Today and tomorrow, you can shop these beautiful designs marked 50-70% off, OR hit up the $5 and $10 bins.  Their current collection features products made by their partners in India and East Africa. You could get sweet wooden bangles or a cool charm necklace …

I love that a local company is creating opportunities for women and sharing beautiful jewelry, journals, and bath products! Go check out the shop!

Tickets are $35 and $50 at frontgatetickets.com. The event will help raise funds for GiM’s growing music education program in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Austin. Grounded in Music’s students are taught a variety of  skills in musicianship, which range from writing lyrics, playing instruments, and exploring other areas  of the music industry. Statistics show that students  who are involved in music programs early in life perform better academically in the areas of math and  reading. The data also shows that students score higher on the SATs in the areas of math and verbal,  regardless of their socio-economic background.

“Grounded in Music has a very simple mission: to leverage the power of music to transform young lives by creating self-confidence, opportunity and hope. These kids are learning that they can do anything they set their mind to and developing the confidence to push themselves to achieve things they never thought they could,” said Joe Stallone, Grounded in Music’s Founder.

“Some of the  kids in the program have a hard shell to crack,” remarks Michael Longoria, Grounded in Music’s  Program Director. “But as we mentor, teach, and share with them, the music dissolves that shell.”

Support is super simple: for a minimum donation of $1 at any of the seven Austin cafes, you receive a Coffee Bean / Wonders & Worries Wristband.  The proceeds from your donation go directly to Wonders & Worries.  In exchange, your wristband entitles you to 10% off all prepared beverages for the entire month of February. 

Since the inception of the Wristband program, CB&TL has sold 18,900 wristbands and donated over $32,500 to local non-profits.  Awesome!

DailyHap.com is a website designed to create a community of happy people and encourage people to openly, genuinely pursue happiness. It will guide people to Achieving Happiness 1 Day at a Time through a daily action item.

It is also my labor of love, my grand adventure, and now that it’s live, what will consume my life.

We’re launching with a really cool campaign called Penny for Your Thoughts, where a visit to the website donates a penny to Austin Smiles. Sign up for a profile, and contribute Your Two Cents, another two pennies to Austin Smiles. Three cents donated for very little effort! We want to show you that it can be as easy as a click to start on your way to happiness.

What are you waiting for? Click on over to DailyHap and get happy!

Any questions about the legitimacy of a namesake steakhouse from former UT QB  should be alleviated by this invitation. When Vince Young Steakhouse cooked at the James Beard House last weekend in New York, Executive Chef Philip Brown said, “Cooking at the Beard House is one of those pinnacle moments, a bucket-list item for your career. It was an amazing experience for myself and my team and truly exceeded every expectation I had.”

Menu
Hors d’Oeuvre
Crispy Pork Belly with Fennel and Garlic
Braised Short Ribs on Grit Cakes
Duck Prosciutto Flatbread with Goat Cheese and Arugula
Pulled Pork Tacos with Pickled Onions, Cilantro–Jalapeño Crème Fraîche, and Margarita Shooters
Champagne Jean Pernet Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs NV

Dinner
Foie Gras Duo > Foie Gras Custard with Seared Foie Gras and Brioche
Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume 2007

Farm-to-Table Salad > Roasted Local Texas Beets with Texas Blue Cheese and Champagne Vinaigrette
Siduri Sierra Mar Vineyard Pinot Noir 2010

Fish and Chips > Olive Oil–Poached Halibut with Parsnip–Apple Purée and Brown Butter
Tablas Creek Vineyard Côtes de Tablas Blanc 2009

Meat and Potatoes > Prime Rib-Eye with White Truffle–Gnocchi Macaroni and Cheese, Broccolini, and Bone Marrow–Red Wine Demi-Glace
V Madrone Old Vine Zinfandel 2007

Milk and Cookies > Brown Butter Financiers with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate–Cabernet Sauvignon Milkshake
The Rare Wine Co. Historic Series Charleston Sercial Special Reserve Madeira NV

• Epic ski weekend last weekend. Lessons, pow, hot tubs, friends, double-blacks … oh yeah.
• This paleo-ish cookie recipe. It’s amazingly delicious, memorized, and so much better than Paradise Bakery. Er. Well. Close. Better for me.
• Sometimes I still cannot figure out why I choose to continue to live in Aspen. Then I walk through this on a casual stroll with Nali:
  
• Giving blood.
• Park City, Utah family vacation! Can’t wait to see mom, dad, bro, aunts, uncles, and cousins! And some celebs … hello Sundance. Oh, and to ski some new terrain
• Found out I’m part French! I started my life thinking I was mostly German and Czech, turned into a lot of Irish, now French … what’s next?! This is my great grandfather’s family crest—on a coaster: 
  
  [update] My aunt just arrived in Park City and told me the REAL story of our Griffin crest … it’s black Irish, which is thought to be Irish mingled with Spanish when the Spanish Armada wrecked off the coast of Ireland. Great grandpa Ditto is still Norse Irish, so we’re still giant European mutts, but with a Spanish flair rather than French…

See last week’s Feel Goods here.

Bread and beer. Things I shouldn’t eat but happen to love. [Sidenote: there's a new bakery in Aspen on the mall under the Psychic called Annette's and the bread there is TO DIE FOR, so to speak, as I ate almost half a loaf and spent the rest of the night with sores in my mouth and farting. Sorry that's gross. But I'm pretty sure I can thank the high gluten factor for that. But there's sourdough...] Back to Easy Tiger, 709 E. Sixth Street, the long-awaited new bake shop and beer garden (this post has it opening in May … of 2011)  from the 24 Diner people.

The key players:

Bread: Artisan baker David Norman [creds: Grand Central Bakery (leading artisan bakery in Pacific Northwest), TriBakery (supplying NY greats such as Tribeca Grill and Nobu), Ecce Panis (NY, NJ) and Bouley Bakery (NY)]. Breads: baguettes, French country levain, rye bread, German pretzels, Danish, turnovers and more all day long.

Beer: Billy Caruso [creds: CIA graduate and 24 Diner sommelier] Cocktails, wine, unique bombers, and 30 craft beers on tap: local Real Ale and Jester King and boutique domestics such as Avery, Lagunitas and Ommegang.

Meat: Andrew Curren [creds: CIA valedictorian, worked for top New York restaurateurs Danny Meyer and Jonathan Waxman, nom for People’s Best New Chef from Food & Wine magazine/CNN’s Eatocracy, Top Chef: Texas] House-cured meats: housemade sausages, jerky, corned beef and pastrami, as well as homemade krauts, relishes and peperonata.

Decor: Veronica Koltuniak [creds: clients include Madonna, Courteney Cox, and Jennifer Lopez] The Royal Tenenbaums: “Turn-of-the-century building meets end-of-the-century kitsch.”

Seriously. Someone go and report back. I can’t put myself in another gluten coma.

easytigeraustin.com / twitter.com/EasyTigerATX / facebook.com/EasyTigerATX

The Blind Cafe comes to Austin January 26-28 and Aspen February 14. The Blind Cafe is a completely dark dinner, live music, and speaking experience. For more on the individual events in each of the cities, read on.

AUSTIN Blind Cafe

Keynote speaker Richie Flores will lead a Q&A and discussion on life with blindness. Richie is the president of the National Federation of the Blind in Austin, runs The BELL program (helping young blind children learn valuable life skills) and will also be doubling as a musician in the band.

Dinner is a delicious multicourse vegetarian/vegan meal prepared by local Chef Brian Henderson and includes a decadent, dark chocolate dessert. Then, guests indulge their ears during a full set of live music by Rosh & One Eye Glass Broken. Proceeds from The Austin Blind Café will be donated to support The BELL Program (a two week workshop for blind children in Austin).                        

Where: The Church of Christ (1903 University Avenue)

When:  January 26th, 27th & 28th  (Thursday – Saturday)

Thurs & Fri: (6:45pm check-in / 7pm seating)

Sat: (5:45pm check-in / 6pm seating)

Tickets: Available by calling 1-800-838-3006 and online at brownpapertickets.com/event/212981

Cost:  *Special pricing note: Guests are asked to ‘pay what you can’ from $45-$95 (suggested ticket cost is $55) to keep the event accessible to all. Group rates (8+ people) call 720.495.7797

theblindcafe.com/austin-blind-cafe.htm

ASPEN Blind Cafe

Make this Valentine’s Day something extraordinary: spend an evening in an event completely unlike anything else. Visit the Sky Hotel in for a delicious three course meal, full concert and community awareness event in complete darkness. The servers at the event are blind and guests have the special opportunity to explore darkness with their keynote speaker, Gerry Lerry, who will lead a Q&A and discussion on life with blindness. Gerry has been blind since birth. He was a car mechanic for over 40 years and then shifted gears to pursue one of his great loves, coffee. Gerry taught himself the roasting industry and opened his own coffee roasting business and café, The Unseen Bean, in Boulder, Colorado.

Dinner is a delicious three course meal that includes a decadent dark chocolate dessert that will be prepared by the Sky Hotel’s star chef. Full set of live music by founder Rosh & One Eye Glass Broken. Then there is the Black Box. It’s something special for this Valentines Café. While in the darkness guests will open their Black Box. What’s inside? To figure that out, they’ll have explore their senses of smell, taste and touch!

The Blind Café is also committed to giving back and improving the lives of sight limited individuals in our communities and will donate 10% of proceeds to Challenge Aspen to help their efforts supporting the blind.

Where: Aspen’s Sky Hotel

When:  February 14th  (Two times: 5pm or 8:30pm)

Tickets: Call 1-800-838-3006 or online at brownpapertickets.com/event/215857

Cost:   $195

theblindcafe.com/aspen-blind-cafe-valentines-day.htm

• My all-girls basketball team, Box and 1. We’re good.
• 14+ inches of new snow, an extended season pass, and upcoming Locals Clinic lessons … Bumps and Steeps here I come!
• New (to me) couch! You are so comfy, mr. sectional. (more pics to come of entire home office soon!)
  
• Great feedback from friends and fam on the upcoming release of the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Stay tuned.
• Happy chili with friends after a grueling game of basketball.
• Dinner at the Pullman in Glenwood Springs. It definitely deserves the hype.
• Dog farts. Seriously, is there anything funnier?

See last week’s Feel Goods here.

The second location of Chef Tyson Cole’s critically-acclaimed restaurant, Uchi, will open to the public on February 2^nd.  In the iconic former Felix space on Westheimer near the corner of Montrose. Offerings from the kitchen and sushi bar showcase his signature style of combining unexpected textures and flavors, pushing the boundaries of Japanese cuisine, drawing flavor inspiration from numerous points around the globe and mixing traditional master knife work with cutting-edge techniques.

Acclaimed pastry chef Philip Speer ends things on a sweet note with his ground-breaking desserts that showcase familiar flavors in completely original forms and combinations. Chef Cole is pleased to name Kaz Edwards of the original Uchi as chef de cuisine in Houston.  Monica Glenn, longtime protégé of Philip Speer, will be pastry chef.

The transformation of the building from the Felix space was helmed by (obviously) Michael Hsu, who also designed almost every impressive restaurant space in Austin including Uchi, Uchiko, Malverde, and so on.

“We have been looking forward to becoming a part of the Houston community for many months,” says Chef Tyson Cole, recent winner of James Beard Foundation Best Chef Southwest. “It’s a thrill to open our doors.”

904 Westheimer / Houston, Texas 77006