Austin turns chilly

I didn't expect this development. 

When I left on this long trip, the weather forecast showed Austin's high temperatures as being in the low eighties the whole time I was to be here.  That's about right for this time of year, so I packed only light, short-sleeve shirts.

That worked out fine yesterday, but today, as we were sitting in a patio at a business lunch, a front blew in, the temperatures fell, and it's stayed cool since then.  As I write this, it's 57 degrees out, and the high tomorrow is due to be 50. 

Fortunately (in this case), I don't get to walk much on these trips, and it's not cold enough to bother me, but still, I would have preferred it warmer.

Dinner tonight took us to Cooper's BBQ downtown, where we shared a lovely selection of barbecued meats and some spicy, bacon-and-jalapeno mac-and-cheese. 

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It was all delicious.

Dessert was my traditional downtown fare:  some tasty ice cream at a nearby Amy's. 

Now, the hour is late and work still beckons, so back to it I go!

A fine Friday night in Austin

After a frenzied round of email work, I headed to downtown Austin for a show from one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Stephen Kellogg.  He's on what he calls the Postcard Tour 2017, during which he's playing songs new and old with two supporting musicians, a guitarist and a drummer.

The show was fantastic, one of the best of his I've ever seen, maybe even the best.  The venue, the beautiful Stateside Theatre, had lovely acoustics and reserved seating.  I was in the second row, almost dead center, maybe 12 feet from Kellogg for most of the show, closer when he came to the edge of the stage.  He played most of my favorite songs, a few new ones, and even a couple of covers.  The audience didn't come close to filling the theatre, but it was loud and enthusiastic and clearly into Kellogg and his music.

As I was standing in line for the restroom after the show, a guy said, "Put him in Memorial Stadium with a hundred thousand people, and he'd get them all on their feet."  I agree.  I'm saddened by how small Kellogg's fan base is, but it seems to be big enough to support him, and I'm happy to be part of it.

Dinner had to be on the late side, because I'd needed to work until the last possible minute, so I headed to Holy Roller, a restaurant/bar with a solid late-night menu.  I split a huge salad and had a sandwich called "The Local," a strange concoction that included a biscuit, some fine Stiles Switch brisket, an egg, and other stuff.  It was huge but tasty.  This meal was my first at Holy Roller, but I would definitely go back and recommend it if you're in the mood for hearty fare.

As luck would have it, the nearby Amy's was open, so dessert was a small cup of their delicious ice cream.

Though I had to pay for it by working until the wee hours, it was a fine Friday night in Austin indeed.

My favorite airport for lunch: Austin

Why?  Because it offers a Salt Lick BBQ food stall right next to an Amy's Ice Creams stall.  I like to pass through security, pick up a Coke Zero at the Book People shop, head to Salt Lick, order the two-meat combo (brisket and sausage), and settle in for a delicious lunch.  I never eat the sides, so I always have room for a small cup of Amy's.

That's exactly what I did today as I was making my way home from Austin.  The brisket and sausage were as tasty as usual, and for the ice cream I chose butter pecan (my mom's favorite) and pistachio.

Now, I'm happy to report that I'm home!  I fly out again a week from Friday, so I'm going to focus on getting the most out of this time at home.

Brain food making me crazy smart

Eating Cooper's BBQ

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(no, I didn't eat it all; I was sharing) and finishing the evening with a small cup of Amy's ice cream (in this case, half rhubarb and half mango-strawberry)

is a sure way to boost your brain power--or at least to convince you for a short time that you're smarter.

Oh, yeah, I am a lucky man.

Am I in Austin now?

Heck, yeah, I am, as this amazing feast from Cooper's BBQ clearly shows.

Yes, there was a little Amy's ice cream afterward.  Just a little.

No, I did not eat all of that; this was an order for two.

Yes, it was every bit as delicious as it looks.

If it's Monday, it must be Austin

And, indeed, it is.  I flew out of Kansas City in the late morning, enjoyed some quality time in DFW, and hit Austin in the very late afternoon, just in time for rush hour.

Most of today went to work, as tends to happen on Mondays, even Mondays that are part of my three-city, two-week road trip.

Dinner was delicious barbecue at Cooper's and ice cream at Amy's, my new Monday in Austin tradition.  Neither ever lets you down.

Tomorrow, meetings!

Veracruz All Natural

started as a food truck but has grown to a few trucks and a physical location.  Veracruz has earned a reputation for delicious tacos and tortas, which they make with fresh ingredients.  When I realized they had a storefront just down the street from my hotel, I had to try them.

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The setting is simple, the dining room warm and small.  I ordered one each of all three tacos, because the folks making them assured me that was a reasonable order (it was).

The marinated chicken was moist and flavorful, the steak perfectly grilled, and my favorite, the el pastor, rich with flavor.  I recommend all of them.

Dessert took me a short drive away to my traditional Amy's location at the Arboretum.

Tacos for dinner and ice cream for dessert:  however long a day might be, it's hard to complain about it ending that way.

Down Austin way

I headed to Austin this morning, so wake-up came entirely too early after entirely too little sleep.

No upgrades for me today.  Instead, I enjoyed the usual over-sold planes.  I can't complain, though, because I had exit-row, aisle seats on both legs.

In the Austin airport, the two of us on this trip spotted a new (to us) flavor at the AUS Amy's:  honey graham.  Purely for the good of others, we split an Amy's "tiny" cup of this flavor.  It was amazing.  Amy's does honey in ice cream superbly.

In an unexpected and pleasant turn, the hotel at which I stay on almost all of these trips, the Marriott Round Rock, broke a long string of failures at getting me extra pillows with a bit of flourish:

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Yes, not only did they give me two extra pillows, they also left a small welcome basket.  For the first time in ages, I'll be able to complete a post-stay survey in complimentary fashion.

Dinner took us to the Cooper's BBQ here in Austin.  It continues to deliver the second-best brisket (after Franklin's) that I've ever tasted.  We reduced our order from our last visit, but it still proved to be too much.

Dessert was, as per my tradition, at a nearby Amy's.

Tomorrow morning, the meetings begin!

Upping my first-night barbecue game

It's my first night in Austin, so as usual I went out for barbecue, a food sure to raise the IQ and gladden the heart.  This time, though, I decided to up my game by moving from The County Line By the Lake to (the relatively new) Cooper's in downtown Austin.

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The reason is simple:  as much as I love the County Line for historical reasons, every single dish at Cooper's tastes better than its counterpart there.

As always, I went for the brisket, sausage, and beef rib, this time with a side of mac 'n cheese.

(The food above, by the way, is for two people, and we ended unable to finish it.)

The sausage at the two places is close, but the brisket and beef rib at Cooper's are among the very best I've ever tasted.  The worst bite of brisket I've relished at Cooper's is better than the best bite of brisket the County Line has ever served.  The beef rib is succulent and rich and flavorful and perfectly spiced, easily the best beef rib I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

After barbecue on a Monday night in Austin, you have only one choice:  drive to a nearby Amy's for a small cup of ice cream.  I made that same choice, and the result was a delicious pairing of blueberry and strawberry mango ice creams.

Ah, Austin, I am ready for you now.

Two reasons why the Austin airport is great

My lunch today, which consisted of the meat from this Salt Lick BBQ two-meat combo

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and this small cup of ice cream from the Amy's there at the airport.

I've yet to taste a bite of brisket in North Carolina that was as good as mediocre Austin brisket, and the Salt Lick's brisket is at least average for Austin.

In case you're wondering, the two flavors in the Amy's cup are oreo and butter pecan.

A pork chop too far

I've been hearing for years about how great the barbecue is at Cooper's in Llano, Texas, but I've never been able to make the trip there.  I was thus quite pleased to learn that Cooper's had opened a place in Austin.  Now, friends have cautioned me that the Austin Cooper's wasn't quite up to the original, but it was still supposed to be excellent.

Tonight, two of us headed downtown to find out for ourselves.

The name of the game at any good Texas barbecue joint is, of course, the meat.  We knew we had to try the brisket and the sausage, the king duo of Texas 'que.  When I saw beef ribs on the menu, though, I immediately decided a pair of them had to join our order.  At that point, we remembered our colleague and pal, Bruce, saying the pork chop was excellent, so we caved and ordered one of those.

Little did we know at that moment just how big that chop would be.

We quickly found ourselves with all of this meat.

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What you can't tell from this photo is that chopzilla in the upper left was going on two inches thick.

Needless to say, we could not finish all of the food.  It truly was a pork chop too far.  We ended up leaving a third of the sausage, a fifth of the brisket, and all but a quarter of the chop.

That waste was the bad news.

The good news was that the brisket was the second-best brisket I've ever tasted, better by far than any other brisket I've enjoyed save for the all-time champ, the brisket at Franklin Barbecue.  Franklin's brisket is still the best, but Cooper's is mighty damn fine--and I could walk in on a Thursday night and order it after only a five-minute wait.

I will definitely return to Cooper's.

I was already downtown, so of course I had to head to the nearby Amy's for an ice cream dessert.

Tomorrow, I work in the morning and then journey home.

A treat of an Austin evening

The temperature outside tonight stayed unseasonably cold, but it was still so warm compared to home that it felt like early spring, and I was happy to venture out.  I was doubly happy because even though it would cost me sleep, I treated myself tonight to a delightful Austin evening.

For dinner I went to one of the Kerbey Lane Cafe locations right near the University of Texas campus.  The food was as good as I'd remembered, simple, down-home fare that is just right on a cold night.  I opted for breakfast for dinner and had a Kerbey Lane classic, Eggs Francisco.

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What you're seeing is an English muffin covered with scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato, avocado, and queso, to which I added extra bacon.  Oh, yeah, it was as good as it sounds.

From there I headed to the Cactus Cafe in the student union building on campus to catch a concert by a performer whose work I love, Stephen Kellogg.  The small venue provided seating for almost everyone and was jam-packed with about 150 folks.

I'd not previously heard the opener, Anthony D'Amato, but I enjoyed his performance enough that I'm going to pick up some of his music.

Kellogg and his band played for about 90 minutes on the tiny stage.

Sorry for the blurry photo.  That's SK in the front, and the drummer is hidden behind him.

I loved the show.  Perhaps one night when it's not so late and I don't have early morning meetings, I'll write about where this show took me, but it was a wonderful experience.  The second song in the set was one of my all-time SK favorites, "Fourth of July."  He and his band also turned in a very powerful and very moving version of his "Thanksgiving."

If Kellogg comes anywhere near you on this tour, do not miss him.

After the show, I clearly had to grab some Amy's ice cream, so I did.  It was as delicious as always.

Had I been able to go back to my hotel and crawl into bed, my head filled with the songs, it would have been a perfect night.  Instead, I worked for several hours, but even so, it was still a great night and a true treat.

Fun facts from a day of travel to Austin

Driving safely on ice-covered roads on an early morning trip to the airport is not the challenge.  The challenge is avoiding all the other insane drivers on those roads, such as the guy in the jeep who blew by me and the rest of the 20 mph traffic doing 45, or the woman in the SUV talking on the phone while trying to pass me and cut me off from merging onto the freeway.

Getting an upgrade on a Monday morning flight is about as likely as Donald Trump saying something sane.

The first exit row in many former US Airways planes has absolutely no extra room.  On every other carrier I've flown, exit row = more room.  This fact did not make me happy.

The weather here was beautiful--and now is proceeding to turn unseasonably cold, as if lower temperatures accompanied me from North Carolina.

Asking for minimal sides and less than the normal amount of meat on a three-meat platter from the County Line by the Lake--a dish I order just to get to taste the beef rib, sausage, and brisket--yields this plate.

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Which is to say, the request does absolutely nothing.  You get what you get.

Amy's at the Arboretum is pretty at night,

but the ice cream inside is tastier than the outside is pretty.

That's a wrap for Monday.

On the road again: Austin, day 1

If you're a nervous flier, you would not have enjoyed today's flight from DFW to AUS.  Normally a trip with about 25 minutes of flying time, today this leg of my journey required nearly an hour in the air, as the pilot and air traffic control kept trying to find us a path that avoided the bumpy air.  They failed.  With about half an hour to go, the pilot said over the intercom words no one enjoys hearing:

"There's no way to avoid the rough air, so we're asking the flight attendants to buckle in."

Oh, yeah.

As it turns out, I didn't find the remainder of the flight to be particularly bad, though I am decidedly not a nervous flier.  Many people on the plane, though, clearly disagreed with my assessment.

Once we landed in Austin, everything went well, including my traditional dinner trip to The County Line On the Lake.  As usual, I ordered the three-meat combo with beef rib, and as usual, I ate only half of the meat and none of the sides--but a delicious half of the meat it was.

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Afterward, we headed, again as usual, to the Amy's at the Arboretum for a small cup of frozen deliciousness.

The weather here is cool and windy, perfectly fall.  It's lovely.

Tomorrow, the work meetings begin!

On the road again: Austin, day 2

The vast majority of today went to work, so I can't say much about that.

Gina worked her magic with the airline and was able to get back my book cover, book, and glasses.  I am very happy about that!  Clearly, I need better rituals for exiting planes.

Dinner tonight was a working meal at chef Tim Love's new Lonesome Dove in Austin.  We shared multiple dishes, and every one was very tasty.  I particularly liked the elk and foie gras slider.  I would definitely return there.

Dessert was a small ice cream at a nearby Amy's.  It was as delicious as always.

The high temperature today was somewhere around 104, so the heat was a tangible presence each time I had to brave the outdoors.  I very much prefer Austin in cooler seasons--though I have to confess that it's plenty warm back home.

Tomorrow morning early, work resumes!

On the road again: Austin, day 1

Well.  That was a day.

Thanks to the kind of intestinal distress that demands a lot of sitting time, I never slept a full hour during the six hours I was theoretically to be in bed.  Not the way one wants to begin a trip.

I ran a bit late but got to the plane in plenty of time, and I even received an upgrade.

The lunch choice was chili or a "chicken salad."  Given the condition of my gut, I went with the salad.  The salad itself was bland and wilted but tolerable enough, but the meat was in a separate little container on the plate, and it was The Chicken of Sadness.

Thin, drier than it looked (which is saying a lot, and, yes, I ate one tiny nibble), this creepy burnt bit of ex animal flesh radiated melancholy for three rows in all directions.

I was involved in a work discussion during the flight, so I managed to leave on the plane both a pair of glasses and my treasured black leather book cover.  The book inside that cover is replaceable, but no one makes this sort of cover any longer, and in a zipper pocket of it were notes my kids had written when they were very young.  Gina is trying to retrieve my lost possessions from the airline's lost-and-found department, but the odds are never good in such a battle.

I did not discover any of this until I was in my hotel room, at which point I also found to my dismay that the lock on my suitcase was jammed shut, with the zippers inside their places, so I could not open my suitcase.

Half an hour or so later, I was back at the airport, where a TSA woman was kind enough to open the bag for me--after I reassured her that my business cards were inside and that I could name every item in the suitcase, claims she did test.

The later part of the evening went better than the rest of the day, with my usual barbecue dinner (well, my usual order; I ate less than normal) at the County Line by the Lake and dessert at the Amy's Ice Creams at the Arboretum.  Gut issues or not, one must observe the traditions.

My stomach hasn't yet decided how the night will go, so I can but hope for the best.

On the road again: Austin, day 4

Though I'm very happy for Austin that this week supplied it with a great deal of much-needed rain, I can't say I enjoyed driving in that rain.  Today's trip from the hotel to the airport proved to be particularly harrowing, because no one seemed inclined to slow in the slightest.  Giant trucks going 90 miles an hour in an 80-mile-per-hour speed zone are scary enough normally, but when you're in a POS Nissan Versa that could hit 80 only when going downhill, those trucks are terrifying.

Still, I made the trip safely, got soaked again walking into the terminal, and found no joy at check-in:  no chance of upgrades today.

I did, though, enjoy a delicious lunch of brisket and sausage.  I love the Austin airport.

My first flight ran about 40 minutes late, so our plane didn't even touch down in DFW until after my flight to Raleigh was due to start boarding.  I can't complain too much, though, because I boarded the RDU-bound plane three minutes before they closed the door.

My row mate was a complete jerk who elbowed me in the side, looked at me, and said, "You'll have to lean into the aisle, because I have to type, and I need my arms wide to type."

An unpleasant discussion ensued.  I, also, needed to work.

We compromised a bit, but I spent the entire flight with his right elbow in my left side.

As my notebook was booting, the guy in front of me completely reclined his seat.  I then had to recline mine to have enough space to open my notebook.  Even with my seat reclined, my space was so limited that I spent the entire flight propping open my notebook on its spine and typing down into it.  The bruise on my forearm is still fading.

Because I reclined, the woman in the seat behind me hit my seat repeatedly.  I apologized to her but explained that I really did have to work.  She didn't care, and so for the rest of the flight she smacked the back of my seat every few minutes.

I am very happy to be home.

On the road again: Austin, day 2

This time of year, Austin is usually already baking hot.  Instead, I'm enjoying the very cool weather--but feeling far less appreciative of the almost constant rain.  That said, Austin has been in a drought for so long that I have to be grateful that it's now getting so much rain.

Today was a very long day that went entirely to work.  Both my meals were with clients who are also friends.

Dinner was a very tasty treat from a relatively new French place, laV.  A side dish, the leek spaetzle mac and cheese, was a particularly tasty concoction. 

Yes, I know you can't tell how delicious it was from its appearance, so you'll have to trust me.

For dessert, we adjourned to an Amy's down the road.  When in Austin, eat Amy's.

Tomorrow, more work!

On the road again: Austin, day 1

Some people who've read about my many odd travel companions have declared me cursed, but I hold with a different opinion:  if you travel as much as I do, weird shit is bound to happen to you.

As it did today.

The first leg of the trip passed splendidly.  I received an upgrade to first class.  My row mate was a pleasant professional gentleman who kept almost entirely to himself and who was interesting when he chose to make conversation.  The pasta on the lunch tray resembled guts spilling from a zombie on The Walking Dead, but the salad was fresh and tasty, so I ate it and left the pasta to find its own fate. 

The second flight began reasonably well, because I had an exit-row seat--a window one on the two-seat side of the plane, but in the exit row.

Then my row mate sat down. 

Every bit of six-four and at least three hundred pounds, wearing pink shorts and a blue-striped polo shirt, with a huge reddish mountain-man beard, he was something to behold.  His head never stopped bopping to the music from his ear buds.  As soon as he had buckled his seat belt, in the process forcing me to lean halfway against the wall of the plane, he pulled out a tin of chewing tobacco and put a huge chaw in his left cheek--the cheek nearer to me.  He then pulled a half empty Diet Coke bottle out of his pack, unscrewed its top, and held it in his left hand--the hand nearer to me.  I then learned, from sight and smell, that the bottle contained no Diet Coke; it was half full of his spit.  For the rest of the flight, he chewed and spit, never closing the bottle, never stopping bopping.  He did pause when the flight attendants offered drinks, but only so that he could order three bottles of Jim Beam whiskey, all of which he consumed in under a minute.  He never took out his chaw.

You won't be surprised to read that I was very, very happy to get off that plane.

A heavy rain soaked me on the short walk to my rental car, so I spent the next hour driving and checking in while slowly drying from my own body heat. 

Dinner followed my first night in Austin tradition:  a meal with a friend and colleague at the County Line On the Lake, followed by desert at the Arboretum Amy's. 

I devoted the rest of my waking hours to work.

Quite a day.

On the road again: Austin, day 3

Another day with perfect weather; I could not ask for a better time to be in Austin.

If only I weren't working over 16 hours a day. 

But I am, so I have little to report in a day full of meetings and other work. 

Fun tidbits:  We stopped after some meetings for a small ice cream snack at Amy's.  That's always a treat.  Dinner was a quite good meal at Swift's Attic.  All the dishes I tasted were at least good, and a couple were excellent.  The menu was creative and interesting.  Though the kitchen doesn't seem able to quite yet live up to the inventiveness of the menu, I'll still go back. 

For bonus points, the restaurant had an extremely cool light fixture.

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For no particular reason, the bird cage around the chandelier really worked for me.

It's nearly four in the morning, so it's past time for a little rest. 

More work tomorrow!