Hi friends, Saturday is a full one downtown. The Mexic-Arte Museum’s Día de los Muertos parade comes down Sixth Street at noon, Texas plays Ole Miss that evening, and Formula 1 is at the Circuit of the Americas all weekend. The parade is this week’s Do, with a note on getting there.
Before that, a deli in Bouldin Creek with a game room and a dog-friendly patio. After it, early voting, which opened on Monday and has a deadline on Friday if you vote by mail, and a classical Pilates studio answering my three questions in Meet. Sue E Spears, who leads the association that looks after Bethany Cemetery in East Austin, is this week’s Awesome Austinite.
One place to eat, one thing to do, and one thing to know, as always. Here is your weekend.
Eat, this week
Bouldin Creek, on West Mary Street · open every day · sandwiches $15 to $18
High Road Bar & Deli is a chef-driven, all-day spot in Bouldin Creek from the team behind the Cavalier in East Austin. Its own description of the place is better than mine: house-made sausages and cured meats, local producers, and room for “a morning espresso, a long lunch, or a patio cocktail with friends.” On the current menu, The Italian stacks soppressata, stracciatella, and mortadella on a sesame seed hoagie for $18. The game room has pinball, darts, and NBA Jam, and dogs are welcome on the patio. Families and guests of all ages are welcome until 8pm, and after that it is 21 and up.
Do, this weekend
Fourth Street and Congress Avenue · Saturday, noon to 6pm · free
Viva la Vida is the Mexic-Arte Museum’s Día de los Muertos festival and parade, and this is its 43rd year. The museum calls it Austin’s largest and longest-running Día de los Muertos event. It starts on Saturday at noon with the grand procession, a parade of costumes, live music, dancers, and floats that marches down historic Sixth Street and ends at Fourth Street and Congress Avenue, where the festival runs until 6. This year the parade’s special section is la ofrenda, the offering built to honor the dead: pieces of one, commissioned from artists, are carried through the parade and then assembled on the festival’s altar-like stage.
After the procession there are more than 20 artists, artisans, and vendors in the Muertos Mercado, a low-rider exhibition, live performances, traditional food, and hands-on art activities at Mariposa Plaza. It is free, and the museum has a free RSVP on its page. Saturday is crowded downtown: Texas plays Ole Miss at 6:30pm at DKR, and Formula 1 has the Circuit of the Americas all weekend, so take the bus or a ride if you can. If you do drive, the museum’s page lists the Frost Bank garage at 112 East Fourth Street, open weekends and after 5pm daily.
Know, this week
Early voting for the November 3 election started on Monday and runs through Friday, October 30, from 7am to 7pm every day, weekends included. In Travis County you can vote at any polling site, not only the one nearest your house, and the county’s election page has the full list of locations and a map of wait times. On the last two days, Thursday and Friday, some sites stay open until 10pm, among them the county clerk’s office on Airport Boulevard and the Texas Union on the UT campus.
Bring a photo ID. The county accepts seven kinds, from a Texas driver license to a U.S. passport, and if you are 70 or older, yours can be expired for any length of time. If you do not have one, you can still vote by filling out a reasonable impediment declaration at the polls and showing something like a current utility bill or a bank statement. One deadline lands this week: if you vote by mail, the county has to receive your application by Friday, October 23. Voting by mail is open to voters 65 and older and to voters who are sick or disabled, among others, and the county’s Voter Lookup shows your own ballot.
Meet, this week
Vigor Pilates is a classical Pilates studio on Mesa Drive, and its answers are unusually direct about what that means: “We are not a contemporary studio that views a session as a simple workout.” People come in, the studio says, for “back pain, neck pain, tech neck, posture problems,” and more, and owner Brenda Beckmann chose the spot because she has lived in the neighborhood for over a decade. For anyone shopping for a studio, it recommends two with well-trained teachers: Ballet Austin and Align Pilates.
Awesome Austinites
One Austinite, in her own words.
Sue E Spears, president of the Bethany Cemetery Association of Travis County. She was born in Austin and grew up in the same East Austin neighborhood as Bethany Cemetery without knowing it was there, lived other places as an adult, and came back. The association she leads calls Bethany Austin’s first Black cemetery, and since she first answered these questions in July, the Austin City Council has approved historic landmark zoning for it. Her own description of the job is the plainest one: “I make sure that the people buried at Bethany Cemetery are never forgotten.” Next, she says, the priorities include funding to expand the association’s QR-code storytelling project and “a heritage trail connecting significant gravesites.”
Asked where she actually eats, drinks, or hangs out, she named three places: “Mr. Catfish on Airport, Whip My Soul restaurant, Victory East.”
Dish of the week
Mama’z Soul Kitchen · Oxtails love
This week’s dish is the oxtails at Mama’z Soul Kitchen on Wellington Drive in University Hills, sent in by the restaurant, which calls the plate “Oxtails love” and describes it in five words: “The love behind every bite.” The photo it sent shows them in a dark gravy over white rice, with candied yams and greens on the side.
One more thing.
On Sunday, the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden throws StrawFest, its free fall festival, from 11 to 4 on Azie Morton Road. Pumpkin painting, a straw pit, face painting, sculpture searches, and inflatable and lawn games run all day. There is a raptor and reptile show from noon to 1 and again from 2 to 3, a costume parade from 1 to 1:30, and a fire truck from 2 to 4, so put the kids in costume. Austin Bat Refuge and Central Texas Pig Rescue are there too. An RSVP is recommended, walk-ups are welcome, and there is free parking across the street at Wright Field.
See you next Thursday.
P.S. If Bouldin Creek is out of your way, my sandwich guide has fourteen more places to get a good one.