Best Flower Twirler
This category is a bit confining: Carl Hickerson may well be Sixth Street’s most colorful and recognized personality, never mind the “crazy” appellation sometimes patched to his name. The clubs come and go and change names, but along with frat rats, bowheads and street corner musicians, Carl and his carnations are one of the sights…
Best Midnight Movies
Fresh off the boat from Hong Kong, the movies presented at the Riverside 8’s Chinese movie night (every other Saturday at half past midnight – watch the listings) comprise the most entertaining cinema being made in the world today. Doubt it? Then you didn’t see Once Upon a Time in China, Days of Being Wild,…
Best Video Store (specialty)
Why is it that every time a new movie comes out, Blockbuster has 50 copies of it, and naturally every single one is checked out. But if you amble over to Vulcan to get something cool and funky instead, the same new release you were looking for is sitting right there on the shelf. Does…
Best Place For A Warm Meal And Kind Words In North Austin
Nina’s lays out a beautiful array of Moussaka, Pasticcio, Souvlaki and Dolmas. All you have to do is point and eat. As for the kind words, well, they’re really more like sympathetic smiles for salary people on short leashes and shorter lunch hours.
Best Restaurant Playscape
Combining the best of all worlds, this McDonald’s offers a nearly escape-proof outdoor area with a wonderful wooden playscape and a giant inflated moonwalk where your kids can jump to their heart’s delight. Guaranteed to leave your house unruffled while giving you enough uninterrupted time to read a magazine. All this and frozen yogurt cones,…
Best Outlaw
The Austin American-Statesman says he should give himself up; we say “Run, Dan, run!” Austin’s favorite World Beatmeister is going to have a tough time dealing with the Feds and there will surely be no mercy. In this case, underground just might be the place to stay.
Best Cheerleading Classes
Frankly, we don’t know a thing about Jackie or her pompoms, and Mr. Smartypants refused to go undercover on this one to find out. Still, so many readers recommended her that we figured they must know whereof they screech. Rah.
Best Scenic Drive (in-town)
As you take a (careful) left off of 2222 just past Loop 360, you climb into the hills to drive along a ridge that offers magnificent views of the city to one side, and occasional glimpses off into the Hill Country to the other. Then you descend through woods to the lovely green banks of…
Best Singer For The Cause
He’s been around for more than a decade, singing for environmental and social causes, especially environmental. He’s always there when he’s needed. Barton Springs Eternal.
Most Luxurious Haircut
We heard of him through the grapevine and can only thank the lucky stars, because Andy doesn’t just wash, cut and blow dry, he counsels, he massages the scalp and applies fascinating, tingling elixirs … and it doesn’t just end after the cut! He tops off the visit by giving the arms and shoulders an…
Best Place To Buy Protection From Evil Spirits
How’s your luck been lately? The Cantus can help you change it. Mrs. Cantu prepares amulets and talismans with coral, bloodstone, four leaf clovers – whatever you need – then Lee Cantu empowers it with them with prayer. Blessed candles, herbs, prayer cards, oils; everything needed to raise your vibration to receive what is rightfully…
Best Comeback
He disappointed a lot of people during his first term, but in his second term Nofziger emerged as a principled, hard-fighting advocate for environmentalism, social justice and fiscal responsibility.
Best Low Budget Theatre Productions
Not only does he make it seem like flashlights are a tour de force production choice, but he also gets the best actors in town to work under the wattage of two C-cell batteries.
Grungiest Club
Readers suggested this category. We’re not sure whether they meant the music, the people or the decor.
Best Place To Get Kitschy Calendars
If you’ve ever pined for those calendars that feature lusty studs in Aztec get-up rescuing busty maidens in ersatz bikinis, or those flowery religious scenes with Mary and Jesus, or the classic “Orphans in the Storm,” go no further that this excellent restaurant. The time to buy them is at the end of the year,…
Best Swimming Lessons
The 4-year-old has been taking swimming lessons at Crenshaw’s for the past few years and this kid is a fish. His friends, Sarah and Laura, aged 4 and 6 respectively, do breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, sidestroke, Russian jumps into the pool, water ballet, and basically seem like shoo-ins for an Esther Williams revival. You want drownproof,…
Best Person To Ask About Finding Concrete Armadillos
Bless Ellie Rucker. The woman can find the darnedest things. Her Statesman column has been running for longer than we can remember and we’re all the more knowledgeable for it. Who else could we ask about defunct hotels, personalized bumper stickers and preserving moss balls?
Best Haunted House
This one’s a little unfair, since it’s not open to the public, except by invitation. But this bi-annual installation at the home of the head of local computer game company Origin Games (with the collaboration of Nintendo) is so spectacular – boasting such audience-participation treats as an indoor boat ride, rope swing, and numerous hidden…
Best Volcano
Barely a bump in the landscape not far from McKinney Falls State Park, Pilot Knob is the best of about ten very small volcanoes in the Austin area. That’s because it’s the most visible and accessible, according to Dr. Dan Barker at UT’s Geological Science Department, while remnants of the others lie under railroad tracks,…
Best Texas Legislator
Austin actually has several good legislators. They’re smart. They have hearts. They are outnumbered, but they work for progressive change. Elliott Naishtat and Sherri Greenberg come to mind. The one who seems to have best learned to make his power effective is Glen Maxey, ironic since some legislators have tried to isolate him, particularly after…
Best All of Everything
Photographs are a beautiful, lasting way of keeping precious memories alive. So imagine wading through piles of old photos of forgotten family vacations and smelly aunts and feeling the thrill of laughing at people you never even met. Now imagine that you can buy the ugliest shots for not much more than a nickel and…
Best Place To Buy The Components Of An Altar
Needed an altar to Legba, god of the crossroads, god of communication. We figured the right sort of altar would get us a story or two in on time or at least improve the quality of excuses. To that end we went to the flea market out on 290, past the goats for sale, past…
Best of Austin 1992
Introduction We’re excited about this city. That’s why we live here and that’s why we do this publication. Sure, we’re snide, sometimes nasty and angry as hell at those we see trying to hurt our city. But that’s because we love it. But at this time of year, in the Best Of Austin issue, we…
Best Reason Not To Go To The Ballet
Like the season itself, the whole story could use some rethinking. Productions of it reek of habit, sentimentality and the profit motive.
Best Ongoing Hootenanny
This regular Tuesday evening theme night – excepting the weeks hostess Sarah Elizabeth Campbell is out of town on tour – has grown into something of a hang-out for the local singer-songwriter crowd, and you never know the surprises that may appear on stage. Some of this town’s best-known names and talented veterans share their…
Best Anti-depressant
Basically, it’s four shots of espresso and a shot of milk. Guaranteed to produce a pulse that will make you feel like you’re living a life that’s far more interesting than it really is. Combined with a brownie from Texas French Bread, it could very likely be a substitute to Prozac.
Best Place To Have Dinner In Your Bathing Suit
The cognoscenti arrive by water. We drive. Either way this dockside joint earns top honors in the relaxation department. Gorge on beer and battered fries while you critique the style of passing skiers (a great antidote to boat lust). Fine oldies jukebox makes the twilight timeless here. If Valium were a restaurant, this would be…
Best Toy Store Aisle
Battery-operated, pedal-powered, foot-powered plastic vehicles for your toddlers’ pleasure. We go there when it’s raining or on boring weeknights when the kid just wants to go somewhere and we feel one more Barney song will send me screaming to a Prozac lab. Warning: you may have to stay in this aisle for at least 30…
Best Place To Hear New Austin Bands On Radio
Until KOOP and KTSB work their differences out, KGSR is still the place to hear local music.
Best Indication That Austin Is Becoming A Big City
Tree-shrouded Mount Bonnell, with its 785-foot high view of Lake Austin and downtown Austin, has a curfew 9pm-4am. Due to problems in patrolling the area late at night and the increase in crime, officers run off picnickers promptly at 10pm. The other 17 hours a day, it’s still a great place to show off the…
Best Consultant Team
They believe in what they’re doing. They’re not in it for the money. They know what they’re doing. They keep learning all the time. Winning candidates and causes include Sherri Greenberg, Glen Maxey and SOS.
Best Use Of A Video Camera
Before Jones got a video camera, his slide shows were a regular at city council meetings. Now armed with video, Jones gets every thing on tape: new sewer lines, illegal road construc-tion, erosion controls that don’t work. One of the most committed environmentalists working anywhere, Jones is a video muckraker.
Best Alternative To The Galleria
The word to best describe Flipnotics is simply “cool.” From the great ’40s and ’60s decor, to the original jewelry designs and unique sunglasses, it is definitely the cool experience. The clothes they carry are both new and used, and you can usually catch them with a good supply of used 501’s. The topper to…
Best Place To Buy Tortoise Shell Barrettes
We have a thing about tortoiseshell barrettes. We don’t know why, because we don’t really have a thing about either tortoiseshell or barrettes, but the particular array of tortoise-shell barrettes on the counter at Nau Enfield Drug made a convert of us. Just check out the Fifties-style (prob-ably Fifties vintage, in fact) glass-fronted display case…
Best Reason To Go To The Ballet
This guy loves his work. He loves music. He loves dance. He loves his dancers. All of it shows when the curtain goes up.
Best PA System (large Venue)
Arguably, the PA systems in many Austin clubs are not state-of-the-sonic-art, but that’s not what music is about here anyway. Nonetheless, when it comes to loud music, the Back Room’s system delivers it with a clarity and presence that only complements rock’n’roll.
Best Bottled Spaghetti Sauce
It’s the best you’ve ever poured out of a bottle. It’s made here in Austin by Shabda Fresh Foods, the makers of Rose’s Salsas. Each bottle contains lots of halved cloves of garlic and whole basil leaves and premium olive oil. The garlic cloves are specially cooked according to Patrick Timponi’s mother’s recipe so they’re…
Best Place To Photograph Yourself Eating Ice Cream
Those old-time photo booths are no replacement for a heavenly sweet cream milk shake with fresh strawberries, but they are lots of fun … and less fattening.
Best Toy Store To Go To Without A Child
Everything at Toy Joy is so touchable! And wondrously accessible to people of all sizes. But you can’t trust little kids when they twist the knobs on wind-up monsters, squeeze on the squishy, unidentifiable and occasionally disgusting creatures or try on weird jewelry. So leave the children at home – select an appropriate guilt offering…
Best Place To See New Austin Bands
Hands down, we’ve seen more new bands on ACTV than anywhere else. Many of them were bad, but what a selection, with more than the occasional gem.
Best Non-Political Swimming Pool
Always politically correct, often overlooked … Austin’s “other” spring-fed swimming hole was once a limestone eddy-cum-resort near the banks of Town Lake. Now the beautifully maintained park, Eilers, is great for families and a convenient cool-down for Hike & Bike trail joggers.
Best Decade Of Political Dormancy
What does he do? He’s seldom in his office. He goes to sleep during appointments with citizens. He goes to sleep on the council dais. When someone else proposes an idea, especially environmental protection, he wakes up and says it will cost East Austin jobs, but he never comes up with any ideas for providing…
Best Worker Of A 16-hour Day
Bledsoe holds down a full time attorney’s job with the state Attorney General. He’s moved up from head of the Austin NAACP to head the state group, and he’s chairman of the Travis County Democratic Party. He brought a renewed level of intense activity to the local NAACP and will likely do the same for…
Best Bookstore Cat
Not so long ago the hands down winner would have been Gus the Cat from Garner and Smith. Unfortunately, folks won’t see Gus peering down on them Cheshire-like from a bookcase any more: Gus retired to an employee’s home when the store made its move from the drag to its new home on 12th Street.…
Best Place To Reconceptualize Your Life
In a town blessed with a number of fine specialty bookstores – Liberty Books, BookWoman, Europa and Austin Books jump to mind – this is probably the best. It’s certainly the biggest: a huge selection of new age, health, philosophy, and culture/travel titles make this a truly world-class new age store.
Best Theatre
Throughout the years, CCP has provided a venue for some of the finest productions in Austin, both mainstream and avant garde alike. Though some may yearn for the theatres of The Great White Way, we prefer the intimate setting that this space offers – the connection between performer and audience. Try that in the Wintergarden…
Best PA System (small Venue)
Arguably, the PA systems in many Austin clubs are not state-of-the-sonic-art, but that’s not what music is about here anyway. The Cactus system may not wail, but it conveys the nuances of singing and acoustic music cleanly.
Best Cheap Breakfast
In Austin’s “Taco Wars,” the real winner is the consumer at all three Tamale House locations. Debating the relative merits of the breakfast tacos served at the Guadalupe stand near campus, the Airport Road location and the College Avenue restaurant off of South Congress is a moot argu-ment – all three are cheap and damn…
Best Taco With French Fries
We thought it sounded lousy too, until we tried one. And then another.
Best Worm Bar
Here is my dream date with anyone over two and under ten: it’s at Northcross Mall, where we take in a movie, then sit and watch the skaters while licking a cone. We check out Petland on the way to throw pennies into the fountain, where we wish our separate child and grown-up wishes, then…
Best Reader’s Poll
A readers poll published in Austin Family magazine listed the Austin Chronicle as the city’s best family magazine. Austin Family finished second.
Best Paved City/State-funded Bicycle Path Outside The City
Strap the bikes on the car. Drive over the South MoPac construction, some 8 miles from downtown to the Circle C Ranch. Unpack the bikes and glide over your tax dollars at work. Listen for bulldozers as you wind through the Hill Country above the Recharge Zone. Slow riders and kids watch for racers.
Best Excuse By A Loser
Immediately after the Save Our Springs Ordinance was passed by an almost 2-1 margin, Councilmember Reynolds was interviewed by a local TV station. When asked why SOS won, Reynolds replied, “They had a catchy name.”
Most Effective Environmental Group
They piss everybody off. They don’t have any leaders. And while other groups spend time and money trying to work through the system, Earth First! keeps at their environmental knitting: raising hell, disregarding traditional politics and lobbyists. You may not like them, you may not like the way they dress, but they are singularly effective.
Best Bulk Tofu
Firm, tasty and cheap … many people are turned off to tofu because their first experience with it usually involves a bad curd with the consistency of phlegm. Whether this describes you or you are already a fan of the versatile spongy foodstuff, check out Wheatsville. It may convert some of you skeptics.
Best Place To Reinvent Your Life
Learn the error of your ways and how to correct them at the greenest store in town. Their earth-friendly stock runs the gamut from cleaning products to compost bins, plus baby diapers, lawn mowers, pet supplies, you name it. Want a watch that runs on water? We know where you’ll find one.
The Mighty Ducks
The Mighty Ducks 1992, PG, 100 min. Directed by Stephen Herek, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, Lane Smith, Heidi Kling. Q: Why a duck? ¶ A: Because the Bad News Bears was already taken. ¶ In The Mighty Ducks Gordon Bombay (Estevez) is the type of lawyer who gives…
Best Wardrobe
“Oh, it’s just a little something I threw together… ” In some cases, that’s a literal report, like with the earrings the owner of Electric Ladyland/Lucy In Disguise will Crazy Glue together at the last minute to complete her ensemble before going out. We’re not just talking color coordination here, we’re talking, on her best…
Best Partying With People Of Different Sexual Orientations
Chances used to be the ultimate neighborhood hang-out bar for Austin lesbians, but over the past couple years it has become the ultimate neighborhood hang-out bar for everybody. The tone is set by the personnel: a beautiful black lesbian at the door, a terrific gay man behind the bar, and maybe some heterosexual band like…
Best Chicken Feet
Get the city’s best chicken feet, duck feet and dumplings at Tien Hong’s Dim Sum Feast – available weekends only from 11am-3pm.
I Want Love, I Want Drugs, I Want Sex And Affection
If you go to Fonda San Miguel and drink two glasses of the house red and eat an order of chicken mole enchiladas, you will think you’ve had those things, at least for a little while.
Best Battle In The War On Drugs
Was it a community service, or their respect for the public’s need to know… where to buy drugs? In a news story on the drug problem here in Austin, the Austin American-Statesman published a map of the locations where drug purchases could be made. Sure, the multitude of locations may have made a point, but…
Best Reason To Call A Talk Show Host
Is it her exotic beauty? Is it her soothing demeanor? Is it her languid lounging on the couch? Is it her calm responses? Is it the incomprehensible questions? Whatever the answer is, one thing is obvious: Livia has “it.”
Best Place To Celebrate A Birthday I
Happy, Happy Birthday to you. Are you 7? Nineteen? Forty-two? Bowl a spare or a strike, They are open all night, In-between eat a corn dog or two. So you’ve knocked down only one pin, There’s really no need for chagrin. How can you lose in those fashionable shoes? It’s your birthday, they must let…
Best Government Employees
They have what they are supposed to have, they’re friendly and they’re efficient. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Best American Car Mechanic
If anything ever happened to Floyd, we wouldn’t know what to do. He has kept one of our American (GM) cars on the road now for more than 10 years. True, we had some expensive automotive ordeals involving a temperamental 1975 Volvo fuel-injected prima donna, but after switching to GM models, it’s been pure heaven.…
Best Coffee Store
We might be a little biased since these folks sold one of us our first !REAL! coffee 20 years ago, but since then we’ve drunk coffee all over the world and still judge them against Anderson’s French roast.
Best Reason To Go To A Mall
The England-based Body Shops have been a runaway success in their native land as well as now in America, and for good reason. Their cruelty-free line of cosmetics and toiletries for men and women have a natural slant in its make-up, and each shop is a cornucopia of delightful scents. Especially recommended are their soaps…
The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans 1992, R, 117 min. D: Michael Mann; with Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe. The breakneck pace of The Last of the Mohicans affords you little time to realize it’s just a simple and straightforward adventure yarn – an Indiana Jones in Buckskins but what an old-fashioned pleasure it is. Contrary to…
Still The Closest Thing To A MACC
Since the Mexican-American Cultural Center proposal was voted down recently, it seems especially appropriate to mention the numerous contributions made by Mexic-Arte Museum. Not only does the museum serve the Mexican-American community through exhibits, workshops, grants and more, the support of the museum continually goes beyond any racial bounds.
Best Place To Dance Country
The Spoke’s dance floor is hardly the biggest in Austin, but between owner James White’s devotion to Texas C&W dance music and the dancers it attracts, this is the place to two-step in style. Even for those with two left feet, there’s a thrill to be had in watching the best couples whirl and glide…
Best Chicken Livers
The late Ken Threadgill’s beer joint, founded in 1933, has become a popular country cooking restaurant, and a shrine to Austin’s music scene under the ownership of Eddie Wilson. The chicken livers are a stand-out.
Newest Place For Breakfast Tacos That Your Friends Won’t Know About
This new place on South Congress serves fresh, hot breakfast tacos and great migas. As for the pig noises, well, there is a bakery and they do have ginger pigs, but the chewy little porkers aren’t talking.
Best Concept Show
Ingredients: Two guys, two beers, two lawn chairs, and one video camera. Cheers it’s not. It is a travelogue, a paean to pop-top culture, and proof that if you haven’t got anything to say…
Best Reason To Listen To KASE
His ubiquitous appearances on the radio (as a DJ), stage (in the Geezin-slaws) and TV (in the Geezinslaws’ video “Help, I’m White And I Can’t Get Down”) certainly qualify Sammy Allred for some indefinable type of living legend status. When we think of what it is, we’ll let you know. In the meanwhile, we’ll be…
Best Place To Celebrate A Birthday II
The place to celebrate birthdays. Phooey on bowling alleys.
Best Inside Agitator
What does she want, anyway? Following up a failed bid for City Council with the successful run for school board president, she approached the AISD budget process with a gravity that would best befit deliberations on capital punishment. Some don’t like her approach, but she has stayed true to campaign promises to fight the entrenched…
Best City Service
Most of the services are good, but EMS would have saved our lives if they needed saving, and were here at the office in less than three minutes recently when someone passed out mowing the field behind our building.
Best Comic Bookstore
There’s been a terrible rash of new funnybook shops springing up, seemingly in every neighborhood, lately. Of course, most of them only offer the tired old “Punishmutant” titles, and often split their store space into halfsies between comics and some other collectible, like baseball cards. Austin Books has no need to worry about losing its…
Best Record Store For Broadening Your Horizons
“Mexican music is not just a name,” says Henry Maldonado, with only the barest trace of irritation. “That’s sort of like saying `English music.’ It doesn’t tell you anything about the music.” But just go to Maldonado’s store and you’ll find out about conjunto, norteño, Tejano, international Hispanic music and much more. And if you’re…
Echoes From a Somber Empire
Echoes From a Somber Empire 1990, NR, 91 min. Directed by Werner Herzog, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The documentaries of Werner Herzog exhibit the same fascination with the strange, the exotic, the evil and the bizarre as do his narrative films such as Aguirre, Wrath of God, The Mystery of Kaspar…
Best Bartender
The best bartender… hmmm, well, Mom at the Poodle Dog certainly lives up to her name. While she’ll treat you right if you behave yourself, she’ll also bash your head in with her special baseball bat if you don’t. They have lots of pool tables and a great jukebox. But remember, be on your best…
Best Place To Eat Free Hot Dogs
The Black Cat is the only bar on Sixth Street where you can get cheap longnecks, eat free hot dogs, and put out your cigarette on the floor without getting tossed out by a bunch of muscled up steroid zombies. On any given night, you can find a bizarre collection of bikers, skinheads, frat boys,…
Best Comeback
This venerable barbecue establishment on E. 12th Street literally went up in flames last spring, but local and community support helped rebuild it and Sam’s reopened for business early this summer. The smoky, spicy beef, chicken, sausage and mutton are as tasty ever – as delicious at two in the afternoon as they are at…
Best Childrens’ Bookstore
Terrific selection of books, music, and science toys, great environment, and a smart staff add up to one of the most beguiling and checkbook-draining shopping stops around.
Best Council Watchers
A truly dedicated group of council watchers at City Hall is the team behind the cameras at municipal cable Channel 6. Cheerful, helpful, and indispensable, Errol Mortland, Celestino Chapa, and Dwayne Brannon make watching City Hall a lot easier for all of us.
Best Reason To Read The Statesman
Some of us get a kick out of reading the Austin-American Statesman for its biased story-structuring and deceptive, slanted headlines, while others cite such inducements as “Best Bets,” the allergy count, the “Newsmakers” gossip column, the horoscopes and “Outland” every Sunday as the daily’s prime features. But if it’s first-class newspaper journalism you want, try…
Best Place To Loaf At Sunset
The reasons for this Mount Bonnell hideaway’s inclusion here are well-known to regulars and should be experienced by everyone else at least once. Just remember: BRING YOUR BOTTLES BACK DOWN!
Best Lawyer When You’re In Big Trouble
Are you facing several decades in jail? Do you run a company that bilked half the state with a nuclear plant? Need to have overturned in court what an entire city worked to put in place? Got lots of money to pay a lawyer? Call Roy Minton. He’ll help you out.
Best Masseur
Oooh, ahhh, ohhh … Jonathan Riley, R.M.T., truly understands the healing nature of the human touch. He provides an atmosphere during his massages that is professional yet relaxed, private and uninterrupted, and he treats his clients with respect and honesty. Those hands of his have a big following among Chronicle readers and they wrote to…
Best Consignment Store
What with the mark-up percentage, most really nice consignment stores are way, way out of our wallet’s league, but somehow Next To New seems to have something for everyone – with prices ranging from around $450 for an exquisitely carved antique desk, to the $12 we plunked down on the brand-spanking-new-looking used child’s car seat…
Best Rock Shop Experience
Other rock shops may have more minerals and gemstones, and still others may offer more metaphysical attractions, but none of them have Mr. Ed Brown. Whether discussing various types of quartz crystals or where the best places are to find arrow heads, the 80-plus-year-old lifetime Austin native is a rock hound whose love of geology,…
Hero
Hero 1992, PG-13, 112 min. Directed by Stephen Frears, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy Garcia, Joan Cusack, Tom Arnold. It’s getting to look like Stephen Frears may be the most cynical filmmaker of our time. A sampling of his track record up to now — My Beautiful Laundrette,…
Best Bathroom Graffiti
Graffiti reading is an intensely personal pleasure, but the Hole in the Wall’s renderings are as colorful as they are diverse, and must be read to believed. Highly recommended.
Best Place To Find Louise Epstein On A Saturday
Austin’s only stock car track, and the oldest oval track of its type in the Southwest. It makes for an amazingly fun evening, and registers a lot lower on the Officious Bubba Index than you’d expect. Another venue to experience the many moods of Louise, who could be found last season in the grandstands nearest…
Best Donuts
If you drive by on Airport Blvd. at the right time, the scent of baking donuts woos you into this small, local bakery whose donuts are always fresh and tasty. The cake donuts have a dough that literally melts in your mouth, while the filled varieties are deliciously chewy. A perfect way to sate that…
Best Childrens’ Resale Clothing
The 4 1/2 year old grew 3 1/2 inches this year. That means clothes – lots of them. But I refuse to sucker to the scam of retail shopping – $30 for a pair of pants he’ll outgrow in 6 months? Forget it – how about $3 for Girbaud jeans or $8 for a Donna…
Best Evening Radio
Sure, it’s retro, and it does seem that Ray’s heart belongs to only a few hundred very special songs, but who the hell cares? Ray has the soul of a DJ, and every Twine Time is a unique event.
Best Reason To Request Anonymity
After describing the circular speaking patterns of then-football coach David McWilliams in the book Bleeding Orange, University of Texas public address announcer Phil Ransopher was relieved of his job.
Best Place To Spin Around And Get Dizzy
An Austin Yuletide tradition – stand under the Zilker Park Christmas tree, with its those wonderful red light, look up and spin, spin, spin. Get dizzy, fall down, and do it again. And again. And again. Past experience recommends that you not attempt this on a full stomach, and that you wait until after spinning…
Best Mayor For The City Of North Austin
Owner of Threadgill’s Restaurant and the late, lamented Raw Deal, a founder of the Armadillo World Headquarters and patron food saint of Austin musicians, Eddie Wilson is one of those people who really makes Austin what it is. The venerable restaurant location on North Lamar is an oasis in the midst of the Anytown, U.S.A.-look…
Best Place To Find Emotional Rescue
This resource agency is the place to go if you need help with emotional problems (and who doesn’t, at some time during our lives in this crazy world we live in?). They arrange referrals for therapy and can help provide services for lower income clients on a sliding scale basis. They perform their referrals with…
Best Family Owned Grocery
Where else can you get the best tamales in town while picking up those always needed good-luck candles, love potions or some of that lovely bat blood? They also serve delicious breakfast tacos (not for vegetarians… lard, lard, lard).
Best Shopping On A Rainy (or Otherwise Quiet) Day
Between a near-limitless selection of sporty wearables and more balls than the UT athletic department has used up in the last dozen years, shoppers can throw darts, shoot baskets, ski, practice their golf swing or rollerblade in specially designated areas throughout the store. You don’t have to pay to play – notwithstanding personal guilt -…
Innocent Blood
Innocent Blood 1992, R, 112 min. Directed by John Landis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Anne Parillaud, Anthony LaPaglia, Robert Loggia, Don Rickles. Fatally beautiful, doomed to suck blood through eternity: what’s a nice vampire to do? We all come up with our own solutions to life’s little problems and Landis’ beautiful vampire…
Best Bathroom In Progress, Best Bar Countertop, Best Lights
You’ve probably heard about this incredibly cool new warehouse-turned-club, but have you heard about the bathroom? You push through aluminum double doors to enter an airy, minimalist co-ed environment. A partial wall separates the men’s and women’s sections as modesty demands, but the sexy, communal wild spirit rules. And what about that big red velvet…
Best Place to Have Fun When Trying Not to Smoke or Drink
If you’re from the generation that grew up believing it simply was not possible to have much fun without smoking or drinking, well, honey, these kids today can open your eyes. This little juice bar (?), nightspot (?) – in our day you would have called it a coffeehouse – is more healthy fun than…
Best Drive-thru Margarita
Where else can you drive your car up to the window and pull away happily slurping a frozen rita? (Shh…don’t tell) It’s the perfect Friday happy hour when you’re not in the mood for crowds or that high-pitched scream of your blender.
Best Grocery Store To Take Your Kids
This HEB has carts with infant carriers already attached and clearly marked “no candy” checkout lanes. Sure, it’s crowded and noisy and packed with college students. That’s the beauty of it: plenty of camouflage. And once, when one of our daughters sent a pound of un-ground coffee beans skittering all over the floor, an employee…
Best Front Page Headline
It was hard-hitting news – above the fold, no less – when Dagwood kicked over the traces to go to work for his wife’s catering company. Sheesh, Blondie only made bottom left when she founded the damn business, and the strip’s named after her, too. Just goes to show, gals…
Best Statesman News Source
Many Austin American-Statesman stories leave the reader with more questions than answers. Not Lee Kelly’s column. Where else can you find out that Gary Bradley is the “former Circle C owner.” That’s the closest the daily has gotten to discussing the terms of the deal in which Bradley saved Circle C from the Resolution Trust…
Best Place To Swim
No surprise here. No chlorine, no racing stripes on the bottom – this place is it. And though it’s the place to swim, the city seems to have trouble with the place. The pool is part of Barton Creek. The spring itself is part of the creek; without the two dams, it would still be…
Best Mayor For The City Of South Austin
“Hey buddy, how ya doin’?!” asks Texicalli Grille owner Danny Young whenever a friend enters his restaurant – a common occurrence, as many regular Texicalli patrons soon become Young’s friends as well. How can they not when South Austin’s friendliest restaurateur is on hand to make you feel not just welcome but at home in…
Best Public Health Clinic
Gone are the days when their offices were located in the basement of a charming church, but People’s new “sterile” home is not indicative of the care they give. This sliding scale clinic has a friendly staff who are informed, helpful, and warm. If you are sick, they usually get you in to see a…
Best Home Brew Supplies
You’ve always been able to buy the basic ingredients in Austin, but now thanks to these folks you can get all the exotic stuff you need to really make great beer. So now there’s no excuse not to brew your own.
Best Unadvertised Garage Sale
It’s Saturday morning. Your mission is to haul that stupid weight bench, which has been sitting outside unused for two years, to the dump. So you pay a coupla bucks to get into TDS and you heave it into one of their monster dumpsters. You’re about to drive away when you notice, a little ways…
Sarafina!
Sarafina! 1992. Directed by Darrell James Roodt, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Leleti Khumalo, Whoopi Goldberg, Miriam Makeba, John Kani. A musical about apartheid!? Does this really sound like a successful premise? Still, I wanted this movie to be good, to be something that spread joy, spread fury, spread the word. And to…
Best Beer Bar
Even though the incredibly low beer tariffs they even printed on a t-shirt have since been raised a bit, you can still go in there with a mere five bucks and come out with a buzz, and even get a in game of pool to boot. The sort of small, friendly neighborhood joint every part…
Best Place To Hear Tejano Music
Just a short drive east of I-35 on Riverside, El Coyote vies with La Esquina, the Hwy. 290 flea market, and El Conquistador Ballroom for a pretty close call all around, but remains the absolute best when security and service are factored in. The doormen see that everyone behaves, and the music ranges from rough-trade…
Best Immortalized Waitstaff
Red River Cafe may be best known for those obscene sunny side up eggs on its outside wall, but on the inside it holds a more respectable art. Oil Portraits of the Red River wait and kitchen staff cover the walls, and I’m no art critic but they’re pretty good likenesses. Painted by Charlie Poston,…
Best Parent’s Night Out
Such a deal! The kids are extremely well-supervised, lovingly cared for, and provided with excellent ways to occupy themselves while you make good your escape for a whole luxurious 3 1/2 hours – enough time to see a movie, spend some quality time alone together, or even eat in a restaurant where you don’t have…
Best Investigative Series
A series of articles on University of Texas basketball by Austin American-Statesman reporters Kirk Bohls and Suzanne Halliburton revealed that assistant coach Jamie Ciampaglio had embezzled thousands of dollars from a fund used for player’s meal money. Ciampaglio was fired, placed on probation by a Travis County jury and quickly left Austin.
Best Place To Tan
Sure, you have to overcome modesty and be inured to peeping pervs to take full advantage of the clothing-optional freedom offered at this longtime Lake Travis swimming site. But it’s one way to avoid any tan lines at all, and far cheaper than a salon. The feeling of liberation from going naked in the great…
Best Newcomer
Travillion replaced Gary Bledsoe as head of the Austin NAACP, and there’s been no drop off in activity. He’s seems to have no sacred cows, and is not afraid to confront the local power structure, black or white. Among other things, he’s taken on the Convention Center for not living up to minority contractor goals,…
Best Reason To Dry Those Favorite Jeans
This laundromat is equipped with state of the art exercise and laundering equipment, so if you can just shed that extra pound while your jeans are in the dryer, they will still fit when they come out! Clean & Lean has a very friendly staff who create a laid back atmosphere where you can be…
Best Live-in Grocery
Founded in 1906, this tiny Hyde Park shop has been a labor of love for owner Ross Mason since 1984. A reasonable selection of foods, fine homemade sandwiches, and the most personable service in town make this a winner.
Best Used Book Store
It’s not just the selection, it’s that you never know what you may encounter old or new among the great selection. Not nearly as huge as it used to be when they literally overflowed with books and inspired bargains abounded, but we take the 2-year-old there all the time and we both find what we’re…
Wisecracks
Wisecracks 1992, NR, 90 min. Directed by Gail Singer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Joy Behar, Ellen Degeneres, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Paula Poundstone. Known for her sociopolitical documentaries Loved, Honoured Bruised and Abortion Stories North and South, Canadian filmmaker Gail Singer takes a lighter turn to concentrate on the current proliferation of…
Best Blues Brother
On certain nights, you can find him standing at one side of his club’s stage, soaking up the music with beatific pride. No one in Austin seems to love the blues more deeply than Clifford Antone, who puts his money where his mouth is with the activities of his nightclub, record label and record store.…
Best Place To Sit Out The Five O’clock Traffic
Maybe it’s that “continental” ambience that comes through in the late afternoon, when the sun filters through the smokey windows and lights those kitschy scenes painted on the walls, or maybe it’s just the comfy feeling of familiarity, but Steve Wertheimer has created the quintessential South Austin nightspot. And after work, it’s a fine place…
Best Lunch Buffet
We can’t identify anything beyond the sag paneer but when it tastes this great, who cares? Bargain hunters will hit the weekday lunch line when you can stuff to the gills for a mere $5.95. On weekends, the price jumps to $7.95 – still a steal for this real meal deal.
Best Place To Buy Presents For Children
Outstanding selection of challenging innovative toys as well as the more usual models such as cars and wooden trains. The selection is so extensive but tasteful, you can’t lose. This is the stuff childhoods are made of.
Best Morning Deejay (or Team)
If we stay at home and dance around the room, it’s Kevin Connor and Cecilia Nasty on KGSR-FM. If we have breakfast together and talk, it’s KUT-FM and John Aielli’s “Eklektikos.” If we’re in her car it’s KUT, his is KGSR. If he’s home alone, it could be either.
Best Tv Talk Show Host (local)
He’s really our only local talk show host left, but he’s still the best, playing host to a diversity of guests from Ollie North to William Greider to Louise Epstein to the callers on open lines. He not shy about asking any of them tough questions. He’s hard working, well prepared, and well informed.
Best Place To Trespass
We’ve been told that this old swimming hole is now toxic to the max, but hey, there’s no signs up that say so, plus the place is beautiful, in town, has just the right size cliffs for diving without dying, is completely unlit which makes for great skinnydipping, and we’ve never heard about the owners…
Best Outside Agitator
She’s only been in Austin three years, but the director of the Save Our Springs Coalition has stirred up all kinds of trouble. The American-Statesman says she’s more strident than environmentalists of years past. Funny thing, the new approach seems to work better.
Best Recycling Program
Now a model program for cities around the country, Austinites can leave their newspaper, cans and glass on the curb to be picked up once a week. Started by Ecology Action, this idea was a long time coming, but like other good ideas, it took a while to implement.
Best Optical Store
Unrivaled in their friendly, personal service, and exceptionally kind and patient with their many elderly patrons. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, they might have it in the back, at their other location, or will always go to the trouble of ordering as many styles of frames as you want to try. The…
Best Used CD Collection
It’s probably a matter of the buyers’ taste which of these stores offers the most bang for the used CD buck, but each offers an extensive collection to choose from. Technophilia delves more deeply into the edges of alternative music with its offerings, while CD of Austin ranges across more styles into the mainstream. With…
Best Graveyard
If you’re looking for the biggest, most gothic graveyard in town, Oakwood wins by far. With graves dating back to the early 1800s, the yard also features the newest in modern gravestones, though the newer section across the street on the East side is not nearly as interesting. During the day, the graveyard is peaceful…
Best Club Door Person
Because the much-maligned job of monitoring incoming and outgoing club patrons requires maddeningly equal proportions of mediation and muscle, it is often dismissed as an insignificant position. Not so with Liberty Lunch’s debonair Roscoe Shoemaker, who can check hand stamps, scrutinize for the underaged, and wax effusive about Flat Duo Jets and the Gear Daddies,…
Best Pub Grub
The old saw about visiting England is not to expect much from the food, but if you know that the average Englishman eats where he drinks – the pub – you are probably also familiar with such wonderful plebian staples as bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) and the ploughman’s lunch (Stilton cheese and…
Best Nostalgic Kid’s Menu
Wahoo! Round up the little bucka-roos, and head on out for The Frisco, where the under-12 set can order “The Scout” (hamburger patty on an open toasted bun with french fries) or “The Ranger” (three large fried shrimp, cole slaw, french fries and tartar sauce). This menu is sure to bring back those old “Eating…
Best Place To Eat In Peace With The Toddler
The kid may not eat, but you can. They created a, what? 8′ x 8′, play area, say the size of another table space, threw a few toys in and voila, the only place in town I’ve been able to eat in peace in two-and-a-half years. Politically correct food, whimsical paintings, friendly wait staff. Now,…
Best Morning Team
In our house, we celebrate Saturday morning by turning the radio up loud, and get ready to enjoy our weekend.
Best Typo
This error occurred on the same page as a Statesman house ad that said “Don’t Miss a Word.”
Best Place To Watch People
Rich, poor, black, white, young, old – everybody in town goes to Barton’s. With virtually no clothes to hide their behinds, people just relax and play. If there’s a better place to watch people, where is it?
Best Political Symbolism
at the legends of Golf at Barton Creek Country Club
Best Shampoo
Imagine our delight when we went to Avant for a haircut and emerged with a whole new head (or so it felt). The reason? The shampoos at Avant are miracle cures. They go on for what seems like an eternity (still not long enough) and relax every nerve ending on your scalp and neck. They…
Best Pawn Shop
Scott’s wins best pawn shop hands down. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell, they have the best and fairest prices in town, with a huge selection of electronics and other goods. Negotiating is easy, and they’ll give you a great discount if you pay in cash.
Best Vintage Vinyl
If you’re any sort of music buff or collector, the record racks at Music Mania are a treasure trove of wonderful stuff in 12-inch LPs and 45s. With a selection that’s as informed as it is tasteful, you can travel through decades of musical memories as you browse. The store also offers a great selection…
Best Traffic Light
The general consensus at the Traffic Signal Division of the Austin Public Works Department is that the signal ensemble at Burnet Road and Braker Lane is Austin’s best. It seems the high-tech signals there are timed to permit free flow of traffic through a series of intersections and are equipped with left-turn lane sensors so…
Best Free Beer
Free live Austin music and free Shiner Bock on tap. At 5pm, just when you need it most. Need we say more?
Best Reason To Go Out On A Monday Night
If you haven’t already heard, Henry’s as we now know it is not long for its current address, though owner James Henry is actively scouting a new location. In the meanwhile, Don Walser’s Pure Texas Band is as good a reason as any to go out on Monday nights. His clear-as-a-bell yodeling, crack back-up band…
Best Okra
Dot’s okra taught us to love that vegetable. Besides her awesome smoked roast beef, the chicken fried steak is classic. The best Southern cooking in town, at an incredible price – lunch will run you $4.46.
Best Place To Take Your Child When He’s Driving You Insane
We know it’s really commercial and unhip, but any place whose mascot is a gigantic rodent is okay by us. There are millions of machines, toys, air hockey games etc. It’s really, really loud and there’s enough stuff to satisfy even the grumpiest youngster. The pizza is horrible, but who cares? Plus, they have a…
Best Music Monthly
With the right combination of spirit and spunk, this paper is devoted to Texas music, with an accent on singer-songwriters, real country acts, and roots rock’n’rollers. With a combination of short, pithy features, record and tape reviews, and regular features like “MVP” and the cover story, Music City takes the notion of Texas music almost…
Best Weather Person
A key reason is their volunteer weather reporters from all over the Central Texas area. But Kimmel also is the senior weathercaster in town, and it shows.
Best Place To Watch The Moon Rise
Okay, so this isn’t the most politic-ally correct choice. None of us have condos at the Westgate Tower, so we go where the view is free. By sheer coincidence we were there during the recent eclipse in all its lunar splendor, so when the call for suggestions came up, this one was easy. The lot…
Best Prosecutor
Oden does his traditional prosecutor’s duties, and he also looks at the law as a way to serve average citizens and the least powerful. He prosecuted construction companies for safety problems that led to fatal trench cave-ins. He prosecuted a trucking company for alleged shoddy maintenance that led to deaths. And he has achieved the…
Best Source Of Alternative Health Care
Lightweavers is a center devoted to personal growth and healing. Aside from offering space for community workshops and seminars, Lightweavers is the home of the Reiki Institute. Reiki is a spiritual healing art which has been found to be an excellent complementary practice alongside Western medicine. Peggy Nagle, Reiki Master, has worked with people in…
Best Place To Buy A Stereo
Most people just go to the same discount store where they bought their washing machine, buy their stereo, and accept the way it sounds when they get home. Well, there is better sound. We know you say you can’t hear the difference, but you can. Take the time, after all, you’re going to be listening…
Friendliest Convenience Store
Featuring good beer specials and a pleasant staff that doesn’t look at you as if you’re about to commit armed robbery, but treats you instead as a human being, this is one place you’re happy to return to again and again over the years. Some store clerks may come and go; others have worked there…
Worst Intersection
During the day, swarms of students walk, bike, bus, and skateboard across this intersection. With five corners from which students can cross, and a plethora of ways they could jay-walk, drivers need to be extra careful for the 9am class students at 9:05. At night, the situation is different – The Crown & Anchor rests…
Best Free Loud Music
A very admirable club policy, even though hanging out there sometimes makes Austin feel like far too small a town. Emo’s is the perfect start off to the night, cheap Lone Star Bock before 11pm, and music you can either love or hate without kicking yourself for spending that five bucks you would have spent…
Best Organic BBQ
The only restaurant in Central Texas to serve certified hormone- and chemical-free barbecued beef. You can also get vegetarian black bean tacos here, but don’t let the healthy stuff scare you away – Ruby’s puts out a great plate of ribs and outstanding side orders. Located next to the legendary Antone’s.
Best Playscape
Run by the University of Texas’ Dr. Joe Frost, an internationally-known expert in child development and play-ground equipment safety, the Redeemer Lutheran playground is constantly evolving and contains the latest in playground technology. Although used primarily by the church for its day-care center, the playground is open to the public and contains two specially designed…
Best Newsreader
He’s the most veteran newsman in Austin. He’s been at the most historic events. But he doesn’t put any of it into his performance. By his own admission, Neal Spelce just reads the news. And can he read. Judy Maggio is a close runner-up with that sincere tone and girl-next-door smile.
Biggest Waste Of A Radio Frequency
Just turn your dial to 91.7 (without cable, that is) to find out why. It would be nice if UT’s Board of Regents, KTSB and KOOP could hammer out a settlement sometime before the FCC rules on the appeal, which could take as long as two years. Maybe this category can be “Best time-share of…
Best Public Celebration
Austin loves its festivals, and we have a number of fine ones – Aqua Fest, Eeyore’s Birthday Party, Old Pecan St., Fiesta at Laguna Gloria, the SXSW Music Fest – all have their seemingly permanent places on the city’s social calendar. But the one that really captures the spirit of the city isn’t an organized…
Best Recycling Organization
They were doing it before it was cool. Lately, they’ve hit on harder economic times, but this group just won’t die. Check out their new facility on the south side of Hancock Shopping Center, which accepts a wide variety of papers, metals, and plastics.
Best Way To Get From Point A To Point B
Even if they didn’t have the coolest trucks in town they’d get our vote. Fast, cheap, and courteous, this homegrown outfit got its start back in 1988 when Blake Miller was a UT student, hefting furniture for spare cash. His savvy so impressed client Brad Armstrong that Armstrong offered to back him in the business…
Best Place To Buy A X-rated Gift
What a great store! I mean, where else in town can you browse through a great selection of X-rated cards and novelties, buy a dildo or some flavored condoms, plus attend a body piercing clinic and get a safe yet as-exotic-as-you-like ring. For those of you out there who embarrass more easily, the friendly and…
Friendliest Grocery Store
The first of six Minimax grocery stores to open in Austin, and 39 years later, it’s the last. Instead of offering a personal warmth generally found on only the finest of cattle cars, or religious services somewhere on aisle 37, Minimax does things the old-fashioned way, offering simple courtesy and a neighborliness that’s usually found…
Best Comeback (Performance Division)
Barton has done a remarkable turnaround from her No-Show Lou reputation to being Loulou On The Spot. Lou Ann has provided the soundtrack for some of the best nights we’ve ever experienced and these days, she just gets better. That’s no small praise, seeing as how the Fort Worth native’s tenure has lasted nearly 18…
Best Lounge Act
Every Friday and Saturday night, Jay Clark – a blind crooner, keyboardist, saxophonist and clarinetist – gives the standards a whole new slant with interpretations that are personal, loving and incredibly sincere. His style is a perfect complement to this almost hallucinogenic bar where Clark has entertained for decades, and there’s no better way to…
Best Substitute For Drive-in Movies
Miss those drive-in, outdoor movies? For the nostalgic motorist or even pedestrians, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at Shady Grove replace memories of backseat cuddling with playing footsie under the table, a speaker hooked next to your beer, and a movie screen waving in the distance above a trailer parked in the outdoor courtyard. Features start…
Best Pan Dulce
The pan dulces are ready, hot from the oven, around nine in the morning, or when the baker is finished. El Porvenir also features a diverse array of Mexican medicinal herbs.
Best Playscape (indoor)
An imaginative ideascape, the Austin Children’s Museum entertains on many levels, so the young are enthralled and the old not bored.
Best None Of The Above Tv Show
Boris and Natasha come back in live action. They still think they’re smarter than Moose and Squirrel, and they’re not. We keep watching, we really think they love this city and believe in what they’re doing, but why do they communicate their big ideas so badly? It’s interesting how well versed in every issue Epstein…
Best Beginner’s Golf Course
Good golfers call this the worst course in town, but for beginners, it’s a slice of heaven (or is that a slicer’s heaven?). The oldest golf course in Texas (1899) is right down the block from the Chronicle and it’s lured lots of Chronicle and SXSW staffers to take up the ancient game. In fact,…
Best Reason To Bring Back The $2 Bill
Friendly, informal, a fun outing for the whole family – it kind of makes you wonder why horse tracks used to have such sleazy reputations that they ran a whole monetary denomination off the market. And it’s still usually uncrowded enough that you can get a spot right on the rail.
Best Resume Packer
She only lacks four hours, well, okay, 19. She would have been in Phi Beta Kappa, if she could have raised her grade point average and graduated. She could have been a successful politician if she hadn’t lied about going to college and treated the public like they are all high school dropouts.
Least Expensive Tailor
When Johnny Torres started his own tailor business out of his house 13 years ago, he vowed to keep his prices lower than his competitors. Today, he’s about the least expensive tailor in town, charging about $2 to $3 for shortening pants and about $3 to $4 for shortening skirts. In most cases, he offers…
Best Place To Buy Doc Martens, Rubber Snakes, And A Lava Lamp
Or rubber snakes, Kit Kat Klocks and Iggy Pop t-shirts. Or skull earrings, Betty Page cards and a Wizard of Oz Doll. Or a Super Soaker, glow-in-the-dark stars and rock & roll postcards. Or Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy glove, Japanese robots and Halloween masks. Owner Jim Hughes, aka The Prince, has created this glorious…
Most Affordable Vintage Clothing Store
The Love Cat proprietor makes regular runs to L.A. and other bustling markets in search of the most unique vintage and new styles. What makes the visit to Love Cat even more exciting is that you can actually afford to buy their stuff. Love Cat also carries shoes, sunglasses and jewelry They even have a…
