 19th-century railroads and early 20th-century autos and improved roads led to a flood of settlers into what had been remote central and westerns sections of the state.
Hollywood Westerns and recovery from disasters such as the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and 1927 Rocksprings tornado expanded and solidified the state’s self-perception of rugged individualism. By this time, however, the state’s big 1901 Spindletop oil strike super-charged the development of the central part of the state (around the so-called Permian Basin) and led to a free-for-all, boom-bust economy that was dependent on oil and gas prices. The state began regulating this wildcatting economy and smoothing price swings with a series of regulations in the 1930s. With advances in offshore drilling , horizontal drilling, fracking and so forth, the state today has more than 285,000 active wells and accounts for 40% of total U.S. production.
The museum goes on to explain how the state’s development of industries such aircraft, information technology, medicine and space exploration has led to a more balanced economy And it talks how music (especially around Austin and the Austin City Limits musical television series), arts and sports, gay pride and so forth, continues to reshape the State’s culture.
University of Texas Campus
A stroll around the campus provided a glimpse of what college live is like today. Along the well-utilized University Ave Mall, students were walking, socializing, studying or just relaxing on the grass or by the fountain. Then up to the clock tower before retracing our path back to the real world, of at least the real Austin.
Convert Park at Mount Bonnel
Getting to the park requires a drive about 700 feet up Mount Bonnel, past pricy homes with drop-dead views, to the base of a 100+-step stone stairway that takes you to the summit. It has several spots for viewing the river (this stretch of which his called Lake Austin) over which looms the hills of the Central Texas escarpment on one side and the city skyline on another.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Although we certainly saw a broad range of wildflowers, and some lovely ones at that, there weren’t anywhere near as many as we had expected. In fact, the center appears to be at least as focused on, and devotes far more space to its arboretum and its “Glory of Trees” focus, than it does to wildflowers. Nor was our quest to learn more about the flowers helped by the fact that visitor’s gallery was closed for the day.
The Contemporary at Laguna Gloria
We planned to stroll through the sculpture garden until learning that it was temporarily closed due to a tennis match at a neighboring country club. We were, however, still able to see a few sculptures in in front of and alongside the buildings. Next time….
Lady Bird Lake
The “lake” is actually a stretch of the Colorado River that is spanned by the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. It is a relaxing stroll or ride with tranquil views over the water. One section contains picnic grounds and basketball courts and is overseen by murals.
Austin Restaurants
Eddy V’s Prime Seafood
Eddy V’s is as much a steak house as it is a seafood parlor. So we had both—and both, as well as the service, were very good. Joyce’s branzino was roasted with artichoke, tomatoes and olive tapenade. Tom enjoyed half a massive 24 oz bone-in ribeye (taking home the other half for the next day) with a large half-order of au gratin cheddar potatoes. We had a bottle of 2015 Copain “Sonoma Coast “Tours Ensemble” Pinot Noir and with the steak, a glass of 2020 Stag’s Leap “Hands of Time” blend. We able to pass-up the incredible Godiva lava cake for dessert. The meal will be remembered by our waists as well as our minds—but it was well worth it.
Franklin Barbeque
Well, we wanted to have lunch here. But upon arriving a half hour before opening, we saw a line of well over 100 people. Many had chairs and coolers with snacks and drinks to sustain them for the hours-long wait (or in some cases, for the previous night) for barbeque. Luckily We knew there was always a line but didn’t anticipate how long the line would be. Instead we went on to a a backup plan: Stubbs Barbeque.
Lamberts
Lambert’s is one of Austin’s classic barbeque restaurants. We began by sharing a very good, finger-licking appetizer: lightly fried wild boar ribs with honey & sambal, blue cheese, and celery & daikon slaw. The oak-grilled shrimp & ham grits with lemon zest, chili flakes, chicory, and a soft-boiled egg was also very good, as was the extra crispy house-smoked bacon. Although we enjoyed the achiote and lime-rubbed chicken on a barbeque plate (with which we had sides of potato salad and baked beans), we were less enthralled with coriander-crusted pork ribs. This, as we later discovered, probably has more do to with the traditional way Austin-style ribs are prepared than with any fault of the restaurant.
Perla’s
Perla’s specializes in fresh, simply prepared and from our experience, delicious seafood. Since we had had a huge lunch, we limited our evening food intake to a deep-fried gulf oysters appetizer and a wonderfully prepared Chilean sea bass. Although the restaurant was packed, the service was personal and unrushed. And our server was instrumental in steering us to the music clubs that were most suited to our tastes.
Perry’s Steakhouse
Although it appears to be a small chain, we were impressed with the service and the food at this steakhouse. Both the grilled lamb chops and cedar-plank baked redfish with basil pesto, chive-whipped cauliflower and truffle vinaigrette were good. We were satisfied, although not excited with the potatoes au gratin and not thrilled by the crème spinach. However we were amazed by the offer of trying both and paying for only the one we preferred. We shared had a bottle of decent 2021 King Estate Pinot Noir and a rather more interesting glass of 2020 Alexander Valley Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
Stubbs Barbeque
In addition to food, Stubb’s is also a large entertainment venue and amphitheater/entertainment complex. Although it didn’t have any entertainment when we arrived for lunch on a Friday midday, we did have a very good lunch of pork ribs, pulled pork, sweet potato French Fried and pinto beans with iced teas.
Sway
Since restaurants are important components of all of our trips, we looked long and hard to find some of the most interesting. We generally succeeded. Sway was one of our absolute favorites. This modern Thai restaurant has a fascinating menu and refined preparations. Our favorites included pad thai, shu mai (with crab, shrimp, cuttlefish, trout roe, white soy, cucumber vinegar), and especially son-in-law (crispy farm egg, braised pork shoulder, thick soy, chili vinegar). Then came the piece de resistance: tapioca pudding with mango and a number of other very complementary Asian flavors with which we were too enthralled to remember. Given the success we had with our food, we would urge you to try anything on the menu—and to call us if you need help finishing your food.
Texas Chili Palace
We had lunch at this dive bar that is popular among State senators and representatives. Tortilla chips and salsa held us until we got our main dishes. Tom’s signature chunky beef spicy chili with cheese was good and not really as hot as suggested. Joyce had a very tasty cheeseburger with cheddar cheese.
Food Trucks
Austin is something of a Food Truck Heaven. If you don’t find a food truck on the block you’re on, go to the next block, or turn a corner. You will surely find yourself face-to-face with an individual truck or, more likely, a food truck park next to a fixed structure with a bar and tables. They make for a fun, inexpensive meal.
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