We got into a lot of rush hour traffic on our way into Austin making our one hour trip two hours. After getting settled into our hotel and going out to explore the city, we immediately fell in love with Austin. Since we were in Texas, we decided we had to try as much barbecue as we could. We went to go to a place named Stubb's for dinner. The restaurant has their own stage outside and there was a concert going on with a band we really liked. We were kinda jealous we didn't know about the concert beforehand! There was also a band that was inside the restaurant that we could see from our table on the second floor. We loved the place and all it's charm and atmosphere. However, what it had in ambiance it lacked in good eats! We shared some ribs and a couple of sides (we've been sharing everything since we have SOOO much food to try in each city). All of the food was kind of cold and the ribs were tough and tasted weird. They had a great jalapeno creamed spinach, though which we loved.
The next morning we went to breakfast at Juan in a Million (ha!). Throughout the trip we've been to lots of places with really good reputations and cult followings. We felt that some of the places were very overrated or just not something to write home about. This was NOT the case with Juan in a Million. Although it has great reviews and is constantly crowded with people eating their Don Juan breakfast tacos, we felt it was completely UNDERRATED! We shared the Don Juan taco and with every bite we took we looked up at each other in disbelief at how good this very simple dish was. I want my birthday cake made out of it! After paying our $6 bill, we left very full and satisfied.
Next we went to Commerce Street, which quickly became one of my favorite streets in the world! (Sorry, Las Ramblas) It kind of felt like my own personal heaven was built in the middle of sunny Texas. There were so many stores and cute food stands, we could have roamed the streets all day. We planned all of our food stops along Commerce Street strategically so we could try everything we wanted without exploding.
We went to a stand called Hey Cupcake, that sells cupcakes out of a silver trailer. We got a 24 Carrot and a Sweetberry cupcake. We shared the Sweetberry cupcake first because we were still so full from breakfast. It was easily the best cupcake we've ever had.
We walked around a little more and shopped a little before getting ice cream at a famous Austin ice cream shop, Amy's. There was a sign outside that said if you can guess what movie this quote:
is from, you received a free crush in for your ice cream. I told Larry, "I feel like it's The Breakfast Club or one of those 80s movies." He said he would tell the guy when it was our turn but I said NO! I don't have any basis for thinking that. He didn't listen, and when it was our turn he asked the guy if it was the Breakfast Club and was right! (It was the Gorbachev trivia incident all over again :) So we got some delicious strawberry ice cream and a passion fruit milkshake and went on our way.
Since Larry ran out of clean shirts, next we went to the Austin mall to buy him some shirts for the next few days. It was a really nice mall but we didn't have much time to spend there. As if we should be eating anything else, our next stop was The Salt Lick, another highly rated barbecue restaurant. It was about 45 minutes outside of Austin but we decided it was worth the extra drive to the original restaurant.
We pulled up to an unpainted wooden house and we immediately knew we were at the right place. There were big signs that said BYOB, so we did. As soon as we opened the car doors we could smell the firepit. We walked in and saw huge picnic tables in an indoor porch surrounded by trees. We chose a table so that we could still see the firepit from our seats. The firepit was huge and full of all types of meat, all slowly being cooked. We ordered a sample plate so we could try all of their barbecue: turkey, sausage, brisket and ribs. We were surprised how fast the food came out, but then realized it was either ready or it wasn't going to be ready. We loved everything we tried, especially the ribs. They also have their own barbecue sauce which we liked and bought one to take home. When we were done eating, we went over to admire the firepit. I took a picture of it and before I knew it the guy behind the firepit was inviting us behind the counter to see it up close. He was so nice, he even asked Larry to pose for a picture!
It was when we were leaving the Salt Lick parking lot that we started to realize our trip was almost over. We drove to Dallas that night for, I'm embarrassed to say, another food stop. We stopped in probably the quirkiest place we've been to yet, Twisted Root Burger.
We got their blue cheese jalapeno burger and fried pickles and loved it! They also have this amazing homemade ketchup that we had to bring home with us too!
