road trip: experience in the far southwest: austin, the shopping edition.

my traveling companion actually had a reason for being in austin, which involved a lot of shopping. NO I'M SERIOUS, YOU GUYS. or at least, window shopping. chris is one of the founders of modern bear, which is--and although i don't have actual proof, i'm pretty sure about this--the ultimate guide to modern design and bears. no, not these bears. or these. like this. NO I'M TOTALLY SERIOUS. it's a thing. anyway, he has a book called "guide for the modern bear" which is partially a field guide, travelog, and a sort of sex and the city-like romp. it's a fun read, no matter your predilections. and yes, my friend's name is chris bale. obvs not batman chris bale. anyway, he's working on a modern bear app, which is why we had to have a major shopping day. just to see what's out there.....

and as we expected, there were a plethora of used/vintage/retro shops throughout the city--every possible type of shop, from the carefully curated vintage furniture store with prices to match to the shops that were just a space to hold as much junk as possible where maaaaybe you could find a treasure after some serious sifting. one of the nicest shops we visited was uptown modern, which had a great selection of mid-century modern furniture mixed in with more eclectic designs and accessories. but i think the most eccentric place is where i had the most fun:

the texas facilities commission surplus store! although the state has several storefronts open to the public, the austin branch is the only one that features things that i have always wondered what happened to them: stuff lost or confiscated from airports. you have a nail clipper or switchblade taken away from you by TSA? did you drop your neck pillow rushing to the gate? if it happened in an texas airport, it's probably here.

there were trays upon trays switchblades, knives, boxcutters, keychains, belts (! really?), and nail clippers, which, i don't know, even at a dime apiece, i'd think twice about picking up. literally. i mean, once you get it home and sterilize it, it's probably fine, but where has it been--on someone else's body--in the meantime? and a sort of scary selection of weapons and things that looked like weapons. they also have a pretty interesting display case of things confiscated that weren't for sale, like an alligator in a jar of formadehyde and....well, actually, that's all i remember, because c'mon. an alligator. in a jar. that someone tried to hand carry onto a plane. 

if i lived in austin, i'd probably utilize this place more as they had an impressive warehouse filled with useful office supplies and furniture. a LOT of file cabinets. some really beautiful old desks and practical drafting tables. chairs. 

the prices here are super reasonable, but even better is that everything's negotiable. even those ten cent nail clippers.

we did visit a lot of other places that sold "normal" things, especially clothing boutiques, all which were quite lovely. i have to say i really liked a lot of the men's clothing shops we visited, mainly because a lot of them were eclectically decorated, so even though i wasn't interested in the actual stock, there was enough going on hold my interest whilst my friend shopped. also, i learned something really interesting about austin men's shops, which is that they encourage drunk shopping. almost every shop we walked into offered us a cold beer upon entering (and usually from a decent brewery). hell-o. we visited a LOT of shops, and it was 101˚F outside, it was a welcome enticement. i guess someone figured out that a little alcohol encouraged more impulse or whim shopping and i have to say that person might be right. 

also? austin is the home of the first and one of the largest whole foods markets (80,000 square feet!). yeeks.


uptown modern
5111 burnet road
austin tx
512.452.1200 ‎

state surplus store
6506 bolm rd
austin tx 78721
512. 463.1990

stag
1423 s congress avenue
austin tx 78704
512.373.7824

road trip: experience in the far southwest: austin, part 1

to get an idea of the map of texas, i give you a quote from a pretty good flick, "bernie": 

three hours and one minute later, and we were in the people's republic of austin, the capital of texas and seat of hipsterville travis county. the reason why our time in dallas was so short was because chris suggested that we spend more time in here. i'm sort of glad we did, as i was particularly enamoured with our hotel, hotel san jose, which used to be a motor lodge, but has transformed into a charming, quirky bungalow-style hotel.

at the time i booked the hotel, you couldn't even make a reservation on the internet, but had to call in. i imagined that they had a white board with a drawn calendar on it, and that's how they figured if there was any room available. (i don't think i'm actually wrong about that, but you can now make a reservation on the website)

 

our room was on the second floor of a building in the back of the courtyard/pool area, secluded and shady, with a communal table on the landing. the hotel offers bike and typewriter rentals (!) and has an extensive music and video lending library.

 

 

none of the rooms seem to be the same; i would have loved to have had this room with a small outdoor sleeping alcove, but was very charmed with what i got.

 

 

from the website it looks like they've got a limited room service menu, but last summer there wasn't anything like it. luckily there is a lovely coffee and sandwich shop, jo's coffee, adjacent to the parking lot. we picked up some ice coffees and breakfast tacos and basically spent the first day lounging by the pool. 

wouldn't you?

after a long nap and a casual late night stroll along south congress, dinner was a couple slices of some very good pizza outside the takeaway window of homeslice pizza. i know there are photos of the tasty eggplant pie (like eggplant parmesan pizza!) i had somewhere, but they seem to be lost in the ether. still, homeslice was very good, and very worth mentioning.


hotel san jose
1316 south congress avenue
austin tx 78704
512.444.7322.

jo's coffee
1300 south congress avenue
austin tx 78704
512.444.3800.

home slice pizza
1415 south congress avenue
austin tx 78704
512.444-7437.

road trip: experience in the far southwest: dallas.

hello nenes, yes, i realize we were still in honolulu the last time i stepped into this blog properly, but time goes by faster than all of us care for it to go :( i will get back to honolulu posts soon, but i promised lovely maria from franklin avenue that i would blog about a summer road trip through texas, ahead of her own holidays....

**

i love a good road trip, don't you? it has been far too long since i've had more than just a mini-jaunt throughout california or to vegas; i was itching to get on the road again, and the destination was more about not exactly where i wanted to go, as to where i haven't been. i can't tell you why i decided to go to texas--in the middle of summer--but to texas i went, and beyond. 

originally my friend, chris, and i were going to drive from LA to LA--los angeles to louisiana--but time restraints meant we had to cut out the los angeles to texas part and take a miss on marfa tx (which, actually, i have always wanted to see), and instead we harvested some mileage points and scored seats on an oddly narrow but quite comfy commuter plane to dallas.

we somehow nabbed first class seats, which sounds a lot more glamoo than reality, but afforded us a precious two extra inches of seating. it doesn't sound like much, but it was utterly comfortable, and a lovely little perk to start our trip. not so lovely was the complimentary sodium-laden snack box (pictured above), but i was happy enough that i didn't have to shell out six bucks for it. i think chris ate most of mine. or did something with it.

a little forewarning: i had arrived in los angeles a little over 24 hours prior to this segment of the trip, and we were only in dallas for a little over 24 hours, NOT LONG. and, i forgot to take photos. o_O

i forgot to take photos. not completely, but a lot less than the rest of the trip. so, you don't get to see photos of the very lovely teresa gubbins, who so very kindly acted as my guide and dinner companion for the evening i was there, nor do you get to see the fantastic meal we had. however, my brain kicked in the next morning as did my shutter finger. 

but yeah, i had a great meal with great company at smoke, at the belmont hotel, in the oak cliff neighbourhood of dallas.  the hotel is a renovated 1940s motel set on a hillside, with amazing views of the dallas skyline, very eclectic and cozy. i wish i had time to poke around but it really looks like someplace i would enjoy. smoke features southern cuisine, lots of in-house smoked meats and texas-style (i'm guessing) barbecue, but with modern sensibilities--not so heavy, lots of fresh herbs and produce, not-so-traditional pairings. i had the grilled quail with chickpeas, turnip greens, bbq chiles, mint and parsley salad, which was lightly smoky, lightly spicy, super juicy and perfectly accented by the greeny and slightly sharp salad. the quail was massive. it might've actually have been two, but by this point i was sort of seriously out of it and needed to pass out. so after a quick sightseeing trip back to my hotel, i inadvertently bypassed the nightly milk and cookies buffet (! WHAT.) and passed out.

the next morning, the hotel provided us with a serviceable breakfast buffet on the mezzanine level. we were staying at the magnolia hotel in downtown dallas, which is apparently conveniently located to a bunch of stuff which we didn't see because we hit the road shortly after breakfast. there was a mary kay convention going on, which was kind of seriously amazing, but i'm not going to get into it, because it was...well, let's just say i got a glimpse into another world i didn't know existed, and if i start, i could easily fall into that rabbit hole. even though i didn't really explore the hotel, i'd definitely consider staying there again. the rooms were clean, fairly large, and the lobby was nice enough but what would bring me back is the fact the front desk staff was really great, very much the epitome of southern hospitality.

although the breakfast buffet was okay, the coffee was not, so after checkout we wandered over to pho colonial, a vietnamese "diner" near the hotel for some iced coffees. i'm not sure what the food is like, but i like the interior:

the coffee was good--strong, sweet, lots of ice, which was welcome as it was already 90˚F at nine in the morning (ugh). on the way out of downtown, we passed by the infamous book depository, and um, this:

really, now.

we drove around for more sightseeing, and on the way out of town, we stopped back in the oak cliff neighbourhood at bolsa mercado, a market/café, for a little lunch. 

even though we had driven around a lot of dallas, i hadn't enough time to form a cohesive picture of the city, and certainly didn't feel like i was in a southern state. i wanted to feel like i was more in the south and less of a city so i indulged in something i consider to be inherently southern,  pimiento cheese: 

it was rich and creamy, flecked with roasted red pepper, and just sharp and salty enough. of course it was on white bread, which was soft and pliable. i washed down half of it with an apple, cucumber, celery, mint juice. chris, who had never had pimiento cheese before, ate the other half. and was instantly a fan. 

unfortunately, that was kind of it for dallas. i didn't get to see much, but what i saw was enough for me to want to return. hasta la vista, dallas, we'll be back. 

smoke

901 fort worth ave
dallas tx 75208
214.393.4141.

magnolia hotel

1401 commerce st  

dallas tx 75202

214.915.6500.

pho colonial

1623 main street, suite 102
dallas tx 75201

214.748.0746. 

bolsa mercado
634 w davis st
dallas tx 75208
214.942.0451.