Cover Story
This Week’s Waste of Time
Can you space letters correctly? Do you want to?
From Baghdad to Bosque County
Democrat Dan Grant running for new Congressional District 25
Dogs & Monsters
Chatting with Jon Langford
Wednesday Rewind
In the junkyard with Scott H. Biram and Kydd
Emily Hagins So Does Not Suck!
Emily Hagins secures distro deal with MPI Media
When the Whip Comes Down
‘Some Girls Live in Texas,’ ravished by the Rolling Stones
The Romney Offensive
Perry gets mean as his campaign loses steam
East Side Dandies Squirrel Nut Zippers Graham Reynolds WHAT?
Not to mention the Whiskey Sage mixologists
AFF to Honor Johnny Depp
Depp will receive inaugural acting prize
Bedside Manner: Chasing the ‘Infinite’ Dragon
What do you read next when you really, really loved what you last read?
Product Review: Kiss Silicone Protexion Flat Iron
The new Silicone Protexion flat iron is a Kiss to the hair
Anita Perry in Context
How the first lady of Texas is the brains of the operation
Oktoberfest Events
Beers, brats, and buffets give you something to oompah about
Roller Derby Update 10/15/11
Calvello Cup tonight, and the WFTDA tournament season heats up
OSU UT Preview
Texas enters as the underdog, rightly so
Cleanup Versus Clean Out
Balancing Occupy Austin’s protests against power with power washing
More WilCo Maneuvering in Morton Case
Bradley trying to pull plug on investigation?
Rocket Science
Béla Fleck at the Paramount Theatre
Food Events
Cirkiel vs. Petersen cook-off, Champagne, and pomme preservation on the menu this week
Best Party of the Year
Launched with the best of the music, film, and tech industries at heart, SXSW has exploded into a mid-March block party for the people. Austin’s signature party has so much to do in so little time, it can drive you to the bottle, but that’s what all the free drinks are about. If you just…
Best Sweets/Goodies
This South Austin bakery serves the sugar right! While the cupcake has become the trendy and ubiquitous handy confection, Sugar Mama’s has the right idea with staples and daily specials. Our favorite is the Frida: cinnamon-chocolate cake topped with coffee-liqueur buttercream and cinnamon sugar. Kahlo would have been proud – proud enough to get some…
Best Teen Hangout
We met our first crush in the parking lot of Playland in the eighth grade. We were hanging around in front, waiting for all the moms to drive off so that we could commence with smoking cigarettes and wandering around North Austin construction sites. She had long ringlets and too much makeup, and we loved…
Best Art Gallery
There’s no denying that Arthouse is pushing boundaries for art and artists alike. It takes but one trek through the recent renovation to know that future-forward design aesthetic is crafted into every detail of the gallery – from the exterior lighting and the dapple of brilliant blue peekaboo glass boxes to the rooftop lounge that…
Best Film Critic
With this choice of critic, you know our readers were biased only by an appreciation for the living confluence of deep geekery, pop-culture awareness, and punk erudition that is the Chronicle’s own Marc Savlov. (Never mind that he borrows his best metaphors from his twitchy black pug, Mogwai.)
Best Weatherperson
It seems clear: Growing up in Oklahoma’s Tornado Alley made an impression on KXAN’s chief weathercaster Jim Spencer, who has been forecasting for Austinites for more than 20 years. He’s knowledgeable and straightforward – it ain’t gonna rain this week, folks, sorry to have to break it to you. Add to that his easy, meteorologist-next-door…
Best Secret Romantic Hideaway
T-shirt: Mount Bonnell is for lovers! T-shirt: I lost my last shirt at Mount Bonnell! T-shirt: -> I got this stain at Mount Bonnell! Move over, tongue jockeys; we wanna see the view. Whether it inspires those thumpa-thumpa feelings of raw attraction or strikes a sublime chord in your other-than-nether regions, Mount Bonnell is worth…
Best Neighborhood/Place To Live
She’s the mama grizzly of Austin neighborhood politics. Whether it’s fighting back developers, fighting to keep the Shipe Park Pool open, or advocating to reopen the Baker Center as a neighborhood school, Austin’s first suburb is now its activist heart.
Best Movers
Unicorn does everything in the realm of residential and commercial packing and storage, even unpacking. It is spotlessly professional, it’s local, and, let’s get to the point: All of its trucks portray strapping, muscular unicorns. Le sigh.
Best Furnishings/Home
On the surface, this year’s champs represent two poles of the home-decorating world: Room Service for off-beat, quirky, and vintage tastes, and West Elm for newly manufactured comfort. The color stories are unique, from the citrons, mauves, and medium browns of Room Service to the whites, silvers, and dark chocolates of West Elm. A room…
Best Video Game Rental/Purchase
Aside from being the name of a hooker we know in New Orleans, Game Over is a local chain way into vintage and classic video games. At this “crazy experiment in video game nostalgia,” you can buy, sell, or trade games, accessories, and collectibles, or unleash your inner teenager at the free retro game tournaments.…
Best Comedy Strong Enough for a (Wo)Man
Five years strong and staffed by a collective of the wittiest women in ATX, Ladies Are Funny Festival has proven true to its name. Packed with a diverse local and national lineup of improv, sketch, and stand-up performers, it’s turned out programming that showcases the very best of the best. LAFF has rightfully earned the…
Best Mobile Samba
This year, we are going to reinvent ourselves as Brazilians. We’re going to learn to samba and to drum, and we’ll dance and stomp and march in a frenzy of feathers and sequins with more than 100 other revelers. We will wear elaborate headdresses and beautiful costumes and participate in the joy and pageantry of…
Best Good Thing That Just Got Better
This appropriately named joint was already, and justifiably, a beloved fixture in the Crestview neighborhood for its magnificent sandwiches and soups. But then New Jersey native Tony Villani bought the business and wisely kept everything the same, except for the addition of mind-blowing pizza, with possibly the most perfect crust in Austin. Oh, one other…
Best First Journey Into Space
The Intergalactic Nemesis has always had its eyes on the stars. Well, that may be the only place it has not gone yet. The original live-action graphic novel stage show dusts down old pulp action for fresh-faced young international adventurers. From two-fisted tales of weird science in the old Little City coffee shop to a…
Best Hunt for a Good Read
Say you’re not into hunting or fishing but you enjoy reading about the wonders of nature. Meet longtime Statesman writer Mike Leggett. Reading his dispatches from the world beyond our windows, one gets the impression he draws as much pleasure from snapping off a perfect round with his camera as with his rifle. The sharp-eyed…
Best Party With the Stars – North
It isn’t often that the public gets to look through a research-quality telescope, but once a month during the academic year Fountainwood Observatory holds free star parties, and you’re invited. Attendees are guided through the night skies with Southwestern University faculty and students, as well as members of the Williamson County Astronomy Club.
Best East Meets West
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall … whut? Apparently the closed minds behind that cliché never made an appointment with this team of medical pros who work toward bridging the gap between Eastern and Western health care philosophies many assume to be incompatible. Dr. Cheryl Clark Brown and acupuncturist/herbalist…
Best Book Woman
For 34 years, Susan Post has made space for women to gather, learn, and celebrate changing the world. As owner of BookWoman, she’s created a launchpad for women writers, a sanctuary for literary seekers, and a safe space for generations of feminists. She keeps the doors open and hosts a jumping calendar of literary readings,…
Best Zaftig Zen
There’s something deliciously luxurious about the clothing at Venus Envy Consignments – the wide swaths of vintage silk, generous gathers of crisp cotton, lengthy cuts of lace. This innocuously strip-malled fabric-phile heaven specializes in plus-size consignments, offering beautiful clothing for the fabulously fleshy, the lavishly long-limbed, the beautifully buxom, and the fantastically full-footed. And listen…
The Occupation of Austin
The ’99 percent’ takes a stand against corporate greed
Texas Stars
Cheap brews and exciting hockey at the Cedar Park Center
Best Place To Dance
There are very few spots in town as consistently bangin’ as Barbs. This no-frills hot spot always has room on its dance floor for your head and your heart. And if your drunken ass forgets them there, you can always come back next week. With its dedication to dance fever above all else, Barbarella once…
Best-Kept Secret
In the cutthroat world of fro-yo, there’s a new champeen of tangy yogurt flavors (dulce de leche, Bevoloupe) and exotic toppings (mochi, breakfast cereals), so we can’t quite figure out why y’all think this West Coast chain with some serious marketing muscle is a secret. With its location in the heart of UT’s West Campus…
Best Affordable Motel
Ecological awareness and green initiatives in a hotel? Come again? That’s what you’ll want to do again and again at Austin’s greenest home away from home. The folks at Habitat work tirelessly and spare no expense to provide affordable lodging free from the burdens of environmental abuses. Lush, green gardens and cozy rooms come together…
Best Clothing Designer
Paris-trained Gail Chovan knows her history of fashion, and she understands the rules so completely that she breaks them magnificently. Her clothes have a startling contrast of extravagance against utter Belgian simplicity. She is a rare breed: a dark angel swathed in distressed Victorian and 1920s couture treasures combined with Yojhi Yamamoto and Ann Demeulemeester…
Best Food Writer
Addie Broyles is the digerati’s locavore darling, and justifiably so. Whether tweeting, blogging at the Feminist Kitchen, or penning her Statesman column, she’s deeply involved in the community and a welcome voice for the everyday eater. Virginia B. Wood, longtime Food editor at The Austin Chronicle knows all the perfect words for those perfect bites.…
Best Annual Festival
Fact: It’ll be hot. It’ll always be hot. But this party in the park has consistently proven, year after glorious year, why we march proudly with our freak flags flying and the “live music capital of the world” crown atop our collective heads all three days of this blissful backyard musical madness.
Best Swimming Hole
With its 1920s vibe and slew of inevitably beautiful people, swimming at Barton Springs makes us feel effortlessly glamorous like Jazz Age men and women of independent means. So put on your bathing costumes, grab a few Beautiful and Damned friends, and get on down to this living, flowing legend.
Best News Story
Ecological menace or technological boon? Economic blessing or boondoggle? No matter what you think about the Circuit of the Americas, for the next decade, Austin will host Formula One races. With the first event set for Nov. 18, 2012, the live music capital of the world becomes the official home of F1 in the U.S.
Best Pedicure/Manicure
We swear, the SpaRitual nail polish used at Milk + Honey does not chip! Are you a full-time bartender? Maybe a penny-pinching badass that changes your own oil and rotates your own tires? In our experience, even after a week of abuse, your nails will still be beautiful. And what about those tootsies? They’ll feel…
Best Gardening Store
This sprawling organic wonderland located on the western edge of town may be all-natural, but don’t try to tell us there isn’t some magic involved, too. Every time we wander the gorgeous grounds – taking in the goats, the fresh greens just begging to be planted – we feel a little like the Natural Gardener put…
Best Clothing
Clothes, shoes, accessories: Were that all, it would be more than enough to suffice for the everyday fashionista. But Strut takes it to a new level with its unique gotta-have-it stylings, making certain the “perfect little something” is perfectly easy to find. Four Austin locations means you’re three times closer to getting your fashion fix.
Best Developing Photography Gallery
Stepping in almost seamlessly once the L. Nowlin Gallery closed at the same West Sixth Street location, B. Hollyman is one of the few places in town solely focused on photography. Curating well-balanced shows from artists both local and from across the country, B. Hollyman’s exhibits span a range of photographic techniques, from documentary realism…
Best Movie Deal
In its first year on the Austin scene, the Violet Crown Cinema has shaken up the model for local filmgoing. The fourplex’s exclusive dedication to arthouse film programming is just the beginning of what sets it apart. Each auditorium seats only 50 people, but tickets can be purchased online in advance, and there’s no surcharge…
Best Lurid Locavore
We were lured in by your obvious sweets and smarts: That butterscotch budino of yours is so tantalizingly dolce that it makes our vita sizzle, and the frosted, twirly points atop your wondrous coconut cake look so much like Einstein’s hair that we wonder if that first bite was what he felt like when he…
Best Fun Finding Fun
Bargain hunters, beware! You might get addicted to this sweet li’l website. Updated daily, it lists amazing free and cheap, discount deals focused on the Austin metro area but often stretching across the great state of Texas – from meals to museums to classes and movies, from around town to Downtown to the outskirts of…
Best Kaiju King
Talk about a monster-sized challenge. When IDW Publishing needed 100 variant covers for its new Godzilla comic, only one artist was up to the job: superfan-turned-superstar artist Matt Frank. The UT grad and expert in all rubber-suited monsters doesn’t just know his Mothra from his Rodan. His daikaiju explosions helped put the crown back on…
Best Place To ‘Focus One Point and Breathe’
What is it about bridges that makes them the perfect place to practice the art of doing nothing? Maybe it’s the neither-here-nor-there feeling or the proximity to water. The James D. Pfluger Bicycle Pedestrian Bridge is Austin’s answer to this European classic. If you go at dusk, it is flanked by the sunset on one…
Best Everything Old Is New Again
In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, villain Gaston sings, “I use antlers in all of my decorating!” and so do today’s broheims and brosephs. The taxidermy trend has been dusted off and is now muy de rigueur. It appears in popular hangouts like Mohawk and the Jackalope, but the brothers Martinez have been doing their…
Best Metal Lingerie
Mad scientist Brooks Coleman, formerly of experimental band Liquid Mice and techno-savants the Robot Group, keeps the tender flesh of hotties around the world barely covered in sculpted layers of metal: metal bras, mostly, but also articulated belts, power cuffs, and curvy pubis-covering shields. We simply <3 the creative fashions of this one-man steampunk version…
Most Unassuming Spiritual Haven
The iconic Green & White Grocery has been serving East Austin for three generations as a tamale factory, corner grocery, and botanica. These days John Cazares has honed in on serving up the paraphernalia of spirituality. Votive candles, traditional medicine, and the icons of the synchronistic religions of the Americas, such as Santeria and vodun,…
It’s May in a Landslide!
Council votes 4-3 – three times – to keep spring election
Soccer Watch
The Hilltopppers play their final home games of the year, and more
Best Bar Staff
As they say, this place is the reason Prohibition was repealed. And we don’t doubt it. The bar staff here has the know-how to mash, muddle, box, shake, mix, and stir a libation worthy of a flapper dress and a trilby. Not sure what you want to drink? Perhaps a spot of absinthe is in…
Best Scenester/Mover & Shaker
It’s no surprise that Austin, with its land spreading out so far and wide and its charming penthouse views, would produce such a thoroughly modern Millie as Rebecca Havemeyer. Our resident Zsa Zsa in cha-chas charmed her way into our hearts with her glam-bang personality and her ongoing Celluloid Handbag film series. One can only…
Best Afterschool Activity
Don’t be alarmed by the pack of youths running toward you; chances are you’re just witnessing the Young Guns Running Group in action. No, not a young guns-running group, silly! Young Guns is an afterschool fitness program designed to help kids in kindergarten through eighth grade develop a love of running with an emphasis on…
Best Bathroom
Like many trysts that begin in swank hotel lobbies, the experience of using the W’s bathroom (“Darling, call me WC!”) is dimly lit, highly stylish, and, in the end, a purely physical act. Who could help but be seduced by the shades of black and gray, the gently throbbing music, and the elegant combination of…
Best Comedian or Comedy Troupe
John Erler and Joe Parsons may mock the movie Highlander, but they are themselves locked in an age-old battle – against Hollywood’s most craptacular wastes of celluloid – and, with wits edged like the keenest blades, they decapitate, eviscerate, and emasculate these cinematic turkeys. Their weekly displays of bad-movie lampoonery at the Alamo Drafthouse –…
Best Journalist
Murder, execution, child molestation, ultrasounds – this girl’s covered it all. Just going by the name, many readers think Jordan is a dude. Well, she’s not, and she proves that ladies can do investigative reporting, too. Jordan has won awards near and far for her excellence in criminal justice reporting, and having her on the…
Best Austin Holiday
Shame on those who miss the Saturday graced with Austin’s favorite annual holiday, the day of Eeyore’s birth. It’s a call to bust out in costume, midspring, when ecstatic, stir-crazy children; glitter-dusted fairies; and topless, painted lasses run amok in Pease Park. The party is not only to celebrate an ass’ b-day but, more importantly,…
Best Swimming Pool
A wade in the waters of Deep Eddy feels like visiting an old friend – and this year, an old friend with a new mural and renovated bathhouse. As the oldest swimming pool in Austin, old Eddy has seen the world morph into nearly unrecognizable forms, but her fluid dynamics never change. She is never…
Best Nonprofit
The efforts of this relentless group, which is largely made up of volunteers, have been crucial in making Austin a “no-kill” city, and that has never been more apparent than it was during the recent wildfires. They worked dusk ’til dawn, ventured into danger zones to help find and give medical attention to evacuees’ beloved…
Best Pet Services
For those living in an efficiency or lacking a yard, the well-established Dirty Dog is a dog/godsend, with reasonably priced grooming and fun self-serve mutt-washing facilities. Mud Puppies is like Dirty Dog on steroids, taking it to another level, with full-service and self-serve grooming, training, “playcare,” and boarding. Consider yourself and your hound lucky to…
Best Green Business
Is there anything green that Austin doesn’t love? OK, maybe mold. But that never need be a problem if you use materials from locally owned House+Earth, Austin’s green building material store. What separates House+Earth from Austin’s other building material retailers is its commitment to human health and the environment. Find everything from cabinetry, flooring, countertops,…
Best Affordable Housing Intervention
An affordable roof and four walls is a good start to getting out of poverty. TLC helps, too. Foundation Communities creates housing for low-income folks through a holistic philosophy that includes literacy training, financial coaching, afterschool care, and counseling. This whole supportive web of services helps families stabilize, survive, and kiss the bad times goodbye.…
Best Grand Reopening
Oh ND, apparently we hardly knew ye. All this time, we thought we were going into you, adorable, dark, cozy, cavernous you, for our magical, glitter-dusted nights of near-Eastside cray-cray. Wasn’t that you we’ve been going to since 2009 for the Texas Burlesque Fest? For QueerBomb? For the Funk Freak Halloween Ball? For Azz Everywhere?…
Best New Live Music Scene Game-Changer
A closely guarded (some might say dirty little) secret here in the live music capital is the cutthroat nature of local concert promotions. Behind the scenes, bookers competing for talent have been known to fight in the streets. Yet even they stop to testify about the Moody Theater’s inaugural championship season. Beginning Valentine’s Day, the…
Best Mexican Bakery
The widest selection of freshly baked, traditional Interior Mexican pastries and the absolute best bolillos we have tasted this side of the Rio Grande; delicious authentic desserts such as flan, gelatinas, and cream cakes that can shatter the will of the most dedicated dieter; house-made gelato in little-known tropical flavors; enormous tortas with all the…
Best Gateway Political Action
For youngsters wishing to leap into the political fray and learn about local politics, might we suggest staying informed about council plans for any further pool closures? And if the city does consider the unthinkable, might we suggest a good, old-fashioned occupation … of Austin’s pools? We loved that the Friends of Shipe Park addressed…
Best Listen to Your Mother
In missives to Amsden, her son, mom blogger Sigers weaves together pictures, anecdotes, and advice, creating a fluid time capsule of who they both are and the man she believes he will one day be. As she relates those important (and so easily forgotten) rules for growing up – keep your word, strive to be…
Best Plant Sale
From March through May, the Future Farmers of America at Akins High School have a sale of the plants they’ve raised. Ripe for spring planting, these hand-nurtured little upstarts are only $1 each. The stock changes regularly during the course of the sale, and some things sell out faster than others, but you’ll always find…
Best Hot Staff
Ode to the Waitstaff at Bouldin Creek in Sapphic Stanza: You with the braids and maybe a mustache You with the blue eyes, the spine of an acrobat This one, a greeting, like old friends together Also the food is delicious
Best Microbusiness Incubator
It took a couple months for this endeavor to get off the ground, but now it’s an important incubator of microbusinesses in the growing Southwest Austin region. Featuring antiques sellers, artisans, and a delicious cafe catering to vegetarian and gluten-free diets (the Native Nom Nom cafe), this market is a guidepost of our post-big-box future.
Best Pre-Dawn Sweat
Personal trainer Jake Bellonzi conducts his labor of love morning boot camp each day from 6 to 7am right across the street from St. Edward’s University for professionals who don’t have the means to indulge in expensive alternatives. Never caustic or overly severe, Bellonzi takes a helpful, supportive approach to the art of fitness. With…
Crisis Pregnancy Centers Take City to Court
Lawsuit claims city ordinance violates free speech
Quote of the Week
“We fought the Revolution in the 16th century.” – Gov. Rick Perry, demonstrating his weak grasp of history after a soporific showing in the Oct. 11 debate
Best Beer/Wine Prices
Deals for days (well, except for Sundays) is what you can expect from this Texas-grown booze outlet. It’s been owned and operated by the same Houston family since 1962, and boy are we glad Spec’s made its way to Austin. Spirits galore and gourmet food to boot. Some locations even sport delis. Cash-paying customers are…
Best Video-Game Studio/Developer
Megadeveloper BioWare’s Austin offices have been an anchor for the local gaming scene since it set up camp in our fair city. It doesn’t take a Jedi mind trick to imagine that our readers voted for this studio in anticipation of the long-ballyhooed release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is set to live…
Best Birthday Cakes
Before our adult palates gravitated toward truffles and saffron, we were all sugar-loving kids craving the excitement of our very own birthday cake. Sugar Mama’s captures that essence with old-fashioned layer cakes that will vault you back to childhood and have your kids blowing out candles, wishing for another slice of frosted birthday goodness.
Best Bed & Breakfast
This is not your traditional ducks-and-bunnies B&B. There are no antiques in the salon or calico cats on the porch, and there’s no white picket fence. And we love it. This boutique accommodation is about modern architecture, midcentury sensibilities, and indulgent amenities – discreetly tucked a half-block from the heart of SoCo and perfect for…
Best Composer
We’re sorry, which Graham Reynolds were you asking about? The one who headlined the Golden Arm Trio and wrote new scores for silent film classics at the Alamo Drafthouse? Or the one who scores contemporary films such as Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly and Bernie? The one who worked with Ballet Austin on The Bach…
Best Local Author/Poet
Chances are you’ve read The Boyfriend School, The Yakota Officers Club, The Mommy Club, and How Perfect Is That, so you know the weight behind the wit and wonder of the words penned by Sarah Bird. So, like us, you celebrate Austin as the home of one of the nation’s most admired authors and can’t…
Best Basketball Court
Whether your game is full- or half-court, whether you’ve got your posse or are looking for a new pickup crew, come battle it out under the shady canopy at this small Eastside park between Manor Road and MLK. And if you’ve got kids in tow, fret not, there’s four-square and hopscotch painted in the margins,…
Best Tennis Court
Nestled between the swoosh of North Lamar and the bustle of the UT campus, Caswell is prized for its constancy as both a great place to play tennis and an opportunity to be taught the game by some of the best professional instructors in town. With the Davis Cup’s 2011 appearance at the Erwin Center…
Best Scandal
When it comes to scandal, you are everything and everything is you, Governor. Your hair, your cronies, your cash, your connections, your disconnections, your threats, your howdy, your prayer rally, your death tally, your boots, your rascally good looks, your Texas-sized ego, and oh, those pesky rumors. And those are but a few of your…
Best Printer/Copies
Our readers are pretty savvy. For a national chain to win over a local fave, it takes consistent service, an array of choices, and a slew of convenient locations. FedEx Office has all that. Fast, friendly service and plenty of technology on hand to do it yourself is what makes this the ultimate convenience, whether…
Best Jewelry/Accessories
Talk about “local girl hits it big!” With her South Congress flagship store, a new store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and a soon-to-open store in Dallas, jewelry designer extraordinaire Kendra Scott is riding the crest of national attention. From Paris Hilton to Queen Latifah, celebs are snapping up Kendra’s statement jewelry. Her spare…
Best Corridor
A step through the lobby and loggia of UT’s delectable on-site hotel leads the weary business traveler, visiting educational consultant, and Longhorn pop alike into a world of exquisitely crafted, Zen-like respite featuring sculpture fountains, paths, and pavers to set the soul to quiet. Central Texas-based landscape architects Coleman & Associates are the outdoor artisans…
Best Improv Instructor
John Ratliff is more than just an improviser and improv instructor – he’s a true teacher. He pushes his students to find the most organic, most grounded, most real approach to their play. He pulls at them to be greater than. This mental cultivation is taken with such seriousness and brevity, it’s easy to forget…
Best Philanthro-Punk Charity Event
Trey Baker’s brain works in mysterious ways. His monthly house parties combine 20 screens’ worth of vintage video games with live music, movie screenings, vegan pasta, and more. What’s more, Baker donates all of the money from the door and raffles to charity, not even reimbursing himself for any of the costs associated with such…
Best Neighborhood Gourmet Experience
With its minimal architecture, countertop service, and informal atmosphere, F&D understates what really lies within. Owners Ned and Jodi Elliott dish out adventurous, intriguing, and delectable food prepared and served with the utmost care and following a strict philosophy of using fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients, including vegetables, fruit, and herbs from Ned’s own garden.…
Best Guide to Kid-Friendly Apps
It’s a sad reality, but kids have smartphones these days. If monitoring your kid’s Internet surfing wasn’t hard enough, the unrated world of apps can be even more difficult to navigate. Make sure your child’s phone is age-appropriate with this one-stop website chock-full of info to help a busy parent find books, games, and educational…
Best Reportorial Use of Twitter
Statesman court reporter Steven Kreytak (@StevenKreytak) has embraced Twitter for its highest and best use: reporting the minute details of criminal trials for those of us addicted to court watching but who have to hold down a real job and can’t spend every damn day in court. He’s given us the blow-by-blow in a number…
Best New Nickname
Trust the Democratic rep from Western Travis County to bring the drama. On election night last November, she beat ex-Denver Bronco Dan Neil by 15. A week later, the final count pushed her win up to 16, but Neil was not going to lie down, and he pushed every legal challenge he could until the…
Best Informal Education
Adult education was heading for a failing grade last year when the Texas Union axed its Informal Classes program. Fortunately the learned folks over at UT’s Continuing and Innovative Education office know a thing or two about ongoing education, and they saved the 40-year-old program. So whether you want to take up sculling or get…
Best Nerd Sanctuary on SoCo
If South Congress Books merely offered a cool eddy of respite from SoCo’s hustle and flow (it does), that would be plenty in terms of general service to humankind. But, oh, that’s just the beginning. The lighting is perfect. It smells lovely, like paper and wood. The proprietors have arranged their beautifully curated collection of…
Best Sweat Into Sweet Relief
Every day, people jog for fitness, run for exercise, and race for glory. Once a year, Austinites run for the water. Benefiting the Gazelle Foundation since 2007, the Run for the Water 10-mile, 5K, and kids’ runs have matched runners with water donations, providing access to clean water for life to more than 8,000 Burundians.…
The Hightower Report
Occupy Wall Street shows signs of becoming an effective national movement
Point Austin: Unrepresentative Government
Council takes its stand with as few voters as possible
Best Club Night/Theme Night
Thank the Glitoris and crew for building Tuesday into a night worthy of its own weekend. Twenty- and thirtysomethings come here to grind, sweat, and be gay-curious in one form or another. The music can be mysteriously touch and go, but the dancing is free-love furious nonetheless. With ample space on the dance floor and…
Best 24-Hour/Late
To most Austinites, a walk down memory lane will almost surely include a walk to one of our beloved Kerbey Lane Cafes. The excellent service, quirky mix of Tex-Mex and healthier options, and unwavering dedication to giving the foggy-eyed their coffee fix ensures that Kerbey Lane Cafe will remain deep in the heart of Texas…
Best Bookstore
Even kids can appreciate that new book smell, the sounds of a freshly cracked spine, the crisp, organic texture of the unturned page. These are integral parts of the reading experience that are slowly being forgotten, but the savvy staff at this Austin staple work overtime to ensure reading remains an art of all the…
Best Downtown View
Though the surreal, stark-white colonnade that surrounds the spacious City Terrace of the Long Center is a remnant of the auditorium that originally stood there, it has become a favorite framework through which to view the expanse of Downtown. From West Lake Hills to far East Austin, the view of the sparkling new spires as…
Best Dancer or Dance Company
Boldly mixing a contemporary vision with a deep respect for tradition, Ballet Austin continues to captivate Austin audiences. Artistic Director Stephen Mills is known for his innovative ballets and collaborations, including the recent Mozart Project, an ambitious reimagination by DJ Spooky, pianist Michelle Schumann, and composer Graham Reynolds. And for our future prima ballerinas, the…
Best Local Blog
It is impossible to separate the blog from “That Austin Girl.” Tolly Moseley is an ebullient pixie bent on experiencing and sharing the best of what our city has to offer. Austin Eavesdropper is a record of her life, thoughts, and recommendations. Part chronicle of Austin fashion, nightlife, music, and entertainment and part journal of…
Best Bike Ride
Handsome, athletic, and a consummate leader, ride founder David C. Smith is one of the heaviest-hitting AIDS fundraisers in Austin, a springtime ride for all skill levels through our gorgeous Hill Country. This year the ride raised more than $560,000, spreading love among beneficiaries that include AIDS Services of Austin, Project Transitions, and the Wright…
Best Activist
Texas education is neglected in more ways than one, including practical approaches to keeping our students safe. With an amazing perseverance rooted in love and passionate knowledge, John Woods has feverishly pursued the fight to protect colleges from mandates allowing faculty and students to carry concealed handguns on campus. His group, Students for Gun-Free Schools,…
Best Unsung Behind-the-Scenester
Back in 1997, you voted this ubiquitous activist-attorney Best Nonprofit Volunteer for her dedication to local charities. Volunteer no more: As counsel, interim president, and CEO of the Austin Community Foundation, she has dedicated her life and career to one of the area’s biggest charitable trusts.
Best Shoe Repair
Sole power! Go ahead and spend the extra money on that nice purse and those sexy shoes. When they get dinged up from constant use, these doctors will return your babies back to their initial awesomeness, and you won’t even have to break them in again. The many locations and online mail-in system make it…
Best Liquor Store
Oh, Spec’s! Oh, Twin Liquors! Just shake hands and embrace the fact that Austin loves you both so much it can’t chose an absolute favorite. Both companies strive to offer the best in party favors for the good times. These faves pride themselves on wooing their regulars. Austin-born Twin Liquors is great for the why-not-buy-two…
Best Don’t Let It Suck (Please)
An open letter, an impelling to the development team behind the Seaholm project: Dear developer types, We Austinites have been promised the moon when it comes to urban “progress.” Sometimes, this has worked out to be quite lovely (we’d go so far as to offer nods to City Hall, the Moody Theater, the Pfluger Pedestrian…
Best Lens Crafters
If there’s one thing we like better than excellent individual artists, it’s excellent individual artists working together. (See the Rude Mechanicals, Okay Mountain, Austin Video Bee.) With Lakes Were Rivers, 11 of Austin’s sharpest, most industrious artists working in photography and video formed a collective so they could support and critique one another’s work –…
Best Reason To Learn the Charleston
The last Great Depression has this one licked for fashion. So for those of you with steak-house tastes on a soup-kitchen budget, once a month the retro-chic molls and brunos of Vintage Vivant, lead by mostest hostesses Angeliska (Gadjo Disko) and Amelia (Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School), break out the Dutch caps and fedoras to turn…
Best New Brewery
Last year we introduced Best Brewery in our Critics Picks (which this year migrated to the Readers Poll as Best Beer). In the 12 months since, Austin’s craft beer scene exploded, with at least half a dozen more (it’s getting hard to keep track) springing up. It’s agonizingly difficult to pick the best newcomer, but…
Best Gyroscopic Playground
Upside down, around, and under, defying gravity 10 times over: The crazy, amazing playscape at Mueller is a moving work of art. It’s designed by playscape leader KOMPAN, which specializes in organic forms and bright, primary colors. Get ready to defy gravity: Swings rotate in circles by shifting weight, the merry-go-round moves up and down…
Best Virtual Veggies
Here are two good resources for those interested in vegan and vegetarian lifestyles. VegAustin.com is a complete source for information on restaurants, groceries, catering companies, and bakeries, plus events and other resources of interest to the ATX vegetarian and vegan communities. It includes links to articles and reviews, vegan-friendly doctors, and local action groups. One…
Best Organic Assistance
The Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association is no stranger to helping people – by supporting Texas’ organic and sustainable farms, the organization regularly helps bring healthy produce to families across the state. Now, with many farms ravaged by drought and wildfire, the association has stepped up as an organized network of support. By collecting…
Best Music for Your Molars
In addition to receiving state-of-the-art services, patients of Dr. Shane Matt and Dr. Samera Owhadian of Authentic Smiles Dental Studio get the star treatment. You know the drill – you don’t? An avid music fan and aspiring guitarist, Matt calls himself the Rock & Roll Dentist and pipes in his favorite tunes throughout the office.…
Best New Age Neighbors
Coo-coo for crystals? Silly for selenite? Aggro for agate? Nature’s Treasures will rock your Crocs off. And while we’re totally bummed that some museum bought that humongous amethyst chair pictured on the billboard atop its I-35 shop before we had the chance to sit in it, we can’t help but love to touch, feel, and…
Best Way To Put the Pep in Your Step
Let’s face it: Staying fit is hard work – procrastination, beer, late nights, and queso can wreak havoc on the human machine. But there is a way to overcome fitness inertia: personal trainer Marla Davis. She’s a firecracker, full of energy. She’s sweet, but she won’t let you get away before doing a full three…
Mark Your (School Planning) Calendars
Superintendent lays out new proposal
Headlines
› No City Council meeting today (Thursday, Oct. 13); they could use some downtime after last week’s one-two punch, deciding to hold the May 2012 municipal election as scheduled, at two meetings in as many days. See “It’s May in a Landslide!” and “Point Austin.” › Meanwhile, Austin Independent School District trustees voted Oct. 10…
Best Cocktail Menu
The cocktails at East Side Show Room are obsessively good. It’s all in the OCD details like using the hardest ice available and picking herbs fresh daily. Head barkeep Chauncy James’ menu has vintage and creative elements, and the results are exceptional. It seems every element of this place is an intentional work of art,…
Best Cheap Date
Trying to impress a date by showing off the coolest digs this city has to offer? Short on cash? Psh … the mustachioed mamacita at Home Slice has your back. For less than $10, you can get two slices and a soda for you and your squeeze. Afterward, you have the entirety of SoCo to…
Best Clothing
This year, we’ve got a tie between two fabulous options for kid-centered – and kid-friendly – shopping. Up first is Baby Bugaloo, a hip spot for hip kids’ clothing and accessories – and we mean hip, as in it carries brands like Deux Par Deux, Rabbitmoon, and Beatrix, making this a South Austin must-shop for…
Best Historic Site
Remember the grade-school field trip when you made yourself dizzy twirling around under the Capitol Dome? Guess what? It’s still fun to do, and it’s free. Go unchaperoned this time, or show up for a free tour that includes some cool exhibits in the basement. While you’re there, check out the portrait hanging above the…
Best Emergent Local Filmmaker
You love him. You really love him. This three-time winner’s profile has risen to new heights since last year’s “Best Of,“ thanks to his having been chosen as one of Out magazine’s Out 100, the buzz created by advance screenings of the upcoming Fourplay, and his “Rantings” contribution to Slacker 2011. Raval is quickly outgrowing…
Best Local Entertainment Website
There’s way too much going on in Austin to keep up. This is the plus side of our recent population explosion: People are doing cool stuff and enjoying the cool stuff their neighbors are doing. But sometimes it’s overwhelming. And that’s why our readers love Austin360 so much. We also love that we can browse…
Best Bowling Alley
We’re spoiled for bowling alleys in Austin, Texas, and our options are lousy with personality. Who doesn’t adore Dart Bowl, with its legendary truck-stop enchiladas and kitschy-cool decor? It’s an Austin institution. And what’s not to love about the HighBall, that Alamo Drafthouse step-sib, with its retro vibe, classy cocktails, and lounge-y atmosphere appealing to…
Best Activist Organization
Effectively, the Texas Freedom Network is the granddaughter of former Governor (and legendary fifth Golden Girl) Ann Richards. Founded by Cecile Richards in 1995, the organization in recent years has led fights to keep the Texas State Board of Education as free from ideologues as possible, protect LGBTQ freedoms, and oppose restrictions of women’s reproductive…
Best Appliance/TV Repair
This West Lynn fixture has been in the TV biz since last midcentury was modern. Just to give you an idea: They opened here in Austin around the same time RCA, Admiral, and Westinghouse introduced the first color sets. Seasoned salesmen like Gary Hanna have been in the game since the days of cathode consoles,…
Best Spa
Is it really possible to pick just one favorite place to indulge and pamper? No, it isn’t, that’s why we’ve got a tie this year, with two spas that do their very best to remind you to take time out for yourself. Viva Day Spa, with two central locations, offers an impressive list of services…
Best Local Bookstore
Our favorite books often become tangible reminders of where we’ve been – grains of sand in the pages, a scribbled note in the margins, an old picture used as a place marker. It’s the same physical realness that we love about shopping at BookPeople: the conversations with sales people, flirtations with bestsellers, and hopeful leaps…
Best Hip-Hop Sign
For decades, the sign for Long Horn Meat Co. has given Eastside neighbors a landmark by which to give Westsiders directions. And this is especially true when the neighborhood meat market is advertising the return of its hippity-hoppity delicacy, rabbit: “Rabbits Are Back!” screams the sign. Even when the sign is advertising some other meat…
Best Pas de Deux
Few duets are as delicate as the one danced by an arts company’s artistic director and executive director. In the effort to balance aesthetic ambitions and commercial needs, partners too often step all over each other’s toes. That’s not a problem at Ballet Austin, where Executive Director Cookie Ruiz and Artistic Director Stephen Mills duet…
Best Rebirth of a Legend
Austin, don’t panic. TC’s, the blues bar you knew and loved, may be gone, but you can still swing by the old place and savor a slow beer and some good music at its new incarnation, the Sahara Lounge. Ibrahim Aminou saw it in a dream, and now he and the rest of his family…
Best No-Fire S’more
Ah, s’mores, those flaming emblems of youth. Remember the magical camping trips, gorging on the gooey concoctions until you passed out next to the fire, then waking up covered in that wholly unique glaze of dirt, sugar, and the occasional small stick or pebble? Those days of innocence are not lost, friends! Revisit the hypoglycemic…
Best Hosts and Kanye Backup
How the kids at Reagan High do not have big heads, we do not know. First, their school is ground zero for the summer’s coolest high school band competition, the Alvin Patterson Annual Battle of the Bands & Drumline show. Bands come from across Central Texas to join forces with the Raiders in the Austin…
Most Gaybiquitous
The charming and affable Chase Martin is a fixture on the gay social and charity scenes. His website, The Republiq, is one of many bright rays in Austin’s gaysplosion of queer culture, news, y más. Lez be honest,: The dude’s everywhere – OutCasting on KOOP, running a consulting firm, reporting on gay this and queer…
Best Party Partner
Qualifying nonprofits and civic-minded organizations hoping to kick things up a notch at their next outdoor party can now kick things up 1,000 watts with Austin Energy’s solar trailer. It can generate enough juice to power your lights and your soundstage, with enough energy left over for small appliances, too. The best part? It’s free…
Best Outcome From a Hairy Situation
When SoCo landmark Hairy Situations shut its doors earlier this year and its talented crew scattered in the hair-stylist diaspora, we were bereft. Luckily, the best of them – Amber Terry, Laura Rabakon, Pam Ross, Ray Ramos, Rachel McDaniel, and Johanna Escobar – found their way to West End Salon, lodged in a sweet little…
Best Place To Tarry
Chances are, if you’re a many-generationed West Austinite, your grandpa’s grandma filled her scripts here. Opened the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Tarrytown Pharmacy has shuffled a few locations and owners, but it has been held and run by generations of the same Newberry family since its first decade. Boasting as…
Best Assbackward City Project
Pulling out of a South Congress or Dean Keeton parking spot into oncoming traffic is no longer a daredevil feat, thanks to new (required) back-in-angle parking “stalls” along the busy strip. Okay, we know it’s hard to change our parking habits, but an informal observation informs us that most drivers back in without a hitch.…
Defining the Eco Message
Is the enviro movement due for a branding makeover?
City Hall Hustle: Low-Speed Ahead!
Council finally comes around on a pilot program for electric cabs
Best Drag Performer
It’s no surprise that Austin, with its land spreading out so far and wide and its charming penthouse views, would produce such a thoroughly modern Millie as Rebecca Havemeyer. Our resident Zsa Zsa in cha-chas charmed her way into our hearts with her glam-bang personality and her ongoing Celluloid Handbag film series at the Alamo…
Best Farmers’ Market
Every time we attend the Downtown SFC Farmers’ Market, we are gripped by the urge to quit our soulless corporate jobs, sell our million-dollar high-rise condos, and head to the hills to found an organic farming cooperative and commune with the land. Loca-, herbi-, omni-, and carnivores come together to peddle and purchase at these…
Best Club for Teen Performers
It’s fitting that the winners here are on or near Red River; the area has been a draw for teens since at least the 1950s, when they flocked to the New Orleans Club. Today, Red Eyed Fly offers U18 performers a friendly, almost wholesome intro to club life, and punk cousin Red 7 captures hearts…
Best Hotel
Down-home minimalism with a Texas twang, the Hotel San José is a “Best of Austin” Readers favorite for so many reasons. For some, it’s the location in the heart of SoCo that attracts them; for others, it’s the staff and the amenities. In fact, the pool at Hotel San José has won its own “Best…
Best Museum
Any time you need a quick trip around the world – say, just for a day – the University of Texas’ art museum is there for you. The Blanton’s ample collections (totaling more than 17,000 works) allow visitors to jet off to Latin America and Europe, as well as across the U.S., daily, and special…
Best Local News Website
Why is KXAN’s website so good for news? Because it was built by seasoned reporters, for seasoned reporters. Former Dallas Morning News firecracker Karen Brooks left her stamp on the site, and now capital bureau mainstay turned Digital Executive Producer John Moritz proves that old dogs can learn new social media tricks.
Best Day Trip – Dry
What’s a batholith? Hint: It’s not something that has fangs and destroys horcruxes (nerd!), but rather an underground rock formation. Oh, but our batholith is big, pink, and partially above ground. Climb atop it and scream: “I’m the king of the batholiths!” (Double-nerd!) And what’s the best thing about camping out at Enchanted Rock? All…
Best Austin Icon
Occasionally imitated and always enigmatic, Leslie Cochran remains the embodiment of keeping it weird. Whether he’s bumming a smoke or posing for a photo, he’s always around. If you haven’t seen the man behind the magnet set yet, keep your eyes open and hopes up that you’ll make the acquaintance of this legendary Austin icon.
Best Auto Service/Repair
This is Yost’s third time feeling the “BOA” love. Mike Yost himself was crowned 2004’s “Most Honest Punk Rock Mechanic,” and his shop won this very category in 2009. Vehicle inspections, electrical and computer diagnostics, tune-ups, air conditioner inspections, radiator services, and minor body work on pretty much all makes and models makes Yost a…
Best Tailor
For almost two decades, our readers have declared Ace Custom Tailors aces. Sure, these folks are great at zippers, alterations, and repairs. But their sleeves show a distinctly warm heart, especially when it comes to kids. Check out their teddy bear hospital, where children can bring their gently worn stuffed animals, blankets, or any other…
Best Local Hardware Store
Unless you were born Bob Vila, hardware stores probably make you feel dumb. Breed & Co. will not make you feel dumb. In fact, the knowledgeable folks there will make you feel rather brilliant, helping to empower the inner builder (or fence-fixer or wall-painter or whatever) you always suspected was in there somewhere, maybe buried…
Best Mustache Rides
Part of the Pay Phone Revival Project, the installation of a mustache seesaw at El Chilito was an upper-lip bristle that made so many of us laugh out loud (and not bristle). Passing by on any given day, drivers were treated to old, young, and hipster in-betweens bobbing up and down on the bespectacled teeter-totter…
Best Sculptures From Yesterday’s Future
“Don’t call him Steampunk” is the usual caution. That’s because, while Steve Brudniak’s eerie objects of technology from some mad past may radiate a whiff of that largely cosplay-based genre of expression, they’re more firmly based in the fine art milieu. Several of the man’s obsessively crafted sculptures are also based in lucky venues around…
Best Video-Game Collective Name
Oh yeah, the group itself is pretty cool, too. Founded by poster boys of the local indie gaming scene Brandon Boyer, Adam Saltsman, and Wiley Wiggins, the group has monthly open meetings at the HighBall bringing game developers from Austin and elsewhere around the globe to share their visions and expertise. Don’t expect a tech-laden…
Best Old World Dining
Pflugerville’s downtown square is the perfect setting for this Eastern European restaurant where sisters Anni Zovek and Piroska Althauser prepare Old World recipes smuggled from behind the Iron Curtain. Don’t expect fusion anything; the hearty dishes are straight out of a 1950s German-Hungarian cookbook. Like your grandma’s house, this space is filled with heartwarming mementos,…
Best Old-School Meets Preschool
After 32 years, one of the last kiddie parks in Texas maintains its focus on the preschool set with seven different rides and plenty of picnic tables for birthday parties. Everything in the park, from the Ferris wheel to the mini train that circles the acres, is just the right size to be thrilling without…
Most Tech-Savvy Party Starter
In these hyper-plugged-in times, it’s hard to imagine anything happening organically anymore, but that’s precisely what Hurricane Party is attempting to approximate. A free, ATX-incubated app, Hurricane Party uses social-networking tools to locate your peeps around town, then helps you take that information and turn it into an occasion to shindig offline, old-school-style. We’ll bring…
Best Place To Recharge
A Fifties-era gas pump doesn’t look so unusual amid the tangle of trailers scattered about the South First Food Court at South First and Live Oak. But this neon-green pump goes the extra mile with cool solar panels for folks to recharge (at no charge) their battery-powered gadgets and scooters. Thanks to the forward-thinking partnership…
Best Outpatient Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program
Maybe the Betty Ford Center is a little pricey and the paparazzi at Promises in Malibu, Calif., scare you. But maybe you need help getting a grip on the problem areas of your life, or maybe you’ve been court-ordered to attend outpatient substance abuse treatment. However you get there, what you get out of it…
Best Refined & Recycled
Going to Charm School can have a transformative effect on a woman – after selecting one of proprietress Shari Gerstenberger’s handpicked vintage pieces, the lady in question will emerge confident, inspired, and sweetly caught up in a romantic daydream. Everything is just so achingly pretty, so easily imagined lit up with yellow light from the…
Best Dulcet Tone (Sacred and Secular)
Excelling at both the macro (standing in front of hundreds of people singing and doling out nuggets of Talmudic wisdom) and the micro (one-on-one counseling as well as grassroots activism within Jewish and non-Jewish communities), senior rabbi for Congregation Agudas Achim Neil Blumofe is as comfortable talking sacred music as he is jazz. It’s not…
November Props & Bonds
Roads and parks are on the November ballot
Civics 101
Calendar of civic events, Oct. 13-20
Best Jukebox
There’s no other jukebox in town more legendary, more talked about, or more revered than the jukebox of wonder at Casino el Camino. Readers Poll pick for “Best Jukebox” since 1996, it’s now alive on the Web so you can shuffle through the awesome from anywhere in the world. Our last click-fest yielded Bowie’s “Panic…
Best Food Event
Remember – there’s no crying in salsa. When it’s a battle for the best in greens, reds, and all the rest, come equipped with your bravest taste buds and plenty of water because competition is fierce under the hot Texas sun. This annual event of chiles and tomatoes is one of the world’s largest, and…
Best Drop-In Center
Once registered, moms or dads can drop off their little ones for some active play (art! Internet! games!) at Kid Spa Austin. Unlike other drop-in child care facilities, there’s no minimum time, nor do they round up to the nearest hour. Guardians are charged by the minute, so go on, girl! Get that mani-pedi, buy…
Best Hotel/Motel Pool
Down-home minimalism with a Texas twang, the Hotel San José is a “Best of Austin” Readers favorite for so many reasons. For some, it’s the location in the heart of SoCo that attracts them; for others, it’s the staff and the amenities. In fact, the pool at Hotel San José has won its own “Best…
Best Performance Space
Musicals (Young Frankenstein), menfolk in tutus (Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo), Carol Burnett and Quentin Tarantino (now that’s a mash-up we’d love to see!), plus the inimitable Intergalactic Nemesis series? It’s just too much to comprehend that all have a place in that white-ringed green box. They’ve been blowing up our cellular for days,…
Best Local Non-‘Chronicle’ Publication
Once considered a guilty read by grads, postgrads, and grownups (and many a Chronicle staffer), truth be told, we go out of our way to grab a copy and get the lowdown on campus happenings – news, sports, entertainment, etc. – and much more from this student-run University of Texas publication.
Best Day Trip – Wet
Find your favorite dose of natural wonder out west on Highway 71. Hamilton Pool, as evidenced by anthropological remains, has been a killer swimming hole for thousands of years. Picnic and swim in the area of the collapsed grotto and 50-foot waterfall, or get your hiking and bird-watching done deeper into the 232-acre preserve. Twenty…
Best City Official
Have we ever had a police chief as popular as Art Acevedo? Handsome and eloquent, approachable and easygoing, “Ace” is not just a friend to the average Austin citizen; he also displays serious yet highly entertaining skills as an auctioneer for organizations like Zach Theatre and the Austin Children’s Shelter, in addition to exhibiting his…
Best Barbershop
With a few years under its belt, Birds knows what Austinites like. Want to get in and out with your mane tamed? No problem. Want to sip a Lone Star and gab about Austin’s music scene while your excess locks slowly fall away? Easy peas-y. With new locations going up all the time (including one…
Best Tattoo Shop
Known for its friendly Texas style, True Blue Tattoo has the tats on lockdown, reppin’ our city on the Red River scene and catering to walk-ins and appointments alike. With nine artists varying in specialties and styles, the staff will make sure you get the exact ink you want in a well-lit, clean, professional environment.…
Best Music Gear
Strait up now baby, we’re gonna love you forever. With your indie feel and snazzy deals like the restring for $12 plus the cost of strings, musicians know where it’s at. And if you’re a size queen, Guitar Center turns things up to 11 with its vast inventory of auditory delights. For those of you…
Best Naming of a Library
We are happy whenever a public space is named after a woman, person of color, or queer. Aside from being a trifecta, Ana Sisnett was a celebrated author, educator, tech goddess, artist, and activist, and the Gender and Sexuality Center at UT has dedicated the Ana Sisnett Library in honor of her contributions to our…
Best Wit With a Stitch
Any actor armed with a sufficiently snarky wisecrack or a spit take can get a laugh onstage, but a frock? It’s the rare garment that can garner a guffaw. But when Edna Turnblad emerged from the plus-sized can of Aqua Net in Zach Theatre’s production of Hairspray, her over-the-top, Technicolor, early Sixties gown was what…
Best Bacon
Formerly – and occasionally still – a farmers’ market staple, Full English made the transition to brick-and-mortar eatery. Thank the bacon gods it did. Importing its pork from outside the state, this cut is the most British style of bacon found in Austin. Half bacon, half ham, it’s thick, juicy, and amazing. Not a better…
Best Reason To Get Fried
Yes, pies probably bring to mind “baked” rather than “fried,” but trust us – Cutie Pies, which recently graduated from trailer to brick-and-mortar storefront, does both very well. Discard notions of the packaged fried pies of your youth – these tender, flaky, luscious treasures, freshly fried and piping hot, will melt in your mouth. We…
Best Pirate Ship
They call it a “seasonal interactive playscape pool,” but that’s code for the best darn pirate ship in town! Moored in an all-ages outdoor pool, it has stairs, riggings, a porthole, and many ways to spray water at your mateys. Paired with two waterslides and a heated lap pool, this is the place for pirates,…
Best ‘Take One for the Team’
Our own proofer Kristine Tofte is always a shiner – like a diamond – but that description became doubly appropriate when, during the Chronicle’s Alternative Softball League season closer against KOOP, she caught a scorcher thrown to home … with her face. Ever the good sport, Tofte came to work the next day with a…
Best PowerPoint Presentations in Council Chambers
If there’s one thing Bill Spelman knows how to do, it’s break things down. For many council watchers, his 2009 overview of reasons not to proceed with Water Treatment Plant No. 4 – a 20-minute presentation, delivered from the dais with the help of slides – was the height of wonking out and a moment…
Best Sliding-Scale Community Health Clinic
No medical insurance? No problem. A quick evaluation of your documentation will determine the fee, and it’s usually quite reasonable. Some pay more than others, but some earn more than others. Based in Georgetown, Lone Star Circle of Care offers various branches in Round Rock, Hutto, Belton, Temple, Killeen, and in South Austin on Ben…
Best Ringing Endorsement
Sure, we all know about Clarksville Pottery, but like precious nesting dolls, Austin’s aptly named Rings Unique is located inside Clarksville Pottery’s venerable Lamar location. Featuring several collections from individual designers, there’s something in Rings Unique’s ring case that will tickle your loved one’s fancy. And once your design is selected, it’s custom made with…
Best Grassrootsiest Movement
There’s no way to sugarcoat it – this year’s 82nd Legislature was not a great session for public institutions in general, and most especially not for public schools. But the bright light was the push-back coming from all over the state, catalyzed and organized by Austin-based Save Texas Schools. STS brought more than 12,000 concerned…
Republicans Ready To Rumble
The race to determine who’s more conservative
Best LGBTQ Hangout
The gay mafia is going to have a field day with this one. In what can only be called an upset victory, Cheer Up Charlie’s, that scraggly, charming upstart, has dethroned queen of the gay bars, Rain on 4th (with which it tied in 2010) as your favorite LGBTQ haunt. We chalk it up to…
Best Intimate Dining
You’re three hours and five French 75s into another themed party at Justine’s and someone has just knocked your wig askew again. As you stand your ground at the crowded bar, no one hears you above the din when you shout, “Remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for; it’s Champagne!” An older…
Best DVD Selection
From Alice in Wonderland to Zathura: A Space Adventure, the obsessive-compulsive team of perennial “Best of Austin” winners at Vulcan Video are here to make sure your kid gets the stimuli a growing brain needs. With about 2,000 children’s films in stock, they may even help you find something even your pickiest future Kurosawa wouldn’t…
Best Motel
The – let’s just call it what it is – phallic sign in the sky on South Congress is your beacon to the city’s best place to kick your shoes off. 2011 marks year 73 for this iconic motel. The decor of its 41 rooms is always changing, each one sporting its own personality with…
Best Place To See Local Art
Aptly named, this behind-the-scenes studio tour takes you through the sometimes hidden but always intriguing Eastside studios and galleries of Austin’s burgeoning art scene. Crowds on a sea of bikes and feet follow the EAST map to discovery on every corner. From modest to refined, each artist’s studio is a telling context in which to…
Best Local TV News
These two televised titans have deep reserves to draw from. KXAN has the lead anchor team of Robert Hadlock and Leslie Rhode, investigative reporter Nanci Wilson, and the City Hall beat’s Reagan Hackleman. KVUE’s anchors Terri Gruca and Tyler Sieswerda are supported by the work of Quita “Does It Work Wednesdays” Culpepper and local guv…
Best Fitness Classes
A variety of styles (Hatha, Vinyasa, and Kundalini, to name a few), a crew of far-out and in-tune instructors, and inventive classes like Paddle Yoga, Candle Sweaty Yoga, and Night Cap Yoga have made Black Swan Yoga the place to get down with your bad self. The studio’s “yoga-for-the-people” donation-based system encourages students to pay…
Best Council Member
Native Austinite Chris Riley has tirelessly served this fair city for more than a decade through the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, Planning Commission, and the Austin Parks Foundation to name but a few. The Wooldridge Square chess game? That’s his handiwork, too. His legacy is tied to our success, so it’s fitting Austin thanks him…
Best Bicycle Repair
This is the 23rd time Bicycle Sport Shop has taken home a “BOA,” so obviously it knows how to repair two-wheeled conveyances while keeping their two-legged companions happy. Newer kid on the podium, the Peddler (it got the nod in ’09), might be dwarfed by the local chain, but it keeps Duval spinning with familiar…
Best Veterinarian
Whether they’re up with the roosters or lying down with the lions and lambs, whether your pet is having a dog day or in need of a catnap, this Austin Zoo-trusted pet hospital flings the doors open early and stays late (even on Catur … uh, Saturdays), and our readers love ’em for it. In…
Best Naughty Business
The missionary position can be quite continental, but Forbidden Fruit is a girl’s best friend. Adam, Eve, and Steve know when they need a little more spice in their life, they can always turn to our trusty neighborhood kink shop – now exclusively on North Loop – to fulfill their needs with a rubber helping…
Best Old School South of the River
The mother falcon of South Austin schools celebrated her 125th anniversary in September, and we can’t think of a more fittingly regal home for what is now Austin ISD’s law and humanities magnet program. How many schools can turn out such alumni as author John Henry Faulk and Mayor Lee Leffingwell? And how many schools…
Best Austin Movie Blog
This irresistibly monickered aggregate website keeps its finger on the pulse of the Austin film scene. The Austin-based megafeed compiles posts from numerous local film blogs, and therefore little that goes on around town passes unnoticed. Additionally, Slackerwood’s in-house writers contribute movie reviews and extensive coverage of Austin’s bustling film-festival scene.
Best Bowling Tribute to the Big You-Know-Who
After a day of bowling, driving around, and the occasional acid flashback, Nihilists, rug pee-ers, fig-eaters, and inner-city children of promise alike eventually need to eat. If you’re looking to not shell out too many bones or clams or whatever you call them, the place to go is Highland Lanes, for inside this palace of…
Best Tres Leches Variation
Heaven must have heard our prayers. This sweet, chocolaty, silky, divine dessert is made all-naturally by the talented and clever bakers at Mr. Natural. Could it be true that this much preservative-free, aluminum-free, naturally sweetened vegan is love packed into one fight-for-the-last-bite chocolate tres leches? Yes. Praise the powers that be and have another piece.
Best Preemie Team
New parenthood is already an emotional ride, but when the the life of a wee one hangs in the balance, that roller coaster kicks into high gear. Thank the entire staff of the St. David’s Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; they do all they can to ensure that Mom and Babe have every opportunity…
Best Banked-Track Battlers
How many sports can you name where a bout can get settled on skates or with a pillow fight? The original banked-track Roller Derby revivalists have kept some of that Seventies sass in their sport. And yes, they still have Spank Alley.
Best Proactive Neighborhood on Transit Issues
When it comes to public transportation, this hands-on neighborhood association has its feet on the ground. The old South Austin NA has forged (mostly) good working relationships with public entities, particularly Capital Metro, which has adjusted its bus stops to better suit the area’s residents. Southwood was also the first NA to enlist in Cap…
Best Taxidermy and Home Design
Yes, taxidermy and home design. When you step into Howl for the first time, you’ll feel as if you’ve been transported into a modern, steampunk Alice in Wonderland replete with furs, animals, mirrors, and settees. Every piece in the shop is perched precisely at the corner of unbelievable and “I need this.” Here, antiques meet…
Best Soleful Imports
Texans sure love boots. So it’s refreshing to see increasing popularity of light, durable suede boots that differ from your typical cowboy and biker styles. Inca Boots are just that: authentic Peruvian boots and shoes in a variety of styles, all featuring traditional woven embellishments. With new styles for the fall ready to launch and…
Best Hammer Hunters
Nailing Tom “The Hammer” DeLay for money laundering is like collaring Al Capone for tax evasion, but after a decade of legal and political fights, this year the staff of the Public Integrity Unit finally gave Travis County residents and all Texas voters the justice they deserved: Three years in prison and 10 years probation…
APD Shooting Leads to Lawsuit
Family claims officer used excessive force
The Thing
Functioning as a prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, this film answers questions even though there’s little mystery.
Best Live DJ
Mondays at Nasty’s are a potpourri of people with a need to shake that ass. Rugby jocks, dykes, and hip-hop kids all choose to get down on that tiny dance floor each week, as they have since 1997. Yep. Same mix of freaks, same man behind the mix. It’s the decidedly nonhouse that DJ Mel…
Best Local Farm
Boggy Creek was a USDA-certified organic urban farm before it was trendy to be one. Turn in at the big, red tomato sign at an unassuming driveway on the near Eastside, and you’ll find hen houses, a farmhouse from the 1840s, and five acres of earthly bounty. The market stand is modest but stocked with…
Best Fun, Educational Field Trip
Sure, the Austin Children’s Museum is for “kids” – but that doesn’t mean adults don’t love it, too. In fact, it’s the inclusiveness and playful attitude of this museum that make it a fun and educational visit for Austinites of all ages: Bring your tinkerers, your designers, your young minds ready to learn! And this…
Best New Building (Past Five Years)
Austin’s Downtown skyline is ever-changing, but two new buildings have rightfully caught our readers’ attention and imaginations this year. The Austonian, the tallest residential building in Texas, cuts a sleek profile just north of Lady Bird Lake and boasts ground-level dining and drinking establishments that have attracted national attention. The W Hotel has done the…
Best Theatre Director
Dave Steakley must have his own Steakley Hall of Fame to house all the awards, commendations, and accolades he receives. His deft handling of so many kinds of theatre makes him one of the finest directors in Texas, but it’s his bold approach to musicals that has delighted ZACH audiences for tow decades. His 2011…
Best Locally Produced TV Show
Back when we were just a twinkle in Austin’s eye, we turned the old black-and-white, bunny-eared television to Austin City Limits and dreamt of becoming the Next Big Thing. For 36 years, KLRU has been broadcasting music, magic, and Austin mystique to Texas and beyond, inspiring music collections, books, a Rock and Roll Hall of…
Best Gear/Sporting Goods
What makes REI an outstanding source for supplies and expertise for almost every sport and recreational event imaginable are the company’s core principles and the absolute get-outside-and-live passion expressed by President/CEO Sally Jewell and employees alike. (The end-of-year dividends for member-customers are nice, too.) This perennial winner is right at home in our great outdoors.
Best Elected Official
He’s been our Steady Eddie in Congress for nearly 20 years, always rising to defend the values of Austin, Travis County, and his entire district, no matter how hard the Republicans have tried to take him out of the game. You can’t keep a good man down.
Best Car Wash
Genie’s professionals will whip, swish, swoosh, and buff your car into first-date shape inside and out, so fast and oh so furious. These perennial masters of the wax on, drive off are equipped to handle all your dirty driving habits without judging (yes, they see that old french fry under the seat) while showing your…
Best Antiques/Collectibles
This imagination-stoking SoCo favorite houses the peculiar and beautiful wares of 24 separate antiques purveyors. Their titular Objects are arranged into surprisingly lovely milieus, and the resulting effect is of wandering through the living rooms of artists, eccentrics, and oddballs. Now, if only there were an afternoon tea service ….
Best New Local Business
Two very different color palettes; two ends of North Loop. A nice lady known as Puppett stocks Green House’s retooled fashion for bod and home. One step inside and you’re in the nostril of a unicorn who’s snorted one too many rainbows. The “green” herein suggests the A-Z of “re”s (-cycle, -purpose, -use, etc.) as…
Best Peace, Quiet, and Chill
If the hectic pace of your day and the gripping heat of the afternoon have got you down, don’t worry; there’s a great getaway Downtown that is a place of sanctuary, silence, and really good air conditioning and can take you to your happy place – the Texas State Law Library. Conveniently located near the…
Best Barest, Bravest Show Run
Curiosity may have been what brought the first audiences to the Hideout to see Live Nude Improv, but word of mouth and stunningly raw improvised shows are what turned it into an entirely sold-out run. And yes, there was nudity – that was the point, or at least one of them. Director Andy Crouch credits…
Best Breakfast Taco at 3am
There are so many good breakfast tacos in this city that The New York Times once did a Top 10 list during South by Southwest. One stands supreme, however, past the witching hour. La Mexicana pumps out the tastiest, freshly made breakfast tacos at 3am. True, at that point, they’re more pre-pass-out tacos than breakfast,…
Best Vegan Lasagna
This layered lasagna with vegan street cred deserves a prize. Mother’s spinach-tofu lasagna hides all your greens, nuts, and grains in a wide, hot dish of pure, melty comfort food. Ask the chef to pretty pretty please add vegan cheese on top and make it perfect.
Best Texas Touchdown
Even the most football-ambivalent can find something to rah-rah about in this visiting exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Perhaps it will be Galveston’s Ball High School, the first team to play an official game in Texas in 1892, or learning that the Sugar Land Express was actually the nickname of a…
Best Bats & Burgers
Almost as soon as the rails were pulled up in 1942, bats moved into the old railroad tunnel just south of Fredericksburg on Old San Antonio Road. Millions of bats make the tunnel their home in the summer, and they emerge nightly from the tunnel to feed from the smallest wildlife management area in the…
Best Retired Plumber With Some Claims to Fame
Jake Perry is a true Austin legend: The retired longtime plumber has taken care of more sink clogs that any one person should ever have to see; he’s lived in the same South Austin home for more than 50 years; he’s been the proud papa to numerous cats – including the world’s oldest living cat,…
Best Tipping Policy
Outside of the service industry, it’s a little-known fact that it’s legal to pay waitstaff less than the federal minimum wage – as little as $2.13 per hour – which is why servers get so frustrated at cheapos who don’t tip. But Black Star Co-op, the new North Central brewpub run on cooperative principles, came…
Best Stuffed Squid
Who doesn’t want eight arms to hold them? With her cuddly cephalopods, made from oddball remnants and reclaimed offcuts, Kristin Hogan (co-creator with her sister Katie of awesome indie Web comic Dead Squirrel Girl) has created an Etsy sensation that we’re suckers for.
Best Lady of the Gays
This Octopus Club (the fundraising tentacle of AIDS Services of Austin) volunteer is the grande dame of the gays, especially when it comes to organizing for queer folks’ health rights. Morrison was there in 1986 arguing against the quarantine of people living with AIDS – which is just one of many stupid things the Texas…
Gay Place
Austin’s gay communities are the best
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress
The most famous restaurant in the world is profiled in this documentary.
Best Local Beer
Okay everybody, raise your hand if you love beer. What’s that? You can’t raise your hand because you’re holding a delicious Live Oak HefeWeizen? And you have to run anyway because you’re headed to Live Oak’s brewery for a free tour and brew sampling? Well, we’ll just take that as a “yes.”
Best Local Food Blog
Seeing as she recently won the Whole Foods Foodie Fantasy contest and nabbed this award last year, it shouldn’t surprise anybody that Jodi Bart is again at the top of the heap. Tasty Touring serves as both a clearinghouse of reviews, profiles, and tidbits of Austin foodie news and an ever-expanding catalog of “wish you…
Best Haircut
Can you think of anyone better suited to cut your baby bird’s hair than the be-tatted, dashing, fun-loving, Mohawked young man or woman that you’re likely to get at this haircuttery? Neither can we.
Best Public Art
For a brief musical spell, if you will, this spring Austin was tuned to the sound of 14 pianos tinkling around Lady Bird Lake and our Downtown skyscrapers. Started in Birmingham, England, in 2008 by artist Luke Jerram, “Play Me, I’m Yours” was an interactive attempt to bridge gaps between people and create a tighter…
Best Visual Artist
Whether it’s Jones with his relentless graphite-and-ink renderings of the animal-riddled wilderness displayed in his Monofonus Press book Everglades and his one-man “Animal Again” show at Champion Gallery or Doyle with his Nakatomi Inc powerhouse releasing his own comics-influenced posters of pop-culture beauty to the world, our readers know what they like, and they like…
Best Public Access TV Show
Glory be – or rather, praise be to Richard Dawkins – for this public access show presenting frank and often hilarious sparring on topics such as the naturalistic fallacy, childhood indoctrination, and the Bible’s greatest hits. But let’s not kid ourselves: We know you’re really in it for the many call-in episodes in which Matt…
Best Golf
The turtle! The mill! The pirates! The whale! The Peter! Peter Pan Mini Golf has been entertaining Austin for generations. Situated in the heart of everything on Barton Springs Road, PPMG has been a go-to for low-cost fun since 1946. Aptly named, this minigolf course is fun for the whole family, and it’s a reminder…
Best Environmentalist
Spend a few hours watching local government and chances are you’ll see Paul Robbins. The self-described “environmental activist and consumer advocate,” clad in large glasses and an ever-present tweed sports coat, is a perennial presence at meetings, offering alternately droll, combative, and informed takes on topics from energy purchases to water conservation. He’s also publisher…
Best Computer Repair
Discount Electronics is legendary for its reliable service and parts selection for Dell repairs and upgrades, but one of the best parts of any visit is the wait. The store is a showroom of gadgets and doodads stocked in huge quantities, with low prices rivaling that of the big chains. Multiple-“BOA”-winning Happy Mac continues to…
Best Car Dealership
It’s true that in these hard economic times, people are looking for a good car value for their hard-earned bucks, but it is also obvious that Howdy Honda is more than a standard depot for efficient cars at affordable prices. Its long-standing reputation for quality and personal, no-pressure service brings back memories of a long-lost,…
Best Pet Store
The gang at locally owned Bark ‘n Purr love our furry friends inside and out, offering the best quality pet products at the best price. To make the experience even easier, it has online shopping and free delivery in Austin. Repeat customers have come to expect quality products such as Orijen, Holistic Select, and Flint…
Best Place To Re-Create ‘Cabaret’
The periscope winking at you from the bar is your first sign. Indeed, walking into the mother-and-daughter-owned East Side Show Room is a welcome submersion into the bar culture and design of 1920s/1930s Europe – wrought-iron fixtures, penny-covered tables, and exposed-brick walls. There are definitely Austin fingerprints all over though, from a Texas-grown menu to…
Best Chamber Ensemble, Then and Now
In the eight years that it’s been the string quartet in residence at the University of Texas’ Butler School of Music, the Miró Quartet has proven itself an extraordinary addition to Austin’s arts scene. The musicmaking and ensemble work among Daniel Ching, Joshua Gindele, John Largess, and Sandy Yamamoto has been stunning in its sophistication,…
Best Cake Fit for a Prez
One of our happiest days of the year is Aug. 27. That’s when the LBJ Library gives out free cake, some of the most tender crumb and perfectly balanced buttercream to sit atop a fork. For more than two decades, this small bakery has provided the cakes decorated with the presidential seal to celebrate LBJ’s…
Holy Mole, Best Tortilla Soup in Town
Tortilla soups vary from eatery to eatery, but not by much: The thin broth, the chicken, the various veggies, and bits of tortilla – lordy, even a mediocre take on such soup can pwn other liquid hotties in a best-two-out-of-three-spoonfuls death match. But El Chile’s version, as created by Executive Chef Alma Alcocer-Thomas, is something…
Most Likely To Cause Squeals, Then ZZZs
Remember those bouncy castles from yesteryear? Well, this is pretty much the same thing except instead of bouncing in the belly of an inflatable dragon that fills a portion of the backyard, Jumpoline Park is an indoor field of row upon row of trampoline surface as big as a massive department store. Let’s face it,…
Best Circus Arts Revivalists
They may fly through the air, but it isn’t with the greatest of ease. Aerial dancers practice and perform a difficult skill every time they climb up the swaths of cloth that take their dance to a truly three-dimensional level. Austinites are recognizing the beauty, as well as the workout. Sky Candy offers classes based…
Best Sweet Faces in the Face of Disaster
What sweet relief to encounter a dozen or so earnest and organized, fresh-faced AmeriCorps volunteers at the ready at this intake/outtake volunteer center. The crew is made up of members from E-Corps pods from Washington state and Austin’s own American YouthWorks. Bastropians in need of immediate assistance (provisions, tools, lot-clearing, etc.) may come here to…
Best Way To Feel Like Barnabas Collins, Morticia Addams, or Hell, Even Edward Cullen
It’s hard to miss, for sure, this black 1979 Cadillac hearse tooling around the entertainment districts of Austin. Of course, goth parties and Halloween would be typical uses (book now, baby), but what an imaginative and unorthodox way to pick up a guest from the airport or make an unforgettable entrance to a grand event.…
Best Stunning Adornments
Have you ever had a ring that seemed to grow right out of your finger or a necklace that was suddenly in bloom? Have you ever yearned for a copper-and-silver boa to adorn your neck? Owner Shalena White loves her craft and puts her fine arts degree (metalsmithing and jewelry-making) from Texas State University to…
Best Municipal Fashion Statement
For as long as the Water Treatment Plant No. 4 debate’s worn on – some three decades and counting – it’s amazing someone just now came up with the idea to emblazon the waterworks’ logo on a shirt! Austin Water is selling a WTP4 polo-style shirt for $20.97, featuring the plant’s logo on a soft…
Page Two: In the Red
Republican plans for economic recovery could make things worse
Fireflies in the Garden
This long-delayed drama about family dysfunction stars Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, and Julia Roberts.
Best Local Liquor
Founder Tito Beveridge was born with a name so perfect he had no choice but to create this worldwide favorite. Made for the fussiest of drinkers and liquor connoisseurs alike, this smooth, thoughtfully made vodka is truly the key to getting into your mouth’s pants. Let’s get it on.
Best Local Food Company
We’ve sung Greenling’s praises before, but lately it doesn’t really need us to do the job: The company has seen massive growth in both its capacity to deliver organic goodness to your front door and in grocery innovation. Want to make a hearty, healthy meal but don’t know where to start? Greenling’s recipe kitchen has…
Best Party Place
In the magical world of kids, Main Event is Valhalla. In the magical world of adults charged with the task of entertaining those kids’ overstimulated butts, Main Event is also Valhalla. And it has mead. Mead produced from the udders of the goat Heiðrún. OK, we’re totally joking about the last part, but it does…
Best Sign
The – let’s just call it what it is – phallic sign in the sky on South Congress is your beacon to the city’s best place to kick your shoes off. 2011 marks year 73 for this iconic motel. The decor of its 41 rooms is always changing, each one sporting its own personality with…
Best Texas Amusement Park
Water babies are spoiled by the sheer scope of dope Central Texas swimming holes, but sometimes we crave something bigger. Something badder. Something hotter, cooler. We need a water park as epic as its name. That’s when we bust out the bikinis and board shorts and migrate south to what is advertised as “the hottest…
Best Radio Deejay/Host
Go ahead. Try to play hard to get with 101X’s morning show hosts Jason & Deb. Try with all your might. They’ll win you over with brash, boyish charm and English wit, respectively. They’ll weasel their way into your over-caffeinated heart. So chug your coffee, ignore the occasional uncomfortably non-PC awkwardness (hey, it’s morning radio!),…
Best Place To Camp
What’s a batholith? Hint: it’s not something that has fangs and destroys horcruxes (nerd!), but rather an underground rock formation. Oh, but our batholith is big, pink, and partially above ground. Climb atop it and scream: “I’m the king of the batholiths!” (Double-nerd!) And what’s the best thing about camping out at Enchanted Rock? All…
Best Grassroots Movement
Texas education is neglected in more ways than one, including practical approaches to keeping our students safe. With an amazing perseverance rooted in love and passionate knowledge, John Woods has feverishly pursued the fight to protect colleges from mandates allowing faculty and students to carry concealed handguns on campus. His group, Students for Gun-Free Schools,…
Best Dry Cleaner
Founded in 1987 and with 15 locations in and around Austin, Rick’s has plenty of good service to go around and plenty of testimonials to how great it is. Reasonable prices on dry cleaning and laundry are an added plus, as is the recycling of hangers and plastic. Most garment cleaning is $2.59 per piece,…
Best Comic-Book Store
Turn the page; wash your hands. Turn the page; wash your hands. That may be extreme, but the staff at this comic-book heaven have approached that level of reverence, and it’s this dedication that keeps Austin Books & Comics your fanboy/fangirl favorite year after year.
Best Record/CD Store
Whether you’re looking for new adventures in lo-fi or songs in the key of Gaga, Austin’s beloved Waterloo Records is your one-stop shop for everything music that Kris Krosses your mind. And if you can’t tell Lou Reed from Doug Yule, don’t fret; the scoff-free staff will be happy to help you figure it out.…
Best Purdy View From an Automobile
Not that we recommend taking your eyes off the road, but as you leapfrog your way from Highway 290 East to I-35 heading north, look left and you’ll see either a glimmering testament to Austin’s growth or a towering reminder of how our little city has grown up, whether we wanted it to or not.…
Best Dive Bar Without a Sign
Off a busy boulevard, down an unassuming driveway, through a dark parking lot, there is an unmarked door. But don’t expect secret knocks or a vintage veneer: The proprietress, simply known as E, will look at you funny. In fact, it’s quite amazing that you found your way in. There is no indication from the…
Best Celebration of Cold Caffeine
As one of Austin’s new kids on the coffee block, Chameleon Cold-Brew has quickly made a name for itself among caffeine connoisseurs. Craft-brewed cold from organic, Fair Trade arabica beans and filtered water, this java juice is high on pep and low on acid, making it a smooth, welcome addition to our waterloo mornings. Have…
Most Charming Brazilian Outpost
Since the beginning, when they sold their savory pastries, sauces, and desserts at the farmers’ market, Ben Googins and Elias Martins endeared themselves to the community. With their retail business going strong, they now host benefits, throw lively parties, and serve authentic Brazilian food in a charming East Austin space that’s as warm as their…
Most Stylish Helmet Therapy
A rising number of tiny tots suffer from plagiocephaly – or “flat-head syndrome” – which can be corrected with helmet therapy. Sounds like a drag, right? Not when local design firm Evolution Graphics provides custom detailing. Tricking out plastic orthotic bands in everything from burnt orange to Cat in the Hat characters, the donation-only service ensures…
Best Fantasy Fitness
In the immortal words of T Pain, “I’m in love with a [pole dancer].” In fact, we’re in love with the whole Brass Ovaries crew! In addition to performing around town, this group of lovely dancers teaches pole fitness classes, a provocative and fun way for men and women of all sizes and abilities to…
Best Voices, Lifted and Sung
This historic congregation – established just after the end of the Civil War as a place of worship for freed people in Austin – has what can only be described as a legendary choir. The voices are beautiful, the arrangements creative, the direction tight. If you want to feel what its like to be filled…
Best Way To Get Back on Your Feet
Feet: Everyone knows they are the window to the sole. They are also pretty important for balancing your superstructure and making sure your big heinie doesn’t tump over your bidness. Basically, you need ’em – to stand, to walk, to get you here and there and back again. And when they hurt, well, that’s just no…
Best Talent Tie-in
We can wax rhapsodic about Sarah Stollak’s crocheted jewelry: beautiful baubles of stones, beads, and string. We can go on about her violin and fiddle playing with such diverse groups as the Lonesome Heroes and Quartet-a-Tete String Quartet. But it’s the life-size knitted guitars that seal the deal. Stollack doesn’t knit cozies for guitars; she…
Best of Austin 2011
It’s the Economy, Dollface “Haven’t you got enough imagination to pretend we’re broke, hungry, homeless, drifting in despair? Now let’s just sit here and try to feel like a couple of tramps!” – from Preston Sturges’ 1941 classic Sullivan’s Travels The razor-sharp Sturges has been hot on my playlist of late. I always wonder if…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Hong Kong’s Austin Road, star softball player Marilyn Monroe, and more factoids
Footloose
Finally, a remake that’s not a just a mindless retread.
Best Lounge
Kitschy and swanky: That’s how Austin loves her lounges. Rio Rita spreads the chintz love around its colorful space with glorious mix-matched seating, local art, and to-die-for Bloody Marys. The HighBall channels classic retro swank with smooth seating; mad, manly decor; and fabulous infused cocktails. Opposite angles with the same outcome – laid-back lounging for…
Best Lunch Delivery
The only thing that compares to the speed with which you can get in and out of a Jimmy John’s location with sub and soda in hand is the speed with which you’ll be devouring your delectable lunch after you’ve placed your delivery order – all while not losing a beat at work or play.
Best Restaurant
While some kid-centric joints scrimp on the side of the parents – the folks who, you know, chauffeured those tykes to the establishment – that’s not the case at Phil’s Icehouse. While exciting playscapes and an adjoining Amy’s Ice Creams locale are the things of wee dreams, Phil’s delicious, infinitely customizable burgers, famous sweet-potato fries,…
Best Statue
This bronze work by artist Ralph Helmick gives us the chance to see Stevie again in real life – serenely gazing southward, the Austin skyline at his back, pausing to rest a moment before continuing onward to that big blues club in the sky.
Best Toys
Terra Toys and Toy Joy have their subtle differences. Terra is more classic and cerebral, where Toy Joy is nearly seizure-inducing in its modern, DayGlo craziness, yet both of these wonder emporiums strike the balance between fads and infinitely fun, affordable and uppity, new school and Playskool, pink and blue. Though people get old and…
Best Radio Station
When trying to tune in to the heart of Austin and the brains of National Public Radio, people turn their dials to 90.5FM. The eclectic mix of national and local news, blues, and everything in between has captivated listeners for years. If ever there were a station that deserved being turned up to 11, it’s…
Best Place To Skate
Despite the Seventies-nostalgic Roll Bounce and the not-shot-in-Austin-after-all Whip It, this generation is sorely lacking a roller-skating epic like, say, 1979’s Roller Boogie or Xanadu. Playland is an Austin tradition in family fun that keeps getting better. It still has that skate-shaped disco ball, and it now has a two-story playscape for the tiny ones,…
Best Green Program
Austin’s Ecology Action of Texas by the numbers: 232,000: kilowatt-hours of electricity saved by aluminum recycling 16,924: trees saved by recycling paper 4,432: gallons of fuel oil saved by recycling glass 3,285: cubic yards of landfill space saved by recycling paper 2000: the year EA became a worker-run coop 1979: the year EA of Texas…
Best Florist
Our hometown Freytag’s Florist (pronounced “fry,” not “fray”) has been helping Austinites congratulate and console one another for nearly 40 years, and for nearly 30 of those years, it has been recognized as one of the Top 100 florists in the nation by national wire service Teleflora. Whoa! That deserves a big bouquet of yellow…
Best Computer Store
A tie for Best Computer Store is a bit like apples and oranges when you’re dealing with Macs vs. PCs. But the readers have spoken. If you have a Mac, fixing it up couldn’t be more convenient than swinging by the store, grabbing a ticket, and entertaining yourself with new gadgets while waiting for service.…
Best Shoe Selection
We all have a little shoe whore in us. When the heel devil creeps up on our shoulder, enticing us with some retail therapy, Nordstrom’s foot-fetish beacon shines like a bright, holy light. Fear not: The price range is down-to-earth, but the selection out of this world. Jessica Simpson. Toms. Fendi. Steve Madden. Nine West.…
Best Retro Staycation
Around since the 1960s, this lakeside lodge is instilled in the childhood memories of many Austinites. But with new management and much improved service and food, the Lakeway Resort and Spa deserves another look. Our favorite features are the separate pools, one with water rides for kids, the other a swim-up bar and hot tub…
Best Fag/Fag Hag Bag
Hey, homo! Have you heard about Celluloid Handbag? It’s glittery, glitzy kitsch carried by none other than Austin’s own drag dynamo Rebecca Havemeyer. Once a month, Havemeyer drags all the ’mos down to the ’mo, aka the Alamo Drafthouse, for a carefully curated series of cinema adored by the LGBTQIA. Sometimes it’s films made by…
Best Ceviche on the Cheap
Where else can you get ceviche tostadas for $3 and change? Or a big bowl of guacamole for a couple of bucks? If you’re up for the adventure of munching on some tasty tiny octopuses, try the pulpo ceviche. La Playa feels like old Mexico, the waitresses are sweet as peaches, and it is open…
Most Underrated Breakfast Tacos
Most folks know the mouthwatering reputation of any plate that features Julio’s tender roasted pollo. But we are here to crow about breakfast tacos. Fat, stuffed, and cheap, Julio’s is the way to go when you want it big. And they don’t screw around with those overrated two-ingredient breakfast tacos. They one-up the competition: All…
Best Aural Quest
Like his terra-bound contemporaries, sound adventurer Dennis Campa, gentleman crate-digger and noted community radio host, whacks the aural thicket to unearth exciting nuggets of recorded history. But instead of a machete, the tools this easygoing disc jockey uses are in the form of waves. Encountering this old-timey explorer out in the pop-culture wild might elicit…
Best Folks for Different Strokes
When most people think of rowing, the image that comes to mind is some version of crew champions the “Winklevii,” The Social Network’s clever moniker for the ultra-WASPy, ultraprivileged Winklevoss twins who sued Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. The folks at Row AustinTX want you to forget about all that; they aim to get all kinds of…
Best Way To Chart Local Crime
Want to know exactly how much and what kinds of crime are occurring in your neighborhood? Look no further than Krimelabb.com, the online resource created by 60-year-old Jack Darby, who started the service (culling Austin Police Department data and loading it into a program that is easily searchable) after his home was broken into twice,…
Best Way To See What You’re Missing
Don’t get the wrong idea: If you’re expecting the car washing scene from Cool Hand Luke, let your fingers keep walking. The only thing the women of Gwyndow’s will apply to your glass is expertise and a gentle hand, after which the whole joint will look spiff-new. You’ll have saved the wear and tear on…
Best Veteran Vintage
For 15 years at Lamar Plaza, Big Bertha’s Bargain Basement owner Henry Tarin has operated this shop that’s on the required list for any true vintage aficionado. He prides himself on pairing new lines and a collection of one-off, upscale vintage selections. Memorable pieces are many, and a few notable designer pieces that have passed…
Labios Rojos
In this Mexican comedy, a married couple resorts to desperate and ridiculous measures when the husband develops erectile dysfunction.
Best Movie Theatre
Take a left down the yellow brick road past the incredibly bored guy whining about the recession, a right down the red carpet, click your heels three times at the Blue Velvet rope, and you’ve arrived at Austin’s favorite film sanctuary. The folks at the Drafthouse have a love of the fringe and the niche…
Best Neighborhood Grocery
Wheatsville embodies everything you’d want from a member-owned food co-op. Placing a priority on exceptional local food products and the now-requisite organic and natural edibles, it employs a friendly, highly knowledgeable staff – some of whom have been on the grind since before you started at UT, through your graduation, and onward. Check out beer-and-wine…
Best Shoes
Our readers have crowed about Sandy’s for almost every year of the last decade (WTH, 2005?) that this tot shoe-porium is a great place for kids to get those fresh zapatos everyone seems to be wearing, yadda yadda yadda …. But we’ve got a tip for you adult Austinites with little feet: If you fit…
Best Trailer Park
When we created this category, we figured most of you would weigh in on Austin’s many commercial food trailer clusters – and many of you did. But this beloved in-town RV treasure took the prize. The park is home to many longtime monthly renters and offers a limited number of daily-use pads as well. Call…
Best Video-Game Rental/Purchase
We’re all aware that this is a national chain, but not only did our readers choose it, you also have to give it credit for being one of the last game stores standing as physical game discs slowly go the way of the CD. Not to mention that we cheapskates can’t find a better selection…
Best Sportscaster
KVUE’s done it again. One of our most popular local television stations also has our most popular local sportscaster. Since 1989, Mike Barnes has been delivering the sports news with style and authority. A dedicated sportsman (and family man), he puts the emphasis on Texas sports – this guy knows Bevo from horn tip to…
Best Place To Tube
What good is living life in Central Texas if you can’t spend some time in an inner tube, freezing your buns off in spring-fed water while drinking beer and simultaneously peeing where you sit? New Braunfels thrives on the luxury of offering tubing accommodations on the icy Comal River while much of the rest of…
Best Legislative Moment
“Worst. Session. Ever.” That was the consensus about the budget-slashing, tea party-driven 82nd Legislature, and the only saving grace was how it ended. Wendy Davis, the first-term senator from Fort Worth, unleashed a measured and thoughtful filibuster that derailed GOP plans for an early summer and blasted their iniquitous school finance schemes.
Best Hair Salon
Y’all love Avant. You just can’t help yourselves. Owner Roy Fredericks is a true pioneer in Austin’s beauty scene with decades of successful salons under his belt. Extraordinarily talented stylists go through Avant’s meticulous training process, ensuring that when you see an Avant haircut, you know it’s an Avant haircut. With his ever-growing empire in…
Best Convenience Store
Since 1986, the mighty Whip In has been a cut above your average convenience store. A walk into this eclectic, family-owned and -operated shop gives the sense of being invited into the Topiwala home, complete with a cozy cafe serving up exotic takes on typical Tex-Mex fare. Its worldly selections of beer, smokes, and produce,…
Best Small Record/CD Store
We’ve heard enough talk of the end of the record store to fill the Library of Congress, but what proprietors Blake Carlisle and Dan Plunkett are more concerned about is the end of your ear. They have enough knowledge, Mo’Wax, and Wax Trax to get past your earwax, so relax, don’t do it when you…
Best Tolls for Thee
For years you could tell time, literally, in East Austin’s Chestnut neighborhood by the bells in the tower at David Chapel. Music filled the sky at 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, and 9pm – like clockwork. But those sounds are now gone. Why? We’re not sure, but man, we miss those midday melodies – songs that…
Best Guy To Beat the Drum for Percussion
For most of us, “I don’t want to work; I just want to bang on the drum all day” is merely a dream from a Todd Rundgren song. But for Thomas Burritt, banging on the drum all day is his work. And his joy, too, from the sound of it. Whether he’s leading his Butler…
Best Chip Shop Curry Sauce
Poor Americans, putting ketchup on your fries. Let Mike Kelley’s food truck with the Union Jack set you straight. For starters, they’re called chips, and if you want a little more spice than just salt and vinegar, it has to be the battery-to-the-tongue jolt of proper chip shop curry sauce. London taste, East Austin locale.
Sweetest Soul Providers
The Galloways could make you a sandwich, we bet, but that is not what sets this soul-food heaven apart. It’s the hot-off-the-line meat-and-two. When Stephen Galloway or his mom, Laverne, ladles some greens into a monkey dish, it’s time for you to relax and settle into some quality you-time, because the sustenance you are about…
Best Content-Rich Venue Website Update
Not content to rest after updating its website with details and descriptions of all the events happening at the Hideout each month, the team behind this Downtown bastion of improv entertainment also presents frequent interviews with and soapbox statements by performers, students, designers, and anyone of interest who falls across its path. It’s not just…
Best Guardians of the Green
You wouldn’t know the keepers of Austin’s parks from your neighbors, but you’d miss them if they were gone. APF braves triple-digit heat, rain, and the odd cold snap to make up the difference between what the city can afford and what the parks need – all for the love of it, and all gratis.…
Sharpest Legal Eagle
If you need a refresher course on the Constitution (and its limits), an acute analysis of the U.S. slide into torture as a state policy, or a disquisition on the disquieting temptation for presidents to become “constitutional dictators,” Sanford “Sandy” Levinson is your man. Routinely described as a “liberal” legal scholar, Levinson stands against tyrannical…
Best Wrenches in the Trenches
Battery got you down? Brakes squealing like a stuck hog? Can’t make it to work because your ball joint is out of sorts? Stay right where you are and call John Ormberget, the Norwegian god of mobile auto repair, both foreign and domestic. Rolling Wrenches is his DBA; work ethic is his DNA. Any questions?
Best Vinyl Surprises
If we could bestow a piece of advice upon you, lover of vinyl, it is to wear pants you don’t mind getting dirty the next time you go to Half Price. Sure there are stacks of Dan Fogelberg and Electric Light Orchestra records displayed at person-height, but down toward the ground are old DJ cuts…
Arts Review
With Shakespeare’s ‘problem play,’ you get a two-for-one, comedy and drama
The Way
Emilio Estevez directs this film about a spiritual pilgrimage, which stars his father Martin Sheen.
Best New Bar
This year’s winners could be described as day and night – or perhaps a gloriously sauced-up day into night. Begin with Yellow Jacket Social Club and be sure to snag an outdoor table. It’s going to be a long day, so be decent and get some seasoned saltines for the whole table. Drink local beer…
Best Outdoor Dining
Home-cooked eats under the shade of mighty tall pecans; afternoon breezes and nights under the fairy lights; an old black-and-white projector screen whirring in the background; music drifting through the canopy of trees; Shady Thangs, house-made Bloody Marys, cold beer, and frosty margaritas – sounds like summer camp, right? Well, that’s how Austin does patio…
Best Sports/Rec Program
Counselor (to camper): “So you know that you’re attending one of the most creative, active, and well-run camps in Austin, with options for 4- through 14-year-olds that engage both body and mind. Right?” Camper (to counselor): “B’duh!”
Best Window Display
With its inky ruminations and darkly provocative vignettes, Gail Chovan’s front window has long captivated our collective imagination. This year, with the added vision of artist/designer Aaron Flynn, Blackmail’s displays have assumed the look of surreal, dioramic postcards express-delivered by courier crows from Wonka Land. Equal parts commentary, confession, and couture, Chovan’s installations continue bringing…
Best Art Photographer
Night and day, action or posed: No one is safe when he’s got his camera out. He will point and shoot and apply his own brand of focus while he’s at it. He came to Austin from Scotland, and once upon a time, he had a professional BMX career. Now his art of choice is…
Best TV Anchor
There’s something wonderful about having your news anchors actually anchored in the cities they represent. Stories can be reported and details given, but a true understanding of how the news may affect the community is at the heart of Judy Maggio’s reporting – a heart that beats like an Austinite’s through and through.
Best Pool/Billiards
South Austin? Big deal. That neighborhood is about as weird as a bucket of Crocs. The real pockets of ye olde Austin can be found in the northern reaches of Burnet Road, Lamar, and yes, Airport Boulevard. Upon first entering the Grand, you may feel as if you’re entering some strip mall arcade left over…
Best Local Politics Blog
Spanning local, state, and national politics, the impetus behind Burnt Orange Report is capital-D Democratic politics, but as a conversational hub for progressive affairs, it also speaks to democracy of the little-d ilk. While some of BOR’s original team has left the site to pursue other opportunities, co-founder and publisher Karl-Thomas Musselman has kept the…
Best Landscape Services
With 2009 and 2010 “Best of Austin” wins, Fertile Ground Organic Gardens wins again in a three-“peat.” (Get it?) From landscape design to installation to maintenance, the team at Fertile Ground specializes in plants and ground cover that perform in Central Texas’ demanding environment, and it’s Green Garden-certified by the city of Austin as an…
Best Drugstore/Pharmacy
Peoples Rx embraces the charms of yesterday’s neighborhood drugstore and pairs them with the knowledge and technology of today. Picking up a prescription? Need it compounded? Looking for alternative health care advice? Meds for your four-legged companion? How about lunch? All this is served up in an environment where you’re never ever a number.
Best Thrift Store
Yarrrrr matey, welcome to the good ship Goodwill! Ahoy, scurvy scalawag, are ye searchin’ for treasure? Look ho! Thar be a pair o’ sea-farin’ booties! And thar! A net to catch ye a sea beastie, and a loverly pair o’ knickers for your ill-temper’d wench! And if ye be hornswoggled or mutinied, the good ship…
Best Zócalo
Clean, curvaceous, and modern, the Mexican American Cultural Center takes the crown for most beautiful open space to gather. The zócalo, or plaza, is a bold, sweeping semicircle of white stone cradling a wide green lawn overlooking Downtown and catching cooling wind from the river. Pure, uncluttered architectural elegance!
Best Local Video Game You Can Actually Tell Is Local
Few video games give players a sense of where they were developed. Not so with The Gunstringer, Twisted Pixel’s release that uses the Kinect motion-sensing controller to put players in control of an undead marionette on a revenge mission. The local developers filmed the intro to the game at the Paramount Theatre, filled with volunteer…
Best Comeback To Come (in Chocolate)
Trippin’ across Highway 71 East just past Bastrop, en route to all points east, we spied a triptych of tall banners each emblazoned simply with the word “CHOCOLAT.” Damn near drove the car off the road. When we finally had the chance to stop and check it out, we almost fell out from what we…
Best Arcade Archive
Nevermind your iPhone apps or your Xbox downloadable games. Fie on your Wii remote and your massively multiplayer World of Warcraft. For our money (50 cents, thank you very much), we’ll throw our support behind an Italian-American plumber attempting to save his royal girlfriend from an ape with too many barrels. Pinballz brings back the…
Best Eye on Design
Apparently it isn’t enough that the supercreative types who make up this Eastside design collective are crazy-talented: They want to sing the praises of other artists, too? The stylishly assembled blog shines a light on local and international graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, poster mavens, experimental filmmakers, and just about anybody else the Public School gang…
Best Holiday Light Trail
Between the city canceling the annual Trail of Lights at Zilker last year and the slow dim of the 37th Street Lights, the holidays have been a bit more humbug these past few years in Austin. Well, fret not, Santa Pants, the Límon clan of East Austin may put the twinkle back in your eye.…
Best Brand Force for Good
It’s difficult to meet the team at Butler Bros without feeling as though you’ve already known them forever. Accountable, honorable, advocates for positivity — these are words not often attributed to folks in the ad biz. They’re apt descriptors of this team, not just for the widely recognized and lauded branding work, but also for…
Most Over-the-Top Beauty Treatment
What makes Ize Calina Drouin’s Elluminize boutique special and different? The intensive skills needed for the process of applying cruelty-free mink eyelash extensions. We’re not talking about strips of fuzzy fur like Jennifer Lopez wore to the Academy Awards, we’re talking about thick, lustrous, and long guard hairs – up to 300 of them per…
Best Way To Come as You Aren’t
Austin boasts some amazing costume resources for your personal fabulosity. On the southside, Lucy in Disguise (like any authentic Austin-grown shop, it’s named after the owner’s dog) carries a luscious array of accessories and costumes both new and vintage for your renting or buying pleasure. This is your central resource for dress-up or for dressing…
Day Trips
Lake Livingston State Park showcases the beauty of East Texas
Weekend
This movie about a gay hookup that becomes something more is perceptive, emotional, comical, and much more.
Best New Club
Done up in white on antique white, Swan Dive is Austin’s new venue for all things piquant. Home to this issue’s cover model, the monthly Jazz Age ode Vintage Vivant, Swan Dive specializes in the eccentric, atmospheric, and anachronistic. Created by the owners of the East Side Show Room with the same attention to detail,…
Best Place To Take a First Date
This year’s winners remind us of that one universal truth: French equals sexy. Warm and stylishly relaxed, Blue Dahlia serves European-inspired cuisine with an emphasis on local and organic ingredients. For those, ahem, unplanned first breakfast dates, the lovely petit-déjeuner is served all day, offering blintzes, frittatas, homemade granola, and, if you’re lucky, a serenade…
Best Summer Camp
Is it any wonder that once again Summer Wonders takes the Best Summer Camp award? It’s been recognized year after year for its ability to create engaging academic curricula that manage to excite the often easily bored and distracted brain of a pre-K through sixth-grade gifted kid. Well, “gifted” doesn’t stop at grade school. Its…
Best Actor/Actress
Well, sure, she’s got the high profile now – playing beloved journalist Molly Ivins in Zach’s popular Red Hot Patriot – but Barbara Chisholm (wife of Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires) has been a much-admired acting force of nature on stages all over this town for years, whether solo or as part of a fine…
Best Event Photographer
Annie Ray’s photobooths are the fun part of a party. That’s like being the sweet part of a cake or the cool part of the Fonz’s leather jacket. When you see her chic black hair, bright smile, trained lens, and assortment of kitschy items to adorn your inner Vogue model, just try to stop yourself…
Best TV Reporter
Let’s face it, folks: We simply can’t quit Quita. Is it her boundless charm? Definitely. Her indefatigable enthusiasm? For sure. In fact, it seems we love everything about Culpepper, the Austin news veteran who has been our readers’ darling for nearly a decade, taking her first win in 1999 and, after a three-year hiatus, returning…
Best Scenic View
T-shirt: Mount Bonnell is for lovers! T-shirt: I lost my last shirt at Mount Bonnell! T-shirt: -> I got this stain at Mount Bonnell! Move over, tongue jockeys; we wanna see the view. Whether it inspires those thumpa-thumpa feelings of raw attraction or strikes a sublime chord in your other-than-nether regions, Mount Bonnell is worth…
Best March or Rally
QueerBomb is Austin’s response to the tendency toward commercialization and assimilation in corporate-backed Pride celebrations. It’s a march and a rally that begs its audience to join the fun, and true to its intention of celebrating the “radical, carnal, and transgressive lineage” of queerness, it feels more like a flash mob or a party than…
Best Laundromat
Forget everything you know about going to the laundromat: No creepy guys, no used chewing gum under the seat, no long waiting. Expect state-of-the-art, eco-friendly machines to do the dirtiest of deeds, and if time is short, the owners of Wash Day will take care of your needs with drop-off wash and fold, pickup and…
Best DVD Rental/Purchase
When the night is still, as we slumber in our beds, old VHS tapes come out and take to the streets, crawling to the windows of these hallowed DVD juggernauts and staring longingly into their packed aisles with an envy unmatched by the greenest of monsters. No envy’s needed, though; both centers of rentable cinema…
Best Vintage
Within these Technicolor walls and strategically placed partitions, there is a very far-out time machine set to a unique era in which only the very best designs of bygone days have survived. Anyone can be a member of Generation Room Service, where groovy poly blends mix into soft denim dreams, art-deco furniture meets funky orange…
Fairest Flourish for Cold Water
Deep Eddy Pool has been a haven for Austin swimmers and sunbathers for more than a century. The soon-to-be-dedicated Deep Eddy Mural has been a community effort of Austin artists (notably Wanda Montemayor and Lisa Orr), historians, and especially schoolchildren, who have studied the pool’s history, reproduced its images, and told its story in the…
Best Marching Merrymakers
Nothing compares to the gesamtkunstwerk of a Minor Mishap show, with members parading around like anarchist, psychotic bumblebees on Adderall, blowing music outta variously sized sound holes, standing atop bars, stages, and one another. The vibe is so, so very celebratory, even the crustiest curmudgeon would crack a grin. Make no mistake, this is the…
Best Eco-ambitious Burger Counter
You know that I-love-America feeling invoked by a visit to a perfect truck-stop diner? That same feeling can be had at Wholly Cow Burgers (but it’s an I-love-Austin feeling). Nested inside the Star Grill Food Mart on South Lamar, Wholly Cow does all the Americana basics with an Austin twist: The meat is grass-fed and…
Best Dermatologist
When we called Bee Caves Dermatology’s Dr. Mary Ann Martinez late one Saturday night hoping for a solution for an especially itchy kid, we feared we’d simply be thrown a random smorgasbord of creams, ointments, and pills with little effect. But when she came up with a precise treatment for a case of head-to-toe eczema,…
Best HomeGrown Home Shopping Host
Amber alert! Did you know where most amber sold in the United States comes from? We didn’t until we watched L.A. Brown on the Liquidation Channel. More than a hocker of jewels, this lady host knows the answer to that question and is not afraid to break out a miniature globe and commence a geography…
Best Movement Movement
One, two, three … one, two, three. Feel like your two left feet can’t possibly cut a rug? This nonprofit Eastside dance studio will fix that right up and get you moving. Tango, samba, salsa – pick your poison. Aerobics, yoga, film screenings, cookouts, and Hula-Hoop classes are on the menu as well. Above and…
Best Caregiver Respite
On any given Wednesday morning, step across the threshold at Mike’s and into a world of silliness and delight. You might encounter some folks petting, grooming, or walking a small herd of mini ponies or playing a lively match of sit-down balloon volleyball or a having live piano sing-along. You’ll definitely encounter some cool, poppin’…
Most Stylish, Unpretentious Salon
She says she’s like Betty Boop meets the girl next door. We say she’s a goddess. In either case, master stylist and colorist Johanna Esper has paid her dues and is reaping the benefits of having done exquisite work for such establishments as SoCo’s legendary Pink Hair Salon, as well as having worked for the…
Best Wig-Out
We had a dream last night about a shop where they made cake, and the shop itself was made out of candy. We may as well have been dreaming about Coco Coquette. Nestled in the back room of the Maison d’Etoile on Cesar Chavez, this tiny boutique is devoted to glamour. Instead of cake and…
Luv Doc Recommends: Second Annual Freak Show Festival
Well now that we’ve had some rain, there’s not much to bitch about anymore except the economy. Have at it. Chances are your social circle is far too small and your voice much too weak to reach someone who can do something about it. Like rain, the economy is either going to fall or it…
