texas — Travel — Mint to be Trendy

Howdy Ya’ll!

The hubs and I traveled to Austin and Houston Texas back in June of 2021 and we had a blast! We started our week in Austin and I’ll admit - it took me a little bit to warm up to the hype of Austin, because I felt like it was pretty similar to Louisville! I did really enjoy all the cactus and succulent plants outside everyone’s lawn. I also really liked all the food trucks Austin had - Louisville could step up their game on that!

Our first day we had dinner at JewBoy Burgers and I had the Thirsty Goat amber ale and the oy vay guey burger and Josh had the JewBoy burger and we shared a side of tots and green chile and cheddar cheese potato latkes. The line was out the door when we got there, and to top it off the owner was running the cash register and was super nice! They had a cool space, and awesome food. I’d rate it a 7/10! We then went to Wonderspaces which is an immersive and interactive art show. It was pretty cool but idk if it was worth the ticket price. We finished the night at PinBallz Arcade and stopped at 4th Tap Brewing as the arcade was BYOB.

Our second day we had breakfast at Mi Madre’s, I had the migas breakfast plate and Josh had the chorizo egg potato taco and the bacon egg potato taco. It was alright, but it wasn’t great, we would rate 5/10. We then went to explore Austin’s Botanical Gardens and loved it! I always love going to botanical gardens, they had several different exhibits throughout the gardens. I had really wanted to go to Austin’s hot springs but unfortunately it had rained too much so they were closed when we were there. So we opted to go shopping instead. We went to Uncommon Objects, Allen’s Boots on Congress Ave (got Josh some real nice boots), Austin’s Gifts, and the Whole Foods flagship store, among other shops on Congress Ave. We also tried Amy’s Ice Cream while out shopping and had their caramel whiskey with pecans and Josh had the Mexican vanilla with cookie dough - both were absolutely delicious! We had some more time to kill so we went to Still Austin Distillery and hung out there for a bit. The space was really cool, gin was good and whiskey was alright - what can I say we are spoiled living in KY! While at Still Austin, we ate at the food truck Bearded Baking Co and had their biscuits and gravy mac n cheese, and grazing board. Both items were very good, I really enjoyed the grazing board because it had savory cheesecake and I’ve never tasted anything like it before. One of the highlights of our trip was going to Little Longhorn Saloon and watching chicken shit bingo. I feel like that is something you only see in Texas. You literally buy tickets and get assigned a space and the chicken pen was numbered with the spaces and wherever the chicken shits is the winner! We ended the evening by attending a concert at Far Out Lounge and I had one of the best Italian sandwiches at Lucky’s food truck.

Monday we started the day at Gourdough’s Donuts and had the cherry bomb donut holes, nutty valentine and the fat Elvis. It was some of the best donuts I ever had - definitely recommend them 10/10! After we explored the Capitol building and the Mexic-art Museum, we had lunch at Banger’s Sausage and Beer Garden we split the boutin balls, cheddar hot link and side of fries. I had the peacemaker and haulin oats beers. Pretty cool place, I’d rate 6.5/10. We then attempted to watch the bats take off near dusk near the bridge - the bats were so tiny I couldn’t really see them but it was definitely a cool experience! We had dinner at Odd Duck and Josh & I really enjoyed it there! I had a super yummy cocktail they called hare of the duck; we had their cornbread, scallops, fried qual, and ended the evening with lemon pound cake and strawberry sorbet - all in all I’d rate 9/10, it was very good! We then ended the evening with having some mezcal at Whistlers. It was a really cool space!

Tuesday was our last full day in Austin and we ended up spending it eating lunch at the famous Franklin BBQ - the pandemic worked in our favor with this one as their dining room was shut down so we got to order online and do curbside pickup (saved us hours waiting in line!). Josh and I had the potato salad, the brisket and the hot sausage link. While the meat was 10/10, I thought their potato salad could’ve been better along with their sauces, I would rate them 8.5/10. I think this is because Lewis BBQ in Charleston spoiled us as Lewis had a really cool space inside and the same meat as the pitmaster trained under Franklin’s pitmaster. Perhaps I would think differently if we got to sit in Franklin’s actual dining space? We then explored a couple of breweries to kill time. We first went to Pint House Brewing and that place was super cool! Good beer too. After that we went to Meanwhile Brewing and it was also a cool place, but fancier, they had a large outdoor area and several food trucks. We then did an AirBnb experience graffiti tour and had a good time with it! We learned a lot from it. We ended the evening with dinner at Clark’s oyster bar. We had 3 different kinds of oysters, 1 from Canada, 1 from Maine, and 1 from Massachusetts they were all good but we liked the Massachusetts one least as it was a bit too grainy for us. We also had the cocktail shrimp, and their catch of the day tile fish with an added potato. The fish was good but bland, but potato was very good. All in all I’d rate them a 6.5/10.

Wednesday we headed to Houston! We ate lunch at Ninfa’s and had their chips & queso, and the Del Mar enchilada. Everything was ok, but I’d rate them a 5/10. I hadn’t realized their specialty was the fajita and if I had, I would’ve tried that because I’m sure that is most likely better. We then went shopping at the Galleria Mall and explored Waterwall Park. We had some time to kill before dinner so we visited Saint Arnold Brewing, not realizing how huge the place was - it was a really cool space! For dinner we had reservations at State of Grace and we loved it there! We had oysters, hush puppies, tagliatelle pasta, and NY strip and fries. My only complaint was that I wish there was not powdered sugar on the hush puppies. The place was really cool decor wise too. I would give them the same rating as Odd Duck - a 9/10.

Thursday we dedicated to Beach Day in Galveston, which is about an hour drive from Houston. We visited the Stewart Beach and had lunch at Shrimp n Stuff, I had fried shrimp and Josh had grilled shrimp, the place was alright but nothing special - rating would be 4/10. We drove around the Strand shopping area in Galveston before heading back to Houston. We had dinner at Nancy’s Hustle and it was an interesting place. We had parmesan and pancetta croquettes, spicy beef and butter dumplings, wood grilled half chicken and carrot cake for dessert. The cocktails we drank were cotton cowboy and sir duke. I’d rate them a 7/10.

Friday was our last day and we spent it by going to the NASA Space Center, and the Holocaust museum. NASA was cool, Josh was really excited about it, but he didn’t realize how many kids would be there so that was a bit of a let down. The holocaust museum was really neat too. We had lunch at La Crawfish and we were disappointed. Josh had the crawfish pho and I had the shrimp poboy, neither were very good with scoring a measly 3/10. We then went to the Scoop Creamery and had ice cream nachos to make up for how bad lunch was and the ‘nachos’ were so yummy! We had more time to kill so we spent it drinking - notice a pattern? Lol! We went to Max’s Wine Dive and Sable Gate Winery, both were cool! We were almost late to our dinner reservations, but we ended with Xochi which specializes in Oaxacan Mexican cooking. We had the robalo crudos, queso de rancho, mole tasting, chamorro de puerco en salsa verde, and finished with churros and chocolate. It was located inside a hotel, and typically restaurants attached to hotels aren’t the best. The place was good, but not as good as some of the other places we went on our trip. I’d rate it a 6.5/10.

All in all we had a wonderful trip and will definitely be back someday! Have you been to Texas? What places did we miss?