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Tasty food and live music in Austin, Texas
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Austin just might be the heart -- and stomach -- of Texas. Explore six local restaurants where you can eat great food and listen to terrific live music.
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By Kevin Revolinski
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Deep in the heart of Texas lies the Live Music Capital of the World. Austin is the Lone Star State's vibrant capital, set on four artificial lakes along the Colorado River. Known for the award-winning live-music television program Austin City Limits and credited with launching the career of blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, this town knows how to carry a tune, with more than 700 venues that offer live music.
But no less varied and abundant in Austin is tasty food in great restaurants. What follows is some of the best places to catch a live show and have a terrific meal during your trip to Austin, Texas.
1. Guero's Taco Bar
www.guerostacobar.com
Once a feed and seed store, the building still shows its old rough wood floors and corrugated rooftop. But now it's a Mexican food haven with a self-serve salsa bar.
You'll find fresh tortillas, hand-shaken margaritas, and a full range of tacos and enchiladas, but there's also vegetarian options, breakfasts, and some house specialties. Consider the Huachinango, broiled red snapper with butter and fresh garlic. Bill Clinton once visited and his order became El Presidente: a chicken breast taco, a beef taco, a tamale and guacamole. As the menu points out, "He ate all of his." You can eat outside in the jardín as well and catch evening shows under the reaching branches of an oak tree.
2. Hill's Café
www.hillscafe.com
Charlie Goodnight invented the chuck wagon, the first mobile "restaurant" for cowboys on cattle drives back in the 19th century. The tradition of great steaks lives on here at Hill's. The Goodnight family built the original structure in 1941 and it was a coffee shop, but a fire and a flood later, you now have the present-day rustic restaurant and an Austin classic.
Chicken-fried steak is hand-grilled, not deep-fried (though you can request it that way) and the hamburger was rated best in Austin in 2005. All meat is fresh, never frozen, and for a taste of proper smoky flavour, there's a BBQ pit outside. After your meal, gather in the courtyard for a live band, kick up some dust on the dance floor or watch from the tree house right above it. Music is free, children are welcome, and the food is, of course, delicious.
3. Stubb's
www.stubbsaustin.com
When Clyde Stubbs first brought his barbecue to Austin, he was selling it out of a motel room. It was an immediate hit (though not entirely legal) and now the restaurant smokes brisket overnight in a smoker that holds just under 1,000 pounds of meat.
Stubb's has its own special sauce, available to take home, and its professional music venue is unmatched in the city. Imagine a concert shell in your neighbour's backyard, complete with a light show. The Pit, as it is called, is a grassy slope holding up to 2,300 people and boasting acts as big as Willie Nelson and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. Celebrities Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle have been known to stop in for a meal. If you don't want to stay out late, come on Sunday for one of two seatings for a gospel brunch.
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