Cover Story
Best of Austin 2001
Readers’ and critics’ favorites
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures 2001, NR, 153 min. Directed by Jan Harlan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Kubrick’s brother-in-law and longtime collaborator is in a fine position to have the inside skinnny on the enigmatic director. His documentary examines Kurick’s career, film by film. (Jan Harlan will be present following…
Mansion of the Doomed
Mansion of the Doomed 1977, R, 89 min. Directed by Michael Pataki, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Richard Basehart, Gloria Grahame, Trish Stewart, Lance Henriksen. The “doomed” of the title refers to the eyeless victims who’ve been separated from their eyeballs by an eye doctor gone mad in his search for a cure…
Beelzebub’s Bathtub
Beelzebub’s Bathtub 2000, NR, 16 min. Directed by Andre Silva, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This is the world premiere of this animated short, which was also a TFPF grant recipient. It explores the world above and below an antique clawfoot bathtub. Director Silva will also screen a collection of his other…
The Edge of Each Other’s Battles: The Vision of Audre Lorde
The Edge of Each Other’s Battles: The Vision of Audre Lorde 2001, NR, 86 min. Directed by Jennifer Abod, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This video screening kicks off a new monthly screening/discussion series, “Honoring Feminists, Lesbians and Bisexual Women of Color.” The Edge documents a 1990 conference in Boston that used…
The Aviator’s Wife
The Aviator’s Wife 1981, PG, 102 min. Directed by Eric Rohmer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Philippe Marlaud, Marie Riviere, Anne-Laure Marie. “Love and Morality: The Films of Eric Rohmer” is an eight-film survey of films by the cerebral French master. The Aviator’s Wife is the first in Rohmer’s cycle of “Comedies and…
Sympathy for the Underdog
Sympathy for the Underdog 1969, NR, 96 min. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Noboru Ando, Tomisaburo Wakayama. This series is a 12-film retrospective of the 40-year-long career of this Japanese master of the violent yakuza film, whose work is little known in the West. Moral issues among the gangs…
Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde 1972, R, 85 min. Directed by William Crain, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bernie Casey, Rosalind Cash. An eminent black doctor injects himself with an experimental serum that transforms him into a psychopathic, white-skinned murderer.
Critic’s Picks
Best Neighbors to Call When You Need to Raise MoneyAustin Chefs & Restaurant OwnersWhen we’re asked for adjectives to describe Austin’s food service and culinary community, words like “talented” and “creative” naturally spring to mind. However, based on their stellar track record in the fundrasing department, we think “generous” should automatically be added to the…
Coach’s Corner
Political correctness be damned — it’s not unpatriotic, or disrespectful, to continue to recognize the everyday heroism that’s all around us … even on the sporting field.
2001 Austin Film Festival Schedule
Single admission tickets are $7 and available at the box office. Festival passes (good for all admissions except the Oct. 14 Waking Life benefit) cost $42.50 and are available at the conference registration area at the Omni Hotel or through Star Tickets.Thursday, 10/11 Paramount The Business of Strangers* (7pm) Places in the Heart* (9pm) Arbor…
Best Landscape
This in-town center of bliss features lush winding trails through meticulous displays of flora and the occasional fauna. The varieties of landscaping are stunning: from the traditional Rose Garden, to the Lotus Pond in the Isamu Taniguchi Oriental Gardens, to the native Texas Xeriscapes and cactus beds, it’s clear that Zilker is many gardens. Fall…
Best Museum
With three floors of exhibits, a 400-seat Imax theatre, and a 60-foot timeline wall with interactive stations that guide visitors through the sights and sounds of Texas history, this new museum offers a different approach. As a noncollecting museum, they have more flexibility of changing the exhibits on a regular basis, allowing them to present…
Best Live Music Venue Acoustics
This Austin institution has the perfect atmosphere for seeing your favorite live band. A haven for open mike nights and after-class chill outs, the Cactus Cafe is as much a part of UT as the Tower itself. The sound at the Cactus lends itself equally well to acoustic and plugged-in performances. The club’s sound system…
Best Lunch Hour Spot
Even if our readers hadn’t named it a favorite lunch place, a snapshot from the S. Lamar location of Schlotzky’s would tell the story. This place is popular and busy. And why not? The food is consistent and produced with all due speed (you are, after all, on a lunch hour). It’s great for groups…
Best Party Place
What will this generation of kids tell their kids and grandkids when they want to impress upon them how much harder it was for kids at the “turn of the century”? Will they say, “Back in my day, you were lucky if you got a trip to GattiTown for your birthday party! They only had…
Best News Source
Oh, you shouldn’t have … but it’s nice to know that folks rely on more than the daily grind for their news fix. After all, what other news outlet in town can nail a story better than the Chronicle? Of course, we don’t need to carry on about how tickled we are to have won…
Best Gym/Fitness Facility
Don’t sweat those late-night tacos – sweat them off instead at any of World Gym’s many 24-hour locations. Treadmills, lifecycles, and well-appointed weight rooms await you. And if aerobics and step classes aren’t your style, personal training at reasonable prices make this a great gym for the uninitiated. Just do it, baby.
Best Effort to Improve Austin
The people of Austin may get another chance to wield their voting powers if light rail is on the ballot again in 2002. Hopefully, by then voters will understand that roads cost too much and do too little and that light rail is the better bargain. Reliable, fast transportation, decreased emissions, decreased sprawl – many…
Best Computer Repair
Mac Alliance can outfit or find just about any Mac part you need – even if they have to stifle giggles at how ancient your machine is. They usually don’t laugh, though, as they know Mac owners are loyal and true. The folks at Mac Alliance will service your old heap on the cheap and…
Best Antiques
Gorgeous antiquities of every conceivable form and function can be had between these two venerable establishments. Offering radically different approaches, Whit Hanks is a purveyor of polish and pedigree, while Uncommon Objects takes a more whimsical but always sophisticated approach to collecting. Uncommon is an integral part of the chic SoCo style, while Hanks is…
Best Pet Store
This beloved independent Central Austin stalwart is an endangered breed: a self-styled, non-chain, neighborhood center for all your pets’ needs. From food to grooming, and excellent service, Bark ‘n Purr offers just about everything — including the best rhinestone collars in town.
Best Place To Try Out Community-centered City Planning
Since the airport moved down south, the city of Austin has been given a unique opportunity. A second chance to develop land in Central Austin into something everybody might enjoy. Hyde Park lies just across the highway from the neighborhood this tract of land affects and provides a nice template for the city to work…
Best Set of Pipes
Though often overshadowed by the concerts held at the Hall, the pipe organ is a marvel unto itself. With pipes stretching up to the shadowy ceiling, and tucked into corners or within panels, it’s difficult to count the actual number present. The metallic sheen is complemented by the light wood used in the hall. Also…
Best Short Film Festival
Short film usually receives recognition only in music videos, but has found a new place of appreciation within the Cinematexas Short Film + Video Festival. Every year, Cinematexas draws new short filmmakers into Austin. While those who are just starting out make up most of the year’s program, a showcase of better-known artists is also…
Best Organic Veggie Delivery Service
Only one thing trumps finding gorgeous just-picked organic veggies at a farmer’s market, and that’s having a bushel basket of them delivered to your doorstep once a week. Discover that the tender-skinned, dead-ripe tomato that looks and tastes like a tomato was not a figment of your childhood imagination. If you’re interested in getting on…
Best Answer To Old Skull
Three Hours’ Sleep members are 11 years old (well, one’s 12), but the promise inherent in preadolescence isn’t what makes them so great. They keep time and stay in tune better than you’d think, but that’s not it either: They’re competent, but not prodigies. And novelty value, pshaw. No, what made these old souls’ alterna-rock…
Best Turtle Nest
If you’re on the south side of the Hike & Bike Trail and you cross the bridge over the inlet which leads to Barton Springs, look down and to the south and you will see a diaspora of underwater greenery which provides a nice gathering spot for the creek’s turtle population when canoe and kayak…
Best Web Site for a Monolith
In a world where it is impossible to get a human being on the phone, and it takes large portions of hours to navigate Web sites (and this is when you just want to know what time the game starts), the recently reorganized UT Web site is refreshingly concise and simple. For an institution of…
Best Parks Patron
Lady Bird Johnson was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Medal of Honor by the National Parks Foundation for her work in preserving open spaces and parklands across the country. Announced just before the former first lady’s 88th birthday last December at the LBJ Library, the award has been presented only once before, to Laurence…
Best Ooo-la-la Photographer
Every week, right here in The Austin Chronicle, perennial “Best Naughty Shop” winner Forbidden Fruit runs some yummy softcore photo ad. Every week, it’s a different provocative image from the rakish eye of lensman Bob Sherman, an affable bad boy who charms much more than the socks off his alluring tattooed and pierced models. Does…
Best Affordable Legal Advice For Guys & Dads
A nonprofit funded by membership fees and contributions, this cluttered downtown office is a genuine lifeline for men facing the gantlet of Texas Family Law who can’t afford the high price of justice. Run by seasoned advocate Hugh Nations, they offer family crisis counseling, low-cost DNA paternity testing, and individual legal consultations with attorneys donating…
Best New Features on a Web Site
It may not be the end of overdue books, but the expanded online services at the Austin Public Library make it easy to avoid those pesky late fees with online renewal. All it takes is a photo I.D., a library card, and an e-mail address to establish a Web Catalog account with a personal identification…
Best Divine Fabric For Interiors
Purveyors of the things that the dreamiest interiors are made of, owner Stephanie Moore and partners have created a shop that is an incredible platform for Moore’s exquisite taste in fabrics and trims. From breathtakingly magnificent silk brocades and gossamer organzas to trims that drip with crystals, feathers, and fringe, they not only sell these…
Best Jewelry
From First Ladies to Oscar-winning actresses to well-dressed women across the city, the design team of Anthony Camargo and David Nakard are adorning some of the most high-profile necks, wrists, and earlobes, both locally and internationally. Spread across Glamour, and In Style, and Town & Country, this dynamic duo has the magic touch when it…
Critic’s Picks
Best Throwback to Simpler TimesKiddie AcresThere are only about half a dozen rides at this North Austin amusement park, besides a pony ride and miniature golf. But every one of them is pint-sized (thus the “Kiddie” part) — perfect for small-to-very-small children. Watch ’em grin! Hear ’em beg to “do it ag’in! do it ag’in!”…
Jettisoned
American Airlines layoffs hit Austin.
Best Motel
“So close yet so far out” are not just words on a marquee for this 1938 landmark. Restored in the mid-Nineties by the tireless Dottye Dean, it has become a destination for everyone from touring musicians to anyone just looking for an alternative to generic freeway lodging. Each room is decorated with its own unique…
Best Local Arts & Entertainment Web Site
Planning your weekend while sitting at your computer? Bet you’re visiting Austin360.com, letting it show you around the weekend in its user-friendly way. It provides one-stop shopping for information on local music, movies, galleries, and performances.
Best Neighborhood Grocery
A variety of meats, local and organic produce, and gourmet foods are only some of what make Fresh Plus popular. Parking is a snap; there’s never a wait. They also have the cutest checkers in town.
Best Party Supplies
You gotta party goin’ on? Who ya gonna call? The Pig o’course. The Party Pig. The Why-Do-You-Think-They-Call-It-a-Superstore?-Pig. That’s who. Acres of streamers. Piles of Mardi Gras beads (without even having to show them your “you-know”s …). Masks to make the scariest look handsome … and vice versa. And did we say pinata? Celebrate good times:…
Best Photographer
Raising the bar on local fashion photography and potraiture, Shapter now splits his time between Austin and L.A. His work has brought international attention to our style scene and accolades for his moody, stylish creations.
Best Local Athlete
Austin is a town that’s grown many great athletes, but the story of Lance Armstrong’s battle against cancer and subsequent triple triumph, winning the Tour de France in 1999, 2000, and 2001, make him one of the most well-known and respected athletes in the world. We watch and wait to see what 2002 may bring…
Best Hero/Legend
A world-class athlete whose life was nearly cut short by testicular cancer that spread to his abdomen, lungs, and brain, Armstrong fought his disease through aggressive treatment and survived to go on and become an even greater athlete, winning the Tour de France three years running. His heroism extends as he continues to fight cancer…
Best Dry Cleaner
Excellent customer service, attention to detail, quick turnaround, and 10 convenient locations make Reid’s a huge asset to those who care about their clothes – and to those who don’t want to have to care. Pick-up and delivery, alterations, and shoe repair are among the amenities that make Reid’s the “Best of Austin.”
Best Austin/Texas Souvenirs
For the second year in a row, our readers have picked the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport as the best place to get souvenirs. No kidding: The airport itself screams Austin from the Barbara Jordan Passenger Terminal’s rafters with its live music stage, local food outlets (Amy’s Ice Cream, Wok & Roll, the Salt Lick … ),…
Best Plant Nursery
From dirt cheap Red Barn to the gloriously extravagant Great Outdoors, these two winners offer an amazing selection between them. With knowledgeable staffs and good customer service, each has something very different to offer, and each offers excellent quality.
Best Reason To Leave Your Seat At Intermission
It wasn’t just flamenco dancer Jose Greco who made us leap out of our seats at intermission at One World Theatre; we wanted to see the view. Peering out over the hills from the balcony, we don’t even discuss the meaning of whatever we’ve just seen inside the theatre with our date, our spouse, our…
Best Use Of That Exquisite Living Room
The housing market may not be quite what it was a year ago, but that doesn’t mean that the houses are any less impressive. What better way to put some of those fine social chambers to use than with social evenings of classical chamber music performed by excellent musicians, accompanied, of course, by delectable victuals…
Best Trip Back to the Sixties
Poodie’s has ice-cold beer, good burgers, and some great music. But the real draw here is the vibe. When you turn your radio dial to 95.5, do you think KOKE-FM? Do you think of the Saxon Pub as being on I-35? Ray Hubbard without the “Wylie” and as a member of Three Faces West? If…
Best Original Sandwich
Tired of that same old lunch from those corporate sandwich places? Try Azul on the corner of Cesar Chavez & Comal; they have that Austin atmosphere in spades. Sandwiches range from the simple PB&J or egg salad to turkey and havarti (our favorite) to mixtures of portobello tapenade, spinach & Swiss, or pork tenderloin, goat…
Best Children’s Art
Gullett Elementary is proud to exhibit its permanent collection of children’s art in a variety of media: Murals, gardens, and stained glass made by childish hands dot the grounds of this Austin elementary school. Wander around and take in the herb garden dedicated to a former Gullett student, past fifth-grade class murals dedicated to the…
Best Undercover Racetrack
No, we don’t mean undercover, as in subterfuge, though we could certainly close our eyes and imagine ourselves James Bond in his Aston Martin DB5 when we get behind the wheel in one of these mini screamers. No, we mean “all-weather.” Thunder Zone, located in Kyle on the northbound I-35 access road, right next to…
Most Interesting Talk Radio Program
Usually, the phrase “freeform radio show at KVRX” implies more music than talk. Not so for John Erler. Every Thursday morning when the maestro puts on his fez – the order of Elkmaster, of course – and takes up his duties as keeper of the elks, listeners are treated to his exploits with Laura, the…
Best Place To Pong
When the summer heat’s in full swing, nothing beats indoor sports. Rick Mueller has maintained a USATT sanctioned club in Austin for more than five years with the help of some dedicated players. Currently housed in Uncle Bob’s Storage on 183 and North Lamar, the club is open on Tuesday and Thursday from 6pm to…
Best People’s Lobbyist
If there’s a public-spirited proposal with hope of life at the Lege, chances are Tom Smith – known universally as “Smitty” – has a hand in it. He’s probably best known for his work on environmental legislation – if there is significant improvement in the state’s air over the next few years, Smitty’s teeth-grinding work…
Best All-in-the-Family Tax Service
Come tax time, you don’t want to be fussing around debating whether or not hiring a service is worth the sometimes prohibitive costs and long lines for which some of the national chains are so well known. Take our advice: Cut this listing out and clip it to your pay stubs. Juanita Ross has been…
Best Night-Owl Hair Experience
They’re open until midnight! Midnight! Over the years, Avalon Hair Salon has amassed loads of “Best of Austin” awards for its hair genius, and inspiration struck again recently, when the fashionable bastion started opening its doors until midnight Tuesday-Saturday. Although it seems a natural fit for the city that occasionally sleeps, as far as we…
Best Guy With A Fuzz Box Who’s Not Afraid To Use It
Aside from providing some of the best, fastest, and most reasonably priced service on amps and guitars that we’ve ever received, Musical Exchange salesdude and repair guy Jon Bessent also is one half of local Austone Electronics. Bessent, the affable bearded and braided cosmic cowboy who answers his work phone, “Musical Sex Change!” has produced…
Best of Austin 2001
“We Can Be Heroes, Just for One Day…” David Bowie’s song has been strafing my subconscious since that fateful day last month: 9-11. Since those images are burned forever into my brain — not so much the ones of horror, of heinous atrocity, but the ones of the big burly everyday Joes with beer bellies…
Critic’s Picks
Best Commerical IconAndy Howard Pest ControlAs with film, we usually find that no-budget, local commercials have far more impact than their glitzy, agency-produced cousins. The haunting harmonies of the jingle for Body-Tek Collison Repair (“If you have a wreck, take it to Body-Teeeeeek…”) still occasionally get stuck in our heads, years after the spot left…
Sidewalk Ordinance Softened
At Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman’s urging, the City Council has altered the wording of an ordinance that would have prohibited sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks. Even with the change, though, the ordinance — which passed 4-3 on last Thursday’s second reading, necessitating a third reading — would make a Class C misdemeanor of…
Best Mural
This mural is the newest addition to public art enhancing the sides of buildings around the university. “Le Bonheur de Vivre,” at 24th & Guadalupe, was executed by Doug Jacques and his students at ACC in 1998. Jacques’ piece is a very colorful, slightly surreal viewing experience for all who pass by. With depictions of…
Best Painter/Sculptor
Mary Doerr was a member of the “Students Older Than Average” club at UT when she returned to get her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Fine Art and follow a lifelong dream. Since turning pro as a full-time artist in 1985, she has managed to capture the heart and soul of Austin in her realistic…
Best Movie Theatre
Why is the Alamo Drafthouse the coolest? And why do our readers and critics go so nuts for it? Number One: Because they are a community place, a happening center like no other for Austin film folks, music folks, art folks, and just plain folks to make and experience aesthetic collisions and events they may…
Best Produce
Wake up in the garden: From Chinese eggplant to California mache, you’ll find them here, as well as every cook in town. With tables groaning under a huge variety of organic foods and some prepped produce as well (where else can you find fresh-squeezed lime juice and peeled garlic cloves?), and informed staffers with ever-ready…
Best Playground/Park
Zilker Park has certainly gotten enough facelifts to make it one of the most state-of-the-art parks in Austin. We especially enjoy the springy, space-age flooring that doesn’t hurt as much as sand or rocks when you fall on it. Check out the huge plastic playscape that will have your kids running over and through it…
Best Public Access TV Show
These two long-running cable access television shows – The Reel Deal and The Show With No Name – derive their success from the same secret ingredient: personality. Although different in scope and tone, each show has a strong sense of itself in addition to dynamic and amusing hosts who viewers tune in to visit with…
Best Local Team
Here’s a team that knows how to bring out the best in people. Loyal fans turn out by the thousands for every home game, filling baseball’s Dell Diamond and the grassy slope beyond. As they did last year, fans broke attendance records again this year, topping out with a 668,792 tally. Talent-wise, the Express has…
Best Local Online Personality
There’s no trouble with Harry, a cinephile’s cinephile who created a global phenomenon with his online swap meet of movie insider dish, reviews, and intensely personal commentary. Knowles unabashedly speaks his mind about all things celluloid, but more importantly, he lets the people speak theirs, sending in scoops, raves, and rants, and that has our…
Best Fashion/Style Designer
Local girl makes good. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Dell is half of the super-duo couple, along with hubby and computer maven Michael. The wavy “U” in Susan Dell’s logo stands for “You – the customer.” The “S” stands for “superior quality.”
Best Bookstore
Is it the voluminous magazine racks, the heaps of books, or the comfy couches that give BookPeople “best” status? Whatever it is, it’s working: This is our readers’ perennial favorite.
Best Fashion Coverage On Local TV
Don’t see fashion happening in Austin? Then you’re not watching News 8 Austin. In addition to their comprehensive coverage of our fair city, Cheryl Bishop’s Fashionably 8 reaches a vast audience of fashion-hungry citizens with her coverage of our local style scene. Providing entertaining information to the public regarding fashionable events and invaluable exposure for…
Best Reinvention of a Lost but Not Forgotten Theatre
For the Village Cinema, the end was looking sad indeed. The once-vital North Austin arthouse had been relegated to third-run obscurity when Regal Cinemas finally announced its closing. Those who cared were mostly too tired to fight, resigned to another Starbucks, another monster multiplex courtesy of the Stepford Wives. Yawn, stretch, another beloved Austin location…
Best Vanishing Actor/Best Invisible Man (in A Part)
Some actors command our attention through larger-than-life charisma, some through a mastery of theatrical technique. Then there is David Stahl, an unassuming, understated actor who compels us to watch him by just subtly, slyly becoming the characters he plays. No one else on our local stages slips so invisibly into a part. With Stahl, you…
Best Way To See If You’ve Got The Right Filmmaking Stuff
They all laughed when you said you were going to make a three-minute Super-8 film in a weekend, but not when you invited them to the public screening. The Cinemaker Co-op, that wonderful enabler of all things movie-making, sponsors this terrific once-a-year Make a Film in a Weekend. Once you’ve shot your 180-second opus and…
Best Pies
Owners Randy and Cathy Osban make some of the best barbecue around. But Cathy’s pies are a work of art. Buttery, flaky crusts adorned with heavenly fillings. We can’t imagine life without her chocolate pie: creamy, decadently rich, and with a perfect combination of sweetness and the just-bitter sharpness of the cocoa. We offer our…
Best Day Care
Located in one of those big ol’ beautiful houses for which Hyde Park is famous, CDC is great at letting kids be kids. Visits there have found kids covered in paint, splashing in water, making messes, and running around being plain crazy. As well they should. They also learn how to clean their messes up,…
Best Way To Introduce Children To Austin Music
We knew the Austin Children’s Museum had a way with kids, but now we need to amend our assessment. They know music, too. Their Family Fun Night series features local musicians like Sara Hickman giving what are very nearly private concerts at the museum on Friday nights. Next year, look for their stage to become…
Best (far) East Side Hike
A shame it may be, but if you visit McKinney Roughs on a sunny Sunday afternoon, you may have the place all to yourself. That’s 1,100 acres of place, with 17 miles of both hiking-only and joint hiking/equestrian trails. You’ll enjoy landscapes more varied and just as interesting as the more exalted places west of…
Best Place To Pretend Your Car’s A Roller Coaster
Who doesn’t love the thrill of one’s car plunging down a steep hill and then shooting up again? We found one particular “hill” that’s still tame enough for the coaster-phobic. Such is the case with the large dip in northwest Austin, on the quietly residential Hart Lane. Surrounded by middle-class homes, the straight and smooth…
Best Proof That Art And Politics Can Work Together
Where to begin? Singer-songwriter Lourdes Perez has astounded audiences with her commanding voice and socially conscious lyrics since 1992. Today, she is loved and respected as a major force in world music. The fado, cante jondo, morna, and nueva trova are a few of the musical traditions she weaves to create music which touches the…
Best Excuse to Lie Around, Eat Cookies, and Drink Soda
Why feel guilty about that sugar rush? You’re saving lives! We’ve found the perfect volunteer project (assuming you aren’t totally freaked by needles) with no hard labor, no cash outlay, and no grouchy old ladies barking orders. And you’re still saving lives! A half hour of relaxing in air-conditioned comfort is all it takes for…
Best People To Get It Together
File this number under, “Aaargh! I’m Not Even Gonna Try Putting This Thing Together!” Bobby and Nancy Cordell, owners of Assembly Experts, are the answer to the proverbial maiden’s prayer when it comes to wielding the socket wrench. That stupid new home office cubicle you bought? Done. The swing set. Done. The bikes, the treadmill,…
Best Hoopty Cannibalizers
Okay, so we have a tiny problem with auto incidents. Not that any of them have been our fault of course – but try telling that to the insurance company, to say nothing of those pesky car inspectors. No matter, ever since we discovered Capitol City, we’ve been able to slap that bucket of bolts…
Critic’s Picks
Best Hero’s HeroesTexas FirefightersSpeaking of heroes, the hearts of Texans and Texas firefighters have opened for the firefighters of D.C. and especially of New York City, where hundreds of firefighters lost their lives in the collapse of the World Trade Center, after they responded to the emergency of the initial attacks on Sept. 11. Mike…
Statesman Falls Off Its Bike
Statesman bungles a report about a local traffic incident
Bread and Tulips
An endearing romantic daydream about an underappreciated housewife who decides on whim to not return home.
Best Neighborhood
With all the research that goes into city planning, you’d think that some of Austin’s old neighborhood plans might be reviewed. The turn-of-the-century Hyde Park plan would come out a winner today. Wide, clearly laid out streets, 100-year-old trees, convenient, independent retail, and gorgeous homes (that are not drawn from merely four or five look-alike…
Best Theatre Actor/Actress
Her talent, looks, and well-honed skills shine as bright as a lone star, in roles from the sublime to the ridiculous: in Anton in Show Business, A Macbeth, and Women Who Steal, most recently. So it’s little wonder that this stalwart of downtown’s State Theater (who also passes on her experience as one of the…
Best Place To Cruise Hotties
Even in a town full of beautiful people, nights can be lonely if one doesn’t know where to look. Yet, companionship (nightly or eternally) can be found in the reservoir of bars and clubs along Sixth Street, thick with primped and tan Austinites from all over. Peak times are between Thursday and Saturdays or whenever…
Best Special Occasion Restaurant
When the finest occasions of life require the finest of dining in Austin, there’s few that compare to Jeffrey’s. Dazzling culinary creativity, plush interiors, and impeccable service repeatedly rank this venerated establishment at the top of the heap.
Best Recreation Center
Located between Burnet and MoPac in the little neighborhood called Allendale, Northwest Recreation Center shows up for the first time in this category. This place has everything: weight room, arts & crafts room, full-sized gymnasium; plus, it sits adjacent to an extensive piece of parkland previously known as Northwest Park. Just to calm any confusion,…
Best Radio Station And Best Radio Station To Listen To At Work
“Twine Time,” “Jazz Etc.,” “Femme FM,” “Eklektikos,” “Blue Monday”… not to mention NPR’s “Prairie Home Companion” and “All Things Considered.” Need we say more? Sure, why not a few words about the folks behind the titles?: Paul Ray, Teresa Ferguson, Jay Trachtenberg, Larry Monroe, Jeff McCord, and John Aielli — a star-studded team with incredible…
Best Outdoor Gear/Sporting Goods
No jokes about “pitching tents,” please. REI has been hammering the stakes and lighting the camp fires, pumping the tires and rowing the boats of our readers for nine years. That’s longer than they’ve been at their current location in the Gateway shopping center. Although the national co-op has been around since 1938, outdoorsy gearheads…
Best Local Start-up Survivor
Even though layoffs and shutdowns at high tech companies have become the norm, the hardy start-up Vignette has weathered the tough times and is still going strong. Its September announcement about its newest content management application suite, V6, prompted stock market analysts to call Vignette (Nasdaq: VIGN) a “strong buy” even in today’s crappy market.…
Best Florist
Freesia, strelitzia, exotic or not? Flowers to carry or plant in a pot? Pineapples, candy bars, gift for a friend? Call Central Market and ask for Jen. We did. And she and the rest of her departmental colleagues rule, too. See, we even wrote a li’l poem about it.
Best Clothing
The new store on Lamar is a work of art itself, and the window displays are just a glimpse of the chic interior. The racks read like a who’s who of high fashion designers such as Jean Carl, Kenneth Cole, Diesel, and French Connection. By George also has a great sales racks with as much…
Best Field Research On Gay Austin
Gee, it’s nice to be validated. Big kisses to Austin American-Statesman arts writer Michael Barnes and his New York friend and social scientist Sean Massey, who undertook a first of its kind newspaper survey on gay life in a major metropolitan area. The response was overwhelming: 1,200 gays and lesbians returned the questionnaires, and Barnes…
Best Reminder That Pride Goeth Before A Fall
As monuments to hubris go, Austin has its share. Take the Bob Bullock State Amusement Park – er, History Museum – at the Capitol complex, or the towering McMansions that clutter the hillsides from Mount Bonnell to West Lake Hills. But for real evidence that the mighty have the farthest to fall, look no farther…
Best Vocal Conspiracists
Whether performing choral works Medieval or modern or in between, the Conspirare Choir, under the guidance of Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, has tuned its amazing collection of voices to create some of the most scintillating sounds around. Singing exciting, challenging, yet accessible works, the conspiring choir sings with emotion and clarity that leaves patrons…
Best Apples Within 150 Miles
Located 12 miles northwest of Bandera, this bucolic Hill Country town traded ranching for apple farming in the 1980s. Because Medina apples stay on the tree longer, their sugar content is higher than that of Washington state apples, a fact best appreciated while eating a scoop of Medina apple ice cream. The harvest season is…
Best Place For Nut Heads
Back in the back left corner of Wheatsville, just to the left of the deli, are tubs and tubs of organic nut butters. Cashew, almond, peanut, they all look so tempting you want to dip the oversized metal spoon in and cover yourself, denying the little plastic receptacle you hold in your hand the pleasure…
Best Driving Lesson
Nothing like a moral with your pizza. Now we’re not going to belabor the actual news story of the truck that smashed right through the glass wall that is the entrance to our beloved Conan’s. That driver must be humiliated enough (if s/he even survived …). But we will say that while you and the…
Best Bridge Over The Digital Divide
American YouthWorks, the intrepid charter school that’s proving alternative education isn’t summed up in the Ten Commandments, continues to show us new ways to help kids care about learning. C-Corp teaches students how to rebuild and program computers, then sends them out to Eastside libraries and churches to train others. Students are paid a stipend…
Best Access To Austin’s Bicycle Underground
Didn’t know Austin had a bicycle underground? Well, that’s probably because you were too busy overground, mowing it down with your SUV. Maybe it’s time to get back in the saddle. Clown Dog Bikes bike shop has its finger on the pulse of Austin’s bike underground. Find out when the latest Critical Mass will be,…
Best Reason to Hoof and Hoop It Up
Mooove your rump roast, Longhorns, this is a cattle call for basketball, ’cause the Clark Field courts are back at UT, basking in the shade of a new cow pen (dormitory) to the east (which stands on Clark’s old site), and a parking garage just across the cattleguard to the west. Back from the warehouse…
Best Reason To Become A Card-carrying Member Of The Aclu
Just when you thought the ACLU had gone the way of Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaign, along comes Will Harrell, the Texas chapter’s new executive director, to make us feel 19 again. Harrell, a thirtysomething, ponytailed lawyer-activist, has breathed new life into the Texas organization that slept through much of the Nineties. The native Texan had…
Best Fabulous Relief For A Sore Back
Dr. Cynthia Schade and her crew of pros can handle just about anything that walks, crawls, or hobbles through her door. From adjustments and massage to therapy for feet, legs, backs, shoulders, arms, necks, and heads, this extremely personal and relaxed clinic offers not only emergency expertise, but fabulous post-surgical treatment. With healing hands, gentle…
Best Personable Grocery Store Pharmacists
The fact that some of us have developed a close relationship with the local pharmacy is not particularly thrilling news, it just means declining health. Or at least seems that way. Dr. McPherson and the staff of the Albertson’s Pharmacy on Pleasant Valley have eased some of that trauma considerably with good humor, diplomacy, and…
Best Kilt Supply
There’s an old Gaelic saying that a true Scot should wear his kilt at least once a week. Okay, so we made that up just because we like kilts and those who wear them. At Things Celtic, which last year doubled its store space, the whole kilt-and-kaboodle can be ordered, from the tartan wool in…
Critic’s Picks
Best Coming-Out on WheelsRainbow Skate at Skate World NorthwestIt was inevitable, really: the thump of the roller disco beat, the twinkle of the disco ball, the twinkle in the eyes of the cute shaved head babe on the in-lines … oh, who wouldn’t fall in love all over again? Sigh. Every second and fourth Wednesday…
Last Rights
In the darker scheme of things, the city may have dug its own grave when it decided to take on the chairman of the Texas Funeral Commission over a piece of downtown property. Commission Chairman Harry M. Whittington has so far managed to foil the city’s efforts to condemn his property in order to build…
Extreme Days
Extreme Days 2001, PG, 92 min. Directed by Eric Hannah, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cassidy Rae, Derek Hamilton, A.j. Buckley, Ryan Browning, Dante Basco. Extreme sports — skate and snow boarding, surfing, paintball intifadas and the like — have rarely been as markedly unexciting as they are in this road trip through…
Best New Building In The Past Five Years
With elements of neoclassical grandeur and pure-Texan extravagance, all tied up with a pink marble bow, the building is an appropriate repository for so many of the artifacts of true Texas pride. With it’s massive columns, magnificent mosaic floor of the rotunda, shining woodwork, and user-friendly layout, this museum is quite the addition to our…
Best Theatre Company
Okay, so they’re ridiculously talented. But do they create breathtaking, original productions? Okay, so they’re ridiculously talented and they create breathtaking, original productions. But don’t they stick with only small, easy-to-mount shows? Okay, so they’re ridiculously talented, they create breathtaking, original productions, and they stage spectacles so elaborate you’d suspect some connection to the DreamWorks…
Best Place to Meet Friends After Work
There’s nothing sweeter than gathering with your friends around a pile of nachos and some messy Mexican martinis at Trudy’s Texas Star after a hard day at the office. Their downstairs bar and groovy deck seating make it a good place for groups both large and small to meet and snack and drink. And there’s…
Best Arcade
What better place for a virtual reality repository than across the street from the grind of higher education? This cavernous shotgun shack on the drag provides a perfectly dim-lit respite from academia, especially with hot-off-the-assembly-line titles like Dance, Dance Revolution 4, Gauntlet Legends, and those new VR boxing and shooting games that actually read your…
Best Restaurant For Kids
Why do children never grow tired of Happy Meals? Could it be those darned little toys you keep stepping on in the living room? You can contemplate those questions the next time you take the family out for a bite at Schlotzsky’s Deli & Marketplace, our readers’ choice for a place to take kids. Heaven…
Best Sportscaster
Rosy cheeks, boyish good looks, and charm make Mike Barnes a favorite with the female viewers, while his benign jock humor and vast sports knowledge endears him to the guys. Heck, who knows? Maybe it’s the other way around? No matter. At KVUE since 1987, with a brief foray into Aggieland broadcasting in College Station,…
Best Participatory Sport
Somebody made this sport up. Recently, we mean. They had to have. It’s like one of those yard games you and your friends would make up and play for hours. Anything that involves taking a heavy little “flying disc” and throwing it as hard as humanly possible … well, that sounds more like recreation than…
Best Mover & Shaker And Best Visionary
For the first anniversary celebration of Girlstart (a nonprofit technology center for school-age girls) this spring, organizers devised a pretty great promotion: Have costumed Powerpuff Girls make an appearance, courtesy of Time Warner. But, as any “PPG” devotee knows, it would be silly if Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles showed up without their sponsor, the Mayor…
Best Gardener/Landscaping
Gardens is dreamland for garden aficionados, and for those whose vision is a bit more than do-it-yourself, James D. David makes those dreams come true. This legendary artist’s consummate skill, dazzling creativity, and access to the finest growables are an unbeatable combination.
Best Comic Books
Austin Books gleefully touts the motto “Helping Austinites dispose of their income for over 20 years,” and it’s obvious that they are quite good at it. Along with comics, Austin Books is a purveyor of collectible games, trading cards, books, artwork, and movie posters at the physical location. Anything not in stock can be ordered…
Best Record Store
Waterloo wasn’t around when Austin was called Waterloo, but this perennial “BOA” Best Record Store winner has been a staple of music fans searching for Tex-o-centric recordings for the past 19 years. CDs are filed alphabetically, so don’t be surprised to find Frank Sinatra side-by-side with the indie band of the week: This place doesn’t…
Best Stool
No doubt meant to inspire big ideas within the ranks of the downtown ad agency McGarrah Jessee, or humble said employees by making them channel Lily Tomlin in The Incredible Shrinking Woman, this stool stands about 10 feet high, and passersby can behold its splendor from the corner of Third & Brazos. Oh, we should…
Best Attention To Fashionable And Frivolous Details
It’s the little things in life that make our hearts go buh-boom. A baby’s first slobbery smile, a perfect harmony, the smell of a campfire. Oh, and also: Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles! We don’t know when it started, or whose idea it was, but the bubbles outside of Spiros – flirting with the breeze, catching the…
Best Bacon & Eggs
Few foods are as commonly cooked as poorly as bacon and eggs. We’ve learned to live with bacon that is either soggy and underdone or burnt to a crisp. Finding our yolks hard when we’ve asked for our eggs over easy doesn’t shock us. So the most surprising thing about breakfast at Dan’s (beside that…
Best Place Setting
Oh, sure, it’s the best restaurant to open in Austin in decades, and Will Packwood was anointed by Food and Wine one of America’s 10 best young chefs, but look at that fork! That water glass! What a cool bud vase! For those who care about such things, Emilia’s is a bastion of quality. In…
Best Expansion For Expanding Cultural Horizons
While Junior may have previously been fluent in “Badtz Maru” and “Wufei Chang,” after one trip to the expanded restaurant side of this popular West Campus Japanese gift shop, he or she won’t be able to keep quiet about “Chubbies,” “Bento Boxes,” and “Baby Burgers.” What? You say you don’t even know what those are??…
Best Commerical Icon
As with film, we usually find that no-budget, local commercials have far more impact than their glitzy, agency-produced cousins. The haunting harmonies of the jingle for Body-Tek Collison Repair (“If you have a wreck, take it to Body-Teeeeeek … “) still occasionally get stuck in our heads, years after the spot left the airwaves. And…
Best Adult Children Swings
Dodge the “poopy meadows” and the frolicking families, and there are plenty of reasons to seek out this popular treelined Eastside neighborhood’s own little slice of peace and quiet. A pool, tennis courts, picnic facilities, and acres of space for spontaneous soccer games are just part of the charm. But best of all is making…
Best Way To Beat The Heat
Austinites have more reason to get nekkid on a regular basis: Not only do we need a way to deal with the oppressive heat of summer, we are also a damn fine-looking bunch. It’s not like City Council is going to shrug their shoulders and declare the town clothing-optional anytime soon, but we do have…
Best Reason to Consider Going to Grad School
It would take more fingers and toes than we have to count all the people we know who’ve been laid off from high tech jobs in Austin this year. So what’s a terminated techie to do? Consider grad school. Maybe you’ve got a big fat severance package burning a hole in your pocket. Or, if…
Best Family Doctor
So we’re chatting with a friend of 20-plus years who starts to rave about what a cool doctor she has. We snicker knowingly because we have the best physician when suddenly she says “Jefferson Street Family Practice.” Wait! “Elliot Trester? Hey, he’s our doctor too – isn’t he cool?” “Yeah, the last time I was…
Best Phonograph Museum
Jim Cartwright has given up his home and garage to a collection of CDs, LPs, 45s, 78s, wax cylinders, phonographs, cylinder players, and other audio equipment we didn’t even know existed. As the only registered antique phonograph museum owner in Texas, Mr. Cartwright is fully licensed to crank up one of his many Victrolas to…
Best Mad Hatter
So you wanna be a Texan, eh? Well, buying a cowboy hat is a fine first step. But, make no mistake, you can’t just pick one off the rack, plop it on your head, and call yourself a Texan. Oh no, that would never do. So, how do you get that shape and fit that…
Critic’s Picks
Sweetest Bank TellersBank of America, Hancock BranchOkay, so we’re a little biased; it’s where we bank. But every time we go in, we are greeted (usually by name) with a smile and a handshake and a willingness to assist even in the stickiest of situations. The eager staff at our bank branch make our semi-monthly…
Some Time-Killers Do Matter
Interested in what happens on RM 2222? Take the city’s online community vision survey for its RM 2222 corridor project, prepared by Land Design Studios, at www.itracks.com/2222survey. You’ll answer some demographic questions and do a visual preference survey that presents real pictures of real development. You get to choose the ones you like and don’t…
Max Keeble’s Big Move
Max Keeble’s Big Move 2001, PG, 86 min. Directed by Tim Hill, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lil’ Romeo, Orlando Brown, Noel Fisher, Robert Carradine, Nora Dunn, Zena Grey, Josh Peck, Jamie Kennedy, Larry Miller, Alex D. Linz. Disney’s latest live-action cartoon is a frenetic affair, busy and silly enough to make family…
Best Online Real Estate Info
There are tons of local real estate sources on the Web. But for comprehensive local info, our readers make AustinHomeSearch.com home. And when you check out their constantly updated database, you’ll settle in, too. Just pop up a form and describe your dream house (price range, zip code, size, amenities), click “search,” and you’ll encounter…
Best Theatre Director
When it comes to directing, here’s a man who’s equally at home with the light (Rockin’ Christmas Party), the dark (Jelly’s Last Jam), and the weirdly in-between (The Rocky Horror Show and the current Little Shop of Horrors). The irrepressibly hardworking Steakley, Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s artistic director and all-around promoter of musicals beyond your…
Best Pub/Neighborhood Bar
It’s a tie. Not surprising, since both of these neighborhood pubs attract folks from all over the city who find them worth the drive. Both are known for their super pub grub and extensive lists of brews. If you’re trying to decide between a neat scotch and hot fish and chips at the Dog &…
Best Birthday Cakes
Happy Birthday, dear Boo-boo, Happy Birthday to you! Once you wipe off the kid spittle and yank out the candle wax, you don’t want to bite down into just another cake off the shelf do you? Birthdays are special, and what better way to make the birthday boy or girl feel just that than with…
Best Shoe Store for Kids
Sandy’s has either won or tied this particular category for years now. And with over 20,000 pair of Stride Rite, Bass, New Balance, Keds, and more of the latest, hottest fashions in stock, covering 7,800 square feet dedicated solely to your kids’ feet, it’s a veritable monument to “This Little Piggy Went to Market.”
Best Sportswriter
Death, taxes, Barton Springs, Kirk Bohls. Waterloo Brewing Co. may be gone, the landscape of New York might be altered, but Kirk Bohls remains the Austin American-Statesman’s regular sports columnist. What does he think about the weeklong postponements? UT football’s chances? The Round Rock Express’ playoff run? The Spurs’ new stadium? Austin wants to know,…
Best Public Golf Course
One of the busiest golf courses in the state, “Old Muni” opened in 1934 as a civic project of the local Lions Club begun in 1928. At 6,001 yards long, this is a rather short course by modern standards. The narrow fairways and small greens make it a challenge for serious duffers, but forgiving enough…
Best News Story And Best Scandal
The purportedly wilder half of the Mary-Kate & Ashley of the Beltway set, wonder twin Jenna Bush has been a one-woman press agent, helping to insure that President Da-Da’s public image doesn’t become too inaccessibly sophisticated in his transition to superpower. Jenna, an Austin High grad, enrolled at UT-Austin for her freshman year (2001-02), repeatedly…
Best Hair Salon
Pioneers in Austin’s style scene, Avant has won a staggering number of international awards – and rightfully so. Constantly striving for cutting-edge methods and impeccable work has Avant making regular appearances in the “Best of Austin” Readers Poll year after year.
Best Computer Store
With two locations, a wide selection of reasonably priced software, and a focus on service, CompUSA has found a loving home here in Austin. It’s built to serve both the computer novice and the extreme geek equally well, and their selection will satisfy both hardcore gamers and database administrators. Their Web presence isn’t shabby, either.
Best Specialty Books
What does the name imply? Duh. Women. Yet Book Woman carries an impressive stock of books dealing with a whole host of non-gender related social issues such as classism, racism, and immigration. The children’s book section deals with such issues as uncomfortable touch and sexism. Recently released books by Austin and Texas authors, a generous…
Best View From A Hot Tub
Perched atop the roof, 21 stories high, the Omni’s hot tub gives patrons a gorgeous eastward view of the city and a spectacular place to watch the sun rise. It’s an exclusive view, that comes with about a $100 price tag – only hotel guests have access to the pool area. Next time you’re considering…
Best Club Memorial
The names of the mighty who have passed are remembered often at Antone’s – God love ’em for that – but it’s Richard Luckett’s memorial to the late Doug Sahm that is so striking. The large portrait on the west wall is flanked nicho-style by cowboy boots and stands eternally by the stage, the Texas…
Best Cajun Lunch
Louisiana home cooking, so close to downtown Austin! Swing on down to the Shoal Creek Saloon, and you’ll understand. The best deals come on Wednesdays and Fridays, 11am-2pm with the lunch special: all you can eat buffet (catfish, hush puppies, coleslaw, pinto beans, the works) for $9 or six whopping pieces of catfish for $7.…
Best Place to Rustle Up Some Grub
Between the lattes and the sushi that are regularly knocked back, sometimes we forget we’re in Texas, by God. What we need is a dose of campfire coffee, biscuits & gravy, hot flapjacks, and the like to remind us of our location. Ain’t no finer or more authentic place to get your fill of the…
Best Family-friendly Restaurant
If you’re worried about your kid making a mess or being a bit loud, chill out at Margarita’s. Families bring their boisterous young’uns to this Tex-Mex hangout everyday and no one seems to mind – in fact, they supply a combination kids’ menu/coloring sheet and a handful of crayons. But please, tip the waitstaff well…
Best Digital Networking
The concept behind AMODA is sharing, specifically that digital musicians and artists need a place to share information and equipment. With their crack team of tech wizards, a Web site, Youth Media program, and monthly Digital Showcases, they do just that. The volunteer staff work hard to bring the digital arts to the Austin community.…
Best Change In The Weather
J. Frank Dobie used to say that Texas weather was a string of droughts broken by an occasional flood. After three years of below average rainfall, Central Texas was blessed with a wet winter that extended into the spring. Although the summer turned out to be hot and dry as usual, at least this time…
Best Young, Upwardly Mobile Bicycle Shop
Roosting atop one of the most oddly placed shopping centers in town (bordering the Davenport Ranch and Austin Country Club), Cycle 360 Bicycles is a breath of fresh air and maybe not quite what you’d expect considering the high-end real estate of its surroundings. Prices are relatively inexpensive (surprise!), and customers can select from more…
Best School Activist
As spokesman and leading organizer for the East Side Social Action Coalition, Lands has shaken up the AISD bureaucracy and focused renewed attention on the failings of Austin’s public schools, especially on the Eastside. The Coalition’s threat to pull significant numbers of minority students from the schools for private neighborhood teaching might seem impractical -…
Best Foreign Exchange Brokers
Have you been wanting to jump into the high-stakes/high-risk world of foreign currency trading, but been put off by how many traders seem to wind up in jail for fraud? Then this could be the outfit for you. Actually, this is an easy pick for a “Best of Austin,” because since Russell Erxleben got sent…
Best Place to Take Your Doggie When It’s the Last Place He Wants to Go
Four a.m. pet emergencies are the stuff of nightmares for animal owners, but at least AM/PM makes doggie/kitty trauma a little less, errrr? traumatic. Just like the name says, they’re open all hours to answer Muffy’s medical emergencies, with a smile and a scratch to the Muffster’s worried brow.
Best Outlet To Interior Expression
You’ve got one of them there “eclectic” tastebuds, eh? One of them design aesthetics that runs all over the map. You dig Heywood-Wakefield, mission-style, and arts and crafts, but boy, that Queen Anne would look swell in your anteroom. You’ve got turquoise and goldenrod everything but can’t take your eyes off that smooth black and…
Critic’s Picks
Best Guy With a Fuzz Box Who’s Not Afraid to Use ItJon Bessent and Austone ElectronicsAside from providing some of the best, fastest, and most reasonably priced service on amps and guitars that we’ve ever received, Musical Exchange salesdude and repair guy Jon Bessent also is one half of local Austone Electronics. Bessent, the affable…
On a Short Lease
They say people still go to Robert Mueller Municipal Airport to catch flights. But at the current rate of amnesia, a whole generation of Austinites will have forgotten — or will have never learned — that Mueller was an airport, and soon they’ll be asking, “What’s that big chunk of land?” Mary Lehmann would respond,…
Joy Ride
Joy Ride 2001, R, 96 min. Directed by John Dahl, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steve Zahn, Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, Brian Leckner, Jim Beaver, Stuart Stone, Jessica Bowman. At one point or another it’s happened to all of us: You’re driving cross-country in your new ’71 Chrysler Newport with your best girl…
Best Public Artwork
Although the plaque on the Stevie Ray Vaughan Statue along the Town Lake Hike & Bike Trail is simply titled “Musician,” the man was more than just a musician to countless Austinites who watched him grow up into a guitar hero. The statue by Ralph Helmich is as much a monument to the Capital City’s…
Best Theatre Space
One of fewer than 25 remaining theatres in existence designed by John Eberson of Chicago, Austin’s Majestic Theatre (the Paramount’s original name) seated its first audience on October 11, 1915. Part Classical Revival (its original 1915 style), and part Baroque Revival (after its 1930s renovation), Austin’s favorite theatre has audiences and performers agreeing that its…
Best Swanky Joint
Every hour is cocktail hour at this joint, with a sophisticated, well-dressed clientele lounging amid gorgeous interiors and lush sounds. As if the interiors weren’t enough of a draw, Speakeasy offers a superb rooftop patio with to-die-for views.
Best Bookstore for Kids
BookPeople encourages kids to read in the store and we heartily approve of that. Child-sized chairs, tables, and a play area are available for the tiny tots while super-comfy, brightly colored bigger chairs are waiting for the, uh, bigger ones. Whether you’re big or small, the staff at BookPeople’s BookKids is ready and willing to…
Best Toy Store
More than a mere toy store, Toy Joy is a wall-to-wall shrine to giant rubber bugs, wind-up Nun-zillas, lava lamps, Day-Glo(TM), and astronaut everything. There are old standbys, too, like Pez(TM), Frisbee (TM), Sanrio(TM), Beanie Babies(TM), and Curious George(TM) (and we don’t mean that monkey in the White House). Speaking of simians, you’ll be measuring…
Best TV Anchor
This is Judy’s eighth “Best of Austin” win — as an integral part of Austin’s news scene, her newscasts at 6 and 10pm are among the most watched in Texas. Savvy, sincere, gracious, and knowledgeable, she would be a part of any Austinite’s fantasy news team.
Best Public Sports Venue
The Dell Diamond brings it all home with a hot dog, a cold beer, and thou. This sports venue guarantees an enjoyable outing: It’s just small enough to be intimate, so no matter where you’re seated you’ve got your eye on the ball. Bring a date, bring the family, bring the whole gang from work.…
Best Nonprofit Group
Texas Freedom Network believes in God but not in the Christian Right. In fact, they have become a nationwide organization that includes more than 7,500 religious and community leaders, of all faiths, who are working to keep the religious right from unduly influencing politics in America. Issues the Texas Freedom Network have dealt with include…
Best Internet Provider
It doesn’t seem quite necessary to flout the services of AOL Time Warner, seeing how we have few other options these days. But readers voted Road Runner High Speed Online as their favorite ISP for a reason: It’s the best service you can get at home (if you aren’t still ticked about this spring’s two-…
Best Drugstore
This good old-fashioned drugstore has been the set for film scenes, the stage for first love, and a great place to grab a burger and a milk shake in Clarksville for ages. The pharmacy also sells gifts, candy, and some hard to find personal hygiene products. We love this place, and apparently, so do you.…
Best Thrift Store
Rack it up to good clothing selection! The well-heeled babes at Austin’s Junior League gets kudos from our readers here and in Kids Clothing Resale (their second year in that category). So it’s not just togs for tots that get the nod. Pick up a copy of their latest fundraising cookbook, Austin Entertains, while you…
Best 20th-Century Latin American Collection
With more than 1,600 pieces of Latin American art, it’s no exaggeration to say that the museum on the UT campus has one of the finest collections in the nation. Aside from the sheer beauty of the art itself, 20th century themes add a poignant sense of urgency to the impressive collection. From Fernando Botero’s…
Best Club-centric Cut-up
Don’t misunderstand us. For years, eons even, we’ve adored the special collage magic of her gig posters (Ed Hall, Joan Jett, her own Sincola and Lord Douglas Phillips), been in awe of her CD covers and illustrations (Handful, Sincola, The Austin, ahem, Chronicle), and in general worshipped at the altar of her various geniuses. But…
Best Crab Rangoon
With the marriage of crabmeat and cream cheese came the much-loved Crab Rangoon, which has become a staple on nearly every Chinese restaurant’s appetizer list since. Sun Hing’s tasty version, known as Crab Puffs, stick with the traditional taste, but at half the size. The result is the same tasty appetizer we’ve learned to crave,…
Best Place To Satisfy A Vegetarian And Omnivore Together
Love stir-fry but hate the tons of peas and carrots that always seem to come with them? Have a companion who loves those peas and carrots and would be happy to scarf them up for you? Well, Mongolian BBQ has come to the rescue many a time for those of us who typically order an…
Best Free Filmmaking Workshop
For the past couple of years, UT’s Cinematexas International Short Film Festival has offered a small-fry workshop called Cinemakids. With UT Film prof Mary Celeste Kearney in the director’s chair and a supporting cast of local filmmakers and film students, local kids who sign up for this annual gig enjoy not only a non-competition program…
Best Local Web Site Featuring Live Squirrels
Nuts about squirrels but live in a habitat unfriendly to the bushy-tailed creatures? Let Bob Smith bring ’em home to you with his five cams aimed at various points around his South Austin back yard. Aside from the rotating cams, Smith’s site features news about the squirrels in his life, including new additions. Better yet,…
Best Coming-Out On Wheels
It was inevitable, really: the thump of the roller disco beat, the twinkle of the disco ball, the twinkle in the eyes of the cute shaved head babe on the in-lines … oh, who wouldn’t fall in love all over again? Sigh. Every second and fourth Wednesday of the month, Skate World Northwest opens its…
Safest North/South Bike Route
From 56th Street in the north to Cesar Chávez downtown, ours is a delicious, car-free jaunt on Duval/San Jacinto when compared to the relatively clogged bike-hostile arteries of Guadalupe and Red River. Through historic Hyde Park, down the gullet of the university, and ending at the Four Seasons, we’re ready to party on Sixth Street…
Best Solution To A Life-threatening Problem
The fatal armed robberies of four Mexican immigrants carrying a wad of cash after payday prompted these groups and others to put their heads together. The plan was to provide a safe and cheaper way for Mexican immigrants to stash away their hard-earned money before they sent it back home to Mexico. Thanks to the…
Best Guy to Call on the Carpet
First things first: Most other carpet cleaning companies charge less. But Tim Petzold, the sole proprietor and operator of Aegis, truly makes it worth the money. He uses the hot water-extraction method of cleaning (not shampoo), which leaves carpet less prone to re-attracting dirt. He leaves a bottle of spot remover for the customer. He…
Best Time Machine
This one comes from our hearts and souls: While we were researching our “Lost Austin” issue, the folks at the Austin History Center became our best friends. A resource for everything from turn of the (previous) century photographs to newspaper clippings, they provided us with a wealth of information about our town past, which told…
Best Place for a Family Fit
You’ve worn the same shoe size for years. The last time you were actually fitted for a pair was probably when you were a kid, right? And that’s just wrong – especially when it comes to sports and comfort footwear. You can buy shoes anywhere, but Karavel really knows the business of fitting shoes for…
Readers’ Picks
Best ArchitectCasaBella ArchitectsThis Minority Business Enterprise has been providing Austin with imaginative and stylish designs since 1989. From work at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and UT, to breathtaking private homes, CasaBella is a unique addition to the fabric of Austin style.3823-C Airport, 458-5700www.casabella-architects.com/casa_content/ contact_us_map.shtml Best New Building in the Past Five YearsBob Bullock Texas State History MuseumWith…
Naked City
Say No to GMOs will sponsor “Genetically Engineered Seeds of Controversy,” a lecture on the politics and dangers of genetically modified organisms, on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 7-9pm, at Bass Lecture Hall (UT campus, Sid Richardson Hall, LBJ School of Public Affairs). Speakers include former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, farmers Percy Schmeiser and Rodney Nelson,…
Best Romantic Spot
Picturesque views have always had a way of settling the soul, of helping us reflect on the things we love. What makes Mount Bonnell perfect for that special someone? It’s the highest point in the area, looking out over Lake Austin and the rolling western Hill Country. Once there, couples can lay on a blanket…
Best Bar Ambience
Located in the historic Brown Building, this elegant Deco watering hole will soothe the senses after a long day at the office. During the week, you’ll find business types enjoying happy hour specials and a great appetizer menu. Building residents also love this home away from home downstairs. What a place to live!
Best Video Rental
Vulcan Video persists as the top choice for films of all types: cult, international, and new releases, as well as a host of other styles. Arranged by genre, director, and employees’ picks, these films are sometimes hard to come by any other way than at Vulcan. We think that makes them a pretty good resource…
Best Clothing Resale for Kids
Hey, check it out: Not only did the Junior League rack it up in this category, but they won under thrift shopping as well! If you want your kid looking sharp for a song, here’s where our readers say to go. They’ve also got a nice selection of gently used toys to keep the littler…
Best Austin Usenet Newsgroup
Unlike so many Usenet groups (and unfortunately, on many Austin Usenet groups), the signal-to-noise ratio on Austin.food is fairly bearable. You can actually initiate lively discussions and get answers to your serious questions about local cuisine, restaurant openings/closings, and where to find an elusive type of spice at area grocers. Regulars like “Dr. Ruth,” “Swertz,”…
Best TV Newscast
Judy Maggio, Phil Scott, Mark Murray, and Mike Barnes vs. Robert Hadlock, Leslie Cook, Jim Spencer, and Roger Wallace – Chronicle readers found it impossible to determine whether one team is better than the other. Each has its loyal fans. So here’s to two local TV stations, both featuring talented professionals who serve up news,…
Best Skating Rink
Again, amidst a bevy of roller rinks in town, our readers agree: Ice is nice! The sad news is that despite our readers’ absolute adoration, and due to the short-sighted blight of “progress,” the Northcross location of this ice rink chain is going the way of the Ice Age. Cool off, hot head! Don’t chuck…
Best Scandal And Best News Story
The purportedly wilder half of the Mary-Kate & Ashley of the Beltway set, wonder twin Jenna Bush has been a one-woman press agent, helping to insure that President Da-Da’s public image doesn’t become too inaccessibly sophisticated in his transition to superpower. Jenna, an Austin High grad, enrolled at UT-Austin for her freshman year (2001-02), repeatedly…
Best Laundromat
You can’t avoid it, so why not do your laundry someplace classy? Maybe Spin Cycle, a large and squeaky-clean facility with so many washers and dryers that there’s never a wait. Or maybe Ecomat, whose green practices include a dry-cleaning service that uses nontoxic chemicals, and where a cool card payment system makes rolls of…
Best E-Commerce Web Site
From the average computer user to small businesses to behemoth corporations, dell.com is ready, willing, and able to serve the needs of the consumer. Offering servers and storage, desktops and notebooks, networking, software, and support services, Dell is an important part of Austin’s economy, and the e-commerce Web site is an important part of Dell’s…
Best Used Records/CDs
Cheapo moves so many CDs that they initially have to organize new incoming titles by the day they arrived. Regulars know that’s the spot to check first. Of course, these “day” bins are heck to sort though, especially if you are looking for a specific disc. Fret not – once a few days pass, the…
Best Addition To A Three-Opera Season
Four cheers for Austin Lyric Opera, where the fours have been wild these past few years. First ALO added a fourth performance, turning Monday nights into an audience-friendly, not-so-highbrow night of operatic bliss for many of Central Texas’ opera lovers who couldn’t find a ticket in the days of the three-performance format. Now ALO has…
Best College-kid Pub Crawl
No wheels? No problem. You can still slurp your sorrows away in style – and safety (no drawing straws for designated driver, either). Back in our foot-bound college days, we liked to start the drinking day midafternoon at the Crown & Anchor for a pitcher on their patio. Just a short walk down Dean Keeton…
Best Fast Food That’s Not Fast Food
Granted, it has no drive-thru, and there are no opportunities to supersize, but Zen does qualify for fast food status. However, its relatively guiltless menu has choices to amaze the palate on top of merely sating the stomach. The Spicy Bowls are piquant enough to make your mouth water, but not so hot that the…
Best Reason To Get Up Before 3pm
The folks at Tamale House shut down at 3pm, so best to get there early in the day and expect a wait. The service is a little gruff, but then, if you were pounding out the finest, messiest, most divine migas and breakfast tacos in town (sans air conditioning), you might be a little terse…
Best Free Fun Time For Kids
Joyce Hunt, owner of Mitchie’s Fine Black Art and Gift Gallery, believes firmly that kids deserve a break when they want to have a little fun. That’s why Mitchie’s has a never-ending schedule of seasonal arts & crafts activities as well as weekly book readings just for the little ones. To participate, all your kid…
Best Media Circus
When November rolled around, There was no space to be found, Without reporter, hack, or news anchor Spouting up like some sore canker. Like a plague, they flocked to Austin, Even what’s-his-name from Boston, Top TV stations across the nation, You’da thunk it were a celebration … All the media wanted to know, How would…
Best Dive Shop
Say you’re planning a trip to the Caribbean or somewhere along the Pacific coast, or to some exotic locale where what’s underwater may be more interesting then what’s above. Check out Tom’s Dive & Ski, a place stocked to the gills with wet suits, masks, snorkels, scuba equipment, and a staff of local, knowledgeable, and…
Best (Now-Former) City Bureaucrat
Well, “best” up until his retirement a few weeks ago, but Hersh is still working on the city’s SMART Housing initiative, about the only part of Smart Growth that hasn’t lost its luster. If you find someone else who’s learned and mastered the building and land development codes and the arcane rules governing federal funds…
Best Thing To Happen To Low-income Austinites Since The Last Bust
Sure, we feel sorry for all those shamed dot-commers skulking back to California, U-Haul trailer in tow. But we sure are happy to see rents take a breather, after several straight years of through-the-roof increases. Those $300,000, 900-sq.-ft., 2-BR “mansions” in Rosedale will surely be the next to fall. Don’t let the door hit you…
Best Homebuyers Agent
You’re looking to buy a house. Okay, how do you find one? What about financing? Appraisals? Inspections? Liens and easements? What labyrinthine pathways of paperwork and negotiation must you navigate to reach your domestic goal? Ask Denese Washam. Denese knows. She’ll walk you through the steps, she’ll deal handily with the seller, she’ll hack through…
Best Way to Chill Out on a Budget
Cynically, perhaps, we suspected that taking part in the city’s low-interest loan program to help Austinites get central heat and air conditioning in their homes would be a pain in the butt. What did we know? It turns out that getting an AC loan from the city is not only easy, but it also helps…
Best Place To Buy A Christmas Tree
December in these parts don’t resemble the snow-dusted greeting cards scenes that fill the stores. There are plenty of days when shorts are perfectly appropriate attire. Where is one to find a winter wonderland and get into the spirit of things? Right on South Congress, where the good folks at the bucolic Great Outdoors nursery…
Readers’ Picks
Best Casual HangoutSpider HouseMet Dean at Spider House in Austin on my way up from Mexico, still reeling from cheap tequila and the desert sun and burnt-skinned girls who sold oranges on corners. The place was nestled behind a barbecue joint and a blood bank (go figure) yet was thick with that musty, laid-back feeling…
Naked City
The rejection of Lumbermen’s Town Lake proposal doesn’t necessarily mean their tower plans are dead.
Best Storefront/Sign
It was only four years ago that Maria Corbalan brought in about $17 a day from selling tacos and such from a tiny trailer in this spot on South Lamar. Now, she and her staff of 18 employees sell about 18,000 tacos each week. We love Taco X-Press because it was birthed from dirt, a…
Best Bar Food
Take cover – it’s a giant hamburger coming straight at us! Drinkers and teetotalers alike come here for what some call the best hamburger on Sixth Street. Don’t forget an order of fries, or better yet, an order of their mighty tasty chicken wings, and you’ll be ready to soar through the night ahead.
Best 24-hour/Late Night
Magnolia Cafe is where to run to when it’s 3am, everyone is having too much fun, and nobody is ready to go home. So don’t. Instead, crowd around the tables at Magnolia and stuff your faces with the unique version of Tex-Mex that the reliable 24-hour crew serves up: fish tacos with red cabbage and…
Best Indoor Playscape
Coke or Pepsi? Ford or Chevy? McDonald’s or Burger King? Oh, both. They tied. Who’da thunk? If you need us to explain this one to you, then perhaps you just got off the boat. But even back in your home country, these two probably would have nailed this category.
Best Columnist
Nothing is sacred to this Alpha Male No. 1 – as the People’s Humorist, he takes no prisoners. With an ability to be wickedly funny, and still remain “just folks,” he has an enormous fan club.
Best TV Personality
Some people see Alex Jones as a torch-bearer of truth, fighting the good fight against the New World Order. Others see him as a conspiracy kook. Whether he’s blowing open the door of the Bohemian Grove on his public access show or railing against the corporate takeover of American democracy on the radio or on…
Best Spectator Sport
Football games are all about the mob fervor. Even for those who don’t understand the game, who can resist the appeal of 80,000 people chanting in unison, “Make ’em eat shit!”? The visual impact of those same 80,000 people all decked out in orange and white is equally powerful in transforming even the most sports-hating…
Best State Department
Yay, jobs! Well, the former Highway Department certainly is good at providing the services they are responsible for providing: building roads. It is also part of their mission nowadays to consider the impacts of such ubiquitous infrastructure, as decreed by federal acts such as TEA-21 and ISTEA. TxDOT, we want you to know, the people…
Best Online Job Search
With relentless, inescapable ads heralding their remarkable success, 360.com’s Web site is incredibly useful to thousands of job seekers. From administrative assistants to zoologists, and everything in between, 360.com has something for everyone.
Best Furnishings/Home
Since 1980, this firm has been Austin’s answer to Ikea. With contemporary styling at reasonable prices, Eurway provides excellent transitional furniture for the student set and young homeowners.
Best Vintage Store
Save yourself the work of sifting through rack after rack of thrift store threads and head straight to Blue Velvet. The 1960s dresses are to die for, and if you need big white go-go boots to go with it they’ll sell or rent a pair to you. If you don’t need any more dresses, they…
Best Comedy Action Heroes
Once upon a time, there were three funny boys who performed at the Alamo Drafthouse. Their duty? To entertain us with bad movies — Hollywood wipeouts like Xanadu and Footloose and Star Trek V. But that ain’t all. Oh, that ain’t the half of it. Armed with their own special talents, John Erler (the tall…
Best Hostess With the Mostess
Stella resembles Edith from All in the Family, but she rocks like nobody’s grandma. She’s not afraid to wear miniskirts, flapper duds, glittery hair bows, and a garter around her sixty-something-year-old gam. It’s always fun just to watch Stella do her Stella stuff. She’ll take your money at the door, and even if the band…
Best Flan
Perfect flan is elusive. Too many restaurants use watery, overly sweet packaged stuff that sits individually wrapped and condensing in a fridge before they dump it onto a plate. A good flan retains that thicker-than-jello texture, allowing the spoon to glide through smoothly. As the custard hits the tongue, POW! you are in another delicious…
Best Restaurant Resurrection
It had been 13 long years since the “Home of the Sizzler” served up a platter of steak and fries, but with the help of KVET’s Bob Cole, the Austin landmark Hill’s Cafe is once again open for business. No doubt old-timers who remember the first Hill’s will notice some changes since its previous incarnation,…
Best Junction For Online Kids
“My job?” says Michele Gorman, Wired for Youth librarian at Carver Branch. “It’s part teaching; it’s part social work … it’s crazy, and then we manage to insert computer instruction in there, too!” Seven of our local library branches now house WFY centers, each staffed with its own technical information librarian, to provide scheduled events…
Best Non-Austin PR Mavens
With clients from Woodshock and Dash Rip Rock to Toni Price and Quatropaw, the San Marcos-based publicity firm has more than kept up with the demand for getting Austin names into ink. It’s an often thankless task, but Julie Carr and Vickie Lucero’s enthusiasm for their clients and the job is refreshing and admirable. You…
Best Fourth Of July Vantage Point
Watch out for those broken beer bottles! The dead-end portion of West 11th in Old West Austin, which sits in the shadow of developer Gary Bradley’s towering “Castle,” may be a hangout for rowdy teens most weekend nights, but it’s also the perfect vantage point for watching the Independence Day festivities. No huge crowds to…
Best Advocate For Breathing
When the TNRCC claimed it couldn’t record pollution complaints on the Web, Schneider, TCE, and its research arm, Public Research Works did it themselves – as one more way of goading the regulatory agency into doing its job. Schneider was a central member of this year’s environmentalist caucus that kept the pressure on the Lege…
Best Upstream Swimmers
The mainstream crowd would have us believe that SOS is so yesterday. And then we think back to “yesterday” and recall how this same crowd told us the SOS ordinance would be (in the words of Bush the Elder) baad, baad, for Austin. Well, here we are 10 years after, and the green warriors are…
Best Hospital-Based Midwife Team
The frustration of searching for the perfect doctor or midwife to assist you and your future miniature addition into this world is a maddening process. You want good responsive care, but in an environment that allows you to be yourself. You want to have that “in-home” feeling, as well as the freedom to marvel in…
Best Way To Get Acquainted With The Best Of Austin
We wish we had known about the nonprofit Austin Newcomers Club when we moved here so many years ago without knowing a single soul. For an annual fee of only $30, immigrants to our sometimes insular city can take advantage of the many groups and activities the ANC organizes, like antique shopping, art gallery, theatre,…
Best Place To Buy Plants For A Good Cause
Marbridge Farm is a boon to green-thumbed Austinites who make the drive south for the huge selection and wide variety of reasonably priced decorative and vegetable plants, trees and shrubs, and gardening supplies. A gardener can get lost in the series of greenhouses, and seldom do you see a customer who isn’t pulling a wagon…
Readers’ Picks
Best BakeryUpper Crust BakeryWith freshly made challa, eclairs, and other pastries, this central Austin mainstay has the feeling of a true neighborhood place: a parking lot that is way too small, a line always snaking out the door, and perhaps the best bread in town. Even their sandwiches and salads at lunch testify to their…
Naked City
Georgetown city council members fight citizen initiatives to recall them and their ordinances.
Best Annual Fundraiser
Austin’s own “Christmas Affair” is the largest Junior League market in the country. This annual bazaar features 300-plus vendors and helps raise money for local charities such as Austin Habitat for Humanity, Communities in Schools, Humane Society of Austin, and SafePlace, among many others. The bazaar also helps to fund the JL’s other annual projects,…
Best Bar Staff
Don’t call 911 — just because the martinis are so cold they’ll turn your face blue and the margaritas cause temporary memory loss, there’s no need for alarm. CDV’s attending bartenders and barbacks are standing by to administer EMS (Emergengy Margarita/Martini Services) at the end of a long day. Try a healthy attitude adjustment on…
Best Bakery
With freshly made challa, eclairs, and other pastries, this central Austin mainstay has the feeling of a true neighborhood place: a parking lot that is way too small, a line always snaking out the door, and perhaps the best bread in town. Even their sandwiches and salads at lunch testify to their culinary competence. Upper…
Best Architect
This Minority Business Enterprise has been providing Austin with imaginative and stylish designs since 1989. From work at Austin- Bergstrom Airport and UT, to breathtaking private homes, CasaBella is a unique addition to the fabric of Austin style.
Best Evening Radio Host
What is it about those KUT deejays that makes us love them so? They’re so good, readers couldn’t pick just one favorite, so here’s two: Larry Monroe (host of Blue Monday, The Phil Music Program, Segway City, and Texas Radio) and Paul Ray (host of Just Jazz, Paul Ray’s Jazz, and Twine Time). Between the…
Best TV Reporter
Smart and savvy, with liquid eyes to die for, DeSilva is johnny-on-the-spot for breaking news in Central Texas. From Dripping Springs to Bosnia, his understanding of local and international events makes this award-winning reporter and weekend co-anchor a favorite of his peers and the public.
Best Swimming Hole
Barton Springs is our own private swimming hole, right smack-dab in the middle of Austin. In those long summer months, a dip in Barton Springs is a refreshing respite from the 100-plus-degree temps. And hey, if you get tired of performing your world-famous cannonball off of the diving board, there is always nude sun bathing…
Best State Legislator
This perennial favorite of readers has come a long way since the days when he was openly shunned by his fellow legislators for being the only openly gay representative under the Dome. Today, the still only openly gay rep is counted among the elite corps of mover-and-shaker lawmakers in the seniority-driven House. Even the most…
Best Pharmacy
Lambert Labay has been working as the pharmacist at the Nau’s in Clarksville for as long as we can remember. He has always given us just the right medicine to make us better, and he has even helped us pick just the right stuff to make our pets better, too. The pharmacy is open the…
Best Gift Shop
From picture frames and whatnots at Emeralds, to Baccarat and Versace at the Cadeau, these two contestants run the gamut of gift-giving for all occasions. Whether for yourself, or others, each provides a vast selection catering to every taste.
Best Bridge Over Troubled Water
When the foot bridge over Town Lake officially opened on June 16, joggers, bicyclists, hikers, and drivers breathed a collective sigh of relief as non-combustion traffic was routed away from the narrow sidewalks of the old Lamar bridge – thankful that pedestrians and bicyclists no longer have to risk their lives crossing Town Lake alongside…
Best Filmmaking School For Amateurs
Sign up for one of filmmaker Steve Mims’ 14-week filmmaking classes to find out whether there’s a career in cinematography (or on a film or editing crew) in your future. Even if you aspire to the less-careerist goals of simply raising your cineaste’s IQ or satisfying your curiosity, we guarantee a major kick when the…
Best Liquor, Beer, And Wine Store
The moment you walk into Grapevine Market, you’ll know why we love it so much. Open, inviting and stocked to the gills with adult beverages of every possible variety. Start with the primo selection of 500 beers. Can’t find what you want? Then check the 5,000 different liquors or 5,000 sundry wines. Then how about…
Best Handmade Noodles
Plucking the chewy noodles from the steaming soup is so satisfying; stuffing them in your mouth even more so. These are fresh noodles, and they’re kind of slippery, so we recommend you wear a bib if you’ve got your good Sunday pants on. But let nothing stop you from trying them. Equally tasty are the…
Best Restaurateur Handshake
If you’ve eaten at this Eastside Mexican food mainstay, you know Mr. Mesa’s handshake: warm, perfectly firm, heartfelt but not overlong. And his gaze – he looks straight at you, he remembers you. You return, Mr. Mesa recognizes you. He’s almost always there, circulating among the tables, and when he shakes your hand, you know…
Best Mini(malist) Golf
Don’t get us wrong, we love twirly baby windmills and pigs in formal wear – we decorate our yard with them, after all – but when a balmy afternoon calls for a round or two or three of mini-golf, we are, in the parlance of industry, nutt-nutt for Putt-Putt. At the multinational corporation’s Burnet Road…
Best Physical Graffiti
We’re not sure whether it was suicide, foul play, or an accident which sent this poor lass tumbling, but we suspect a good deal of silliness was involved as well. There may be more artfully rendered graffiti in town, but what can match this combination of pathos and comedy?
Best Free Outdoor Movie Venue
Since all the movie theatres have headed out to the boonies and become stadium-style complexes, real theatre experiences are hard to come by. The exception is the Bike-in Theatre, which, in conjunction with Cinemaker Co-op and Cinematexas, encourages people to bike to the center of town to see films, instead of driving out to the…
Best And Hardest-Working Man In The Nonprofit Business
In a nonprofit world where everyone is working hard to raise money for each worthy cause, one crusader is indefatigable and ubiquitous. The go-to guy at Project Transitions (a nonprofit that provides hospice, housing, and supportive care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Central Texas), Stern not only publicizes dozens of benefits each year, he…
Best Venture Capitalists
In the greenback biz, venture capitalists are quintessential legal skimmers. They fuel entrepreneurs and start-ups, take their cut from the top, keep a chunk, and two-step all the way to the bank, Monte Carlo, Tahiti? We’re just fortunate that what Austin Ventures digs is Austin artistic Ventures and in turn, digs deep to support many…
Best In & Out Barber Shop
Though some folks adore the pamper factor of a visit to the hair salon, some of us just want a haircut. If that’s the case, head over to Kervin’s and plop yourself down in the first barber chair that opens up. There’s plenty of conversation about family, football, and fishing, but if you’d rather remain…
Best Way To Look Rich
Yes, believe it, we women know what long, beautifully painted nails mean: You are A) rich, B) a professional backscratcher, or C) patronize a nail salon every two weeks. Most likely the answer is C, and for those of us addicted to acrylic nails, the family-owned Nails 2000 is heaven-sent. There’s seldom any waiting, walk-ins…
Best Place To Dress Like A Gentleman
Good quality clothing, ranging from upper moderate to kind of expensive prices. Superb service — they’ll teach you which socks and belt to wear with what, how to fashion a tie properly, or which buttons of a 3-button jacket to leave undone. Fittings and alterations done on the premises.
Page Two
Our “Best of Austin” 2001 recognizes some heroes of daily life; the Chronicle celebrates its 20th anniversary with a number of upcoming special events.
Naked City
An advocate for the Charleston Five seeks support in Austin.
Best Art Gallery
And it’s not just a great art gallery. It’s a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting women’s contributions to culture, to supporting women artists both technically and financially, and to creating spaces where women in our region are able to present their work. Women and Their Work presents more than 50 events every year, including not…
Best Casual Hangout
Met Dean at Spider House in Austin on my way up from Mexico, still reeling from cheap tequila and the desert sun and burnt-skinned girls who sold oranges on corners. The place was nestled behind a barbeque joint and a blood bank (go figure) yet was thick with that musty, laid-back feeling of old. Serenity,…
Best Barbecue
While the landscape on the drive out to this Driftwood barbecue mainstay may have changed over the years – “progress” has wrought its share of look-alike mega-home developments – the atmosphere has not. Pull into the Lick’s lot on any given weekend and a fiesta’s going on. The Roberts family have been Q-ing up Central…
Best Bed & Breakfast
Ultra-modern amenities surrounded with Victorian elegance make this historic jewel a favorite for out-of-towners, as well as locals wishing to avail themselves of a romantic, yet convenient getaway. The Governors’ Inn offers world-class service – intimate wedding packages, complete line of business services – in a down-home atmosphere.
Best Journalist
When you want the lowdown on high “gummint,” Molly’s your gal. She shoots from the hip, mincing no words, and along with Liz Carpenter, is one of our most-loved political pundits. And now that favorite target Shrub Dub-yuh is in the White House, we can count on Molly to keep tabs.
Best Weatherperson
If you want to find out if it’s going to rain on your parade, tune in to Jim Spencer’s nightly forecasts. Sincere, charming, and a complete pro, Spencer dispenses meteorological information to a large and loyal audience.
Best Tennis Court
It’s not surprising that this central tennis center is the favorite; it’s had a lot of practice. In operation since 1946, it’s the oldest operating tennis facility in the state, and the great location, exceptional education programs, and well-stocked pro shop make it a perfect place for the Austin serve-and-volley crowd.
Best Unsung Heroes
Teachers are the overwhelming choice of our readers for this category, and several nominations were supplemented by specific names of area teachers. Indeed, the influence of even one good teacher can undo all kinds of damage. They do it even when their colleagues are not as conscientious as they are, and they do it even…
Best Photo Lab
Holland Photo, a favorite of both the photophile and point & shoot sets, is the place to go to get those photos off your computer screen and into your hands. They offer the same price for digital prints as they do for 35mm machine prints, and the big tulip on the sign makes it hard…
Best Hardware
Austin’s Yang & Yin of the nesting set: On the Yang side, you got paint thinner, garbage cans, PVC, electrical tape, Swiss Army everything … you know, your traditional hardware racket. On the Yin side, there are garden supplies, stoneware, silverware, shower curtains, and candles, candles, candles. With this open-minded approach toward exploring one’s inner…
Best Cedar Door Relocation Site
Since Computer Sciences Corporation “displaced” Liberty Lunch to locate its city-subsidized corporate headquarters downtown, high-end condos and apartments have sprung up from Town Lake to Red River like weeds in fertile soil. Now CSC’s third building – for which the Lunch made the ultimate sacrifice – looks like it ain’t going to happen. But upscale…
Best Metamorphosis Of A Film Festival
We love a film festival that keeps on giving. With its year-round schedule of events, aGLIFF (Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival) gives us an excuse to see our friends without always encountering them in dark theatres. In the past six months alone, aGLIFF has sponsored an Academy Awards party, a Wizard of Oz…
Best Nod To 1977
“Johnny Thunders? Patti Smith? Richard Hell? Mick Jagger? Who the hell is that?” The Parlor – a loud, dark beer joint on North Loop, populated with tattooed, pierced beefcakes of all ages and genders – has the city’s most kickass jukebox, scorching live blues on Monday nights, a pool table that is often open and…
Best Houston Emigre
The original Nathan’s may have invented the “Coney Island” (a hot dog smothered in chili, mustard, onions, and melted cheese), but Houston’s James Coney Island perfected it. Since 1923, JCI has been satisfying the guilty-pleasure pursuits of hungry Houstonians. The secret is in their patented chili recipe and the tasty orange cheese that comes out…
Best Saturday Morning Shopping Experience
In addition to a wide selection of the best seasonal organic produce that Central Texas has to offer, you can purchase other locally created products such as emu oil, Greek and Italian baked goods, farm eggs, cut flowers, homemade soaps, goat cheeses, fresh salsas, homemade lemonade, even a massage. Shop to the frequently food-oriented music…
Best Place To Take The Kids After (better Yet, Instead Of) An Arcade
You know the look: that drool-drizzling, eye-glistening, slack-jawed glaze that sweeps over your otherwise effervescent pre-teen or teenager’s face when you are desperately trying to wrest control from Final Fantasy LXXVII or Pikachu Goes Poo or whatever mind control device is hot this week with the thumb-flicking set. May we offer some respite? Try board…
Best Public Access Show From Another Dimension
Even amongst the vast armada of eccentrics in the safe harbor of Austin access TV, “Flash” Jordan Thomas stands out as one of the more meteoric talents ever to grace the medium. Her weekly song-and-dance show, Austin City Lights, is a brutally edited mishmash of unevenly heartfelt, synthesizer-laden music performances that recall “outsider” artists like…
Best Grass (the Legal Kind)
What’s 19.5 acres, at least 4 inches deep, and takes seven people eight hours to mow at a cost of $10,000 per month? That’s right, it’s the Capitol building lawn. Okay, we know … water costs, rationing, all that. But if you haven’t taken a walk on that lush St. Augustine grass on a summer…
Best Best Wishes
The University of Texas at Austin is a well-oiled machine. With more than 50,000 students, it has to be. Because of TEX (the Telephone Enrollment eXchange), students don’t have to wait in outrageously long lines for every problem and process involved with registration, course adds and drops, and the like (ask pre-computer-age alumni about the…
Friendliest New Face At City Hall
Could Assistant City Manager Roger Chan possibly be having fun in one of the city’s most taxing administrative positions? Unlike assistant city managers who have come before him, Chan doesn’t seem to mind playing liaison to the public while trying to keep both hands on the wheel of the city’s fast-tracked economic development projects -…
Best In-home Electrical And Drop-off Ceiling Fan Repair
While owner Greg Klock may have closed his funky Burnet Road retail space, which used to be loaded with a curious and disjunctive mix of mid-last century collectibles and ceiling-fan parts, he still takes ceiling fan drop-off work through neighbor Alamo Alarms, just up the sidewalk. Our experience with Klock Electric, however, is through their…
Coolest Car Inspection
“Is this the garage of the Cajun guy with all the hunting pictures on the walls?” “Yeah but Terry’s no Cajun, he’s a Yankee!” Well, life’s not perfect, but the need for a quality car inspection comes annually. Maybe it’s the autographed photos from Jimmie Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton, and Junior Brown that makes us…
Best Place To Fill Your Tank & Lose Your Wallet
Picture a hypothetical moron who pulls into a convenience store with great gas prices, fills up, and unwittingly drives away without his wallet, which contains his entire lifesavings of $500 in cash. The aforementioned moron is notified by the store and flies down there post-haste, knowing that the $500 is history. Imagine the moron’s surprise…
Letters at 3AM
As events unfolded on September 11, it became difficult to overcome the impression that no one was in charge.
Naked City
The Statesman twists Orwell’s words in a most Orwellian fashion.
Best Author/Poet
We haven’t known Sarah Bird to versify, but she is one hell of a novelist. Her latest, The Yokota Officers Club, had one Seattle newspaper suggesting that she should get the Pulitzer, at the very least. In the meantime, the praise of her fellow Austinites is happily noted here.
Best Dance Music Club
Um, duh! Of course Polly Esther’s has the best metro retro dance music: Let’s do the time warp, again and again, baby, once in the Polly Esther palace with the hottest diva dance hits from that disco vortex known as the Seventies and once in the Culture Club, as you leap frog into the wacky…
Best Breakfast
Pancakes. Cake for breakfast! Kerbey Lane serves them up a variety of ways, with all sorts of fruit, spices, and yummy goodies. Migas and breakfast tacos also tempt. Sometimes it’s just too tough to choose what type of breakfast to have. The waistline conscious might just opt for some delicious fresh fruit and cottage cheese.…
Best Billboard
Despite our daily desensitization to violence and carnage, not many folks have seen real car wreckage as horrifying as the mangled, black 1996 Camaro on the billboard visible from southbound I-35 near French Place, and if they have, most haven’t lived to tell about it. It’s a striking image, really, and even more striking when…
Best Local News Web Site and Best Austin Web Site for New-to-Towners
Austin360.com’s connection with the American-Statesman makes the site a news surfer’s dream, with in-depth local coverage that you just don’t get on other sites. All the current news that’s fit to print is available via the site, and for a small fee, the search engine will dig through years’ worth of stories for the news…
Best Basketball Court
This is a great place to pick up a game of basketball if you have a student ID and you are currently enrolled in classes at UT. Non-Longhorns can either purchase a semester membership for $450 or for a less intimidating rate of $130 with the sponsorship of a UT student or faculty member. If…
Best Activist
Readers like their activism a number of ways: Leslie Cochran, the outrageously dressed downtown denizen, makes his point but entertains, too; Richard Troxell, the hard-working advocate behind House the Homeless, zeroes in on politicians and the press.
Best Appliance/TV Repair
If it is broken, they will fix it. If it is cheaper to buy a new one, they will sell it to you. Or as one of our interns says, “If you are my mom you will just get it fixed and never get a new one, even though it costs more.” This electronics repair,…
Best Printer/Copies
To the procrastinators among us, Kinko’s never looks as beautiful as at 3am, when a project is due the next day. Kinko’s brings that archaic term “full-service” back into play with extensive printing services, 24-hour office supplies, and even a courtesy telephone. Black-and-white copiers and color copiers are available, as well as a cluster of…
Best Jewelry
From fashion jewelry to fine jewelry, ankle bracelets to earrings, dichroic glass to diamonds and pearls, Clarksville Pottery has it all. For 25 years, their unique offerings have epitomized Austin style.
Best Decor
Being that this new addition to the Red River strip is named after a Rat Pack caper film and that it’s owned by Austin’s most steadfast Rat Pack torchbearer, Mr. Fabulous (aka Dino Lee), Ocean’s 11 is a shrine to Dean and Frank and Sammy (and Peter and Joey and Henry, and let’s not forget…
Best Mingling With The Departed
The kick-off party for Texas Writers Month was held at the Texas State Cemetery this year so, although the state wouldn’t permit booze, participants were nevertheless able to commune with Fred Gipson (Old Yeller), J. Frank Dobie, and Walter Prescott Webb. Rod Moag performed Western swing, and a cake very nearly the size of Texas…
Best Place To Celebrate Being A Texan
Celebrating Texas’ inalienable braggin’ rights of Valor, Vision, Pride, Perseverance, Swagger, and Showmanship, this amazing exhibition contains such sacred Texana as the bullet-pierced Bible that saved Sam Houston’s life and Lance Armstrong’s first Tour de France jersey. Featuring the Ezekial Airship that predates the Wright Bros., as well as a spectacular rhinestone-covered Cadillac emblazoned with…
Best In-town Italian Restaurant
Wouldn’t you just love to find a little family-owned Italian restaurant in Austin? One where the owners are almost always there, working on making sure you feel right at home. At Asti, it doesn’t stop there. You also get creative blends of the best and freshest ingredients available, cooked in a creative Italian style. Most…
Best Sheet Cake (made To Order!)
We can’t let a birthday pass without putting a few candles in a Tres Léches cake from La Mexicana Bakery. The moist vanilla cake made with sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk and whole milk will make you forget all the other sheet cakes you’ve ever ordered. And since they’re custom decorated and reasonably priced,…
Best Place To Teach Kids Bowling
You see, full-scale bowling alleys, like where the league players in the groovy shirts go, have these loud buzzers that go off when you cross the foul line. These tend to scare small children into forgetting that they like bowling. The big bowling alleys also have beer and cigarettes and people who take their game…
Best Public Memorial
Ivan Garth Johnson’s heartbroken mother put up a stenciled memorial to her 10-year-old son, killed in a drunk driving accident in the early Nineties. The memorial was painted over earlier this year, then reappeared first as paper taped to the column, then lovingly redone and again displayed. It is among the most effective reminders of…
Best Locomotion Maker
Adult Night at the Playland Skating Center lifts the stigma against adults having any kind of fun that is just a little bit silly. Since nobody under 18 is allowed, parents can wear their shortest shorts, roller dance with that special somebody they’ve been checking out, or sing their heart out to “Celebrate Good Times,”…
Best Call To Arms
Bercu, chief executive officer of BookPeople, started the “Declaration of Independents” campaign to persuade Austinites to shop locally owned businesses instead of the mega-malls of the world. With an ad in the Chronicle designed by GSD&M Advertising Agency, Bercu is “attempting to preserve what is unique about Austin.” An initial membership of 20 area companies…
Most Anticipated Political Resurrection
When Gus Garcia announced he was retiring from public life after three decades in public service, Austin’s political circles buzzed with speculation about who the next Gus Garcia would be. Turns out it’s Gus Garcia. Since Kirk Watson decided to throw his hat in the AG ring, Garcia has jumped right into the mayoral fray,…
Hottest New Down-to-Earth Hairdresser to the Stars
Curiosity – okay, maybe some vanity, too – made us call for an appointment with Jacomo Forbes, the new-to-Austin hairdresser who the fashion media had followed so closely when he worked in NYC and LA. Could he work the same magic on our Perpetual Bad Hair Day locks as he did with celeb clients like…
Best Selection of Cabinet Hardware
Although Stripling Blake is more of a builder’s/contractor’s outlet than a do-it-yourselfer’s store, they take good care of their noncommercial customers, too. One of the best reasons for a so-called “Weekend Warrior” to wander in there is for the drawer pulls and cabinet knobs. Whether you’re refurbishing old cabinets or just starting from scratch, Stripling…
Mr. Smarty Pants
The name “Osama” has long been an honorable one in the Arab world. It means “lion.”More than 20 years ago, Canada’s Department of Public Works established a policy that 1% of the budget of all government buildings must be spent on art.The apartment set for TV’s The Odd Couple was also the apartment set for…
Naked City
Candidate John WorldPeace wages war on the Dems
Best Classical Musician
Since he’s taken the baton as music director of the Austin Symphony, Peter Bay has led a resurgent orchestra that shows signs of ever-improving morale and stellar artistic execution. Bay has managed to program a sparkling variety of works during a time when satisfying audiences often means resorting to gimmickry. Not so for Maestro Bay,…
Best Drink Specials/Happy Hour And Best Waitstaff
Nobody likes Mondays, right? Unless, of course, you leave work early, or never go in, and report to the bar at Trudy’s, where the restaurant’s regular happy hour lasts all day and you get a dollar off all margaritas and 50 cents off beer and alcohol. Then Mondays are just fine. You’ve got to admire…
Best Caterer
Headed by Rebecca Wallace and Leslie Moore for 20 years, Word of Mouth Catering is an Austin institution. From events for presidents and queens, to the opening of the Bob Bullock Museum, to the Junior League’s Christmas Affair, and your neighbors next door, they have done it all. As a new part of a larger…
Best Downtown Building
No matter what our readers might think about what goes on under her glowing granite dome, loyalties remain steadfast for this unbeatable symbol of all that is true and fine about the Great State of Texas. Designed in the late 1800s by Detroit architect E.E. Myers, our Texas state Capitol is the largest of all…
Best Local Webzine
ChaosinAustin webzine basically chronicles the daily life of 35-year-old, gay Austin tech worker, Bryan. His modus operandi, as he says, is to “practice photo and design skills, [provide] a forum to display skill progress, offer a new monthly feature, and entertain.” The site is skillfully laid out and a genuine labor of love. Features of…
Best Bike Ride and Best Dog Walk
With the northside trail offering pastoral and serene vistas, the southside trail is a bit more adventurous. Whatever side you’re on – what could be more enchanting than breezing past swimming swans, fragrant blossoms, and bat guano? For the same reasons that make Town Lake Park the Best Bike Ride, it is also the nicest…
Best Austin Celebrity You’d Most Like To See Nude
Gosh. This is a tough one. We had hoped our readers, in true Chronicle fashion, would come up with someone we could really dish on in this brand new category. But Sandy? How can we write something smart-alecky about a gal who once said, “I fell in love with Austin. I’ve gone there to build…
Best Auto Service/Repair
These sleekly uniformed folks know how to fix your car, minus the “know it all” attitude. They actually take the time to explain what is wrong and charge realistic prices for their services. This little flamingo-themed garage is conveniently located near the university and is always packed with ailing autos on the mend. So next…
Best Public Place to Access the Internet
With so many commercial cafes expanding their services to become Web cafes, it’s impressive that our libraries took the prize yet again. It’s not that surprising, really. Our beloved Austin Free-Net sets up and maintains a network for all of our citizens to enjoy. Sharing is the only stipulation here as people sign up for…
Best Lingerie/Naughty Store
The law-abiding folks at the aptly (and deliciously) named Forbidden Fruit have been advocating healthy Austin sex lives and your God-given right to Get It On for the past 20 years. They carry an amazing, horizon-expanding array of educational items geared toward your sexual health at three locations: the Intimate Items & Educational Center on…
Best Example Of Texas Hubris
Our anticipation mounted as the construction site on MLK & Congress evolved from a tower of scaffolding to a grandiose temple fit for our state’s grandiose history. But then one day we drove by and nearly ran off the road. What the ??! This huge brown Lone Star plopped in front of the building, looking…
Best Missionary for the Arts
When folks have no background in the arts, too often all they see in culture is “cult”: small bands of devotees ritualistically going to look at and listen to often wild-eyed adherents of certain aesthetic creeds. It takes real skill and persuasion to convince arts outsiders that this is no strange fringe religion, but a…
Best Place To Get Out Of The Sixth Street Mindset
While bars featuring more spaghetti-strapped babes than you can shake your marinara at have their place, those of us who would rather enjoy a brew in the company of a few close pals are wise to steer clear of the Sixth Street meat market and head over to the homey little bar nestled next to…
Best Lake Food
For years, boaters on Lake Travis have been stuck with party-hearty food. Cafe Bleu has changed all that. Now we have brilliant food served in a gorgeous setting overlooking the lake. Even better, they have a great little wine list with the cheapest prices we’ve ever seen. We especially love their spinach pies drizzled with…
Best Wack Drive-Thru
Speaker: Welcome to Airport Haven Hamburgers, can I take your order, please? Driver: Um, yeah, I’ll have a cheeseburger, a gyro, an order of saag paneer, some curried vegetables, a milkshake, and a lemonade. Speaker: That will be $17.93, please drive through. Driver: Does that come with naan? Speaker: Yes, and yogurt sauce. In one…
Best Pool & Playground
Austin is a city loaded with great parks, and truth be told, there are several that could compete for this title. But we’re partial to Brentwood for a variety of reasons: It’s big enough to accommodate good-sized crowds, but not so sprawling that you lose that intimate, neighborhood-park feel. It has a good playscape, large…
Best Radio Station Sampler
Everyone has a particular musical taste. The music for KVRX’s latest Local Live double CD was culled from a year of live recordings in the KVRX studio and separated into the two distinct musical tastes of the Local Live bookers, John Erler (country/rock) and Erik Woffard (electronic/dub). Local Live #5 features live recordings of the…
Best Maps
As William Faulkner said (sort of), the past is never behind us; it isn’t even past. But don’t take our word for it; go see for yourself at the Austin History Center, where you’ll find the outlines of today’s megamalls and sprawling suburbs in the blueprints of a simpler past. Sigh in wistful longing for…
Best Dragon Slayer
Actually, they haven’t slain the dragon (Alcoa Corp.), but they’ve certainly pulled its tail. By digging through long-dormant EPA and TNRCC files, Neighbors for Neighbors volunteers discovered that Alcoa’s Rockdale plant may have been violating grandfathered pollution laws for many years – triggering a state and federal investigation and putting Alcoa’s pollution in a national…
Most Anticlimactic Celebration
It’s Al! No, wait, it’s W.! Al! W.! Oh, who the hell knows? All those who were there know is that it was late, we were tired, and the crowd in the packed, sweaty ballroom was growing surlier and more sober by the minute. Cheers were followed by silence, which was followed by boos, as…
Best Ironic Parting Gift Rumor
Now, this is what we heard: When this online pharmacy site shut their doors and laid off the remaining employees, they had no money for severance pay … and instead gave everyone a T-shirt that said: “RX.COM: WE NEVER CLOSE.”
Most Creative Landscape, Garden, And Floral Design
Unending creativity, unbeatable expertise, a stunning assortment of plant life, breathtaking landscaping skills, and custom-designed accessories are among the things that are cultivating a most impressive reputation for Selena Souders and Dylan Robertson. Combining an architectural viewpoint with a thorough knowledge of botany, their style is fresh and original. From luxurious private gardens to the…
Best Shopping Center For Cheap Gifts
When a glut of birthdays becomes too much for your wallet to bear, head on over to Highland Village for instant relief. MacFrugal’s and Dollar General both feature a constantly changing selection of close-out items sure to appeal to your kitsch-loving pals. For a more exotic gift, try the New Oriental Market. And if your…
Day Trips
The Best of “Day Trips”
The Hightower Lowdown
The media fails to report Alan Greenspan’s pro-corporate zealotry; greedy doctors make for bad medicine; and subliminal advertising makes its way into books.
Serendipity
Serendipity 2001, PG-13, 91 min. Directed by Peter Chelsom, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Eugene Levy, Bridget Moynihan, Molly Shannon, Jeremy Piven, Kate Beckinsale, John Cusack. When Jonathan (Cusack) meets Sara (Beckinsale), they’re stuck in the Christmas crush at Bloomingdale’s, both eyeing the last pair of cashmere black gloves. He’s kinda funny, and…
Best Comedy Club
Ruh roh! Marc Pruter’s scrappy Bad Dog club has fallen prey to the Curse of Financial Doom accompanying its venue near the northeast corner of Congress & Riverside. It’s d-e-a-d, in other words, after little more than a year of bringing us such top-dog comedy acts as Margaret Cho, Richard Lewis, the Upright Citizens Brigade,…
Best Gay/Lesbian Hangout
Okay, so it’s not news that the well-coiffed lads down at Oilcan Harry’s come up with the prize again. What is news is that lesbian-owned and operated coffee nook Gaby & Mo’s ties with that well-established drinking/dancing establishment. Could it be kooky theme night and parties (50s Butch/Femme, L80s Night, Dragmaster 2000)? Could it be…
Best Coffeehouse
If the “spiders” at the Spider House had an official mating call it would be, “Hey, weren’t you in my philosophy class?” With its near- campus location, it attracts mostly students who pretend to study. The drinks are great, and if the staff got any hipper they would be deported to New York City.
Best Downtown Place to Park
We’re not kidding. That was your overwhelming response. Hmmmm, parking in this town must really suck, or maybe you just don’t want to share your secrets. Either way, in the spirit of helpfulness, we’ll blow it for those in the know: The second-most-voted Place to Park was the free city garage near the Austin Music…
Best Locally Produced Radio Show
Sounds like its name – and most definitely. Host John Aielli serves up everything from Ministry to the Chieftans to the score of Titus. Waking up has never been more fun.
Best Bowling Alley
“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks …” Wait … that’s baseball. Let’s try this again: “Buy me enchiladas and fresh-made rolls; I don’t care if I never leave Dart Bowl.” How can this place not be a classic with its display cases full of bowling memorabilia and a diner that’s right up our alley?
Best City Service
Home dwellers know that curbside service is a beautiful thing. Add to that a veritable sliding scale of garbage container sizes – customers may choose from the green 30-, gray 60-, or tan 90-gallon bins – and recycling on the same day, and you got an efficient system. Now if we could only figure out…
Best Barber Shop
The hypnotic turn of the barber pole has lured folks through the doors of the Wooten Barber Shop since 1964, and for good reason. The haircut itself is quite an experience; clippers, shaves with a straight razor, and the incredible electric massage machine, all at sensible prices. Getting cleaned up at the Wooten gives you…
Best Shoe Repair
Although Austin seems to be graced by many excellent sole-proprietor shoe repair businesses (eww, excuse the pun), Austin Shoe Hospital, with nine area locations, continues to be a readers’ favorite. This isn’t to imply that convenience is ASH’s only quality, however. In particular, James Hawkins at the Bee Caves location runs his shop with the…
Best Liquor Store
As with other readers’ choices, Twin Liquors is a widespread presence in Austin, making it possible for it to be your “neighborhood” liquor store. Twin Liquors does have one of the best wine selections in town, though – a lot of liquor stores don’t. For that matter, a lot of other liquor stores don’t have…
Best Mission Revival Church on the Way to the Watermelon Thump
Aside from the vaguely Road-Warriorish taco stand compound on the east side of the highway and the Caldwell County Courthouse in Lockhart, the journey from Austin to Luling (home of the annual Watermelon Thump) has little to recommend it architecturally. But the rolling Blackland prairie is a sight to see, and the San Francisco Catholic…
Best Poetry/Performance Art Venue
If you like a theatre-like space for that booming voice rant of yours to rattle the soul cage drunkards in the back, this is the place for you. Dark enough to brood in, enough tables to pretend it’s a dinner club, and dinner downstairs if you want to actually eat instead of allowing that emptiness…
Best Regular Weeknight Movie
Thursday evenings are an easy rambling scene on South Congress, and something special happens under the stars in the parking lot behind Jo’s, where a band plays their music and then their favorite movie to a lawn-chair crowd. From the Casey Sisters flashing High School Confidential, to Roy Heinrich hosting The Big Lebowski, to Jon…
Best Neighbors To Call When You Need To Raise Money
When we’re asked for adjectives to describe Austin’s food service and culinary community, words like talented and creative naturally spring to mind. However, based on their stellar track record in the fundrasing department, we think generous should automatically be added to the regular description. Even in the face of an economic downturn and a summer…
Best Way To Get Your Jalapeño On
What do we like better than jalapeños (and we don’t mean canned)? Nothing. Our friends think we’re a little strange, but sometimes we start out the evening at Z’Tejas for one of their tangy jalapeño margaritas, and then head south on Lamar to Hunan Lion in the Brodie Oaks shopping center for an order of…
Best Sporty Birthday Parties
For only $5 per guest, your child can feel like part of the team at a UT soccer or volleyball game. Each guest receives a game ticket, small drink, small popcorn, and treat, and the birthday girl or boy gets a special Longhorn memento. An added bonus for soccer fans is that the Mike A.…
Best Show of Fanfare
Chalk one up for persistence. It was bad enough for Star Trek: Voyager fans when UPN dropped out of Austin television. But add the fan-addicts of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell — two programs dumped by the WB network and picked up by UPN — and there was a battle cry. Organized letter-writing campaigns,…
Best New Place To Get Your Om On
Exuding a more personal vibe than Austin’s meatmarket gyms or larger yoga studios, Bodhi Yoga offers many forms of the art, including classical hatha, Iyengar, ashtanga yoga, and “hot” or Bikram yoga, where the rooms are turned up more over 100 degrees. The beautiful new studio in West Campus boasts high ceilings, wood floors, mini…
Best Freshman Legislator
Let’s forget about the ongoing redistricting confusion for a moment and think about the good marks Ann Kitchen earned during her freshman year at the Legislature. Though the incoming class is generally seen and not heard at the seniority-driven Lege, Kitchen, a policy expert by profession, quickly impressed the big fish with her depth of…
Most Talented Beer Belly
A former mayoral candidate, Austinite Carl Hickerson loves to be in the public eye. Or at least it seems that way from the unabashed girth rippling he does in front of Esther’s Follies weekend after weekend. Also well known for a twirling carnation on one finger for long stretches of time, Hickerson gleefully gives demonstrations…
Best Low-impact Church Service
Other than kneeling (but remaining silent) for the Lord’s Prayer and confession, all you have to do is sit back and listen as the accomplished St. David’s singers bring to life the ancient sung-and-chanted Compline service. The church is dark (and cool!), the incense sweet, the voices sweeter, and if a thunderstorm happens to pass…
Most Heartfelt Thanks
In response to the national tragedy now dubbed 9-11, our fine Blood & Tissue Center issued a plea for folks to hold off of donating blood for awhile, due to the rush of support and the anticipated need over a long period of time. Now, thankfully, operations are back to normal. Below is the statement…
Best Thing To Come From Houston Last Year
No, it’s not your best friend from college, Kara, and her kids, Cody and Kyle. The best thing to come here from Houston is High Fashion Fabrics, which opened up a branch near the old Mueller air field last year. The staff knows the product well and can refer you to upholsterers and drapery makers.…
Best of Austin 2001
David Bowie’s song has been strafing my subconscious since that fateful day last month: 9-11. Since those images are burned forever into my brain — not so much the ones of horror, of heinous atrocity, but the ones of the big burly everyday Joes with beer bellies and fire helmets, emerging shell-shocked from the destruction…
To Your Health
My child can no longer play soccer on his team because he developed “exercise-induced asthma.” My grandfather died of asthma more than 50 years ago. Could my child die from this condition? How can I help him?
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
The wise aftermath of Smart Growth
Training Day
Training Day 2001, R, 120 min. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Eva Mendes, Charlotte Ayanna, Tom Berenger, Snoop Dogg, Cliff Curtis, Macy Gray. “This is important. Don’t blow it,” wife Lisa (Ayanna) tells her rookie cop husband Jake (Hawke) at the outset of…
Best Dance Company
Under the direction of Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin brings the dance to life as surely as Degas did. With exceptional vision and support, this pioneering dance company has flourished, providing beauty and culture to a hungry city.
Best Jukebox
Six years in a row it’s been voted best jukebox. Why? No telling, but there’s nothing quite as fabulous as playing pool hearing Patsy Cline and the Ramones and Nina Simone all during the same game, or watching Ray Harryhausen movies closed captioned on the television and imagining the Argonauts are lip syching to “King…
Best Diner
We love the most recent incarnation of this funky, longtime students/hipsters hangout. Who knew composition floor tiles and Formica tabletops turned those colors when they are completely worn out? Seriously, the food’s good and portions are sizable. Some of us are just too old and square to go there any time other than during “respectable”…
Best Kids Clothing
Old Navy is the “one black skirt, one long-sleeved white shirt” of kids’ fashion basics. You can’t go wrong mixing and matching their “garanimaled” style, with one striped shirt here, a cargo pant there, and something with a surfer or snowboarder on it for special occasions. Plus, if you check their regular “Markdown Madness” specials,…
Best Locally Produced TV Show
From Asleep at the Wheel to Willie Nelson to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Austin City Limits has presented the finest music of Austin (as well as the rest of the world) to a national audience for 25 years. With inimitable style, it continues to blaze new trails into a new musical millennium.
Best Day Hike
The Greenbelt may be one of our last connections with the natural plant and animal life of Austin. Sure, we have parks, but the Greenbelt provides an outdoor experience that is a little more rugged but not quite a total wilderness immersion. A hike (or a bike ride) around the Greenbelt can be as exciting…
Best Council Member
A study in contrasts? Goodman is the longest-serving council member (more than eight years), has been involved in local politics for decades, and comes from the world of environmentalists and neighborhood advocates. Wynn is one of the newest council members (just over one year), is still a young fresh face on the political scene, and…
Best Bicycle Repair
A service department like this should win an award. A professionally trained staff that will take an expensive road bike in for a major overhaul but will just as quickly help a newbie by changing a tire on the spot is worth shouting about. And don’t forget about the free estimates on all work provided…
Best Spa
People come from all over the country to this often overlooked jewel of ours just 20 minutes outside of town. Absolutely the best getaway-from-it-all that doesn’t require getting away from all of it. We love the laid-back Austin style of the place (so unstuffy), the truly world-class cuisine, the organic fruit and vegetable gardens, and…
Best Music Business
Being voted best music business year after year as Strait has is really saying something in a town like Austin. Those in need of music equipment should go straight to Strait Music. Selling everything from synthesizers to Stratocasters, it is a one-stop music shop with an experienced sales staff and a dependable repair department. So…
Best Neon
That’s the sign that gleams red in the night, “City of Austin Power Plant.” You may be surprised to know that this particular power plant hasn’t even been operational for more than 10 years. Future plans may change the building into an aquarium, but we hope the sign stays the same. It might not make…
Best Proof That Art And Comfort Can Coexist
The proof’s in the popcorn and the nice cushy seats: At the Arbor, you can watch your restored-print Bertolucci pic with the same comfort you’d get at one of those monster-size moviehouses, but with the intimacy and passion for film that befits an arthouse theatre. The Arbor is dedicated to providing a venue for independent…
Best Resource For Super-8 Filmmakers
As video gives way to DV and becomes an art form, we identify with the shock on our grandparents’ faces when the same thing happened as Super-8 gave way to Beta and VHS. The co-op is an invaluable resource for filmmakers wanting the physicality and quality of projecting real film (either Super-8 or 16mm). Even…
Best New Happy Hour Hangout
With no disservice to the beloved Dog & Duck Pub (especially since it is run by D&D alums) Opal Divine’s has, in a very short amount of time, become one of the most popular watering holes in town. The old house at Rio Grande & Sixth has finally found its niche as both working professionals…
Best Wine-by-the-glass At A Restaurant
Newcomer Fleming’s fired a shot at all the other steakhouses in town by offering more than 100 different wines by the glass. Now you can have a Pinot Noir with your steak while your partner has a Pinot Blanc with the tuna. We are excited that a price gouge doesn’t accompany the “by-the-glass” program. In…
Best Throwback To Simpler Times
There are only about half a dozen rides at this North Austin amusement park, besides a pony ride and miniature golf. But every one of them is pint-sized (thus the “Kiddie” part) – perfect for small-to-very-small children. Watch ’em grin! Hear ’em beg to “do it ag’in! do it ag’in!” And with the calliope music…
Best Taste Of Home
So you’ve recently immigrated to Austin from Northern Mexico, and you’re missing the sounds of home. This Tejano music is pretty good, but you crave the stuff you heard back in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, or Chihuahua. KFON is there for you. For many years an all-talk and sports station, 1490 AM recently switched formats…
Best New Yoga Studio For Regular Folks Who Eat Barbecue And Drink Shiner Bock
In a new, unassuming studio off of South Lamar reside two earthy yoginis, Nina and Kelly, who howl at the moon with the rest of us. Sure, their yoga classes have their share of bona fides and the lessons are the real deal, but there’s no mystical chanting or holier-than-thou esoterica; they welcome sinners like…
Best Hero’s Heroes
Speaking of heroes, the hearts of Texans and Texas firefighters have opened for the firefighters of D.C. and especially of New York City, where hundreds of firefighters lost their lives in the collapse of the World Trade Center, after they responded to the emergency of the initial attacks on Sept. 11. Mike Higgins, director of…
Nicest Guy To Finish First
We aren’t certain whether Riata’s proposed commercial district on the Bennett Tract at East 11th & I-35 will be a blessing or a blight, but we do know Mathias worked hard to create a development that Eastside neighbors could live with. Even those who hate his project don’t hate Mathias. We still wish the city…
Best Man-Handler Of The Canvas Strip
It takes someone with a fast hand and a sure touch to be able to do the kinds of waxing jobs Doug Gerow has mastered. Razors don’t come near this kind of smoothness, and they sure don’t give you that same rush of endorphins before Doug pulls the canvas strip. For Your Image is a…
Sweetest Bank Tellers
Okay, so we’re a little biased; it’s where we bank. But every time we go in, we are greeted (usually by name) with a smile and a handshake and a willingness to assist even in the stickiest of situations. The eager staff at our bank branch make our semi-monthly rituals a pleasure, and we are…
Most Intriguing Business Name
Hmm … that would make dating awfully convenient. Actually, from their Web site, we gather that they specialize in all manner of crates and shipping supplies. Coming soon … Hunk in a Box?
Critic’s Picks
Best Example of Texas HubrisThe Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum’s Lone StarOur anticipation mounted as the construction site on MLK & Congress evolved from a tower of scaffolding to a grandiose temple fit for our state’s grandiose history. But then one day we drove by and nearly ran off the road. What the ??!…
About AIDS
Have you ever wondered where to go for an HIV test? Does your regular health care provider only offer confidential testing (using your real name), not anonymous (using a false name)? Do they provide a trained HIV counselor who can offer risk assessment, prevention methods, safe sex information, condoms and other important health information? Do…
Capitol Chronicle
Pols play musical chairs — to their own accompaniment
Best Hotel and Best Restoration Project in Past Five Years
Impeccable service and inimitable style in a magnificent setting, The Driskill Hotel is the veritable crossroads of haute Austin. Restoring our grande dame to the height of her glory gives us a world-class hotel that never forgets her heritage, offering local and international visitors a taste of Texas that they’ll never forget. Whether your interests…
Best Fine Arts Dancer
This year’s three-way tie just goes to show how blessed Austin is with outstanding dancers. All three are thoughtful, adventurous artists whose movements mesmerize. Ariel is the sprite, a modern dancer of exuberant physicality whose exhilarating leaps and spins create an opening into a spiritual dimension. Gray is the hoofer, a master of old-school tap…
Best Live Music Venue
It isn’t every Live Music Capital of the World that has a venue like Stubb’s. A place whose cup runneth over with music history, Stubb’s first opened in Lubbock, where the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Ely cut their teeth. Modern-day Stubb’s has been transported to Austin and has hosted performances by the…
Best Home Delivery
We can’t remember the last time we ordered pizza delivered from any place besides Papa John’s. The high quality of the pies is bolstered by a surprisingly quick turn-around time; it’s early a lot more than it’s late. And we’re charmed by the pepperocini garnish. Which end of the pizza do you dip in that…
Best Kids’ Video Selection
Welcome to a kids’ video section that has not been overrun by Disney or Pokémon. Those conducers of tiny tot tantrums are available, but to find them you must first peek around the eight-part boxed set of Peewee’s Playhouse, the compilations of international cartoons, and all the H.R. Pufnstuff your heart could desire. And once…
Best Morning Radio Host(s)
With astonishingly diverse knowledge and taste, John Aielli is smooth as buttered silk and seamlessly glides across the airwaves with intelligence and charm. The Kevins of KGSR are definitely not your basic yuk-yuck morning team — thoughtful and informative, they are especially devoted to local issues and goings-on. A tie in this category between Aielli…
Best Day Trip
Enchanted Rock has caves for the spelunker, hike-in camping for the outdoors-type, and “mountain” climbing for those who like to play with ropes and pulleys. Most folks just find it a treat to hike all the way up the steep incline to stand and look out from one of the high points in our mostly…
Best Eccentric And Most Quintessentially Austin Personality
Apparently, wearing drag and running for mayor is still considered eccentric, even in Austin. One would think that by now, Leslie, downtown’s most famous drag queen/homeless advocate wouldn’t turn heads. Maybe he still gets the looks because he is one of the most strikingly fashionable fellas on the street? He gets the nod this year…
Best Car Wash
Just like Aladdin and that mystical, magical lamp, the rub-a-dub-dub crew at Austin’s many Genie Car Washes grant three wishes: Shiny car! Nice smell! Sexual magnetism! (Well, okay … we know they can do the job on the first two, but can’t guarantee they can do the last. But heck, if you’ve got a date,…
Best Tailor
Since 1968, Ace has built a reputation for quality and quick turnaround. With multiple locations, they are recommended by every major clothing retailer, as well as thousands of satisfied customers.
Best Pawn Shop
Could also be called “Best Place to Spot an Out-of-Work Musician,” as it is a favorite place to “store” equipment during the lean times. With friendly, professional service for sellers and astounding selection for buyers, Doc Holliday’s provides everything a great pawn shop should, with no hassles and no attitude.
Best Painted House
The out-of-place pine tree growing on the corner of 29th & Jefferson illustrates the home built around it perfectly – both stand out from the rest of the neighborhood. “I don’t know if my house stands alone or all the other houses stand together,” says Beth Thom, who painted the bright pink, orange, and yellow…
Best Second Act By An Arts Group
Last summer, after Austin Writers’ League administrators discovered that a surprising 43% of its members don’t even live in Austin, it suggested a name change to Writers’ League of Texas. But in this case more than a name was being changed; the entire scope of the organization had to be rethought. Former Executive Director Jim…
Best Semiregular Weeknight Karaoke
It’s time to practice Madonna as you writhe around in your boudoir, or hone your Bob Seger skills in your underwear … You know what we’re talking about: Every other Tuesday night at Club DeVille, between May and October, patrons can take to the outdoor stage and attempt to impress the crowd of tipsy twentysomethings…
Best Nookie
Oops, we mean Best Gnocchi … But serve your sweetie some of Pasta & Co.’s delectable potato-semolina dumplings and you may be gettin’ some … In our quest for the perfect gnocchi, these take the prize, hands down. Allergic to potatoes? Pasta & Co. has a freezer full of prepared dishes like lasagna primavera and…
Coolest Cure for a Hot Day
Cool water. When summer hits with its mighty, sweaty fist, it’s what we Austinites crave. We want to swim in it; we want to float on it; we want to drink it. The mouth waters. The senses reel. The parched lips crack a smile. It’s summer and the one sure cure is Hoover’s lemonade. It’s…
Best Trend Survivor
While Gamefellas could’ve tanked along with the Pokémon craze or the bizarre shifts and twists of its main location at the Northcross Mall, they didn’t. They really know their clients – not through cheesy marketing surveys but from human interaction. They were the first and most thorough at stocking Pokémon stuff a few years back,…
Best Trail Of Crumbs
To announce their move to the old Butter Krust bakery at 5800 Airport, the Hoover’s Online company (an Internet-based business information site designed to “serve the needs of people behind desks”) sent out loaves of the former occupants’ Texas Toast to the media along with their press release.
Best Nighttime Drive
At the junction of 2222 & Loop 1, noise and light pollution surge in a rush of convenience stores, video rental places, and hair salons. Take a turn onto 2222 West, and all that fades away as blackness swirls in to drape the night. It’s too bad that it takes a road through the Texas…
Best Lege Combo
We have these two Houston lawmakers to thank for the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act. With Thompson in the House and Ellis in the Senate, this seasoned political duo led the charge to put the law on the books once and for all. They weren’t alone. They had a coalition of folks fighting with…
Smilingest Face Behind The Bar
If you ran into him on the street, you might start shaking in your All-Stars, apologizing to the big guy with the bones tattooed on his fingers. And he’d probably chuckle and buy your skinny ass a beer. To those who’ve tossed shots or talked bands with him, they know that Waldo is one of…
Best Most Amazing Free Service
Every injured worker in the state of Texas ought to get down on their knees (if they can) and thank their lucky stars that there’s someone like Pam Carroll out there pitching for them. An injured worker herself, she was infuriated by the byzantine complexities of the system and turned her full-time attention to educating…
Best Addition To The Congress Avenue Skyline
Everybody needs a mascot, so why not that ubiquitous little monkey with a fez? The playful folks at Lone Star Illusions took the kitschy little monkey to new heights when Blue Genie studio artist Rory Skagen was hired to recreate the King Kong version of the monkey for all to see and perched it above…
Most Super Fly Men’s Suits
One step into Dres Up and you’ll know you’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. And just like in the Wizard of Oz, the first difference you’ll notice is color: bright, brilliant, overwhelming color. This is not your average snoozer of a men’s shop. Heck, even some of Austin’s nattier suit stores can elicit yawns, with…
Critic’s Picks
Best Metamorphosis of a Film Festival aGLIFFWe love a film festival that keeps on giving. With its year-round schedule of events, aGLIFF (Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival) gives us an excuse to see our friends without always encountering them in dark theatres. In the past six months alone, aGLIFF has sponsored an Academy…
