Tapas and the Turkey (Tesla Tom)
It used to be a well known fact, Austin had NO GOOD tapas restaurants. There was one place that served what they called tapas, but it was not good. Times have changed! Suddenly we find THREE really good tapas places. We managed to sample them all in one week.
While they haven't yet had their Grand Opening Event (it's this wednesday) we went toTapasitas for an art event.
With Jeff Boley behind the bar, you know the cocktail options to be well crafted.
The food is also creative and delicious. Pork belly (above), and sweetbreads (below) were really good. We also enjoyed the steak tartare.
The bottle prices at Tapasitas are very fair. Wine by the glass will cost nearly the same as a bottle at just three glasses (example: $11 per glass or $35 for the bottle).
Dude played guitar while Kat scooped up a few items from the silent auction.
Tapas, art, and turkey in the Tesla:
we spent an evening with friends, visiting art studios and hopping between two other new tapas restaurants. It was fun being chauffered in their Tesla.
While visiting with our friend, artist Caroline Wright, we found this turkey! Took him with us, we did. He did fit in the third row (rear facing) seat of the Tesla. I think we can safely say, this was the very first giant turkey pinata EVER driven around in a Tesla.
We stopped for some fun and casual conversation with Chris Levack at his studio.
We enjoyed some of the lovely weather in the back patio of Winebelly. Our first tapas stop of the evening.
The White anchovies were excellent.
We eventually landed at Barlata. I'd forgotten it was F1 weekend, it was packed. The seating is communal and the lady next to me saw I had my little camera out. She assumed I was trying to sneak a pic of Alonzo (sp?). She said the F1 Ferrari driver was seated near us. We came for the tapas, and beverages, not papparazi.
Kat had this really elaborate and firey cocktail.
we had tapas, but the real jewel from Barlata, the paellas.
honorable mention:
I had a delicious lunch at Sway this past week, Peanut Curry (with chicken confit). It was cold out, we warmed up with hot Jade Oolong tea from Taiwan.
Kat and I also tried some of the juices from Benji's. GOOD! looking forward to returning with kids to try their tenderloin fajitas.
the green drink was like a margarita with avocado in it, and the red one had blackberry but not sweet or syrupy. we liked them both.
OK, so did we do/consume all of that (including duck cassoulet) in a week? it was a good week for eats and drinks.