Hi friends, classes started this week, which means a fresh wave of people just became Austinites whether they are ready or not. So this week is pitched a little at the newcomers, and honestly it is a good refresher for the rest of us: the quintessential Austin evening hang, an only-here food festival, and the two weeks when the best tables in town get cheaper.
Three things, as always. One place to eat, one thing to do, and one thing to know. Here is your weekend.
Eat, this week
South Austin · $$ · open daily from 8am, 21 and over after 7pm
If you just moved here and want to understand the city in one stop, go to Cosmic. It is a lush, heavily shaded beer garden in South Austin with a koi pond, local beer, good coffee, and rotating food trucks, with Leroy and Lewis barbecue parked there most of the week. A word of strategy: go in the evening, not at two in the afternoon. The deep tree shade, misters, and fans make it genuinely pleasant once the sun drops, and that is when it turns into the easy, sprawling hang that Austin does best. One caveat, because nobody tells you this one: the garden goes 21 and over after 7, so if the kids are coming, make it an early evening. Otherwise, grab a beer, find a table under the oaks, and see whose truck is parked.
Do, this weekend
Radio/East · Sunday, August 30 · $20 presale, $25 at the door
The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is the kind of only-in-Austin institution worth building a Sunday around, and this is its 36th year. Hundreds of sauces and salsas to taste, the competition itself with about 30 commercial entrants, food trucks, and live music, running from 3 to 9. It has a new home this year at Radio/East on the east side, and one thing changed worth flagging: it is ticketed now, $20 in advance or $25 at the door, with part of the proceeds going to the Central Texas Food Bank. Dogs are not allowed at this one, so leave yours at home. Go hungry, pace yourself, and have a plan for something cold on the walk out.
Know, this week
Here is the one with a clock on it. Austin Restaurant Weeks opens Friday and runs through September 13, and it is the closest thing this city has to a sale on its best tables. Restaurants put up a fixed menu at a fixed price: $25 for lunch or brunch, and $50 or $75 for dinner, three to four courses either way. More than a hundred places are in this year, and the list runs from Odd Duck and Dai Due to Uchiba, Comedor, and Lenoir.
The part people miss is that there is nothing to buy in advance. No pass, no ticket, no code to remember. You book a table or you walk in, and the Restaurant Weeks menu is available to you either way. Reservations are still the smart move at the rooms you actually want, and those go first.
What separates it from a normal dinner out is where a set piece of the bill goes: $4 from every lunch, $7 from a $50 dinner, and $10 from a $75 one, all of it to the Central Texas Food Bank. By the food bank’s own math, a dinner for two turns into more than sixty meals. These are the two weeks I plan dinners around, so if you were going out anyway, go out inside this window.
Worth bookmarking
The logistics of moving are the easy part.
Dish of the week
Spicy House · Sliced Beef and Silky Tofu in Pickled Pepper Sauce
This week’s dish is the sliced beef and silky tofu in pickled pepper sauce at Spicy House, sent in by the restaurant. Premium beef and silky tofu, simmered slowly with double peppers in a pickled pepper sauce they make in house. They call the heat mild with a tangy freshness to it, which in a Sichuan kitchen means bright rather than timid. Spicy House sits out on FM 620 in northwest Austin, far enough from the center that it stays a neighborhood secret, which is exactly what this section is for.
Tell me one thing
If you could give one piece of advice to someone who just moved to Austin, what would it be? Reply and tell me. I read every one, and I will share the best in a coming edition.
See you next Thursday. If someone you know just landed in Austin, forward this to them.
P.S. One new thing. Austin Made is our running list of people here who make something you can actually buy, with the founder’s story attached to each one. Eleven so far, from crackers and coffee to candles and phone cases. If you are still filling a new apartment, start there: have a look.