Best Coldest Beer
Something about that flashing “air-conditioned” sign says everything in the place is cool. Too bad you can’t watch the Terminix Bug rotate across the street anymore.
Best Piano Bar
Our Parisian friend E. says it’s Paris in Austin. Look for local jazz favorites like Connie Blake, Sandy Allen, and Bobby Doyle.
Best Romantic Spot
Yeah, and if it doesn’t work out between you two, you still get some breathtaking (or near that) options: push or jump. But seriously, it’s a view that makes one’s heart flutter.
Best Rock Dancing
Yes, rock (as opposed to country) dancing, although at this spot, it’s more like “Dude, let’s go rock dance in the mosh pit!”
Best Custom Cakes
Hello, Lucy? I’d like a cake shaped like a gas station. Can you help me?
Best Baby Presents
Pregnant with prenatal and post-partum paraphernalia.
Best Evening Radio
Because variety is the spice of life. Something different nightly.
Best TV Newscast
Situated comfortably between the younger-viewered KXAN and the older-viewered KTBC, these newsbites feature the latest cheese. They cover the news and the scene admirably.
Best Participatory Sport
A good and healthy alternative to the one-night stand – you can grunt, sweat, and writhe with strangers or old partners.
Best Local Eccentric
Carl, if you win this one more time, you’re not eccentric, you’re mainstream. But who else can twirl flowers so skillfully?
Best Jewelry Repair
Bust a bauble? Do not think about sweating one bead over it. Originals can fix ya right up.
Best Factory Outlet
Yes, that’s right, gentle readers. You named the city of San Marcos itself as your favorite outlet for shopping syndrome. Loads of stores and scads of bargains for the smart shopper.
Best Record Store (Local)
Sage advice: never walk in here on your way to pay the landlord with cash and say, “Really, I’ll just browse.”
Best Highway Improvement
The crosses that used to dot FM 2222 had a chilling effect on any trip to and from Lake Travis, a constant reminder that one of the prettiest local drives was also one of the most deadly. Now that the worst curves have been straightened out, the drive is safer, more efficient, and more enjoyable,…
Best Force For Ballet In Austin
Ballet Austin artistic director Lambrou has stuck to his guns about what he believes the quality of ballet should be in this city, and he’s securing those standards by presenting and finding funding for challenging ballet choreography, and breeding ballerinas in the Ballet Austin Academy. Lambrou has broken the sickly ballerina mold by including in…
Best Answer To The Guerrilla Girls
First WAC (Women’s Action Coalition), now the Lesbian Avengers – we’re almost a real city! Avenging women is a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. And the important part isn’t figuring out which rumors about their actions are true, it’s just knowing that they’re out there.
Best Old-Fashioned Coke
You got your Coke in a can, Coke in a plastic bottle, soda fountain Coke, Coke in a glass bottle, and every once in a while you stumble across a real Coke. That’s Coke syrup and carbonated water, hand stirred. And who’d a-thunk we’d find a good old-fashioned Coke at a brewpub? Surprisingly, it’s the…
Best Baby-Sitting Deal
If you’re craving a few hours to yourself to see a movie without interruption, or just sit around the house and not do anything, but balk at the idea of paying per hour for the privilege of doing so, have we got the deal for you. On the first Friday of every month, Trinity United…
Best Bathroom Grafitti
You need French Ticklers, “Elvis needs a tampon,” but we’re glad to know he’s alive and well and living on a cot somewhere in Austin.
Best Baseball League/Best Spectator Sport Bargain
One of the best-kept secrets in Austin sports, the Zaragoza League serves up major-college-quality baseball in an intimate East Austin ballpark, all summer long, for only a $2 admission (and there are no concessions, so it’s BYOB and snacks). The seven team rosters are mostly made up of college players between seasons or who have…
Best Mexican-American Jukebox
Most CD jukeboxes in this town seem to lean toward the hits, but this one is perfectly programmed to suit its location’s personality. Among the choices are hot Tejano acts like Selena and Mazz, conjunto favorites, many of the Austin artists who play the venue (what other juke in town has a complete David Rodriguez…
Best Atmosphere When You’re Drunk At 4 Am
…Or, Restaurant Most Resembling The Peach Pit. If you squint hard, some of the waiters look like Dylan, and most of the waitstaff is mod enough to let you pretend you’re in some trashy L.A. suburb. They also have some of the best gourmet coffee around and they offer a huge outdoor smoking section. So…
Best Winter Swim
The best remedy for winter blues is to head over to Stacy Pool, where a huge spigot runs constantly with hot spring water. We swim slow, easy laps from the cozy shallow end, speeding up a tad when we reach the cooler deep end. Some nights the moon is there just under our arm when…
Best Place To Learn Upholstery
ACC offers full- and part-time trade classes in which you may earn a certificate in upholstery. They also offer a mini 10-day class on Fridays or Saturdays. Trade classes enroll quarterly; mini classes are offered three times a year.
Best Place To Find Anything & You Probably Will
You know as you enter Pete’s and walk past the mannequin torsos and legs rising out of the sidewalk like a scene out of Dante’s Inferno that this is no ordinary place. From funky lamps to store signs to used and vintage clothes to small appliances to knick-knacks to little lighters with pictures of guys…
Best Cover Band Club
Just what U2 and R.E.M. had in mind when they formed: “Hmmm, let’s create stuff that will sound great at that place with the overstuffed bouncers!” But let’s not forget Maggie’s incredible beer selection. Bottom’s up!
Best Place to Country Dance
Long before line-dancing wiggled its way into the suburbs, the Spoke gave pleasure to folks who wear boots and like real country music.
Best Annual Party
Only an ass doesn’t know about this last legitimate excuse to expand your consciousness and get in touch with your tie-dye clad inner bongo player. Pease Park, in the spring, man.
Best Teen Scene/Hangout
Somehow Rick Linklater’s yesteryear version seems more safe and romantic than today’s real life waifs begging change, toting tots, and smokin’ Spirits.
Best Greasy Spoon
Undeterred by snotty allusions in Bon Appetit magazine, readers love to slide right into this Austin mainstay.
Best Branch Library
Though most of our branches provide excellent programming for kids, the downtown location wins out — its sheer size alone makes it the best candidate, allowing for the widest variety of activities to pique any youngster’s interest. Events are scheduled throughout the year, but summer is definitely the best time to check them out.
Best Late Night Deejay
ays co-worker Larry Monroe: “He’s the best ice-skating naked DJ I know.”
Best TV Reporter
In a year of transition at KTBC, Rodman is one of the best things to emerge.
Best Place To Get Married
Love in bloom: this lovely locale won last year, too.
Best Local Scandal
Political buffs found this more thrilling than O.J. “It was fun watching the rats scurrying around and jumping ship – a real sporting event.”
Best Kennel/Vet
Our sources nod vigorously in agreement, but warn that the clinic has so many satisfied customers that they haven’t had room for a new one in years.
Best Flea Market
Sundays are superb as shoppers stroll in their church finery with gigantic turkey legs hanging out of their mouths.
Best Record Store (vinyl)
Sage advice: never walk in here on your way to pay the landlord with cash and say, “Really, I’ll just browse.”
Best In-town Scenic Drive
We’ll admit that there are grander vistas in our city limits, but there are few drives with both the view and old Austin beauty of Scenic Drive, which runs along the edge of Lake Austin in Tarrytown. The glimpses over the lake are just part of the charm as the road winds underneath a canopy…
Best Furniture Maker Disguised As An Artist
Recently, Austin’s Art in Public Places program installed this artist’s sculpture along Waller Creek at 10th Street. Christensen also designs and fabricates welded steel and glass accessories for the home (small tables, vases, light fixtures) and has been helping to design custom interiors for retail establishments.
Best Band Name
We usually let the name speak for itself, but this year’s entry begs for witty ripostes. Here’s two: “Euripides Pants, Eumenides now,” and “Euripides Pants, you fix-a da hole.”
Best Place For A Glass Of Ice-cold Horchata
Horchata (pronounced or-cha-ta) is a unique rice milk beverage that can rival a banana smoothie if properly made and served as it is at Bejuco’s, a well known eatery that provides more interior Mexican cuisine than most Eastside spots. Sweet to the palate and served in large glasses with lots of ice, horchata is one…
Best Comfort Food Place To Take The Kids
Got a hankering for those plate specials you and the family used to indulge in when you were little? Tired of the “pretty food” stuff served in the more trendy restaurants that never seems to be served in large portions, let alone cooked long enough? Want to go to a place where the waitresses will…
Best Creative Use Of The English Language
On those rare occasions that we agree with the opinions they are trying to express, the Statesman’s editorial board usually finds some way to confuse us. Consider this jumbled sentence from a piece about high school graduation procedures that found its way into our local daily’s March 26 edition: “No one who does not meet…
Best Bike Shop
With so many to choose from in this town, this is a hard call. When we go out to purchase a new bike or a new part, we look for three things: service, quality, and commitment. And it has been our experience that it’s well worth the drive to visit the north location of the…
Best Monitors
To a musical performer, monitors make all the difference between a great show and a bad one, no matter what the audience may hear. And on the Saxon’s warm and comfortable stage, the monitors are clear and crisp, providing just the sort of audio support an artist needs to play and sing at one’s best.
Best Burgers
Like pizza, burgers are another subject we at the Chronicle rarely agree on. But out of this passionate and carnivorous debate, Mad Dog & Beans emerges as a consistently fine burger joint. Burgers are their main business: hearty, juicy patties grilled to perfection, available in a tantalizing range of suggested combos, or topped however you…
Best Women’s Basketball League
What with the success of the Lady Longhorns and the wealth of solid high school programs in the area, we expected to find a hotbed of women’s rec sports competition somewhere in town. Instead, it turns out, we couldn’t find a women’s league currently running. But wait! There’s a light on the horizon: the Givens…
Best Place To Recycle
Face it. We live in a push-button world where people like instant gratification. If you’re a homeowner or if you live at a conscientious complex, recycling is as easy as carrying a blue plastic tub to the curb or hauling some bags to a bunch of bins at one end of the parking lot. What…
Best Men’s Used Clothes
Maybe it’s the good cause that attracts such high-class donations — this store’s profits benefit Project Transitions, a local AIDS hospice — but if you’re looking for quality menswear (as well as a fine selection of women’s fashions and a variety of quality household items), this is the first place to go. Great shirts, suits,…
Best Place To Get Framed
Located in the trendy-stores section of North Loop, Blue Note does the usual frame-and-glass routine but we like owner John Mintz’s affinity for framing blues and jazz (hence the name) posters as well as traditional artwork and photography.
Best Dance Music Club
Our source says the Tuesday bondage night at Ohms is less thrilling than you’d think but Retro-Wednesdays and Fridays are cool. Our source also suggests trying 404 if you prefer “a classic, Eighties-style gay bar.”
Best Place To Dress Up
Not just a hang out, but one with swell food. And it just wouldn’t be right to spill fancy food on a plain white t-shirt.
Best Art Gallery
It’s not the Metropolitan but it is a chance to enjoy art made by humans on the inside and naturally sculpted beauty outside.
Best Tejano/Conjunto Club
Choose from live music on Friday nights with alternating Tejano bands (though local and touring alternative bands are sneaking in the schedule), or jam to Tex-Mex tunes spun by DJs.
Best Grocery Store
It’s not a grocery, it’s an empire expanding and proving that you can please all of the people most of the time, from the Bubbas down south to big spenders at Central Market.
Best Children’s Bookstore
Ethnically diverse, politically correct, but above all else: fun, fun, fun.
Best Local Writer
There’s really not much we can say here about Marion that she hasn’t already told us herself. Read on!
Best Weather Person
KTBC’s Vernon is 1) so bright they call him Sonny; 2) last year’s winner; 3) purveyor o’ goofy quizzes; 4) all of the above.
Best Place To Skate
Where else can you skate and shop, all under one roof?
Best Local Visionary
By staging an honorable campaign and defining a civic vision that realizes the part of the little men and women in our big town, Slusher almost knocked the incumbent off the dais. We’re proud to call him one of us.
Best Laundromat
Austin’s only laundromat and exercise club. The perfect place to work out all your dirty clothes and develop clean muscle tone.
Best Gift Shop
A bead store by any other name… Actually it’s so much more, including woodwork, pottery, and custom-crafted jewelry.
Best Shopping Center
Featuring a delightful array of many Reader’s Poll winners and set back from Lamar with buildings that respect the neighborhood’s scale, it’s a welcome addition to the center city shopping scene.
Best Mural
While there may be better murals spread around Austin, perhaps none has transformed a building the way Sean French’s mural inside Liberty Lunch has changed the live-music venue. Once a rather ramshackle concrete sweatbox, the Lunch has undergone a myriad of structural changes over the past year, and none has changed the atmosphere inside the…
Best Gallery Opening Spread
The best of TFB, free – need we say more? Get yourself on the mailing list for this one. Sometimes the art is almost as good as the cakes.
Best Beat Poet/Human Duck Decoy/Smashing Pumpkins Enthusiast
Whether he’s talking about his cat that doubles as a sweater, paying tribute to the “Family Circus” comic strip, playing Possum-Man (“Is he dead?” “No, he’s playing possum!”), or reciting an ode with classical allusions about his new girlfriend (“What do you mean you’ve got a boyfriend…?!!”), Mr. C radiates a comical cooool-catness that keeps…
Best Place To Feel The Burn
Sometimes it does seem that Thai Kitchen’s hottest dishes favor heat just a bit too much over flavor, but then again, sometimes heat is just what the appetite craves. At peak levels, their Southeast Asian specialties offer a purgative sensation, blasting your buds and opening the pores, turning a mere fine meal into an ancient…
Best Elementary School For The Classics
Lee is the only AISD school that offers Latin to elementary scholars. We think the classics still hold their own in this politically correct world.
Best Departure From The Statesman
We had a swell going away party here for you, Michelle. Sorry you weren’t invited. The only problem is, you keep sending those pesky reminders from Washington, D.C. that you’re still around. No matter, D.C. is a world away, and at least for now we don’t have to hear you try to persuade Austin folks…
Best Bus Stop
Whenever we change buses on that crucial Congress Avenue axis, we always pull the cord at 4th Street. On the southeast corner is an oasis for Capital Metronauts. A trio of trees offers abundant shade, and beneath the greenery, you can lose yourself in the Avenue of a century ago staring at the elegant Koppel…
Best Music & Coffee
Bringing the strong smell of java and bohemia to an increasingly yuppified West End District, Ruta Maya is a central city magnet for those seeking a nightlife outside the musical boozeries. We suspect that Ruta Maya, whose growth has been pleasantly organic, may still be finding its true steam as a music venue, but it…
Best Chicken Taco
Zesty and succulent, the marinated breast of chicken at Guero’s can be downright addictive and is best enjoyed rolled into a tortilla, and maybe spiced with one of the restaurant’s tantalizing sauces. To our palate, it comes awfully close to God’s own taco al carbon – and at a nice price to boot.
Most Romantic Place To Watch Bats
Request a third-floor room with a downtown view and you get the common balcony area that is just dandy at sunrise. It’s even better at sunset during bat season, when you can relax with room service outdoors and a cold Dos Equis while watching the Mexican Free-tails spiral into black columns in the dusk.
Best Place To Recycle Aluminum & See A Really Cool Mural
You really can’t go wrong with a name like All American Recycling. We were in and out in record time with cold hard cash. And the complex murals all over the building, rendered in aerosol paint by local artists, remain vividly bright even after several seasons of our strong Texas sun.
Best Musical Instrument Store
While hardly Austin’s biggest or flashiest musical instrument and supplies store, South Austin Music is still Austin’s best by being its friendliest. The secret: some of Austin’s best musicians work there (like guitarist Danny Thorpe behind the counter and Bad Liver Danny Barnes giving lessons between tours), which means some of the best also shop…
Best Place To Take Your Nose On A Date
Perfumes, fragrant and essential oils, scented body-care products, and aromatherapy supplies will make your nose feel like more than “the extreme outpost of your face.” Jars of dried orange slices, books, and botanical prints will keep your eyes from feeling neglected.
Best Downtown Club
Free music, great bands, and can that Dave-the-manager-guy swear. Inkwise, squids would be put to shame if they saw the amount of skin art in this most beloved Austin tunecave.
Best Place To Drink Outdoors
28 decks 450 feet above Lake Travis offer you and approximately 1,199 of your best friends an opportunity to enjoy a drink while the sun doth sink.
Best Artist
Readers couldn’t choose between Colburn’s life-size metal-sculpted Native American pieces (as shown at Spirit Echoes) and Gruener’s much larger-than-life portraits of single flowers (seen at the Westbank Gallery and Chez Fred). We’ll take ’em both.
Best Video Store (chain)
What does one say about a video store with a gazillion rated movies? How does one expand?
Best Lunch Under $5
If it’s good enough for Willie… Just check the special drive-thru requests before you leave the lot.
Best Children’s Clothing
The most fashionable way to put a gap in your wallet.
Best Morning Deejay (or Team)
KLBJ-FM’s dynamic duo… Now we’re really shocked! But for a wacky morning radio zoo, this is the place to tune in.
Best Bicycle Repair Shop
Featuring Trek, Specialized, a nice guy who answers the phone, and plentiful hours.
Best Scenic Drive (In Town)
It might take a few degrees of thinking, but soon you’ll come full circle, and figure out how they named this fab overlook.
Best Public Servant
Please reissue this sentiment when that burning Bush comes banging.
Best Photo Lab
Yes, in one hour you can be the proud owner of Texas Size prints of your finger on the lens with some boring landmark in the back-ground. Just kidding — these techs take pride in their development.
Best Hardware Store
It’s not just the interesting variety (everything except brick stretchers) that makes Breed a winner, but the enthusiasm of employees like the one who told me, “We have a really cool ethnic rooster, and dirt-cheap cast iron wine racks!!”
Best Specialty Bookstore
Twelve steps into this place and you just feel the healing vibes from the helpful books and helpful help. The selection of magazines and books is extensive and impressive. As well, they have crystals, new age music, and much more. They’re moving into the new Whole Foods mega-plex at 6th & Lamar this fall.
Best Optical Illusion
If you drive slowly east on Park Lane on a dark night, the letters appear to rise from the earth like a big red plastic sun.
Best Goofball
The winner, hands down (his pants, that is) for loopy antics in onstage comedy. And what are his “Roman” fingers doing down there? Why, checking his “pubic hair extensions,” of course, just one of many interpretative art performance motion pieces brought to you by this gigolo/Yankee goober. He’ll insist the crowd is heckling him when…
Best Cinevations
One of the last of the independent movie theatres, Dobie is the only commercial, off-campus venue that’s still programmed locally rather than by a national theatre chain. Owner/manager Scott Dinger not only schedules a broad range of popular and offbeat fare, but he also maintains a theatre that seeks out ways to innovate the movie-going…
Best Place To Get Nopalitos In Your Eggs
Take some of the better homemade flour tortillas in town, a genuinely friendly family, and a kitchen that churns out consistently good Tex-Mex and you have the makings of a secret that we’ve been loathe to share until now. The coffee is always fresh, the ambience cheery, and the staff ready to share their newspaper…
Best Kiddie Meal Prizes
Neon dinosaurs whose heads twist off to reveal magic markers, straws that change color when cold liquids are sipped through them, 3-D comics, and glasses. The Nineties version of cereal-box prizes — we’re still waiting for a super magic decoder ring, confident that Wendy’s will not disappoint us.
Best Fanzine
While we must confess to being somewhat partial to the local music fanzines that derive such glee from slagging us as boring old hippies, somehow attitude just can’t compete with sheer conceptual brilliance. And what else personifies our internationally renowned slacker status more than this semi-regular review of the best food bargains in town? (Note…
Best Cheap Date
We love to watch movies at the Paramount, where you can drink wine and eat M&M’s while you sniffle. This time we resist, however, so that afterward we can stroll over to Little City and order a decaf cappuccino and a Frangelica cupcake, a more subtle mix of sedative and stimulant. We make a trip…
Best New Restaurant Music
Although the Barton Springs Road restaurant strip verges into the silly ambiance of a young adult theme park, Shady Grove’s Thursday music nights do help bring the realm back into the spirit of our city, and may have helped encourage neighbors like Cafe Brazil to add music to the menu. They still have to iron…
Best Chinese Dumplings
Whether fried or steamed, Chinese dumplings will never qualify as health food – too many ground-up pig parts, we’re afraid. But love is blind, as is our lust for China Palace’s version of these morsels: tender envelopes of dough encasing a savory filling whose origins we prefer not to dwell on. Duck sauce would be…
Best Recording Studios
The growth of the Austin studio scene has created a number of world-class contenders for this title, but sister studios Arlyn (at the Terrace) and Pedernales (west of town near Pace Bend) nonetheless lead the pack. Arlyn has attracted such international stars as Robert Plant, INXS, and Tom Jones to its facility in recent months,…
Best New Shopping Locus
On the northeast corner, a new Whole Foods Market and Book People are rising, while across the street, Emeralds has taken up new quarters, offering Waterloo Records space to expand. When the stores still a-building open, this intersection is sure to be the place to go shopping.
Best Power Trip
You won’t find any laconic sales clerks or wicker baskets and bath soaps or towers of Rubbermaid totes, just tools, tools, tools, like pneumatic palm nailers and sexy cordless drills and boxes of gun nails, all sold at great prices by enthusiastic tool dudes.
Best Free Entertainment
Not only is it free, but this is also one of the nicest spots to hear some of Austin’s music in the open air as the sun goes down in town.
Best Place To Eavesdrop
Actually, we knew this already – we overheard it in Slacker.
Best Choreographer
A dancer of purpose and mystery, who dazzles veteran choreo-graphers and instructs women over 40 in the joys of movement.
Best Video Store (specialty)
Fifty million Elvis videos can’t be wrong. All right, well how about a handful of Elvis and a ton of cult classics? They sport a prime selection of NC-17s, foreign movies, kid stuff, independent works, and more. You’ll find those rare titles here and trust the staff, they’ve watched an extraordinary amount of the inventory.
Best Milkshakes & Smoothies
Blend one part hippie wait-staff, one part groovy art, one part pleasant deck. Add juice, straw, and suction.
Best Children’s Entertainer
We sure had a hard time tracking her down. Consider yourself in on a well-kept, if popular, secret.
Best Newsstand
Okay, so they discontinued Pinball for Pitbulls; still, the ample selection goes on forever, with plenty of room for browsers to stay out of each other’s way.
Best Bike Ride
One breathless rider asserts, “It’s a total adventure to me, and there’s a real sense of community – people always stop to help each other out.” Whether on two feet or two wheels, this slice of nature is an inner-city Eden.
Best Scenic Drive (Out of Town)
Someone suggested it’s as close to California as Texas gets; we like the way you can divide the number by two.
Best Rumor
We gave you a whole year to think of something new (“Glen Maxey is straight,” maybe?), and this is the best you can do?
Best Self-Defense Instruction
A reader says “informative, realistic, thorough, serious-minded, supportive, depth-breadth of instruction.” Whew.
Best Subculture Store
Our source says (yeah, right): “I only go there to buy American Spirits — for my friends.” An Austin institution, helping us move onward as the fog grows thicker.
Best Out Of Town Drive
Admittedly, there are numerous Hill Country drives whose grand scenic charms are breathtaking, but this one is a particular favorite. Stopping at a scenic overlook, one is reminded that many of the best things about Texas are big, and here the view is as grand as the mythic allure of the American west. Taking this…
Best Guide To Your Seat
If you’re standing in the theatre aisle, staring at that ticket stub and wondering where “H-22” could possibly be, and a sweet voice asks if she can help, chances are it’s Wanda Sommers. She ushers at theatres all over town – the Paramount, Capitol City Playhouse, Zachary Scott, you name it – and has for…
Best Family Dance Bar
It’s a straightforward place. At one end of the building is a pool table. At the other is the dance floor and a small stage. In between is the bar, which offers only cold beer and set-ups. In every other available space, tables and chairs are crammed with couples out on a Saturday night. Couples…
Best Place To Impress A Date
Maybe your heart’s desire can still be won with a burger and fries. But if you’re past voting age, we recommend Chez Nous’s crevettes au safran (shrimp sauteed with sun-dried tomatoes and white wine), accompanied by pomme du fin, the French version of potato puffs – although only the crassest of boors would suggest a…
Best Kids Clothing (resale)
Cheshire has the best selection of eclectic women’s, maternity, and children’s clothing, and some toys — you can get lost treasure hunting. A con-signment store, it buys some used items.
Best Friend We’ll Miss On The Radio In The Morning
It’s not just that Kevin Connor is our friend; to many KGSR listeners who’d never even met him, he felt just as much like their friend too. We’re in no position to judge why Connor’s contract with the station wasn’t renewed, nor do we wish to slight local radio veteran Ed Mayberry, who has now…
Best Cove In The County
Climb down the rocks to the calm waters of Davis Cove and float your cares away as you admire the beautiful Central Texas scenery. Picnic tables dot the area, making it a great place for small get-togethers and overnight camping spaces. $5 per carload ($10 overnight).
Best Non-alcoholic Drink
We are sitting at one of the lime-green tables outside Seis Salsas next to another lime-green table of people who are beginning to feel good. For their next round, they are ordering frozen and not, salted and without. When our drinks come – tall glasses of pastel pink and orange garnished with glistening slices of…
Best Chorizo Migas
Roumaldo Hernandez and Robert Martinez are brothers-in-law of that chef who dare not speak his name, Jorge Arrendondo. After working with Jorge for many years, the brothers opened their own place last month and have already secured a star in our personal heaven on the strength of their outstanding chorizo migas. Breakfast is served all…
Best Tattooist
Not just for the social deviant any more, tattoos are popping up on everyone from young professionals to housewives. But choosing an artist to permanently attach a work of art to the appendage of your choice should be carefully considered. Touted by internationally acclaimed tattooist Rollo Banks as “really the only one in Austin worth…
Best One-stop Beer Selection
The Whip In’s long wall of beer coolers are stocked with a global selection of lagers, ales, porters, stouts, and ciders, and their frequent specials and knowledgable sales help can take you into a world beyond the dubious pleasures of Coors Light. You can also usually purchase pint pub glasses, pilsner glasses, mugs, and other…
Best Used Computer Store
If you’re broke, like we usually are, and you’ve been wondering if you’ll ever get any use out of that old IBM-compatible computer you picked up at a garage sale, talk to Carl Whisenandt at ACR Computers. ACR specializes in upgrading PCs on the cheap. Financially embarrassed techies who find that they aren’t ready to…
Coming Out Under Fire
Coming Out Under Fire 1994, NR, 71 min. Directed by Arthur Dong, Narrated by Salome Jens, Voices by , Starring . Coming Out Under Fire is a 71-minute-long documentary about homosexuality in the U.S. military during World War II. The research is based on a book of the same title by Allan Bérubé, who co-wrote…
Best Gay Bar
Described by one patron as a Hyatt Regency lounge meets an airport bar, Harry’s is the place to find boys in starched everything.
Best Place To Meet People
Interesting tie: let your fingers do the dancing on a bulletin board (the meat market of the info highway), or unleash your Penté-up romanticism whilst swigging down wheatgrass shots.
Best Comic
What makes Kerry mad, dammit? Well, start with anatomically incorrect Ken dolls and run with it. As for Shannon (see Best Actress), she cries a river of laughing tears regularly at Esther’s.
Best Wine Selection (Retail)
There is something to be said for a list that extends beyond “Red, White, and Pink.” Frequent bargains and a selection that can inspire oenophiles to stock the cellar.
Best Open-air Market
If you carrot all about peas on earth, shopping here might produce it.
Best Children’s Musician
He can lift you up with his elevator song or bring you down with the tune of the sad cow (moo-hoo!).
Best Public Access TV Show
Previous winner CapZeyeZ is joined by its creator’s other show, Raw Time, maybe because host Dave Prewitt never talks down to the callers or the music. Both shows have been among the most consistent sources for breaking new bands, local and otherwise.
Best Camping & Outdoor Gear
Camping is no longer a bed-roll and a tarp. Here’s a place to see how far into the future going back to the woods has come.
Best Softball Field
Perennial winner and home to 12 fields, Krieg’s diamonds are our reader’s best friends.
Best Texas Legislator
Glengarry, Glen Maxey: the true tale of a community guy fighting the evil forces of Proposition 22 and MoKan.
Best Shoe Repair
Dare we say tongues are a-wagging not only about the service but the persistence – they won’t let you forget to pick up your “new” shoes.
Best Jewelry(costume)/Jewelry(real)
A bead store by any other name… Actually it’s so much more, including woodwork, pottery, and custom-crafted jewelry.
Best Thrift Store
For the daring, the thrifty, the Cobain-worshippers (racks of flannel), and the one or two semi-employed citizens of this town. Their selection can keep you browsing for hours.
Best Place To (intelligently) Develop
With the strain of urban sprawl already tainting the greater Austin area – where it seems like every major roadway is starting to feel like Burnet Road – and faceless housing subdivisions resemble Anywhere, USA, the compact city philosophy urges us to look inward. Downtown Austin still has many open spaces left from the purge…
Best Home Improvement Loans For Dancers
For less money than a real home improvement loan, Austin dancers can take part in Dance Umbrella’s New Choreography Project and add a wing to their creative homes. NCP dancers go through an intensive week-long program guided by a visiting choreographer, who offers each one coaching and guidance on a specific piece. The information they…
Best Frozen Drink
In a town awash with frozen alcohol concoctions, our new favorite has to be The 612. A frosty delight rumored to contain vodka, rum, tropical fruit liqueurs, and fruit juices, it’s a glorious antidote to the blast furnace we call summer. Very close competitors in this category were the seductive Mango Daquiri at Manuel’s, the…
Best Post-Show Rock Critic Hangout
We gripe about the long waits. We complain about the slacker-style wait service (read: pleasant, but slow). At least one of us had apoplexy when they went non-smoking. But we always head to Kerbey Lane Central for the smoked chicken tacos, the chipotle chicken plate, the daily pancake special, and the endless rounds of coffee…
Best Kids’ Section We’ve Needed For A Long Time
Though not primarily a children’s bookstore, owner Rosalind Oliphant has stocked it with intelligent and impressive literature for children, especially African-American authors. Adults will also find plenty to occupy their time, too; Folk-tales stocks posters, t-shirts, and cards.
Best Investigative Series
We know she’s won practically every other award for advocacy and journalism she could possibly get, including The Stanley Walker Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, The Anson Jones Award from the Texas Medical Association, and the Jim Neubacher Award from the Detroit Free Press, among others, but we’re not going to be left…
Best Eastside Weekend Afternoon Hang Out
Head east on either Cesar Chavez or Holly and make a right on Chicon. This will quickly put you in the vicinity of Chicano Park, a park and picnic area on Town Lake just down river from the I-35 bridge, a lively strip where mini-trucks and lowriders mingle with early evening birthday parties. Barney piñatas…
Best Place To Celeberity Watch
With cheap beer and a great jukebox, Lovejoy’s has quickly become the hangout for Emo’s clientele looking to avoid live music. It’s also become the place that visiting celebrities can go without being bothered – basically because nobody cares that they’re there. The exception is already an Austin legend: the unlikely sight of Timothy Leary,…
Best Customer Complaint Response
A quick burger lunch at Holiday House’s drive-thru window one Friday turned into Nightmare on Airport Boulevard. Never ones to shrink at confrontation, we complained mightily to a machine recording at their business offices. Lo and behold, the restaurant owner and real estate king Ralph Moreland responded personally with a prompt phone call, an apology,…
Best Tenant Lawyer
Since the tide has once again turned, the momentum belonging to the landlord rather than the renter, a good lawyer comes in handy. For years, when asked for a good tenant’s attorney, we’ve automatically recommended Greenstein. Once a friend was surprised, because another trusted source had recommended a different lawyer, Thomas Kolker. It turned out…
Best Outdoor Shopping
There is something so quintessentially Austin about this open-air fresh juice market at the corner of South Congress and Academy. Fruit and vegetable juices are made fresh daily. On weekends, you’ll also see flower vendors, jewelry, and the occasional rummage sale. Stop by at the right time and you’ll even find upper-body massages offered in…
Most Laid-back Lumberyard
Ordering wood from these guys is so civilized. There’s no elbowing around at the contractor’s sales counter, trying to catch the eye of some dispirited salesman who doesn’t know wolmanized from womanized. You get to sit down at someone’s desk and calmly discuss your needs: “100 finger-jointed studs, please.” “Would you like eights or tens…
Clear and Present Danger
Clear and Present Danger 1994, PG-13, 141 min. Directed by Phillip Noyce, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, James Earl Jones, Joaquim De Almeida, Donald Moffat. There is a point in Clear and Present Danger where the president (Donald Moffat), while grousing about the drug problem, mutters, “Just…
Best Happy Hour Drinks
Hmmm – go to El Arroyo, get loaded under the trees and come up with your own silly political messages you’d like to see on the mobile sign or imbibe freely at Trudy’s and ponder the hot sauce recipes.
Best Downtown Building (New)
Neon high in the sky and a sunken plaza with fountain help make this building one of downtown’s prime office structures.
Best Dance Company
More than a tap company (“Jazzestry” doesn’t have the same ring), they move with style to any beat: hip-hop, salsa, blues.
Best All You Can Eat
To echo a Marion Winik complaint: you can’t get good Yankee pizza in Texas. But you can get plenty of Texas pizza at this buffet.
Best Oriental Bowl Of Noodles
The restaurant of choice for many of our staff, with some of the finest phó in town. Use your noodle and look deeeep into your bowl.
Best Children’s Resale Clothing
When you’re between paychecks and Gap Kids is out of the question.
Best Radio Format Change
Turn and face the… all-talk format of KVET, and the romping-stomping monster rock at Z-Rock.
Best Day Hike
One breathless rider asserts, “It’s a total adventure to me, and there’s a real sense of community – people always stop to help each other out.” Whether on two feet or two wheels, this slice of nature is an inner-city Eden.
Best Sporting Goods Store
Wanna try before you buy? The Super store has rollerblade and basketball test areas, a batting cage, and (seasonally) a ski hill.
Best Alterations
A new suit, only a short time, and Ace will send you away with a flawlessly fitting new suit, always in time. Friendly services and expert work are the mark of this repeat winner.
Best Adult Bookstore
Oh, naïve and fragile lovers, don’t let the billboard fool ya — this is no astrology supply store. But if you’re gonna buy erotica, do it at a place where your shoes don’t stick to the floor.
Best Leather Works
These chaps will be glad to custom-make your cowboy leg covers, billfolds, belts, and mocs. For boots or saddles, though, you’ll have to mosey elsewhere.
Best Toy Store For Grown-ups
Readers simply Lava their lamps. Great jewelry, watches, and little Shriners, too.
Best Place To Build An Underground Garage
More often than not we’re annoyed at the sight of a concrete car mausoleum rising up in the middle of nowhere like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, we’re not opposed to ’em being sunk underground. We like this idea for the city of Bee Caves in particular, because we wouldn’t want to…
Best In Your Face Poet (in 2 Languages No Less)
In a roomful of weary judges and noisily mumbling competitors at the MTV spoken word competition this spring, Gomez managed to shut them all up and make them pay attention. She didn’t place, but she made an impression, and shortly thereafter, at the SXSW spoken word showcase, Gomez distinguished herself again, this time in a…
Best Fried Green Tomatoes
We can’t get enough of these tasty morsels and we never fail to ask for them if we’re here at suppertime. Maybe it’s the seasoned breading, the tangy tomato flavor, or the cold beer to wash them down. Maybe it’s all the above and the fact that we don’t have to fry them ourselves.
Best Reason Not To Eat Store-Bought Tomatoes
Any day at the 21 Austin Community Gardens locations some industrious gardener’s bumper crop could mean locally grown goodies for the right barter. Call 458-2009 to see where to post your “tomatoes wanted” flyer and what you can trade. (South Austin Farmers Market also has ripe, juicy ones grown right here in town.)
Best Nostalgia Burger Place To Take The Kids
If you’re sick of drive-thru mega-chain fast food places with the McFluff and the McHype, and thinking that the good old days of driving up to the burger stand, walking up to the window, and ordering hamburgers, fries, a brown cow, and a malt are over, think again. Have the kids hop into the car…
Best Media Feud
Though we’re never truly surprised by anything political reporter Chris Walters might do, we were taken somewhat aback by his recent attack on KASE-KVET morning talk show host Sammy Allred, accusing the longtime local radio star (and Chronicle favorite) of being a “liar” and a “bully.” And though we weren’t surprised that Allred immediately responded…
Best Example Of “When Life Gives You A Lemon, Make Lemonade
When Treaty Oak was intentionally poisoned in 1989, an international outpouring of help, prayers, and gifts pulled the centuries-old tree through the crisis. But not before it was disfigured by dead limbs that had to be cut away. Through the efforts of John Giedraitis, Austin’s City Forester, the amputated branches live on through works of…
Best Place To Open A Hip Bar
In a city filled with great clubs, there’s a notable paucity of true neighborhood bars, which, like it or not, are part of the social glue that binds American communities. And one part of town in dire need of a neighborhood bar – and we mean bar, with a giant TV over a long bar,…
Best Emulation Of Ben & Jerry
With the imminent debut of Threadgill’s Pecan Pie ice cream via the Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream company, Eddie Wilson, original mastermind of the Armadillo World Headquarters and now the owner of Threadgill’s, is now poised with the ideal product to become a post-hippie cultural icon for the Nineties. Given the charm of the low-tech commercials…
Best Accupuncturist
Why is Dee Ann Newbold our acupuncturist of choice? She’s friendly and helpful, has a beautiful office with big windows overlooking Pease Park, and treats everything from our mother’s sciatica to our nagging coughs and allergies to friends’ back pain and chronic illness — all this while employing “pain-free” acupuncture. Dee Ann emphasizes self-therapy for…
Best Transmission Repair
Like death and taxes, part of the joy of owning a car or truck is knowing that if you hang onto it long enough, eventually the transmission will go out. Transmission repair can be costly, and if you get a cheap, poorly done job, it can end up costing more in the long run. Ike…
Best Place For A Second Wheatsville
Nearby residents are rightly chafed at losing their Whole Foods Market, which will close when the new North Lamar and 6th Street location opens. But one market’s mistake could be another one’s opportunity, and with South Lamar losing both AppleTree and Whole Foods, who better to fill the gap than Wheatsville Food Co-op?
Most Truly General Store
The most surprising thing about this cramped little store is the amount of stuff that has been crammed inside. Four tiny aisles and a generous display case hold an amazing variety that would be usually found only in a small-town general store, at a flea market, or at an herbalist’s convention. There were herbs tacked…
Wheels on Meals
Wheels on Meals 1984, NR, 100 min. Directed by Samo Hung, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Samo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Herb Edelman, Lola Forner, Richard Ng, Wu Ma. Despite its mind-bogglingly goofy title, this 1984 comedy-adventure from longtime Chan cohort Hung works to good effect, never allowing itself to become too…
Best Happy Hour Entertainment
Because, as one source puts it, “You can go in there in the afternoon and it feels like the middle of the night.” Where else can you see talent the caliber of Toni Price or the Blues Specialists every week before the sun goes down?
Best Downtown Building (Old)
So what if you can’t actually get in the joint until January? You can still check out what’s up with construction at the Capitol Complex Visitor’s Center (they have a video), or marvel at the natural lighting in the capitol extension underground.
Best Dance Space
Think globally, dance locally in Bass Hall, or enjoy a homegrown whirled piece at Synergy.
Best Bakery
How do they get that fine cinnamon sugar coating on the outside of gooey Danish dough cinnamon rolls without burning them?
Best Outdoor Patio
The classic cartoons shown at night are great but for a real thrill, take the vibrating beeper the hostess hands you and use your imagination.
Best Children’s Shoe Store
Aspiring Imelda Marcoses must trot their wee peds right on down to this land o’ shoes.
Best Radio Show
John Aeilli proves that you can follow opera with alternative, and get people to listen to live interviews with local folks.
Best Day Trip
Good morning, Austin, are you ready to roooock? Tune in, turn on, rock out. But get there early if it’s solace you seek.
Best Swimming Hole
Turk Pipkin says Barton Springs eternal, and he’s never wrong. For long laps, short wading, or just a cooling splash, the Springs are Austin’s wettest treasure.
Best Appliance/Tv Repair
Sure they’re good, but don’t let the name fool you: they won’t tow your broken-down washer in off the side of some dirt road. Short of that, you can count on them.
Best Antiques
Another ’93 winner continues to maintain reader adoration, in this case for classy (not kitschy) antiques, incredible stuff, and old architectural wonders.
Best Lingerie Shop
Oh, yeah. Big secret, Victoria. No one ever pays attention to a woman who spends her life sashaying around in lace panties.
Best Used Book Store
Recycling isn’t just for plastic, paper, and glass. Take those books you’ve read and trade them for more you want to read.
Best Place To Call In A Demolition Crew
As you cruise south into Austin on the Interstate, and the highway divides between the lower local lanes and the through traffic skydeck, a barrier is created, one that reflects the city’s most shameful division – between primarily white West Austin and black and Hispanic East Austin. To compound the crime, it’s also an ugly,…
Best Living Room Gallery
Speaking of art openings, if you haven’t yet attended one at this South Austin space, do. You won’t know what hit you. To call yourself “alternative” in Austin is really assuming a lot, but how else to describe the art scene this gallery attracts? Too active to be slackers, too interesting to be hippies -…
Best Gai Lan
Are you tired of broccoli with garlic sauce? Or spinach with oyster sauce? In other words, all the standard variations of cancer-retarding vegetables we stuff down our gullets to stay healthy? Try this dish – tangy deep green leaves lightly stir-fried with garlic. It could become a weekly prescription.
Best Sex Food
No, no, not the kind that are shaped into, well, you know. Dr. Chocolate (who moved over by Central Market) has the most exquisite chocolate-dipped strawberries, which some of us consider aphrodisiac (smear them on your lover’s lips and kiss it off). Think chocolate-dipped strawberries are passé? The good Dr. also has chocolate-dipped blueberries to…
Best Place To Buy Resale Uniforms
Cub Scout, Little League, Campfire, and soccer uniforms can make considerable dents in the family budget — unless you head for the Junior League Thrift Shop. A friend recently picked up a mint-condition Brownie shirt for a quarter, and word has it that they just received a shipment of new soccer socks — which may…
Best Message From An Alternative Medium
“Flies cause AIDS, keep yours zipped” and similarly outrageous observations on contemporary topics enliven the day for commuters who take time to read the sign as they head east on 5th Street.
Best Happy Hour
The Hike and Bike Trail may be more trendy and popular, but there are few better ways to cap a long day at work than a dip in the magical waters of Barton Springs Pool. In the evening hours, the pool is never overcrowded, and it draws Austinites from across the board: youngsters and oldsters,…
Best Polka Radio Programming
KTAE-AM 1260 in Taylor has the enviable distinction of playing the most polka music of any station you can pick up in Austin: seven-and-a-half hours every week (11am-noon Monday-Saturday and 1-2pm Sunday). Since 1981, from 8:30-8am on Saturday, Taylor accordionist and Czech Danny Drozd breaks out his squeezebox to play polkas, waltzes, country, swing -…
Best Farmers Market
Do you know where your next meal is coming from? You do if you buy your fruits and vegetables at the South Austin Farmer’s Market, the only local market that requires vendors to have grown everything they sell. At other markets, you might be taking home produce from California, Mexico, or who knows where. Here,…
Best Alternative Birthing Place
The ABC is the best place around to have a baby naturally — drug free, with or without family and friends. The top-notch nursery staff guide folks through the birthing process and make childbirth as comfortable as it can possibly be. And unlike a home birth, if there are any complications with mom or baby,…
Best Used Car Insurance
These mobile mechanics will come to the used car you’re thinking of buying and perform a thorough inspection, and then give you a detailed report on what’s right, what’s wrong, and what it might cost to fix the problems. For only $68, it’s a wise investment when shopping for a used car — they come…
Best Place For Kitchen Gadgets
There is really an embarrassment of riches in this category — Williams-Sonoma, the Cadeau, Butterfield’s… But Breed & Co. is our favorite place to indulge in a fit of the “wants.” We love browsing in the aisles among the cherry pitters, pastry bags, paté molds, cookie cutters, cookware, glassware, and dishes. It’s centrally located, there’s…
Best of Austin 1994
Introduction These are the winners of the 1994 Best of Austin polls, as originally printed in the Austin Chronicle, August 5, 1994. The Awards are split into two distinct categories, the Readers’ Poll and the Chronicle Critics’ Picks. The Readers’ Poll: Ballots for the Readers’ Poll were printed in three separate issues of the Chronicle,…
It Could Happen to You
It Could Happen to You 1994, PG, 101 min. Directed by Andrew Bergman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Wendell Pierce, Isaac Hayes. Generous to a fault. That’s what the makers of this endearing comedy want us to believe its two lead characters are: a courageous, helpful, Big…
Best Happy Hour Food
It’s nacho usual crappy hour buffet at Chuy’s (they even have ground sirloin, amigo), or perhaps you can join the hotel and business crowd munching down at Tangerine’s (some nights on Italian food, others on Mexican, others American, etc.).
Best Graffiti/Mural
Carlos Lowry’s extraordinary work endures, saved by an intense letter-writing campaign and a locally sensitive chain store.
Best Library
Gee, talk about rocking that vote – it was awfully close with the Christian Science Reading Room. But seriously, the public library isn’t just for books. It’s also magazines, videos, recordings, and much more.
Best Bakery, Bread
A loaf of heaven for just over a buck. Our source says, “Mommy, that’s good bread. Can I have some more?”
Best Place To Impress Out-of-towners
The weak-tongued visitors will take heart that tame burgers are an option over enchiladas – and the sunset view will please all.
Best Children’s Video Selection
This just in: the French dubbed Return of Jafar with English subtitles for beginning readers everywhere.
Best Radio Station
If music were a city it would be Austin. If Austin were a radio station, you might call it KGSR.
Best Disc Golf Course
Particularly pleasing for the exhibitionist tosser of the non-compact disc – passing cars provide plenty of audience.
Best Tennis Courts
Central location, good pro-shop, and you can bonk passing frat-daddies in the head with a well-pla… er… misplaced lob.
Best Carpenter
Wooden ya know it? Another repeat from ’93.
Best Art Supplies
Chosen by those with discriminating palettes.
Best Liquor Store
Absolut(e) ambience. Great wine offerings and a knowledgeable staff, and every kinda hooch you can imagine.
Best Vintage Clothing
Flying high above the categorical competition — a place to get lost in the mysteries of retro-threads.
Best Place To Put In A Casino
If, as is likely, the Holly Power Plant closes, the question then becomes: what to do with the site? It’s a lovely riverside location adjacent to parkland, convenient to downtown, in an area needing an economic boost. So if riverboat gambling is going to come to our city, why not here? Are we kidding? Maybe,…
Best Local Comedy Channel
Since local government often feels like the Peter Principle in action, let’s get past the ire and anguish the actions of our city and county officials sometimes inspire and revel in the sweet absurdity of it all. Howl at the stupid questions and dumb answers, giggle at the pretensions, guffaw at the incompetence, chuckle at…
Best Healthy Barbeque
For starters, there’s the organically fed, chemical-free beef from which they make their succulent chopped beef, brisket, and ribs. But that’s just one of the reasons to love Ruby’s. How ’bout those toothsome smoked chickens, fresh salads, Cajun specialties, righteous skins-on hash browns, and killer desserts (not to mention the new breakfasts by Steve Chaney…
Best Sidewalk Cafe
Fearing that downtown might become too “Paris-like” (which we translate as charming, colorful, and memorable) the city bureaucracy and the Landmark Commission have successfully conspired to outlaw sidewalk cafes on Congress Avenue. But by putting their tables on a patio set back from the avenue’s sidewalk, Hickory Street has managed to retain the only outdoor…
Best Place To Buy Used Children’s Books
Great selection, terrific prices, and a good cause. Relics from your childhood can be rediscovered and shared with your little ones. Consider donating your old books to make room for the new treasures you’ll find and bring home.
Best Morning Radio Voice
As she does the weather, time and station identification announcements for KUT-FM, weekdays between 5am and 8am, Ferguson subtly, improbably suggests Lauren Bacall saying hello from the next pillow. Ferguson also hosts “Femme FM” from 9-11pm Saturdays on the same station.
Best Outdoor Shower
If we had all the time in the world, we would spend half of it at Barton Springs and the other half in the women’s dressing room at Barton Springs. There’s a skinny blond woman nude sunbathing in the grass; we can’t tell if she’s 24 or 44. Then there’s a gaggle of girls whose…
Best Reincarnated Conjunto Bar
Located catty corner from the famed Cisco’s Bakery, La India Bonita (The Pretty Indian Maiden) is a spruced-up conjunto joint that occupies the building which housed the legendary La Esquina Lounge. With a peppy new green exterior paint job and a walled-in and windowed back porch, La India Bonita is La Esquina with a hard-working…
Best Fast Chinese Food
Admittedly, proximity to Chronicle headquarters was a factor in this award. But at least three of our editors – whose Chinese food standards were set, respectively, in the Chinatowns of Honolulu, San Francisco, and New York – make this a regular lunch option, and for good reason. While the dishes may not be adventurous, they’re…
Best Body Mechanic
Hey, want to change your life? Or at least have a shot at recapturing the easy, carefree way you used to move in your body before desk jobs, the wrong shoes, soft beds, and a bad attitude cramped your style? Call Dena Roberts and get Rolfed. First, she’ll sit you down and hear your tale…
Best Veterinarian
Dr. Biehle has removed tape from their eyes, sewn up their wounds, and healed their little souls. Working in the trenches of Austin’s cat torture zone in the Brykerwood neighborhood area, he has saved many a life in the small animal kingdom, and has been pretty nice to their human companions, too.
Best Place To Buy An Old Stove
Mama used to say, “Cookin’ lasts longer than lookin’,” but you’ll be able to do both handily with one of these old beauties. Appliance Associates has working vintage stoves in all shapes and sizes, each possessing little details (Built-in salt and pepper shakers! A griddle in the middle! The Grill-i-Vator!) that give each its own…
Fear of a Black Hat
Fear of a Black Hat 1994. Directed by Rusty Cundieff, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rusty Cundieff, Kasi Lemmons, Kurt Loder. Writer-director Rusty Cundieff’s first feature (he co-scripted House Party II) seems much in the same spirited vein of comedy mockumentaries as This is Spinal Tap and The Rutles. This time, the focus…
Best Jukebox
One features the Buzzcocks and Tony Bennett, the other features Hank Williams and Talking Heads. You figure it out.
Best Historic Structure
So what if you can’t actually get in the joint until January? You can still check out what’s up with construction at the Capitol Complex Visitor’s Center (they have a video), or marvel at the natural lighting in the capitol extension underground.
Best Photographer (art)
Pogue never misses a photo op – you should have seen him shooting those flowery Annie Sprinkle closeups. Chronicle readers know him best for his relentless coverage of city hall.
Best Bakery, Pastries
How do they get that fine cinnamon sugar coating on the outside of gooey Danish dough cinnamon rolls without burning them?
Best Quick Lunch
One has bargain Mexican offerings via drive-thru, while the other has super subs. Bonus: both offer the most palatable over-the-counter hangover remedies.
Best Place To Have A B-day Party
For something like six bucks a kid, you can kick back, let the monsters raise a little hell, and, get this: you don’t have to clean up.
Best Radio Station To Listen To At Work
If music were a city it would be Austin. If Austin were a radio station, you might call it KGSR.
Best Fishing Hole
Say, fella, that’s a mighty big hole yer fishin’ in.
Best Use Of Natural/Native Landscaping
Just remember – they like the plants natural and exposed and the kids discreetly attired (adults too, but we didn’t test them…).
Best Criminal Lawyer
When you absolutely must pass go and collect $200.
Best Audio Equipment
Our source says, “Go in knowing what you want and you will get a deal.”
Best Lumber
And, of course, every possible conceivable item with which to slice, dice, julienne, decorate, or construct said lumber.
Best Western Wear Store
Even clothes sacks are bigger in Texas — witness the acre upon acre o’ cowpeople stuff here.
Best Scenic View Of Downtown
There are many lovely vistas of our city center from the hills west of town, but few match the glorious warmth and proximity of the view from the Zilker Clubhouse, especially at night. From the patio, the neon-lit skyscrapers glisten like jewels, seeming so close you can almost reach out to touch them. Town Lake…
Best Monologuist
We all talk about ourselves, but how many of us do it and make our experiences lyrical, illuminating, the stuff of drama? Steve Tomlinson does. For years, this UT Economics professor has been performing vivid monologues molded from his life for tiny crowds around town. Last year, he broke through to a larger audience with…
Best Huevos Borrachos
Literally, Huevos Borrachos means drunken eggs or eggs cooked in beer. What arrives at your table are eggs scrambled with onions, jalapeños, and tomatoes with no gooey cheese trying to disguise stale corn tortilla strips. Come on, leave those tired migas behind. Or at least give them a rest.
Best Smoky Room
In this new age of prohibition, cigarette smokers find themselves with few choices when it comes to dining out, with cigar smokers even more hard-pressed for a safe haven. Smoking speakeasies – private clubs for smokers only – will no doubt soon be popping up downtown. Until then, the cigar room at Louie’s 106 offers…
Best Place To Have A Birthday Party
We don’t really advocate emulating Michael Jackson in any way, but there is something special about having your birthday in an amusement park. And while the Magic Kingdom it’s not, Kiddie Acres is Austin’s closest thing: It’s a lot cheaper and the lines are much shorter. K.A. guides shepherd the revelers from ride to ride…
Best Name Change
Perhaps no one at the Federal Communications Commission realized that the new call letters they had just issued for the University of Texas’ student radio station invoked this institution’s most hated rival, Texas A&M. The gaffe, however, hardly went unnoticed in Austin. A few threatening letters and phone calls later, KANM had quietly gained authorization…
Best Palm Grove
Thirty-six sleek, moppy-headed palms have migrated to the end of Hudson Bend to gather around this new marina/restaurant. Word has it that ten more are on their way.
Best Rising From The Ashes
Not even a year old but already one of Austin’s prime sites for the alternative music crowd, the Electric Lounge suddenly burned down this past February just before SXSW. While owners Jay Hughey and Mark Shuman carried on through the shindig as the Electric Lounge Revival Tent, it took less than three months for the…
Best Flan
We concur with countless Austin restaurateurs who feature this definitive caramel custard made by the local Flan Queen. More exotic flavors include chocolate Kahlua, pecan cream cheese, and pumpkin, which many folks have made their holiday dessert of choice. ¡Estamos encantados!
Best Bug Exterminator
Kitty Kestenbaum is one terrific oxymoron — an exterminator who hates pesticides, uses them only as a last resort, and then only the least toxic. Her m.o. is to show you how to make the bugs lose interest in your home or your kids’ schools. It’s basic stuff like caulking, cleaning, fixing leaks or drainage…
Best Washer / Dryer Repair
Okay, so our appliances are old, the parts wear out, and we don’t have the money to buy new ones. On the other hand, calling someone we’re not really sure knows much more than we do about appliance repair and charges by the hour, leaves us wondering if there’s a better way to go about…
Best Place To Buy Electric Incense
After a quick two-step at City Slickers… or savoring a delicious bowl of phó at Kim Phung’s… or checking out your favorite selection of Asian cinema at Tien Video… it’s nice to know that there’s an Oriental market nearby to meet your electric incense, porcelain Buddha, or Asian food needs. One of the largest markets…
Foreign Student
Foreign Student 1994, R, 90 min. Directed by Eva Sereny, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robin Givens, Marco Hofschneider, Rick Johnson, Charlotte Ross, Jack Coleman, Charles S. Dutton. In the fall of 1956, Phillippe (Hofschneider) is given his “chance of a lifetime” to leave Paris and go to Asheland-Stuart University in Virginia for…
Best Margaritas
Readers who voted B.A. the flavorite plead no contest to a-salt and flattery in a (triple) sec. (We’re not lime to you, folks.)
Best Hotel
Excellent location, heated pool, a fully staffed and equipped health club, and the city’s most abundant brunch are among the amenities which have made this the preferred destination of the expense-account set.
Best Place To Hear Poetry
It’s intimate / It’s very nice / The place to be / If words be your vice
Best Barbecue
Rumor has it Spielberg purchased those ribs you see at the end of The Flintstones right here in Austin. The place to throw yourself a barbecued bone.
Best Restaurant With A View
The weak-tongued visitors will take heart that tame burgers are an option over enchiladas – and the sunset view will please all.
Best Playscape
We sort of miss playing the war zone game now that the fence is down, but we can’t deny that there are lots of cool options.
Best Radio Talk Show Host
Rehabilitated and re-ideologized, the increasingly conservative Pryor has everyone listening to him. Some fume, some swoon, some just “rush” along, but all the same, somebody is listening.
Best Golf Course
Politically incorrect, but there’s no denying that it’s a course on par with the best, even if the Legends went west.
Best Volleyball Court
Voters refuse to rotate this decision – Aussie’s served up the winning court last year, too.
Best Dry Cleaner
A long-established Austin dry cleaning tradition, with locations all over town. And for those with no plasma left to sell, J.B. will also buy the Levi’s off your butt.
Best Bookstore
Okay, so the discount card saves you money — but every time you go in the place you buy 40 books.
Best Music Business
Sure, great music and instrument selection, but just as impressive is the fact that, flood after flood, they stay put. Row, row, row your piano gently down Shoal Creek.
Best Architectural Make-over
Changing the gaudy old American Bank Tower to a “disappear-into-the-sky” blue. The building’s move from amber to azure glass provides a fine new reflection on the Austin skyline.
Best Style Clash
Lemens’ tiny building juts out from the much, much larger Clements Building that houses the Attorney General and staff, because owner Vernon Lemens would not yield to development pressure in the Eighties. The contrast between the modest brick structure and the overwrought postmodern monolith behind it perfectly symbolizes what went wrong during the previous real…
Best Neighborhood Theatre
Okay, Hyde Park is pretty much the only neighborhood theatre in town, but it fits so snugly into its residential community and adds so much to it, the theatre stands as a model for neighborhood theatres to come. Owner/manager Eva Paloheimo doesn’t produce the work there, but she ensures that it engages audiences with a…
Best Huevos Con Queso
This bright, sunny, little cafe, usually filled with families and regulars who chat with each other across the tables, is the home of the con queso breakfast ($4.95), consisting of two eggs any style smothered with chili con queso and served with carne guisada. Also recommended for its stellar breakfast tacos and really hot picante…
Best Thin Crust Pizza
The great pizza debate is an ongoing battle at the Chronicle, so you can bet that any pizza-related “Best Of” will never be unanimous. But Brick Oven’s thin-crust pie gets its due this year, if only because good brick- and stone-oven pizza ranks high in any pizza fanatic’s pantheon. Offering that critical mix of crunchiness…
Best Spur Of The Moment Field Trip
If you haven’t taken your kids to the neighborhood fire station, you’re missing a great field trip. We all know that firefighters are hired for their fitness, courage, and resistance to acrophobia but we’ve never met a firefighter who wasn’t great with kids. On a single visit to the station, kids can get close-up views…
Best Place To See Local Music Without Leaving Home
It was for so long a good idea that we never thought would find fruition. And now we’re happy to admit that we were wrong. In its test run, the Austin Music Network (AMN) has already proven its value and its quality. Even though their programming has been basically limited to what’s already available, they’ve…
Best Place For Hot Dogs
No, no, not hot dogs. Hot. Dogs. We’ve learned it’s a dog’s world at the spillway downstream from Barton Springs Pool. On one Saturday afternoon there, we counted over 20 dogs fetching, swimming, sniffing each other… you know. Yes, there is supposed to be a leash law at the park, so bring one about 20-30’…
Best Sledgehammer Float
Admittedly, it’s not for everyone (Nick Nolte downs one in Cannery Row), but there is something about a Texas-made scoop of Blue Bell vanilla in a glass of locally brewed Sledgehammer Stout that screams, “Nowhere but Austin!” After a few, you’ll be screaming, too.
Best Place To Ponder Our Relationship With Nature
Barton Creek’s been largely dry since last fall, so there are no crowds at Twin Falls this summer. It’s just as well. We ride our bikes up and down the Greenbelt and the falls are a good place to jump off and cool down. We’re not the only ones who think so. By 10am, families…
Best Carpet Cleaning
We’ve been taking our dirty rugs here for years and never cease to be amazed by the miracles Deep Eddy performs on them. Let Deep Eddy work their magic on your carpets — Aladdin would be proud.
Best Wedding Band
In lieu of hiring Sinatra to croon at your nuptials — who among us can afford the Chairman of the Board, the bard of true romance, to play a wedding? — the Lucky Strikes are the next best thing for bringing that classic American sense of musical romance to the most important day of your…
Best Place To Buy Into The Austin Underground
The future of Austin music can be found right now at this feisty “mom and pop” store (as the industry calls ’em) on the Drag. Offering the most complete selection of alternative music releases from our own scene, as well as a broad selection from the world over, Sound Exchange has its finger on the…
Best Theatre Company
Every week for nearly 20 years, this cast of dozens has managed to transform into a cast of thousands of comic characters both real and fictional – one finger on the pulse of Austin while another strokes the funny bone.
Best Movie Theatre Concession Stand
Along with the popcorn and other standard fare, Dobie offers healthy candies and snacks, specialty coffees, and other goodies you don’t expect from a Jujube vendor.
Best Indoor Mall
When was the last time you said “To hell with P.C., I’m going down to the mall to buy clothes and slurp down a big ol’ Orange Julius!” Stores large and small plus a great view of downtown from the parking lot almost make you forget the controversy.
Best Stage Director
At the helm of the Austin Lyric Opera, McClain has ignited a passion for musical spectacle that has ALO selling out performances and central Texans calling for encores.
Best Caterer
Yes, with little mobile sign centerpieces available for your tables (politically questionable slogans extra). Do they bring the deck and trees along?
Best Salsa (Locally Made)
It has been suggested that this is God’s salsa of choice, and although Her ballot isn’t here yet, we won’t argue.
Best Swimming Spot
What’s it all about? Algae. More butt-bruising fun than any store-bought Slip’n’Slide.
Best Rush Hour Radio Program
All things considered, we have to agree.
Best Inexpensive Date
Both are cooler, cheaper, and much more entertaining than watching your window unit attempt to heat up a creaky old uninsulated house.
Best City Department
Of course you adore those folks responsible for acre upon acre of play space. As for those in uniform, well, think about what that means as a compliment.
Best Electrician
Hey, we want to remove shorts for a living, too.
Best Card/Poster Shop
Neato, Unusual, Vivid, Objects. Whoa.
Best Pawn Shop
Yes, and the good doctor stocks knights and bishops as well. Not just a place for loans but also a place to shop.
Best Bathroom Doors
The shower-curtain-used-as-stall-doors motif in the women’s restroom is interesting all by itself. Particularly the Mother Goose theme. But the added flair of cigarette burns in the eyes of the ducks is really very special. Of course, imagining each designer’s touch as they sit in front of their canvas is a delight unto itself. These doors…
Most Overdue East Austin Renovation
The old Administration Building at Huston-Tillotson College was completed in 1914 with blocks hand-made by the school’s students. The white-stucco structure, a rare surviving example of the modified prairie style popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright, was a source of pride for alumni and the East Austin community until the mid-Fifties when it began to deteriorate.…
Best New Restaurant Gallery
Mojo’s manages to consistently find interesting artwork which complements their coffee drinks without matching their living room sofa. The informal atmosphere allows art-goers a look-see at all the works – no need to worry about leaning across someone’s salad. Another plus here is that the shows change long before they get stale. Add this to…
Best Investment To Save A Legend
Though the migas are masterful, it’s not just the food that makes Cisco’s an essential part of the Austin experience. For decades, this Eastside breakfast joint has served as heart and hub of the concentric rings of power that, for better or worse, have guided this part of the world for longer than many of…
Best Urban Farm
When we turn off Lyons Road and pull up under the ancient oak tree, it’s as if the city surrounding this organic oasis just up and disappears. We love the tomatoes, the herbs, the vegetables, the honey, and the yard eggs. It’s local, it’s seasonal, it’s organic – and it doesn’t come any better than…
Best Summer Music For Kids
Some of us at the Chronicle can remember attending this summer event as a child, recalling those mornings full of music and magic. These days, the park can be considered an Austin tradition; they always feature local musicians, clowns, and puppeteers, a place to make your own art, an “instrumental petting zoo” where kids can…
Best Political Promoters
If they were doing it in the sports biz, they’d be making a lot more money. As it is, they’ll have to settle for notoriety. The popular KVET morning radio talk show duo saw fit this political season to get the incumbent mayor some opponents, by gosh. Not by coincidence, both James Cooley and Daryl…
Best Place For Navel Gazing
For contemplative moments, nothing beats the elegant solitude of Mayfield. Choose a shaded bench on a sultry afternoon: a veil of dragonflies drones above, a koi rises to nip the dim surface of a stone-lined pool afloat with waterlilies so perfect they might be carved from lapis. You drift, wordless, ageless, without time. The strangled…
Best Sound System
Okay, maybe the neighbors aren’t so happy with it, but the presence and clarity of the Backyard’s sound system at a civil volume makes this venue’s system the clear-cut local leader. Where else can your hear the show and the cicadas chirping at the same time, or carry on a conversation during a set without…
Best Place To Rollerblade
According to Ed Downs, who teaches the sport of in-line skating at UT’s Informal Classes, the best place in the Austin city limits is the Shoal Creek Greenbelt. He rates a 2-mile concrete path in Pflugerville Park a little higher.
Best Dance Teacher
A Parks & Recreation Department worker by day, a dance teacher by night. From Western Swing to the West Coast, Ryan does the Whip, the Push, the Tango, the Cha-Cha, and the Western Waltz. She switches from the female to male partner role with the blink of an eye. Not only will she have you…
Best Acoustic Guitars
This city has its fair share of reknowned luthiers — Mark Erlewine, Ted Newman Jones, and the team of Ross-Kinscherff — but the guitar maker of the moment, not just in Austin but in the world, is Bill Collings and his team. A Collings is a wonder to play — supple action, and deep yet…
Best Place To Buy Light Bulbs
To quote Marvin Gaye, “Watts going on?” Light bulbs of every size, shape, and description are sold here, from your basic incandescent bulbs to more exotic illuminative treasures. Bright, friendly sales staff make your shopping experience a de-light-ful one as well.
Best Theatre Space
One space is small enough to be a tribal circle while the other is big enough to host a Buddy Holly concert; both are well-equipped to take you on a magical journey.
Best Movie Theatre Facilities
Offering great sound, individual screening rooms designed to be theatres (and not previously parts of theaters), and the best prints, The Arbor 7 is a great place to watch movies.
Best Landscaping
A ‘scape for everything and everything in its scope, including: an Oriental garden, a caladium garden, a cactus and succulent garden, a xeriscape garden (you know, toss out some rocks and don’t water the lawn), and yes, even a butterfly trail!
Best Theatre Actor
Shear appropriateness. His gift to us is his presence. Kudos for his tireless support and development of black theatre artists.
Best Chips (locally Made)
One friend points out that the lighter texture of these chips can at least fool you into thinking they aren’t as dangerous as some Tex-Mex treats. We’ll munch a bunch anyway.
Best Sandwich Shop/Chain
Fast, filling, and oft-prepared by the skilled fingers of sleepy-eyed guitarists waiting for that contract to arrive. Yum!
Best Toy Store For Kids
For those who prefer gentle giraffe mascots over gigantic rats with buck teeth.
Best Sportscaster
It’s fratboy-meets-MTV as this energetic young fella from KXAN gets a slap on the butt from our readers for being the closest thing to Vic Jacobs we’ve had in a long time.
Best Miniature Golf
If you collapse in sweat and frustration as one little fella did recently, it’s a much quicker hike to the 19th hole than your average full-sized green.
Best Community Program
Totally neat-o trucks and (thank you very much) they even take milk jugs now.
Best Emergency Room
The city-owned hospital has had a rough fiscal and public relations year, but their quality of care and service has never been questioned.
Best Coffee Store
Before there was Ruta Maya, before there was Trianon, long ago on a java bean far away…
Best Periodicals Rack
Wouldn’t it be the ultimate in thematic humor if they titled their mag section, “Slow, periodicals at play?” Ho, ho, ho. Big, big racks of books, magazines galore, and lots of sales and specials.
Best Cement Floors
Robert Leeper and Joel Mozersky, the boys of Buzz, know how to take a concrete stand – on floors, that is. The jewel-toned triangles they stained into the 100-year-old floors of this new aromatherapy center in the Hyde Park Market Place makes you wonder why sheet vinyl isn’t outlawed.
Best “Gal” Art
Women & Their Work continues, after 16 years, to present a panoply of local and nationally acclaimed female – though not necessarily feminist – artists of high caliber.
Best Supporter Of Dance
Hurst has to be the city’s most enthusiastic man about dance. He was one of the first to arrive on the Austin dance scene more than 20 years ago (when it included about three people), and ever since, he’s gone the extra mile in supporting dance and dancers here, attending performances, buying ads, making available…
Best Locally Owned Neighborhood Grocery
Austin natives Jake and Arnette Knippa really know their business and it shows – in the gorgeous local produce, the carefully selected stock of international gourmet treats, the fine wine and deli departments, and the exceptional meat market. We wouldn’t dream of getting our fresh holiday turkey anywhere else.
Best Vegetarian Reuben
The eggplant Reuben sandwich with ancho chile sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and chipotle mayonnaise ($6.95) is, hands down, the best vegetarian sandwich we’ve tasted. We’d say more, but we can’t talk with our mouth full.
Best Toy Resale
The secret’s out. If you’ve ever wondered where daycare centers get their wonderful toys, wonder no more. Anna’s Toy Depot has been used for years by area daycares as a source for inexpensive used toys in good condition. They also feature an excellent selection of new educational toys such as puzzles and puppets, and a…
Best Radio Personality To Be Reemployed In Austin
When KLBJ-AM decided to attach its fortunes to Rush Limbaugh’s ultra-conservative coattails, among the casualties was Eric Blumberg, a talk facilitator who never forgot his roots as a tough, investigative reporter. Fortunately, his exodus from the Austin airwaves was short-lived. Blumberg, whose intense opinions do not usually prevent him from interviewing those with whom he…
Best Place To Avoid Trendy Exercising
If you’re more concerned with the actual exercising than what to wear as you do it, head east. Instead of a parade, it’s really more like a park should be, with lovely open spaces along the river and regular folks just doing their thing.
Best Summer Music
Strange how locals actually enjoy being outside as those two weeks of spring slide into Texas summer. But they do, and two reasons are the free Summer Concert Series at Auditorium Shores and Zilker Hillside, and the Austin Symphony’s Summer Music Festival at Symphony Square. Featuring some of the best established local acts as well…
Best Place To Sip Coffee & Watch The World Go By
You can lurk in the dim interior and stare out the window at the endless parade of extras from the little theatre of life. The mix of types can be surreal. Couples all dressed up in their Sixth Street best (but why so early?!), followed by odd knots and conglomerations of various kinds of street…
Best Diversity University
Your average American college or university talks a good game when it comes to multicultural/multi-ethnic education, but Huston-Tillotson College has undoubtedly the most diverse student body in Austin for an institution of its size. During spring 1994, 78% of its 586 students were African-American, the largest minority group in the U.S. They are followed by…
Best Cichlid Selection
Lola Caroline Estes opened the heppest fish store this side of Charlie Tuna. Known all-around the state as the Cichlid crib, Amazonia has garnered an additional local rep as a cool joint to trade up equipment and trade down when the li’l sea critters outgrow their digs. Your “alternative” fish source, if you will. Go…
Best Place To Buy Marmite
A wealth of gourmet and international foods, a cornucopia of fresh produce, and a feast of fine meats, poultry, and fish are just some of the wonders to explore in this store, which is more than a supermarket. For lovers of fine food with a worldwide palate, this is the sort of food store our…
Best Bar To Drink Alone
Both longtime institutions with friendly clientele, good food, and distinct personalities, Pearl’s is Austin music’s northern outpost while Wylie’s is an anchor of the Sixth Street strip.
Best Movie Theatre Programming
The foreign and independent films you read about in New York and national publications (but hold no hope that they’ll show up here) frequently end up at the Village – they consistently book great independent and foreign films. Austin is blessed with the four screens at the Village, the excellent programming at the Dobie, and…
Best Motel
With four luxurious and affordable locations to choose from, who needs to waste time fretting over apartment hunting in our 100% saturated housing market?
Best Theatre Actress
The mother of Esther’s (and new baby Susannah) tackles roles from Ann Richards to Patsy Cline to Alice in Wonderland.
Best Chocolates
Holy Oompa Loompas, Batman! These guys have 150 different chocolate fantasies, all made right there. Sweet dreams include dipped seasonal fruits-of-the-season.
Best Seafood Counter
If they don’t have it, they’ll go catch it.
Best Way To Spend A Lazy Afternoon
Aw, Chuck E. Cheese, don’t feel so put out – even you have to admit the new playscape is fabulous.
Best Sportswriter
Kiss the horn or dis the horn — Maher relies on his gut feelings, not UT dealings. He’s recently moved from a daily column to sports features for the Statesman.
Best Native Plant Nursery
Big, beautiful, bountiful, with a real native accent. And where else can your green thumb learn to go organic?
Best Councilmember
No flowery description here: Max is just plain old cute. He also embodies this city’s hippie past growing up into the Nineties.
Best Fitness Club
A cacophony of sounds, light, and brightly colored Lycra (matching only, please) in motion.
Best Comic Book Store
One reader’s comic take on it: “It has really cool people — both clients and employees.” Well, Shazam, dude!
Best Pet Store (chain)
A reader suggests (and we invite you to interpret): “They have their priorities straight.” Take Fido shopping there and find out why.
Best Display Of Connsumate Wealth
Strung across Lake Austin are four telephone wires, one on top of the other. And dangling from them in a wide array of colors and sizes are dozens of pairs of sneakers. That’s right. Whole pairs. Some of ’em not even worn out. Probably even more on the bottom of the lake from failed artistic…
Best “Guy” Art
Gordon Fowler, the owner of the establishment, invited fellow guy-artists Guy Juke, Jim Franklin, Peter Saul, and Ken Hale to help him refresh the restaurant and barside decor in January. Where are the “gal” artists gonna make their mark, you ask? Not in this boy’s bar. Where are the Guerrilla Girls (Austin chapter) when you…
Best Theatrical Event
Our city is so overrun with festivals and special events that we’re worn out with them. But our jaded selves got a jump start last year from FronteraFest. Frontera Productions’ month-long performance jamboree gave artists the chance to stage whatever they wanted in a half-hour chunk, and the results were thrilling: original pieces and challenging…
Best Meat Substitute
The portobello mushrooms on the grilled vegetable platter will push all thoughts of Bossy from your mind. The memory of them so overwhelms us, we can say no more than this.
Best Veracruz-style Tamales
Huge, moist, Veracruz-style tamales come wrapped in banana leaves instead of the traditional corn shucks. Choose from chicken, beef, cheese, pork, pineapple, or raisin fillings at $1.75 a pop, $5.50 for a plate with rice and beans, or $15 a dozen. Sound pricey? It’s not. These overbuilt babies weigh in at a whopping four pounds…
Best Vintage Baby Clothes
“Ask me where my money goes, to buy my baby fancy clothes…”. Outfit your little tyke in the hippest vintage children’s wear around. From teensy little baby outfits to dresses, pants, and shirts for the styling and profiling toddler set — Amelia’s has them (little vintage cowboy boots are a real find!).
Best Gospel Radio Program
Although KFIT (AM 1060) plays more gospel, the best gospel program can be heard every Sunday morning from 9-10:30 on KVET (AM 1300): Elmer Akins’ Gospel Train, presented every week since 1947. Akins is the real Voice of Austin, and Gospel Train is the oldest continuously running radio show in America. He helps to make…
Best Wine Store
Tiny, impossible to find, and loaded with bargains on Rhones, Burgundies, and the undiscovered wines of France, Austin Wine Merchant is more of a custom wine purveyor than a retail store. Almost every bottle in the store is a winner. And they’re not too snooty to keep a supply of good “plonk,” decent quality wine…
Best Public Links
We’re not sure this category should be here at all. Golf, in our book, is a serious, debilitating addiction, and we hate acting as enablers. But after all, addicts can’t really help being addicted, can they? If you or someone you know has a golf jones, sources tell us that this is the place to…
Best Place To Get Your Act Together
The ARC has become such a fact of life in Austin music, it’s hard to remember when Austin didn’t have the sort of professional rehearsal facility found in other music centers. From the smallest combo to the loudest band, ARC has the right range of rooms, a staff who understand the needs of musicians because…
Best Fencing Operation
If you’re determined to start that emu ranch, despite the fact that you’re ten years behind the tide, at least be sensible about where you buy your fencing. The folks at Montopolis Supply are devout about many things, organization being top among them. Choose from rolls and panels of fencing in an array of grid…
Best Place To Buy Old Buttons
Button, button, who’s got the button? You will. Head for the Pink Tag section in the back of the store and rifle through their black notebook in which buttons have been neatly grouped together in tiny plastic bags and stapled onto manila pages. We just wish it were always so simple to find some closure…
Best Beer Selection
Around 250 brands to choose from, including the 14% alcohol content Samichlaus from Switzerland and Golden Promise Scottish ale, the first organic brew to be sold in the U.S.
Best Neighborhood Bar
May we suggest you try the former if you prefer Bukowski and the latter if you dig Hemingway? Or the former if you like cheap pitchers and the latter if imported pints are more your style.
Best Neon
All locations sport this udderly tubular art form, but Amy herself says the Sixth Street store with its four outlined rocking cows gets the moooost attention.
Best Place To Stay Cool
Not to mention staying wet and tan and relaxed and possibly even fit. It’s always 68deg., which is a blessing when it’s 100deg.
Best Coffee (local)
The cooperative growing these dark, pungent beans is one of the bits of good news coming from the Chiapas area these days.
Best Take-out Food
What the heck is it about those tortillas? And whaddaya mean we get this whole bag of food and change?
Best Billboard
¿Hola? In case you haven’t noticed, someone ate it.
Best Syndicated Columnist
You don’t mind if we say that, Molly, do ya? Her thoroughly Texan viewpoint has charmed the world.
Best Neighborhood Park
Could it be because this neighborhood park could easily house a couple of neighborhoods? Or is it that on weekends it sometimes seems like everyone in town is there, with room to spare.
Best Effort To Control Pollution/Improve The Environment
Renewing faith with the ongoing concept that a decent, environmentally sound city is worth fighting for.
Best Florist
A critics’ choice last year, the smell of sweet success is now drifting in courtesy of readers as well.
Best Consignment Store
We’re told the only pants that rival Truman’s are the ones you create with your snuggle-buddy.
Best Pharmacy/ Drugstore
Returning happily from ’93, described by one reader as “the only piece of nostalgia left in Austin. You’ll feel like you’re in a time machine.”
Best Distressed Decor
This establishment recalls the apogee of Eighties design trends that followed in the wake of punk rock, neo-primitivism, and nostalgia de la boué, featuring gray walls made to look like they were worked over by a wheat thresher.
Best Artist Disguised As A Furniture Maker
In his modest downtown shop, Landers designs and builds hand-crafted functional wooden objects the way they used to be made – beautiful furniture that will last forever.
Best Tour Of The World Of Dance Within The City Limits
The PAC’s most recent dance season was nothing less than inspiring and an opportunity to spin around the world, to boot. How often are you able to skip off to New Guinea to see Les Ballets Africains, or to London for a taste of the Royal Ballet, or Japan for Sankai Juku, or Chicago for…
Best Nationally Famous Mexican Sunday Brunch
The rest of the country now knows what we’ve known for years: that Sunday brunch at this elegant fonda is the best weekend spread in town. The sumptuous feast of specialties from the Mexican Interior is one that we prefer to savor at a leisurely pace. And after all, $18.95 is a bargain for a…
Most Missed Eateries
Adieu and adios. Two of our favorite dining spots passed into history this year and boy, do we miss ’em. Not much likelihood that G/M will resurface, but Nick’s wild chef Steve Chaney has reappeared cooking breakfasts at Ruby’s Barbeque. He doesn’t do his renowned Hangtown Fry yet, but says he will if Luke will…
Best Addition To The Am Dial
After losing his re-election bid for State Agriculture Commissioner, Jim Hightower followed the traditional course of all frustrated politicians: talk radio. Initially establishing a foothold in the industry with two-minute commentaries, the nation’s foremost populist now hosts a full-blown, three-hour call-in program every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Broadcast to more than 100 stations coast-to-coast from…
Best Suggestive Sign
Of course, you’re supposed to bring your dog to this place to get them a new ‘do, but we’ve never seen any dogs prancing in or out of there.
Best Heavy Metal Radio Show
Although Z-Rock’s arrival has caused competition in a radio ghetto too small for competition, Kane’s commitment to playing Austin acts is unparalleled. An admitted flag-waving booster, Kane seems to genuinely enjoy her free-form luxury and programs Dangerous Toys and the Skatenigs with equal zest. Best of all, if Kane sees something at the Back Room…
Best Assortment Of Baked Goods Served With A Meal
There are many things we love at the shrine of Southern Comfort Food, but the baskets of warm, fresh breads that arrive with every meal remind us of a trip to Grandma’s. We know it might spoil our dinner, but we’ve been known to inhale the whole thing: big, steaming slabs of cornbread, pillowy hot…
Best Spot For A Picnic Without Leaving Town
We like to spread our blanket on the amphitheatre’s grassy risers, overlooking the water. Others hang a right at the lagoon, pursuing overgrown trails to their own private meadows. Either way, deviled eggs never tasted better.
Best Place To Getcher ’67 Chevy Pickup Fixed
These guys are swell, even if they do fix Fords, too. Like a good hairdresser who listens to you and gives you the cut you want, Alfred and the guys understand it’s not a vehicle, it’s a relationship. They can fix anything, and fast. And bring the kids — they’ll get a kick out of…
Best Footwear Bargains
Sure, some of their shoes are made of simulated leather. But if you need some basic footwear at prices that will fit any budget, Payless offers the kind of regular bargains you can’t pass up, and even some occasional stylish flair to boot.
Best Place To Buy Sunday Papers
While a good part of downtown Austin takes its day of rest, Congress Avenue Booksellers attracts periodical junkies with its selection of state and national papers, magazines, and books, every Sunday until 4pm. For the avid reader, it’s an ideal place to browse through and glean from the world of the printed word, not just…
Best Brew Pub
A new trend and a new category, and this first-time winner is located in the burgeoning Arts District west of Congress Avenue.
Best Non-downtown Club
Good luck breaking this tie for out-of-towners who can only visit one. Ask them: Do you prefer a great time or a great time?
Best Public Artwork
Not simply a statue, but an ever-changing performance art piece as well, thanks to the mementos left for SRV by visitors, fans, and freaks from all corners of the world.
Best Pool Hall
Take your cue from the name of this joint -there are 19 tables at the south location and 24 up north.
Best Coffee House
A new, growing category, but an hour in this aromatic casa de java will force you to wake up and smell why it’s the favorite.
Best Tamales
Hot today, chili tamale — and everyday you’ll be a-maize’d at the taste and price.
Best Book By A Local Author See A&E
You might call this Selling, as it’s been practically jumping off the shelves. We should all be so undaunted by our travails.
Best TV Anchor Person
As solid and long-standing as an anchor should be, yet buoyant enough to surface above the rest.
Best Overall Nursery
The first thing you’ll need to plant in your garden is your foot; outside of that, this place has just about anything else you need.
Best Lobbyist/Consultant
Another return winner, Johnson’s doing something right.
Best Hair Salon
R spellczech 8 this 1 write up. Hair’s 2 U!
Best Costume Shop
They can run a costume place, but they can’t hide from the fact that their selection is dazzling and endless.
Best Record Store (chain)
Last year’s winner, too. Does it sound like a broken record or a record breaking? Good selection of music books and periodicals.
Best Example That Americans Don’t Give A Shit About Their Cities
Hey – plant a tree. Home to hordes of allowance-rich coeds, next door to the University, and home to record stores and bars, Guadalupe between 19th and 26th could be the pedestrian space of the century. But retailers and the city seem to feel the risk that inviting people to the strip in traditional ways,…
Best Comedy Equivalent Of Rescue 911
One night at the Velveeta Room, an audience member stepped into the corridor and – no punchline here – started convulsing. Hardwick, who was onstage telling jokes, raced off to evaluate the situation. Finding it under control, he returned to a room of (no pun intended) shaken patrons and had to do the amazing: make…
Best Vocal Ensemble
Founded in 1965 (as the Austin Chorale), the Austin Choral Union has provided Austin with the best in early Baroque to contemporary musical performances for almost 30 years. While rave reviews have consistently poured in here at home, the chorus has also received critical acclaim from across the U.S., as well as in Mexico. We’re…
Best Non-Traditional Barbecue
Our favorite Eastside barbecue joint is the one we sneak off to when we’re dodging the spousal food police. Sam’s routinely offers all the drippy, juicy barbecue you could ever dream of, but when they have mutton, it’s a treat beyond words. The downside: you always leave Sam’s with that heady, smoky aroma clinging to…
Best Baby Toys & Stuff (resale)
The former Southern Union Gas service office is now the location of the best selection of pre-owned (80%) and new (20%) children’s accessories — car seats, strollers, toys, furniture & clothing. They buy pre-owned goods, but don’t take consignments.
Best Argument Why Some Talk Show Hosts Should Avoid Rehab
His comment that Christian women are more satisfying mates than others because they are “great in the sack” immediately comes to mind.
Best Thing About Hump Day
Does That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh mean anything to you? We used to beg Mrs. Harris to turn on the radio in eighth grade art class just so we could hear K.C. and the Sunshine Band. She’s a very kinky girl, the kind you don’t take home to mothah. She’s…
Best Hippie Club
Every Tuesday at the Continental Club Admittedly, this is Austin’s only Hippie Hour, but the name itself denotes how much this weekly early show by our lady of the soulful blues has become a ritual to certain Austinites. We know people who are there, week in and week out – and wonder what they did…
Best Assortment Of Mexican Salsa
Chef/owner Ruben Rodriguez is a wizard with peppers, drawing salsa addicts back to his cozy South Austin dining spot to see what new concoctions he’s putting on the table. We crave the roasted tomato and jalapeño combo and their crunchy vegetables in tart, fiery homemade escabeche. We’re also partial to the creamy black bean and…
Best Way To End The Day
We linger over dinner at our favorite South Austin Mexican restaurant — Seis Salsas or Guero’s though we should try to branch out some — and play footsie. After we’ve crossed back over the Congress Avenue bridge, we park by one of the hotels and sit on the hillside to wait for the bats. There’s…
Best Place To Learn How To Build / Fix Your House Or Special Project
Better than trying to watch Norm or This Old House, as you get one-on-one instruction from real people. Over 90% of class time is devoted to hands-on experience with state-of-the-art equipment that mirrors the actual industry. Programs include woodworking, construction management, concrete, brick and stone masonry, cabinetry, and carpentry.
Best Gently-worn Jambs
Just because they recently won the City of Austin’s Environmental Awareness Award for “outstanding achievement in solid waste management” doesn’t mean you still can’t get great deals on trim, wallpaper, doors, or eclectic items like the occasional pot-bellied stove or solar water heater.
Best Place To Buy Wall Sconces
We decided one Saturday morning to investigate just what was behind Claywork’s exterior, and, boy, are we glad we did. Within its walls lie some of the most wonderful wall sconces we’ve seen — they may be custom-ordered as plain or as fancy as you please. For those decorating on a budget, Claywork’s also offers…
