Keeping Cool In Austin In August

We continued our Saturday with an attempt to wait in line at Franklin BBQ, but it was a three hour wait so we decided to try again the next day. Instead we ate breakfast tacos with migas and enjoyed Shiner Ruby Redbird (beer with grapefruit and ginger - so good!). Both migas breakfast tacos and Ruby Redbird are two very Austin-specific things. Migas is leftover bread or tortillas and in Texas is incorporated into the scrambled eggs and other taco fillings. After enjoying that, we went to an ice cream festival! Sounds great right? 

S's face here kind of sums up how we felt in between licks of ice cream. It was so hot, unshaded, and crowded. Not to mention there was a terrible band performing under the largest tent. We sacrificed our ears to enjoy our Good Pop popsicles under the shade which was totally worth the festival visit. Ultimately we decided we had had enough, and ventured to explore the rest of Austin. 

This little old man serving frozen custard in a tiny bow-tie was super cute and was such a sight that we waited in the frozen custard line. 

The rest of the night we don't have any photos of because we went downtown to eat and drink and I didn't want to subject my precious camera to a night on dirty sixth street. I'm not just being rude, they actually call it "dirty six" on Friday and Saturday nights after 10:00 pm because it gets dirty. But it's all part of the spectacle. 

We started at Frank's which is a well known artisan sausage/hot dog restaurant. Both S and I indulged in the "jackelope" sausage which was both antelope, rabbit, and pork topped with cranberry compote, sriracha aioli, and cheddar. It was awesome. They also had an awesome selection of cocktails, and I had a "Ranch House Lemonade" which was made with one of my favorite bourbons, Woodford Reserve, with lemon, ginger, and blood orange. Perfect to cool me down from the hot afternoon ice cream festival. 

After that we stumbled upon an awesome menswear shop called Dandy's where we chatted with the whiskey-sipping owners for an hour. They wowed us with their flaming wallets and ended up telling us about an invite-only massage parlor/brothel turned bar (more on that in a later post). We walked to another place for drinks called Swift's Attic. I had a Negroni to drink which I wasn't crazy about, but then our appetites emerged and we ordered pork cheeks. They served the pork cheeks with sourdough, fig preserves, and whole grain mustard to make a little bruschetta. It was mouth-watering and phenomenal. The sweet and tart spreads paired so nicely against the tender pork cheeks. 

On Sunday morning, we attempted to wait in the Franklin BBQ line again but it was now a four hour wait. By the time we would eat, we would have been so grumpy that I'm not sure if we could have enjoyed it. The thing is, people wait in this line because the brisket is so good it was voted best BBQ by Bon Appetite. They open at 11 am and close when they sell out of meat - which is like three to four hours later. Plus, if Anthony Bourdain likes it, it's gotta be good. Ultimately, we never got to experience Franklin. But there is always our next visit. 

For brunch we went to Hillside Farmacy where I got a croque madame and a a grapefruit/hibiscus mimosa. After that, we ventured to the nearby Pemberton Castle which is where the 90's movie Blank Check was filmed. This is the mansion that was every kid's dream in the 90's and now it is majestically covered in ivy. There is no longer a slide and pool in the backyard (we peeked through the fence) but there is still a ladder on the small terrace that takes you to the roof. 

To continue the beautiful day, we ventured to Mount Bonnell where we walked up some stone stairs to get the best view in Austin. It was beautiful and serene, looking miles over the water and trees. If I hadn't known that these photos were in Austin, I would have never guessed. 

After our nature walk, we made our way to Rainey Street which is known for all of it's houses turned into bars and restaurants. It was past lunch time, so we grabbed a Shiner Ruby Redbird at Bungalow before taking an afternoon break. 

The plan for the rest of the evening was to relax before our drink reservations at the massage parlor/brothel turned bar and dinner reservations at the swine and wine bar I'd heard great things again, Salty Sow. I hope you all have a great weekend ahead! I know some of us have a 3 day weekend and some of us even  have a 4 day weekend with today off! Either way, enjoy yourselves and the last bit of summer! It's September! I can put my boots on now, right?