93014 Fri Jan 27 14:49:31 -0800 2006 5 61 Austin 0 510706 Hi, I'm from LA and going to be in Austin for the first time next month, and am hoping to find: 1. The hippest spots with outstanding food. 2. Great non-Starbucks coffee places to enjoy a great latte. Staying somewhere downtown but will probably have a car. I went through all the posts, and here are the places that I found. Is this the right list? Am I missing something? Thanks for your help! Sandra _____________________ Las Manitas Tony's Southern Comfort House Park Barbecue Cippolina El Sol Y La Luna Driskill Grill Cafe Josie Castle Hill Cafe Mike's Pub South Congress Cafe Athenian Grill Vespaio Austin Land & Cattle Nutty Brown Cafe Romeo's Andiamo Fri Jan 27 14:49:31 -0800 2006 0 Sandra 1 510766 Ummm...be prepared for a different meaning of "hip." Most of these places aren't "hip" at all. Some of them are "hip" in a jaded, under-employed, Austin, artsy hipster sense. Few of them would fit the L.A. Hip" scene. Even our "upscale hip" is more like a bunch of uptight lawyer boys and their Junior League fiances. I don't think most of the Austin people on this board consider themselves hip. Hell, I almost ignored this post, too. 3 days with no responses? So I will try. Keep in mind, this is all my opinion. I am not hip at all. I never aspired to be and I achieved it quite admirably. (In fact, after having written this missive, my best advice to you is to stop reading right here.) Las Manitas - Hip for the downtown lawyer lunch crowd, and some real people too! (just not me) Tony's Southern Comfort - Not too hip, good food House Park Barbecue - not hip Cippolina - ??? Clarksville socialites? I dunno, never been. El Sol Y La Luna - Austin hip, mediocre food, try and go when Rajamani is playing, drink sangria. Driskill Grill - probably hip Cafe Josie - Still not what i would call hip, good food, kinda classy, but I'd still wear sneakers there. Castle Hill Cafe - good salads, kinda fancy, wouldn't call it hip Mike's Pub - Not hip at all, in fact it is AntiHip. It's small, greasy and fat people eat there. I eat there, occasionally, when my wife remembers to invite me. sob. South Congress Cafe - Hip, big plate glass windows so people can see how cool you are for eating there, money for glass would be better spent on the food prep. Me no likey. Athenian Grill - Not hip, ok food, I prefer Byblos (or if I am in the mood for squalor or Rajamani on a lucky wednesday, I go to Ararat) Vespaio - This is closer to hip. Excellent food. I like it, but you are still gonna see unhip people like me wearing jeans and talking about guns, making curtains and auto repair. Austin Land & Cattle - Keanu Reeves likes it, so it must be hip. I really don't know about this one either. Nutty Brown Cafe - Not hip at all. food was mediocre, best as a venue to see The Gourds, who might be hip, I don't know. Romeo's - A nice little place if you want a cheap Non-trad, American style Italian meal. Good for what it is, but what it is is not hip. Andiamo - Excellent food and wine list, it's in the part of town we like to call South Dallas. The patrons trend into their sixties, except at lunch. Not really hip except with the AARP set. So for "Hip" Wink - I once saw Carmen Electra there. I was very out of place. Someone had to explain who she was to me. I've liked the food every time I have been there, though others have commented that it's not so good. Maybe it has good days and bad days. I'm not willing to shell out the cash to find out. Uchi - Another place I do not fit in. It is too hip for me. But I continue to occasionally offend the senses of the Austin In-Scene by showing up. The chef is pretty inspired, though some of it just seems silly to me. Noovo Sooshi place. Hotel San Jose - for drinks, it's definitely more hip and less South Austin since Just Guns was driven out of the building across the street. Other places that might be Hip: Kenichi - hip and the food was pretty good the few times I went, not enough to keep me coming back. Eddie V's - never been, seems kinda hip whenever I walk past, others say it is good food. Roaring Fork - was kinda hip and pretty good food Club Deville - If you want to drink with Austin Hipsters without having to hit 6th street. I've used up my daily allotment of Smart-ass. I hope that I may have given you some information that helps. I probably could have made this really short by asking "What do you mean by hip?" Oh and Coffee, All decent with free extras: Jo's: Hot Coffee: Good Food on South Congress. It's a fun place to sit outside in nice weather and watch all of the disaffected South Austin types. Mojo's on Guadalupe to watch all of the angst ridden college kids (and occasionally catch some good tunes). Flipnotics on Barton Springs Road to see live music and shop for overpriced hipster attire. Spider House on Fruth for alot of the same as some of the above Ruta Maya on South Congress forced out of their Downtown location so they could maintain the revolutionary ideals, good coffee, organic, fair trade, imported by them, roasted and sold in bulk. Indoor stage. Little City on Congress has pretty good coffee and it's near downtown, avoid at lunch unless you want to fight the lunchers. Texas Coffee Traders on E. 4th St. is one of the few places in America where you can buy Monteverde, Costa Rica Fair Trade coffee. Good stuff. They probably sell the liquid kind of coffee, too. Bouldin Creek Coffee House on South 1st is good for their veggie chorizo. Never tried a latte, though their house coffee was pretty good. This crowd is even more disaffected than Jo's's crowd. Their wifi sucks. I probably oughta quit now. Sorry for the snarkiness, but one gets that way when "LA Hip" takes over your town for two weeks a year. I imagine there are some people in Park City, Utah who understand what I mean. Not that you, Sandra, are one of those interlopers. You are visiting our scuzzy city on a non-SXSW week, so I apologize for being a jackass. Last tip, drive to Lockhart. Eat at Smitty's, Kreuz's and/or Black's. They won't care where you're from as long as you're willing to eat your meat with your hands. Well, they might, but just tell them to kiss your grits and hand over the flesh. Mon Jan 30 16:17:51 -0800 2006 510706 0 Seamus Mitwurst 2 510771 Seamus--you rock. Sorry--didn't mean to offend with any LA pretension. I really do prefer good food, but i've heard that Austin is a really hip city, and i didn't want to miss out on any of the hipness! thanks again for all your thoughtful recommendations. -Sandra Mon Jan 30 19:03:42 -0800 2006 510766 0 Sandra 3 510776 Sandra - listen to Seamus.....the anti-hip is hip here. We take out pretension to another level. Go have a burger at Casino El Camino on 6th! Mon Jan 30 20:27:08 -0800 2006 510771 0 rudeboy 4 510781 Listen to rudeboy! I like Mike's pub, but when I saw it on your list, I figured it's not going to impress you. Casino El Camino is the perfect swap out. Tue Jan 31 12:12:16 -0800 2006 510776 0 Nacho 2 511087 seamus, you funny! i enjoyed that post. i agree, there are different kinds of hip. 1) ye got yer no-money-havin local music scene kind of hip. this is how austin made it's name for hip. but after that happened, it got more expensive to live here, thereby threatening this type's existence. these types are harder to spot while you eat at restaurants b/c they are home eating rice and beans so they can afford to live in austin. maybe coffeeshops, bars (try the longbranch and casino) and magnolia cafe are better for this. However, there are places where possibly real hipsters go when they get a record deal or their financial aid check comes in. Or their parents send birthday money from Houston. Maybe Wink or Vespaio? 2) Then there's the . . . dressed-up people with good jobs and a certain amount of trendy fashion sense type of hip. I think they might sometimes be called yuppies. Maybe Uchi and Kenichi fall into this category. Maybe South Congress Cafe too? 3) Then there are the middle age intellectual people with good taste in eyeglasses kinds of places. Cipollina, Wink, Zoot if it still exists. Maybe Vespaio too. Ok, I'm getting tired trying to come up with good categories. I think with Wink, Vespaio and it's more affordable relative Enoteca Vespaio you would get a good food/people watching double header. I can't picture eddie v's being mentioned in a hipster's conversation. but I could be wrong and just totally unhip myself. Roaring Fork strikes me as a high-rent overstuffed-brown-leather-chair version of a frat-boy burger joint. Which could be hip depending on your point of view. I agree you should go downtown and eat a casino burger at casino el camino. One of the town's best old school Austin jukeboxes, and you can soak up the Hades-like atmostphere. And maybe combine that night with a trip to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema downtown. They serve food (and booze) during the show, and the food's decent. The downtown one sometimes shows their original music documentaries on obscure bands, and has stuff like open screen night, where they'll play anything someone brings in. They also have lots of kabuki audience participation stuff. Don't go just for the food - go 'cause of maybe anything going on, the Alamo (downtown only) represents one version of what actually is cool about Austin. a couple of notes on the coffee houses - mojo's is closed. spider house is the best coffee shop for super-scenester low rent hip (at least it used to be). Jo's is a dog and pony show and is a more mixed crowd of flashy out-of-towners who stay at the San Jose and locals. Little City coffeehouse is also good. Bouldin Creek has a certain grungy hippy-owned and operated kind of hip. an interesting topic. i'm sorry if it inspired more gas-baggery than actual recommendations. let us know where you tried. And be sure to rate them on each of the categories of hipness we've delineated for you ;) Thu Feb 16 12:22:40 -0800 2006 510766 0 chow-a-holic