Austin

Aladain, 1997 was when I moved to austin. i guess I was part of the problem. /sadpanda

Are the bats still running? I always thought they were dumb but people liked to go see them.

Did leslie ever show back up? That's one aggressive bum who is worth going to 6th street to see.

Bats are still here. But Bats are also on basically every overpass now... or rather a TON of them.

Leslie died.

What made Austin 100x more awesome in the 90s?

Who made that claim? The only thing I ever heard was that it was weird. Those bums on the street corners might have PHDs and just decided they wanted out of the rat race. The people moving in from silicon valley fucked it up because they brought more traffic, more people with sticks up their asses, and higher housing costs. Beyond that though, I cannot answer.

Hoss_sl said:

Who made that claim? The only thing I ever heard was that it was weird. Those bums on the street corners might have PHDs and just decided they wanted out of the rat race. The people moving in from silicon valley fucked it up because they brought more traffic, more people with sticks up their asses, and higher housing costs. Beyond that though, I cannot answer.

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I did. Austin was just.. very unique in the 90s. Keep in mind I lived in the thick of it at the time: Barton Springs and South Lamar, 78704, liberal hippie heaven. But there were no hipsters, though everyone was very environmentally conscious so everyone kept everything clean and fought hard for it - eg: Barton Springs itself. It's hard to put into words, maybe it was just growing up there.. but you could walk south lamar from barton springs all the way to ben white (when ben white was just a 2 lane road with lights) and just enjoy all the unusual, unique things that didn't exist anywhere else at the time.. the Saxon pub suit of armor, the medieval inn bar (now closed), thundercloud subs was THE hangout for all of us in high school to just bum around except when we wanted a phily cheesesteak and then we'd hang at delaware subs (both locations now gone, bulldozed, and replaced with condos). Planet K, one of the first locations, was there on South Lamar.

Alamo Drafthouse started in 1997, here in Austin. That shit was fun to go to when it was new, as the concept of food and beer in a theater was a whole new deal. Whole Foods Market, while started in the 80s, started to actually go outside of Austin in the 1990s. Austin had one of the very first "whole food" healthy type markets in the nation. The live music scene blew up in the 90s in Austin and there were some INCREDIBLE live music clubs that would blow your mind. La Zona Rosa was awesome but went to shit after 2000 and is closed now. The continental club! Grey Ghost and other amazing blues artists performed live there. It's lost a lot of it's flair since the 90s but it's still pretty good and haslive music shows every single day. Liberty Lunch, Antone's, and other AMAZING live music venues, since bulldozed for condos for California hipsters. Many memories ofLiberty Lunch.

You had some fun shit like Aquafest, which was actually fun. Red Bull gets credit for Red Bull Flugtag, but honestly Aquafest was doing shit like that since the 1970s. Today you have SXSW which I guess is fine,if you dont mind paying over $1,000 for a ticket. Austin was always a high-tech mecca, mainly thanks to Dell, but even without it was a very busy place for technology. Used to be "Second Saturday" downtown Austin where there was a massive flea market for used computer parts. Good times. Showplace lanes, right there on 35, awesome bowling place. Treaty Oak was a news story.

I dunno, I just can't stand it today. Its so much traffic. So many condos. So crowded, and so many hipsters. The price of living in Austin is thru the roof. It's just a typical urban sprawled mess now.

Hoss_sl said:

Missed this thread. I know I'm a little late for the OP, but since it's still active I'll weigh in. Been a while since I lived there so I can't swear these places are still going. Some of you current denizens let me know how these places are doing.

BBQ: County line on the Hill. it's the second best BBQ place I've ever been to, and the #1 spot is closed down (it was called Dusty's and was in manor). Get a loaf of bread and the honey butter as an appetizer. Don't accidentally go to county line on the lake. It seems to be more hip, but the food aint as good.
Home Cooking : Hoovers, it was on a road called manor. I forget the cook's name but he made everything from scratch. The Chicken Fried Steak is worth killing for.
Hamburgers: Frans or Dans. There's lots of them around and they are pretty much identical. I've never had a better greasey hamburger anywhere in all of my travels.
Mexican: Anywhere really. If it looks like a run down house, it's probably great food. I used to like Darios, Austexmex, and Enchiladas Y Mas. Austex and EYM were run by brothers.
Breakfast tacos: Good ones all over, but I liked the tacos from dans and kens best. Kens is also a HB joint, but I never went there for lunch.

For entertainment I can't help much. Strip clubs are pretty much the only thing I ever did, and those always go on good runs and bad runs. A spot would be awesome and have all the hot chicks for a few months, and then they'd leave and go somewhere else. There's a couple of lakes close by, a place called Hippy Hollow (on one of those lakes) and a swimmng hole called barton springs (unless the endangered salamanders finally shut them down). There's also the Hill's cafe on south congress. The food is decent, not great, but they have live bands. Other than 6th street, that's the only place I ever went in austin to listen to live music.

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Didn't see this but..

County Line on the Hill is still there. Hoovers is also still here, although it was never as good as Dots, but sadly Dots burned down and just never recovered and she ended up retiring. But jesus, Dots.. that place would be the best place to get a 10,000 calorie lunch no bullshit. Frans and Dans are awesome, but Frans is closed.Dans renovated nowit looks much nicer and has a drive-thru. However, I think it's lost its flair with that re-make, BUT... the hamburgers are still the fucking best in Austin. Anyone that says P Terrys or Mighty Fine is the best is a certified hipster. The only valid answers to "best hamburger in Austin?" is either Dans,Top Notch, orHuts. Kens tacos hands down best breakfast tacos in Austin. When I worked at Dell we used to get those beasts every day, no wonder we got fat back then. They are still just as good today as they were years ago, and just as massive.

Haha!

Sounds like Portland before its sprawl. I understand how much more enjoyable it would be to be less crowded. I too hate fucking crowds. I spend 99% of my time biking around North Austin/Pflugerville (Howard Lane) working and whatever.

Weekend time is out in BFE by Luling for my weekend fun job. I may go into the city proper a few times a month. Mostly for food trucks and shit though. Also for races, but most of the best bike races are way outside the city. Real Ale Ride is a ton of fun every year. Lyndon B. Johnson Ride. I love all of it. Hill Country is still very good for biking. SXSW and City Limits mean jack and shit to me. I despise festivals.


Thanks for some of the tips Aladain! I didn't know about some of those places so will check them out.

Do they still do eeyores birthday and the pun-off? Those were a couple of events I always intended to hit but never did.

Hoss_sl said:

Do they still do eeyores birthday and the pun-off? Those were a couple of events I always intended to hit but never did.

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Yep, last saturday in april for eeyores birthday. Very fun, I did it once, lots of neat costumes and fun times. They still do the punoff but I've never been to it either.

I went to Eeyore's the past two years. Punoff didn't interest me. Eeyore's is fun though. But you can see Eeyore's microcosm near Barton Springs Pool everyday its warm.

Hippies and their drum circles.

Since we have so many long time austinites here, can someone tell me what happened to the Sam & Bob morning show? They ruled the radio when I was living there. I went back a few years later looking for them in the morning and they were gone. The only mention I could find online was some article gloating about how nasty and mean sammy was and it was good he got his come-uppance. I couldn't tell if the article was meant to be informative or just hateful towards sammy.

Last time I went looking, the only story I saw was that he hoped a caller got prostate cancer or something. Obviously different versions running around. But the one thing common to both stories is that management was looking for a reason to get rid of him.

Austin is a nice place to live. Work is plentiful (especially in tech) and the metro area is affordable. But if you come for quirky, keep Austin weird idiocy then prepare to be disappointed. The majority of the whiny hipsters currently in Austin who hate what the place has become are exactly the same kind of people who have been doing the same thing in Portland, Oregon. Complaining they can no longer live downtown 7 to a house for $1000 a month between them as those same houses now cost 10x what they did before.

The Hill Country itself is probably the best part of TX in terms of outdoors too. Cycling here is amazing. If you're the type that loves going to shows all the time and festivals and all that crap. You'll have a ball.

Went to Ken's Tacos on Aladain's mention of it. Not bad man. Not sure if I prefer burrito sized breakfast tacos as I like to have 2 or 3 regular sized ones with different stuff in them.

No more crazy than usual if you intend to go to 6th Street or something. I don't go to strip clubs so I can't help you there.

EDIT: There's a train that runs North South that you can use to get downtown cheaply from wherever you're staying. Uber is gone in Austin, but it still works in the metro area. So, you have Uber in Pflugerville, Kyle, Cedar Park, etc. Just take one up there and you can usually get the driver's number to come and retrieve you later for cash. There's a few other apps floating around but I do not know much about them.

I don't recommend using a rental car because of the parking/traffic AIDS. What is the age range of your group? Tailgating then going to 6th could be pretty fun.