food:
- Peche (some of the most creative happy hour cocktails and French bites downtown, get the mac and cheese)
- Paprika ATX (hands down my favorite tacos in the city, go to their pop up at Long Play Lounge on Friday/Saturday nights)
- Kinda Tropical (very chic and hip bar and cafe outfitted from an old gas station) bars
- if you like divey: Workhorse, Shangri-La, Side Bar, Better Days
- if you like fancy: In Plain Sight, Garage, Holiday night:
- Club Eternal (the best damn sound system in all of Texas)
I miss this place sm 🥲 amazing coffee and food, baristas are so cool and kind. usually someone spinning records in there 🪩🕺🏻 other fave coffee spot is Spokesman - stiles switch for bbq
- chi’lantro for korean bbq/tex-mex fusion
- ramen tatsu-ya
- bouldin creek cafe for thee best veggie/vegan comfort food
- better half for brunch + coffee + drinks
- home slice and pinthouse for pizza
- patrizi’s for pasta
- juiceland for smoothies bars/clubs:
- cheer up charlie’s 🌈✨
- kitty cohen’s 🌴
- barbarella 👯♀️ def go to barton springs and/or the greenbelt to enjoy the green space. zilker park may be cliché to some but I used to LOVE spending Sunday afternoons there. lots of dogs plus humans playing games, dancing, or just chilling. people-watching opportunities are 👌🏻
Food:
Terry Black’s (bbq)
Magnolia Cafe South (the veggie reuben slaps)
Easy Tiger (German)
Ramen Tatsu-ya
Matt’s El Rancho (best Tex Mex in ATX)
Patrizi’s (Italian, outdoor cool setup)
Juiceland (smoothies etc, classic standby) Misc:
- East side is the best IMO for cool bars and restaurants. Nickel City is one of my faves for bars. (East of I-35)
- Cheer Up Charlie ’s is always a good time during SXSW
- If you’re looking for (often free) shows to go to, I’ve always relied on this site called showlistaustin.com — they collect allllll of the shows during SXSW so you can conveniently figure out where your faves are playing all in one place and plan your days easily. Source: I used to live in Austin and I have been to SXSW many many times.
Have so much fun!!!
every day is a listening party here - music centric bar with vinyl DJs every night. great cocktails and cold beer on tap, wine by the bottle, you can get tacos on Friday nights from Paprika from 6 until they sell out you can hear anything from funk and jazz standards, sad bastard country, hip hop and punk, even Taylor Swift