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ATX! meetup?


thedaniway

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Headed to ATX tomorrow solo for 3 days.

 

Any food recs? I kinda wanna try Franklin's BBQ but don't wanna wait that long. 

I feel like BBQ food in general is overrated. I really don't know shit about Austin. 

I heard that burger joint on south congress is good. 

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franklin's would be dope, 'that burger joint' aka hopdoddy is way hyped but i've never been. kinda richie crowd though. honestly there's this place on guadalupe and 29th called burger tex, and it's the shit. spicy korean bulgogi burger, and quite a few other options as well. 

 

i would also recommend tatsuya for ramen, elizabeth street cafe for pork buns, pho, etc... 

 

if u want mexican u should go to the east side for el azteca or u could go to el alma

 

honorable mentions include east side kings, torchys tacos, uchi/uchiko, and yea

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thanks bru. burger tex and tatsuya. tatsuya seems to be the only japanese owned ramen place in this state. 

it's one of the reasons for taking this trip. i haven't had real japanese food in 6 months. 

 

we got uchi and torchys in my hood so i b fine. but itll be p interesting to see the OG uchi though. 

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Lots of good stuff in east atx and downtown near W (sorry, i'm a yuppie).

 

I liked:

Brew & Brew, Rogue running, Mellow Johnny's (copped mad bike gear), some kitchen store whose name I don't recall, Finley's barbershop with tight hair products, did lots of solo bar hopping on the east side. 

 

I can't believe I decided to screw with a food truck. Some foccacia sandwich truck next to the smallest bar in Atx (or something like that). It's ok. Like I've come to embrace the fact that 99.9% of the food trucks in America is all hype driven and even worth checking out. Gonna blame it on the tasteless CWGs and KAGs on yelp. 

 

Oh yeah, there's a sports (?) shop downtown that was pretty dope. It's basically a shitty knock-off of the Tannery in BOS. Had moncler, canada goose, arcteryx, and poler. The girls who work there are hella pretty but stuck up as hell. The bros are tight.

Service menswear was disappointing. They have really good buys for S/S but their F/W is crappy. It's understandable because 

they sort of go for the california beach / resort style. STAG sucked as usual. Full of people who are buying shitty Steven-alan-like boring $$$ clothes. That super highend mens store across from OG wholefoods - cool store but disappointing, bland buys. 

 

Komé is a tight restaurant. It's authentic though not the best Japanese restaurant in US. I can confidently say it's the best in the state of Texas. I was mildly offended when one of the oh-so-cool bearded waiters said, "we have a ramen place downtown. owned by the same people. the chef went to a japanese ramen school." i was pretty tempted to call him out on that because ramen is all about apprenticeship but i gave him the benefit of the doubt and in some unlikely event that there indeed is a ramen school.

 

Fuck Uchi. Uchi is seriously for non-Asian people who think they are the shit and they know Japanese food. I'm just wary of those people who say, "Oh I love sushi and ramen" these days. 9 out of 10, they don't know shit. If they start talking about "esoteric" dishes like Chuka-don and Omurice, I'd give them cred. It's kinda geared towards those girls who call their boyfriends "hubbie." You get the idea. It's a very good restaurant but it shouldn't be treated as a Japanese restaurant. Buzz doesn't equal quality. Like it sort of emulates gonpachi (it's where part of kill bill was filmed), it is not as good. I could def. tell they are using very good ingredients, especially the raw fish, but I felt like the complexity that I usually find in really well-executed Japanese food is missing. The fried milk thing is awesome though. 

 

Vintage heart coffee. Good atmosphere but service is really shitty and the espresso pull isn't even great. Very quiet place to talk to girls or whatever but seriously, take your business to B&B because that place is the realness. Not only are the bartenders / barista really helpful and friendly, everything there is just perfection. I liked it so much that I like went back the same night to have more fine beer and chill. What I liked the most about that place is that their tap list doesn't really have "fillers" like I see at beer bars like Flying Saucer. You know those beers that bars have just for the sake of increasing the # of beers on tap. From what I saw, the owners hand-picked and tapped truly outstanding beers. I had a couple of beers by Revolver. Some of the finest TX beers. I don't think they are as good as Jester King but the concepts are totally different. 

 

I guess the take-home lesson I got by visiting B&B and Lance Armstrong's bike shop is curation. It's kind of obvious but good shops, at least the ones I love, regardless of the location, have a strong sense of direction / style in the buys. I've said this numerous times before but stores in the US, in general, have really conservative buys and there's way too much overlap. 

 

Bouldin Creek (?) on 1st st. Cool atmosphere but food and drink quality subpar. 

 

Dailyjuice. I'd rather go to Jamba. A true yuppie bait. 

 

Jester king. My second time there. Always an awesome time. Don't get the pizza. It's overpriced and tastes just OK.

Edited by herpsky
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herps as someone who sometimes feels his city is under and at the same time over appreciated (or generally misunderstood), i think you provided an apt summary of the current austin vibe. can definitely respect the effort u put in to properly take in what ATX has to offer. if u come through again i'd be keen on revisiting some of these joints and also goin out to tatsuya and see what u think.

 

again, it's cool to see a peer assessment this detailed. i think if more cats come thru and curate where it is they hit up and become a deliberatey active crowd of taste makers maybe this city can develop and then provide a more mature / cohesive experience. feels kind of all over the place sometimes.

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Nice write up, it's always good to see what people think of Austin on a deeper level.

Kome is the shit, my friend used to work there and the guys in the kitchen are pretty cool.

Musashino is another good spot, really fresh fish.  Also cool staff.

I think our retail scene is kinda weak, something I would love to do is develop my own store here one day.

I definitely need to check out Brew & Brew, been on my list for a bit.

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bummed i didn't check this thread earlier, oh well. i agree w pretty much everything herps said; kome and tatsuya are both great, uchi definitely has that cwg vibe tho. as previously mentioned, east side king is also worth a look. not much to say about the food trucks--most are acceptable when i'm drunk and stumbling away from a show. and as far as the retail scene goes, i don't even bother shopping for clothing in texas.

 

anyone coming out to see christian bland & the revelators + holy wave for free at the north door tonite?

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I'm looking to find an apartment to live in with my friend for next semester. Any recommendations? Somewhere relatively close to UT (maybe up to 40th or so) and not West Campus, preferably, although if you know of any good spots in WC I'd be glad to hear of them. Anyone in Hyde Park or Far West?

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rollin thru again on Monday. Is hopdoddy actually worth visiting? 

The general demographic of the people I've seen in line kinda overlaps to those in line for Ippudo in NYC aka cwg tourists

 

gonna swing by service and Brew&Brew. 

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I don't think Hopdoddy is really worth it unless there's no line.

Which you can usually manage if you come during the week around lunch.

And if you stop by Service on Monday I'll probably be in the shop.

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