A fun 48 hours in Austin
Food, flair, art, and music define this Texas city
The motto “Keep Austin Weird” was coined nearly 25 years ago, a reflected desire about a liberal city in the heart of a red state. Today, with the constantly evolving skyline and the continued in-flow of tech bros, that sentiment feels more quaint than apt—harkening back to when SXSW was a music festival instead of a major national brand juggernaut, and the city was full of little one-story honky-tonks in many neighborhoods.
We were in Austin this past weekend to visit our nephew and his wife, and to see the new cocktail lounge/gallery called papercut that they’re opening. While papercut isn’t quite yet open to the public, it’s bound to be a big success, since some of the very best mixologists in Austin are on staff. Located on the near east side, artists and cocktail menus will rotate quarterly. To give you a sense of the high bar on cocktails, the mixologists were working with ingredients like toasted fig leaves and house lactic-fermented cranberries when we stopped in to scope out the space.
Beyond our primary reason for the visit, while in Austin, we did what we usually do when visiting another city: explore locally-owned coffee shops, great restaurants, music, and of course, seek out Arte Agora.
We stayed at the Kelly Wearstler-designed Proper Hotel. It’s a beautiful property, and true to Wearstler form, she effectively used the local Western vernacular, filtered through her distinct eye, to create really beautiful spaces. There’s a reason she’s an A-list designer with 2.2 million Instagram followers. However, the rooms themselves lacked any shelves or drawer space, plus no make-up mirrors or really any spot with good lighting to put on make-up. That wasn’t the biggest issue for a weekend stay, but for a longer stay, it would be a serious bummer to be forced to live out of your suitcase at a high-end hotel. At nighttime, the lobby was super scene-y, with aforementioned tech bros and their dates, Swifties, and people dressed up for holiday parties.
Around the corner from the Proper, we ate at the Michelin-starred Hestia. The food from their wood grill was delicious and the service was attentive and top-notch. Dan was delighted with his tomato jam and sourdough ice cream dessert, and the Quintarelli red blend available via their Coravin program, equally delighted me.
Whenever we’re in town, we always head to the supreme sushi spot Uchi. Last time we were there, Connie Britton was too—a big deal for our family, as her appeal crosses the generations of O’Neil men.
Since it was Christmastime, we checked out the holiday show at Parker Jazz Club. The owners and their band performed jazzy renditions of holiday standards and also taught us that “Jingle Bells” and its author have a questionable past.
Finally, no trip of ours would be complete without a search for Arte Agora, and Austin never disappoints in that pursuit. While we saw some stickers and wheat paste work near our hotel in the residential development on-site and near the former Seaholm Power Plant, most of what we saw was on the East Side.
Not so sure how weird Austin is these days, but it is pretty wonderful.