Austin: The Liberal Oasis of Texas
Cinema, music and interactivity are the three themes of the megafestival that fills Austin every year. And it fills it, literally. These days, on the streets you only see people with their accreditation hanging around their necks and only by their accessories will you know what section they are dedicated to: if they wear Google glasses, if they have a long beard and skinny pants, if they wear the La matanza t-shirt from Texas or Los chronocrímenes… The city that alone exudes music, cinema, life, during these nine days, usually in March, becomes a place to go at least once in your life. and here goes a list of places around the festival, but that you can also enjoy at any other time.
**LONG LIVE TEXICO (AND TEXICAN FOOD)**
This is how they call their Texan and Mexican cuisine, tex-mex, for which the city is known and which has two fundamental legs: or tacos or barbecue . You find them in restaurants or in another of the classic figures of Austin gastronomy: trailers or truck foods, parked on the street or gathered in large esplanades.
His thing is to start with a breakfast taco (breakfast taco), "the most important taco of the day", and if you want something even more forceful: ranchero eggs, gringo eggs, eggs with chorizo … Tamale House or El Primo are some of the best known. But here is a recommendation from a Texan, born and lived in Austin, who with his hat and boots, salivated just thinking about the breakfasts he eats every weekend with his wife in Habanero.
The Texas Capitol
The same Texan said: “The best barbecue in town: Franklin Barbecue. Despite its short life (two years as a food truck, less than four as a restaurant) is an Austin institution , and specifically East Austin, “the new Williamsburg”, as my Texan friend says. The one you have to go to very early in the morning if you get a rack of ribs at that time, because as soon as the food runs out, it closes. And you can imagine the queue that forms. La Barbecue and Smitty's Market are other must-sees.
Best BBQ in Town: Franklin Barbecue
BARS AND MUSIC, TWO IN ONE
Here, the best thing is to go by zones:
Historic 6th Street between Congress and Highway 35 is bar after bar on both sidewalks. Most are large, very American venues, occupying old buildings, with a great selection of beers from the area and from abroad and almost always, and especially during SXSW, with live music. The Jackalope, Buffalo Billiards (the hotdogs in the little stall out front are awesome, by the way), the trendy Easy Tiger brewery/bakery patio, Iron Cactus tequilas… and the Midnight Cowboy, a speakeasy, former brothel experts say in town like Nacho Vigalondo serving the best cocktails in Austin. Of course, you need a reservation or invitation.
Drinks at the Midnight Cowboy
East Austin is the last it neighborhood in the city . Where the hipster hipsters of Austin are moving to. It would be the continuation of 6th Street on the other side of the freeway and up to 12th Street to the north. Bars with acts such as the Violet Crown Social Club, The White Horse; the Rio Rita (coffee during the day, bareto at night); La Perla, the courtyard of The Liberty…
The terrace of La Perla restaurant
South Congress or in its acronym SoCo , was the hippest neighborhood before the hippest was East Austin, with bars like the Crow Bar or the Continental. And good food truck parking lots, by the way.
Downtown, Warehouse District… and surroundings of the Austin Convention Center, nerve center of the SXSW festival. There are classics like The Ginger Man or Elephant Room. And brand new ones like the Container Bar , made from shipping containers, which opened just in time for this year's SXSW, on Rainey Street, a street of old single-family houses converted today into gambling dens with patios.
Nightlife at The White Horse
AND YOU SHOULD NOT LEAVE WITHOUT...
Catch a movie and have dinner or a local beer at one of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters. If you go during the Fantastic Fest, all the better.
Visit the Mondo Gallery : t-shirts and posters with the alternative designs of the Alamo, rare vinyl or VHS editions… a freak and cinephile paradise.
Alternative cinema in the most alternative city in Texas