A long weekend in Austin

Streets to explore and things to see & eat 

Approachable and artsy. Southern meets Tex-Mex. Hidden gems galore. Austin is, to me, every bit as cool as people say it is, especially when it comes to eating, drinking, and boutiquey retail therapy. It's way easy to spend a long weekend there, even when the weather is less than ideal. I speak from experience. 

The city's hot spots are broken up into streets and neighborhoods that make it simple for tourists to find the kind of vibe they crave. Whether quirky-cute or down 'n' dirty, Austin's got it. Here's a walk through our long weekend. 

Rainey Street
Rainey Street is where the (relatively) laid-back go to bar hop. It’s a street of renovated bungalows that have been turned into bars, with restaurants and food trucks and trailers sprinkled throughout. The vibe is warm and welcoming, even on a chilly weekend in March. 

From a circus theme to dives to classier establishments, each bar on Rainey boasts its own personality and patio. We started at Alibi for champagne cocktails, then bopped over to Lustre Pearl — a fast favorite of mine for its neon “Ici tout est bon.” Next came the kitschy Un Bar Lievable with its blue and red circusy interior and a patio out back complete with an adult-sized slide, hula hoops, and a claw machine full of sex toys (yup). Also Castaway playing on the TVs. How congruous! But it really was fun.






By then we were a little peckish. Luckily our next stop, brewery Craft Pride, has the highly-recommended Via 313 Pizza out back in a food truck. Via 313 is Detroit-style pizza. Wisconsinites, think Rocky Rococo, pan-style and scrumptious. Our group of four shared one pizza — the perfect amount, as our goal was to graze all day. We kept the graze going at G’Raj Mahal with some curry and naan. Yum.

Our night out on Rainey ended with a stop at Lucille, a spot with a more sleek and modern vibe than the other places we’d imbibed. We sat on the sprawling patio beneath heat lamps (the atmosphere really was nice), sipping cocktails that were too strong for my taste. So if you like that kind of thing, get thee to Lucille!






We also returned to Rainey one morning to hit up Banger’s Sausage House and Beer Garden for their weekend Man-mosas. It’s basically a mimosa served in a stein the size of your head. Our group shared one between three of us, and that was sufficient. The vibe at Banger’s hit that Goldilocks zone: not too rowdy, not too quiet, but just right. 

South Congress
When asked my favorite thing we did in Austin, my first thought was “the carrot cake French toast at South Congress Café.” Maybe I was just hungry at the time of questioning, but that French toast really did leave us all gobsmacked. Imagine a spiced, cake-y loaf, thickly sliced and griddled French toast-style, serve with a side pecan cream cheese frosting. Heaven. The eggs Benedict was also scrumptious.






There are lots of other yummy-looking spots to eat on South Congress (SoCo), plus oodles of shops to get lost in and murals to ogle. I could easily spend all day browsing unique giftables and vintage goods. Drool. Note: You can walk from downtown to SoCo, but I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you find gas stations and strip malls scenic. We found the South Congress Café to be a good place to start your journey; walk up and down from there and see what lures you in.

Dirty 6th
Rowdy and raucous to say the least, this stretch of 6th Street is infamous. Here you'll find bawdy entertainment and street performers (a loose term) doing things like fitting their entire selves into a suitcase. Watch out for carry-ons with protruding arms! We likened it to a war zone: bodies slung about and mounted police patrols.






We ventured to Dirty 6th with a destination in mind: Midnight Cowboy, a genuine speakeasy in which to escape the madness. In the midst of all the debauchery on Dirty 6th, there’s a nondescript door and a code to get inside. Once there, the long, alley-shaped bar offers a different vibe entirely from the cesspool just outside. The cocktails are impressive and feature the likes of frothed egg whites, dried blood orange to garnish, and flames. Note: You can pretty much only get into Midnight Cowboy with a reservation, and only with small groups. A party of four is ideal. 

East 6th 
First off, East 6th is nothing like Dirty 6th. Here you can find the scrumptious VooDoo Doughnuts (so doughy and delicious!) in the morning and a slew of buzzy bars and patios at night.

Our first stop of the evening was at Shangri-La. This place had a super cool vibe with a photo booth, phone charging station inside an old telephone box, and an enormous patio out back with merry strings of lights hanging from the trees. We then sauntered down East 6th to Latchkey, where we snagged some seriously scrumptious tacos and queso from the food truck out back, the Smokin' Rose Taco Joint. We probably could have spent more time on this stretch of street, but there are only so many hours and so many drinks one can stomach.

The barbecue 
Not everything worthwhile can be pigeonholed to a given neighborhood. One night, we ventured a bit off the beaten path to Terry Black’s Barbecue, where we waited in line for a good half-hour or more for plates of brisket, ribs, mac ‘n’ cheese, creamed corn, banana pudding, cornbread, and so on. Scrumptious and worth the wait. We also stopped at Stubb's Bar-B-Q for lunch; the pulled pork was super tasty and the mac ‘n’ cheese was served with shell-shaped noodles and a sauce so oozy, some dripped in my hair. It was so worth the extra shampoo. 

All the rest
When we weren’t eating, drinking, or shopping our way through Austin, we did a short jaunt to the lookout at Mount Bonnell, followed by a trip to Lake Travis. The problem: It was incredibly foggy, so the views were nearly non-existent. But if you’re lucky find yourself in Austin on a beautiful day, a trip to these two scenic spots would be worth your while. Lake Travis has a sort of resort feel with a brewery for kicking back with a beer and enjoying the scenery.






We also caught some live music at The Craftsman (yes, more drinking — that gin fizz was so dang delish!). It was the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, so the place was decked out for Mardi Gras with carnival masks and beads scattered willy-nilly. The band was the Boss Band, playing traditional New Orleans jazz plus covers of pop songs. Sometimes silly, but there was an awful lot of energy and brass prowess in this ragtag group. 

In the end, Austin really won me over — a tough thing to do in mediocre, misty weather. Of the handful of comparable stateside cities I've been lucky enough to explore this past year (specifically Nashville and New Orleans), Austin is the one I'd be most eager to return to. First stop: French toast.