This past weekend, the stars aligned so that the BF and I could enjoy a very rare weekend getaway. It was sorely needed, as it has already been a rough semester and I needed a break before grading my first set of exams. Thanks to a refund check from Uncle Sam, we could afford a nice hotel room and a couple of days “on the town” in Austin, which is by far our favorite weekend getaway destination.
Of course, any trip the BF and I take usually revolves to a large extent around food, and this staycation was no different. There are a few Austin restaurants that are must-eat when we’re in town, but the absolute centerpiece of any trip to Austin is The Salt Lick BBQ. Opinion in Austin (and everywhere else) is divided when it comes to barbecue, and I know at least one Daily Kos Austinite does not like The Salt Lick—but count this Houstonian firmly in the Salt Lick camp. If you’re a fan of terrible television, you may recognize the name from Man v. Food:
There are a couple of other Salt Lick locations, but they are a pale imitation of the original Salt Lick in Driftwood, located in the Texas Hill Country southeast of Austin. It’s always a bit of a drive to get there, but well worth it. After starving ourselves all day, it was our first destination upon checking into the hotel. And as it turned out, going on a Saturday evening (during Valentine’s Day weekend) was not the best plan. We arrived at 7:00 and found this line...just to check in:
We knew it was going to be bad, but we weren’t quite prepared for the 2.5-hour wait time we were given at the check-in desk. The hostess asked if we were still interested, and we looked at each other anxiously, knowing that we would be filled with regret if we went home without Salt Lick. So we accepted our buzzer and began our wait—thankfully, it at least came with some live music and freshly squeezed lemonade. This was just the crowd of people waiting for a table (this is outside the restaurant):
At least it was a beautiful night, and the wait allowed us to enjoy both the outdoor scenery and the barbecue pit, around which several hungry people gathered and let their mouths water.
Fortunately, we were only two people, so I think that trimmed down our wait time considerably. We were given a table after only an hour of waiting. It’s amazing how grateful you are that you had to wait an hour for a table when you’re told it’s going to take two and a half hours. Maybe restaurants should do that more often.
At Salt Lick, you can either get a plate of barbecue or you can pay a little extra ($25 per person) and get unlimited barbecue and sides. I think you can guess what we decided to do…
There’s really only one way to wrap up a meal that good…
Needless to say, we left having gotten our $50 worth, and then some. Then, it was back to the hotel for the meat coma and regret (just kidding...there was a meat coma, but no regret whatsoever).
The next morning, we were somehow still full from the barbecue, so we went to South Congress (SoCo) to walk it off. This is one of our favorite Austin things to do—there are so many interesting (one might even say weird) shops to check out. We didn’t buy a single thing except some hand-jerked soda from a candy shop, but we got our exercise and saw some cool things. We spent some time in a collectible bookstore where I found a signed Ann Richards autobiography that I really wanted but didn’t have $125 for. That was kind of the theme of the morning—cool shit that we couldn’t afford. And a few things that made us laugh:
We ended our staycation with another Austin restaurant we return to again and again, Tarka Indian Kitchen. There are a few Tarka locations in Austin (I keep praying for them to expand to Houston), and it’s not exactly “traditional” Indian food—you order at the counter, and the food is more of a “modern” take on Indian dishes. It gets pretty solid reviews online, along with a few people whining about “authenticity” (seriously, GTFO). We really only go there for one thing: the chicken tikka masala, which is top-notch as far as we’re concerned. Not to mention, it’s affordable...two bowls of chicken tikka masala and a basket of naan, all for under $30.
Anyway, that was our weekend getaway in food pics—it was not nearly long enough, but it was certainly caloric enough.
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?