this is life in austin & aspen

… so maybe trying to get pre-crushed ice the day before the Kentucky Derby, when everyone and their grandmother is serving mint juleps to parties-full, is a bad idea. Nonetheless, I set out to fulfill my needs at Party Barn–a place I had never been, but drove past often.

Party Barn is just that: a beer barn. A drive-through beer barn, at that. And where you order kegs if you’re a college kid, apparently. But I digress. I can’t really say much for PB, except that the guys working there were super nice when I asked for crushed ice.

“You’re throwing a Kentucky Derby party and serving mint juleps and need crushed ice?” the crusty old man asks.

“Yes,” I grin.

“Kwik Ice on Burnet. Across from the HEB. This is the one day of the year everybody wants crushed ice.”

“Why don’t you sell it today, then?” I ask, being friendly.

“Yeah, why don’t we?” chimes in the younger shopkeeper/beer-boy.

“You know what I would have to charge to get that much ice just for today? Kwik Ice. It’s on Burnet,” reiterates the crusty old man.

I drive away smiling, thinking to myself, I hope I throw a party that involves a keg sometime soon so I can come back and give this man some business. Now, I didn’t think I was a small-business, eco-chic, Wheatsville-shopping hippie, but Austin can change a girl. And now I gotta give the local Party Barn some love!

… but the saga continues. I go to Kwik Ice expecting delicious little balls of that melt-in-your-mouth ice that some restaurants serve out of their ice machine–and I was disappointed. The (very nice) man brought me a bag of ice. Like I might buy at any gas station or grocery store for $1.99. I bought it, but only because I was out of time for my ice-quest.

So really, if you’re looking for small crushed ice, wrap your bag of gas-station-ice in a towel, take it on the porch or to the driveway, and take a hammer to it. Because apparently no one in town sells mint julep crushed ice the day before the Kentucky Derby.