How to Spend a Big Fat Weekend in Austin, Texas
Yes, you’re going to Austin for the barbecue and Tex Mex. But the mid-size city, where the delicious things per capita ratio is extremely high, has so much more to offer. There’s perfectly charred pizza with lamb and minty yogurt. A hotel restaurant that’s serving up one of the best burgers I’ve had in a long time. An oyster bar that made me wonder if I was actually in the South of France. And that’s just the beginning. Here are some of the best spots I hit up on my recent trip—and don’t worry, there’s brisket and tacos on the list too.
Photo by Rachel Karten1/8June's All Day
This spot from Austin duo Larry McGuire and Tom Moorman (they’re also responsible for Clark’s Oyster Bar, below) makes brunch turn into lunch turn into early afternoon wine time. The vibe is Parisian cafe meets NYC wine bar, and the outdoor tables are A+ on a warm Austin day. Order the cheesy buckwheat crepe, hangover-helper matzo ball caldo, or breakfast chalupa (we love it so much, we even got the recipe for it!). Then round things out with the marshmallow fluff brownie—a burnished, oozy marshmallow fluff atop a dark, chocolatey brownie. Yeah, this place does not mess around.
Photo by Rachel Karten2/8Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ
Valentina’s, a quick car ride from downtown Austin, takes the classic flavors of Tex Mex (insanely good flour tortillas included) and crosses them with smoky, pink-rimmed BBQ. The result is a small breakfast menu featuring eyes-roll-back-in-your-head good tacos. Go early (they open at 7:30 a.m.) and order one of everything. The magnum opus? The Real Deal Holyfield: a sturdy flour taco topped with a runny fried egg, potatoes, refried beans, bacon, and brisket. Oh, and plan an activity for afterward. You’re going to want to walk this one off.
Photo by Rachel Karten3/8Carpenters Hall
The Carpenter Hotel, started by Ace Hotel alums with an assist from our very own editor at large, Andrew Knowlton, anchors itself around the spacious, light-flooded dining room at Carpenters Hall. Must orders include: the burger, club sandwich, vaquero dip, a decadent agnolotti filled with salty meat, and the hashbrowns dripping in hot pepper bearnaise. The restaurant’s tagline is “A neighborhood spot that just happens to be in a hotel,” which is probably why it succeeds. So often hotels try and cater to their guests. Carpenters Hall caters to the city of Austin.
Photo by Rachel Karten4/8Clark's Oyster Bar
Martinis and oysters: name a more iconic duo. The move at Clark’s Oyster Bar is to grab a seat on the outdoor patio, order a dozen oysters (the menu features a rotating selection of over 10 different types), sip a gin martini, and start questioning why you don’t live in Austin. It’s got the vibe of a French Riviera café (striped awning and all) and the bustle of a New York restaurant (expect a wait). And if you decide to order another round and scrap your dinner plans altogether, rumor has it they have an excellent burger—which, matched with a second gin martini, makes for just as iconic a pairing.
Photo by Rachel Karten5/8Bufalina
No one tells you to go to Austin for the pizza. But maybe they should. Bufalina, a spot heavily featured on Knowlton’s (our aforementioned editor at large) Instagram since he moved there, serves bubbly, charred Neapolitan pizzas and a rotating selection of natural wines. The calabrese with salami and serranos leaves your mouth buzzing with spice, while the inventive lamb sausage, harissa, red onion, and parsley pie made me consider topping more pizzas with herby yogurt. All that with a bottle of Broc Cellars’ spontaneously fermented Lodi Mission? Yeah, Austin can pull off pizza.
Photo by Rachel Karten6/8Suerte
This one-year-old Austin restaurant, which landed on our 2018 50 nominees for America’s Best New Restaurant, is ambitiously making masa in house. That means the delicious corn flour finds its way into pretty much every single thing on the menu, and we’re totally here for it. The suadero tacos with their fall-apart brisket and slider-sized tortillas are rich and satisfying. The sturdy chips with refried lentils (yes, refried lentils) and yogurt will confuse your brain in the best way. And the humble mushroom frito has meaty oyster mushrooms enveloped in a crunchy, tempura-like batter, topped with a zippy salsa verde. Oh, and that batter? Don’t worry, there’s masa in there too. Go for dinner, preferably with a crowd (you’ll want to order lots of things), and give yourself up to executive chef Fermín Núñez’s masa magic.
Photo by Rachel Karten7/8Franklin Barbecue
I’m not going to talk about the moist, fall apart-y brisket. Or the black pepper-dotted ribs. Or the actually moist turkey. Or the smoky baked beans. What I will talk about is that you can order ahead online and not wait four hours in a line. Look, if lines are your thing and you want to get the “full experience,” go for it. But on the rainy Austin afternoon of my visit, I was extremely thankful to go to the truck in the back and pick up the five pounds of perfectly smoked meats that I had preordered a month before. (Don’t worry, you can order a week or so in advance and still be totally fine.) I believe this is what we call a “pro move.”
Photo by Rachel Karten8/8Kemuri Tatsu-ya
A Texas BBQ joint walks into an Izakaya bar. No, that’s not the beginning of a bad joke. It’s what it feels like eating at Kemuri Tatsu-ya, a 2017 BA Hot 10 restaurant. At this spot, chefs Tatsu Aikawa and Takuya Matsumoto combine all the smoky flavors of Texas BBQ with the pub vibes of a Japanese izakaya. Start things off with a matcha painkiller, where buckwheat shochu, tequila, pineapple, coconut, and matcha tea are delivered to your table in an undeniably cute maneki-neko (waving cat) cup. There’s bright and blistered shishito peppers with bonito that seems to dance from the residual heat. The “Hot Pocketz” are a stoner’s fantasy with an artery-clogging pairing of Gouda and brisket. The Tokyo street corn makes you a believer in the combination of cotija and bonito. And the pièce de résistance—BBQ tsukemen with a rich dipping broth, hunks of brisket, a jammy egg, scallions, lime, and smoked jalapeño—is a must-order on a menu full of must-orders.
