Hi friends, ACL is back at Zilker for its second weekend, and if you sat out the first one, this week’s Do is your excuse to sit out this one too: a free zine fest on Airport Boulevard, where the whole idea is to wander from table to table and go home with a stack of small things people made themselves.
Before that, a garden brunch where the bread is the reason to go. After it, a new city rule for anyone apartment hunting, and a voice actor’s studio answering my three questions in Meet. Walker Doubleday, who builds electric guitars by hand, 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
Red River Street, north of campus · brunch Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 2pm · pastries $7, brunch plates around $24
Lutie’s is the garden restaurant at the Commodore Perry Estate, and it is named for Lutie Perry, the estate’s matriarch, who was known for her lavish Jazz Age parties. The dining room looks out on a patio with gardens and a fountain, and the restaurant is recommended in the Michelin Guide.
The Michelin Guide singles out the estate bread, made with a decades-old starter and fermented corn grits, and it is on the brunch menu too, with saffron honey and butter, for $14. From there, the posted brunch menu has Turkish eggs with yogurt and chili, a croque madame with smoked ham and Gruyère, and brioche French toast, all $24, plus croissants, pain au chocolat, and kouign amann at $7 each or any three for $18. Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 2. Reservations are recommended, and walk-ins and bar seats are first come, first served.
Do, this weekend
Blue Genie Art Bazaar, Airport Boulevard · Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6pm · free
The second ACL weekend is the one to spend somewhere else, and this is somewhere else. Lone Star Zine Fest is in its tenth year, and it fills Blue Genie Art Bazaar on Airport Boulevard on Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6 both days. It is free to get in. A zine is a small, self-published magazine, and this is a whole room of the people who make them: more than a hundred exhibitors across the weekend, from comics collectives and small presses to the Austin History Center and the Austin Public Library’s own zine collection.
Bring some cash. Getting in costs nothing, but you will want to buy things, and while most tables take Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or cards, the organizers say cash is the safe bet. If you have kids with you, the kid-friendly tables are grouped on the right side of the room near the Zine Creation Station, where anyone can sit down and make a zine with the supplies provided, and the most explicit work is in the back left corner under Adult Zone signs. The room is decorated as a 1980s prom this year, and you are encouraged to play along.
Know, this week
If you are apartment hunting, a new city rule has been on your side since October 1. A landlord or manager with 50 or more units in Austin now has to give you a written, itemized list of every fee before quoting you rent or taking your application: the mandatory ones like trash, amenities, pest control, renter’s insurance, and application and move-in fees, the optional ones like pets and parking, and an estimate of the variable ones, like utilities. Any listing that shows a rent number has to show the mandatory monthly fees beside it.
The city’s own example is the one to keep in mind: an $1,800 apartment with $120 a month in trash, amenity, and technology fees is really $1,920. Smaller landlords, with 5 to 49 units, have until January 1, and the rule does not cover charges for damage or lease violations. If a big complex will not show you the list, you can report it to Austin Equity and Inclusion online or at 512-974-3251. The city can penalize the landlord, but it says it does not pay tenants back for fees they already paid.
Meet, this week
Keep Dreaming Creative is a voice actor’s studio, and its first answer is a delight: someone walking by would probably be surprised to find a person in a booth inside, yelling battle cries, making animal and creature sounds, or having a tearful breakdown into a microphone, and every so often a high-pitched scream sets off one of the neighborhood dogs. It also directs and coaches professional voice actors and produces their demos, and its send-offs read like a small map of Austin’s voice acting world: Block House Sound for studio time, SPACE ATX, the studio where it holds its workshops, and Lone Star VO for Texas voice actors who want to connect.
Lucky Tiger 777, a game room for adults on North Lamar, answered the same three questions too: read their answers.
Awesome Austinites
One person who makes something here, in his own words.
Photo courtesy of Doubleday Guitars.
Walker Doubleday, owner and guitar builder at Doubleday Guitars. He hand-builds high-end boutique electric guitars, and he says the goal is to make the best of the best, to stand out from a market flooded with decent guitars. He is a seventh-generation Texan from Houston who went to Texas State in San Marcos, moved to Austin to work for another well-known guitar maker, and decided to put down roots here. Next, he is building out a studio in his shop so he can host local bands and stream their sets live, to help promote small bands along with his own small business.
Asked for an opinion most of Austin would argue with, he said this: “Many people say that Austin’s live music scene is dead. I disagree with that. There is still a vibrant live music scene here, it’s just evolving.”
Dish of the week
Photo by CK Kitchen & Bar.
CK Kitchen & Bar · Cajun surf and turf
This week’s dish is the Cajun surf and turf at CK Kitchen & Bar on Montopolis Drive, sent in by the restaurant, which calls it everyone’s “top favorite” entree. It is grilled steak and shrimp in a rich, spicy Cajun cream sauce, and like every entree there, it comes with one side on the house, and you choose it: steamed vegetables, steamed rice, garlic soft noodles, or seasoned fried rice.
One more thing.
Austin FC plays Nashville SC at Q2 Stadium on Saturday at 7:30pm, a rematch of sorts: Nashville beat Austin 2-1 in last year’s U.S. Open Cup final on the same field. Q2 is at Burnet Road and Braker Lane in North Austin, and the easy way there is the train. The Red Line stops at McKalla Station, on the east side of the stadium, and on match days CapMetro runs the Rapid 803 at least every eight minutes. Gates generally open 90 minutes before kickoff. Two things to know before you leave the house: the stadium is cashless, and it allows no bags except small ones (8 by 5 by 1 inches) and medical, childcare, or cultural bags. You can bring one empty bottle, 30 ounces or less, to fill inside.
If someone you know keeps asking where to go in Austin, forward this. One forward, and the Austin cheat-sheet is yours.
See you next Thursday.
P.S. If Lutie’s is more of an occasion than you had in mind, my brunch guide ranks twelve more, including a Sunday dim sum brunch for when the table is bored of eggs.