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August 30, 2010

Aspen: Fine Line Bar & Grill

Fine Line Bar & Grill is a new bar, restaurant, grill, hangout in El Jebel/Basalt that’s reasonably-priced, has GREAT happy hour food and drink specials from 3-6pm daily ($2 Bud & Bud Light Drafts , $3 New Belgium Drafts, $10 Bucket Of 6 Coronitas, $5 Tuaca & Soco Lime Shots), plus special deals for each day and even serving up karaoke Tuesday nights!

Totally Tuesdays: Half Price On All Appetizers
Wine Wednesdays: Buy One Glass Of House Wine Get One Free / Free Chips & Salsa
Tequila Thursdays: Gingeritas & Margaritas $5 / All Nacho Plates Half Price
Fired Up Fridays: Free Chips And Salsa / Tuaca & Soco Lime Shots $3
Smokin’ Saturdays: Rib Platter $10 / Fat Tire Drafts $3
Sunday Bloody Sundays: Absolut Peppar Bloody Marys $5

This is the Gingerita: A Simple Margarita With A Twist. Equal Parts Fresh Lime Juice, Grand Marnier, & Ginger-Infused Corzo Tequila. At $8, a good price for a great, creative margarita. The drink menu is top-notch–all of the drinks are creative and delish!

The food is mostly outstanding. The salad was not good–but the menu calls their salad menu “Rabbit Food,” so maybe I should have known they aren’t really salad fans. Get into the heavier dishes and you’re golden. The Lobster Ravioli was as good as you’d find anywhere, and reasonably-priced at $15.95. Menu reads: Ravioli Stuffed With Fresh Maine Lobster And Served With Vodka Marinara Sauce And A Side Of Garlic Bread.

The best thing Fine Line serves is probably its pizza. This stuff was GOOOOOOD. Menu says: Veggie Garbage Pizza: Spinach, Black Olives, Red And Yellow Onions, Artichoke Hearts, Mushrooms, Fresh And Sun Dried Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic, And Feta Cheese. $14.95/$18.95 (this is the $14.95 size and was HUGE)

Overall, all four of the people in my party loved the For Locals By Locals experience of Fine Line Bar & Grill. I only wish such a reasonably-priced, laid-back place was in Aspen! Also check out their 50″ flat screens for football this season!

Also, in more it’s-a-small-world-after-all news, the owner’s fiancee works with the Vermonster, and the owner went to school with the Vermonster in Vermont, where the Vermonster was the MAILMAN for the owner’s dorm. Awesome.

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August 27, 2010

Aspen: BBQ … srsly, it’s so Texas up in here

The First Annual Big Aspen Barbecue Block Party takes place at the base of Aspen Mountain this Saturday and Sunday, August 28 – 29, 2010, from noon – 7pm. The sister event of New York City’s much-beloved barbecue extravaganza that includes food, music, seminars, and more.

There are a bunch of big names serving up the ‘cue, including, because it’s so Austin up in here, Mike Rodriguez from Salt Lick BBQ. He’s serving up brisket & sausage. Other heavy hitting pitmasters:

Admission to the event is free. Plates from across the country are available from top pitmasters for only $8 per plate.

Proceeds from the Big Aspen Barbecue Block Party support the Aspen Community Foundation, which builds philanthropy and supports nonprofit organizations throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.

Despite the fact that I’m from Texas, I don’t love barbecue. People hate to hear this, but it’s true. I don’t like sickly-sweet barbecue sauce, I don’t like the sides for barbecue (potato salad? gag me), I don’t like smoke off the grill. That said, I do love me some grilled meat sans all that other junk, which I’m hoping to get this weekend. YUM!!

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August 23, 2010

How to Lick a Bowl

Dad sends me the “awwww cute puppies/kittehs/baby animals doing cute things!” emails about once a week. I usually delete them. This one, however, struck a chord. What I REALLY thought was: “hey! that’s what I look like when I bake!”

flb

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August 23, 2010

Austin: TnT Brunch is Dynamite!

OK, that was the obvious pun, right? But brunch at Tacos n Tequila, in the Gables Pressler on 5th Street, is THAT GOOD.

This is my plate at TnT.That’s ceviche, salad, fruit salad, mushrooms and yellow squash, polenta, migas, guacamole, and teeny-tiny homemade flour tortillas (heaven).

These are the homemade sweet potato chips. Yep, sweet potato chips, thin and crispy, and much healthier than tortilla chips. DELISH green and red salsa too. And my dad’s thumb, because he couldn’t stop eating for the five seconds it took for me to snap an iphone photo :-)

This is my mom’s plate. My mom has been raving about brunch since she first went–and, she’ll proudly tell you, she was one of the FIRST people to go to TnT, because it’s right next to her Bikram Yoga studio. She loves the make-your-own-omlette station, where they’ll use egg whites and make you a lil omlette so there’s room for everything else.

There’s also a waffle bar, tons of meat and chicken (unhappy, for now, so I can’t report on it), and desserts, which include a huge bowl of fresh fruit, ice cream, and mini churros! I love how they make everything mini, so you can try a lot of food without wasting or stuffing yourself. Since I was with my parents, I didn’t indulge in Sunday Funday, but a mimosa comes with brunch, and there’s a delicious blueberry aqua fresca available to all that I can only imagine combined with champagne would make me want to sing. Even on a hungover Sunday morning.

Our service was incredible–the waiter topped off our water and coffee every time it got to half-full, they brought the made-to-order omlettes and eggs to the table, and the people manning the buffet were smiley and sweet.

Sunday brunch 10a-3p … tntgrill.com

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August 21, 2010

Aspen: Bentley’s Bloody Mary Bar

You take this:

Glass of Vodka

Add what you want from this:

Bentley's Bloody Mary Bar

And you get:

Oh, there’s no photo. Because I ate too many pickled things (Dilled brussel sprouts? Texas pickled okra? Pickled garlic? Spicy pickled pickles?) and drank just one Bloody Mary and got tipsy.

The Vermonster has been telling me I shouldn’t go to Bentley’s since I moved here. Now I think I know why. It’s an Aspen locals joint, so that means mostly boys, and they like their drinks strong. I mean, who doesn’t? But it’s no wonder my boyfriend doesn’t want me in a den of men drinking heavy pours.

Also. How does Bentley’s, an English pub in the historic and beautiful Wheeler Opera House building, four steps up from the sidewalk, manage to feel like a dingy basement when it has windows OPENED TO THE STREET? It makes no sense to me. And even though I’d pay $8 for the Bloody Mary Bar just to fill my glass with pickled things and serrano tomato juice, it was the oddest-looking Bloody Mary Bar I’ve ever seen. Wooden shelves of condiments?

Nonetheless, an Aspen recommendation. Only in Aspen.

Also. Add mustard to your next Bloody Mary.

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August 20, 2010

Austin: Cupcake Smackdown 2.0

Last year’s crazy cupcake party had us all smashed into One 2 One Bar on a hot summer day stuffing ourselves with sugar. This year’s event expands to Le Cordon Bleu, 3110 Esperanza Crossing Suite 100 and The Westin, 11301 Domain Drive. Vendors and activities located at the Le Cordon Bleu will be held indoors while the Cupcake Cannon and Pinata will be held outdoors at the Westin.

Here’s Saturday’s schedule:

11: 30am & 1:30pm – Attempt to break Guinness World Record for Most Jaffa Cakes Eaten in One Minute (2 rounds) at LCB

11:30 am until 12 noon – Check-in and set-up for Most People Simultaneously Frosting a Cupcake at LCB. Please arrive at this time to participate.

12 noon – Setting World Record for Most People Simultaneously Frosting a Cupcake at LCB.

12:30pm to 3 pm – Cupcake Cannon and Cupcake Piñata at The Westin’s North Parking Lot

Admission to the event is free.  Donations for the activities suggested (cash please). Proceeds from Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 will benefit Lights, Camera, Help, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, and Keep Austin Dog Friendly. You will be able to buy cupcakes from vendors, so bring $$$ for that as well.

www.cupcakesmackdown.com

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August 17, 2010

Pepperita & Sweet, Sweet Texas Tea

When a bottle of this arrives on your doorstep, you thank the blogging gods:

Treaty Oak Rum

When you bring a bottle of this back to Aspen to enjoy a little taste of Texas, you get nostalgic for 100-degree days. Only for a moment.

Graham’s Texas Tea. My favorite sweet tea vodka yet–it actually tastes like good southern tea!! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

When you combine the rum (yep, I went back to the rum) with some jalapenos, agave, lime, and club soda, you get this:

image from do512.com.

Pepperita!

I call it a rum rita, the people at Treaty Oak fancy it a Texas take on a traditional daiquiri… I don’t really care what you call it, it’s damn good!

Here’s the recipe:

Pepperita
2 oz Treaty Oak Platinum Rum
1 oz agave nectar*
1 oz fresh lime juice
3 fresh jalapeno slices**
3 oz club soda
Shake first three ingredients with two of the jalapeno slices.  Strain over ice, top with club soda and garnish with remaining jalapeno slice.

*I don’t like agave, so I just omitted it. It’s clearly less sweet but I think it still works and is still refreshing.

**Don’t be tempted to get all big Tex on the recipe and think you can handle more heat. I LOVE spice and this was PERFECT. Others complained it was too spicy (wimps). In any case, start slow and build the heat if you need to.

Treaty Oak Rum is available all over Austin and most of Central Texas. The Texas Tea is just now available at Spec’s, Twin Liquors AND Western Beverages – it launched this summer so follow the facebook and twitter accounts for drink specials around town, events, promotions, recipes, and more!

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August 9, 2010

Austin: Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt

I swore off FroYo awhile back. Too out of hand, I ruled, too unhealthy when you add in all the mix-ins and candy topping and cookie dough bites.

But then they put a new one, Menchie’s, in the Central Market shopping center by my house (4001 North Lamar Blvd. Suite 550) and we just HAD to go try it last night (it’s open Sun – Thurs: 11am-11pm, til midnight Friday & Saturday).

The thing that differentiates Menchie’s from the other chains is the toppings. There are an INSANE amount. And they crush them all to tiny, or have mini versions–like mini yogurt-covered pretzels, are you kidding me?–so that you can get just the right amount in your cup.

They also have hot fudge, fat-free hot fudge, peanut butter, and caramel sauces. Out of the pump thingies, not out of the gross squeeze bottles.

And they have about a billion options. Any kind of nut, all kinds of chocolate chips, chocolate-covered almonds, the mini pretzels, mini gummy bears, sour worms, mini animal cookies, two kinds of brownies, the requisite cookie dough and cheesecake bites, berries, kiwi, and cinnamon apples … it was crazay up in there.

The yogurt flavors were nothing extraordinary, though the low-carb Angel Food might serve a particular crowd and the dairy-free kiwi strawberry sorbet was delightful, they definitely were not the stars of the Menchie’s show.

Menchie’s is a national chain, so it clearly has a formula that works. You can even pay $1 extra for a waffle cone bowl, something I haven’t seen anywhere else. But it also has national chain prices, at 41 cents an ounce as opposed to the Austin average of 39 cents. Not my fave, but worth trying. Just my, er, 2 cents.

I’m still off the frozen yogurt. But if you’re on the wagon, Menchie’s is worth a visit. I’m just sayin’.

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August 3, 2010

Austin: 10% Off at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf All Month

Just buy the HeartGift wristband for a minimum donation of $1 at any of the four Austin Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf locations before August 11. Then you get a ten percent discount on all prepared beverages through August 31! (Same deal as last time)

What’s the HeartGift Foundation? A group that brings children like Eckemeni (pictured above), who was born in 2004 in Nigeria and treated for Tetralogy of Fallot in March 2009, and other children from around the world to the United States for surgery to correct life-threatening heart defects. For more than a decade, HeartGift has been providing life-saving heart surgery to disadvantaged children from developing countries where specialized medical treatment is either scarce or nonexistent. Each year, the HeartGift Foundation brings children from around the world to Texas for free surgery to correct life threatening heart defects. The all-volunteer team of physicians at HeartGift provides their services at no cost.

For a minimum $1 donation, you can make a maximum impact on the heart of a child. Literally.

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July 30, 2010

Austin: New Sunday Brunch at J. Black’s

It’s been awhile since I’ve ventured away from Moonshine or The Carillon for Sunday Brunch, something I take seriously. Those two perennial all-stars are just too good! But I got word today that there’s a new contender: J. Black’s.

brunch-7810.jpg

Before you write it off as the place you don’t want to revisit from the night before, let’s talk about their Mix-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar. I’ve long held an I-don’t-really-like-Bloody-Marys stance, but after several poolside visits to Aspen’s St. Regis for a $5 Bloody Mary that is absolutely phenomenal, I’m changing my tune. I don’t really like MOST Bloodys, that is, the ones that are all tomato and no flare. We’ve had this revelation before (hi, Frank’s), but it always feels like the first time.

J. Black’s Bloody Mary bar isn’t the first in town, but it’s versatile: start with Austin’s own Tito’s vodka, then add your standard favorites, including things that aren’t so standard like fiery horseradish (must!), cherry peppers, cocktail onions, and pickled okra (only in the South).

Of course Union Park is doing a brunch too, and has been for over a year. Why another? Owner Sean Fric says, “West Sixth Street has become so much more than a center for Austin nightlife. The growth in our corner of downtown, especially with all of the new residents, has increased daytime foot traffic and we felt there was a demand for more dining options. At J. Black’s we’ve always tried to be a place for all occasions, so brunch just made sense to us.”

The brunch food (not a buffet, sadly) features an Open Faced Egg Sandwich, Breakfast Pizza, and their signature “Title Tacos,” one commemorating each year of the University of Texas’ National Championships. These breakfast tacos are made with farm fresh eggs(!!) and  pulled pork, onions, and smoked gouda (1969) or portobello mushrooms, arugula, sundried tomatoes, shallots, and goat cheese (2005).

Brunch menu is available Sunday from 11am-4pm. jblacks.com

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