Tag Archives: downtown

Frank :: Hot Dogs, Cold Beer {Restaurant Review}

Posted by Melissa on February 5, 2013 5 comments

When I used to work downtown, Frank was right around the corner. It was the perfect spot to grab a quick lunch or enjoy a few beers after a long day. It wasn’t until I had a few friends coming to town that I realized Frank served brunch.

And by “served brunch” I mean – they do it RIGHT.

We went two weekends in a row – that’s how good this place is. Both times we found parking less than a block away and free, since it was Sunday. The first time we arrived when they opened at 10am so obviously didn’t have to wait. The following weekend we rolled in just after 11am and were seated right away but it was definitely on the verge of being on a wait.

Their normal drink menu is pretty sweet (I’m looking at you, Kentucky Peach!) and the brunch cocktail options don’t disappoint either:

My personal favorite is the Red Headed Stranger, in a 16oz mason jar. It’s hard to go wrong with that one. Bacon-infused Tito’s? Yes please. Bacon & cheese as a garnish? In my drink? Yes PLEASE. The bloody mary mix is probably the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Thick, spicy, and full of flavor.

This next one is Brad’s favorite. I love it too but I just can’t convince myself to stray from the bloody mary. His choice is BB Crème. Bourbon, iced coffee, half & half, and cinnamon. The first time he had it, the cinnamon was missing. Wasn’t a deal-breaker until we went back the second time and it was served WITH cinnamon. It really took it up a notch!

Now on to the important things – the FOOD.

Our first time around we had:

Both unpictured, both amazing. (You can find photos of almost all of their items on their Instagram page). Order either and you’ll be VERY happy. I would have never thought to use pulled pork in eggs benedict, but the combination was pretty damn delicious.

The following week Brad was having trouble deciding between a few options. Once our server announced the special, his mind was made up: Blackened Crawfish & Gouda Omelette with a Cajun Remoulade.

He was pretty impressed with this dish. Crawfish is one of his favorites and he LOVES gouda, so the combination of the two made it a winner.

I already knew what I was having before we set foot in the restaurant that day. The weekend before I was deciding between two items: the Texas Benedict and… Makers Mark French Toast.

Custard battered Texas toast with Makers Mark Bourbon Blueberry Sauce. It was AWESOME. I’m pretty particular about my French Toast and Frank definitely delivered. I ordered a side of their Hash Brown Casserole (top left of the photo) which I also recommend.

I highly doubt anything on their brunch will be disappointing. So many options, so many original creations! Jackalope sausage? Chicken-fried wild boar? Sweet potato flapjacks? Pork belly breakfast tacos?

We’ll be back to try them all.

A nice little Saturday

Posted by Melissa on July 9, 2012 2 comments

A few weeks ago during a 5K fun run downtown with Scott Jurek, Brad and I decided we should follow up one of our Saturday runs with kayaking out on the lake. After a few weeks of putting in the miles at Brushy Creek, we headed down to Town Lake for our run this past weekend.

We had 5 miles planned for Saturday morning so we set out on the Congress/Mopac loop, tacking on a little bit extra at the end.

We probably started a little bit later than we should have – the temp was already 80 by 8am. Noted: next week we start at least 30-45 minutes earlier. We took a few more walk breaks this weekend than last, but the pace was still faster this weekend – awesome! We packed a couple sandwiches, pretzels and bottles of water to have post-run. After refueling we headed back out for about a mile walk to Texas Rowing Center.

It was my first time kayaking (I know!! I’ve been missing out) so we went with a double kayak.

Once we got settled into the kayak, our paddles hit the water and we were cruising!

We continued east, making our way towards the South First Bridge, passing the dog park at Auditorium Shores on the way.

Once we hit First, we decided to keep going to the Congress Ave bridge since it wasn’t that much further.

We floated a bit here, just relaxing and soaking up the sun, and then made a u-turn to head back.

I wore my Garmin while we were out on the water but started it late and forgot to turn off the auto-pause. Sometimes it wouldn’t resume until we had been paddling for a couple minutes. We hit 3 miles but definitely think it was a little further than that.

A nice mile walk back to the car and we hit a total of 10 miles for the day – all before noon! It was a great workout and so much fun! Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again once a month or so.

Have you ever been kayaking?

Statesman Capitol 10K Race Recap

Posted by Melissa on April 2, 2012 3 comments

Last weekend was the 35th Annual Statesman Capitol 10,000, also known as the Cap 10K.

Leslie and I registered for this one last minute, deciding to use it as our final training run for ZOOMA. The training plan called for an 8 mile run, so we parked a little over two miles from the start to hit our mileage for the day.

I played tourist as we hit the streets of UT:

and before we knew it, we were downtown on Congress Avenue. It was so nice to have the streets all to ourselves.

We then ventured down onto the trail to finish our run:

The official runner count for the race was just over 23,000 and the Congress Bridge was PACKED!

We ran into a few other members of the HEB ZOOMA Texas Girlfriends Program while we were making our way to Corral D. Photo op!

The temps were creeping up to a range I was hoping not to see until the end of April and the city was covered with a thick blanket of humidity, both characteristic for 95% of Austin-area races.

The course for Cap 10K was nearly identical to the Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot, with the exception of the bridge we started on: north on Congress, east on 11th, north on San Antonio, west on 15th/Enfield (cue dramatic music), south on Atlanta, back east on Cesar Chavez to the Congress Bridge, and then west on Riverside to the finish:

Now that you have the turn-by-turn course, here’s a photo tour of the race:

FINISHED!

The Cap 10K was a great race! It was a bit crowded (as can be expected with 20,000+ runners) but went off without a hitch logistically. Water stops were plentiful and volunteers encouraging. HEB provided post-race snacks: bananas, granola bars, water, and energy drinks.

Overall I was very impressed with the race and provided I’m in town next year I will definitely be registering for it again.

Urban Dare Austin Race Recap

Posted by Melissa on March 5, 2012 11 comments

A few weeks ago I hit the jackpot yet again on Schwaggle, scoring a $90 race registration for the Urban Dare Austin on March 3, 2012 for only $31.50.

From the Urban Dare website:

Urban Dare is the race where smarts can beat speed. Teams of two solve clues to find checkpoints, where they must take photos or perform dares. It’s like a one-day Amazing Race. Take the dare!

We checked in around 11:30 and received the shirts we needed to wear throughout the race.

Next up, judging for the costume contest:

After the contest wrapped up (the fairies won), clue sheets were distributed and the race was officially under way!

Our strategy was to solve each clue, map it out, and figure out which would be the most efficient route. Once we were finished, we took off out of Duncan Park heading towards 5th & Lamar. On our way, we noticed a couple holding hands who would be PERFECT for part one of clue #9: PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of 2 people not in the race reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstandt.

They happily obliged, even though they had just performed the same move for another team only minutes earlier.

Clue #8 stated: This law changed collegiate sports big time and gave women opportunities they never had before. Oddly enough, the bill never mentions the word sports. Get your picture in front of the shop that goes by the name of this bill.

Just around the corner was the answer to clue #3: Natalie Portman won an Oscar for best actress in this movie. Get your picture in front of the yoga studio that goes by this name.

Now, this is where we lost quite a bit of time. One of the clues Brad solved was #6: Macchiavelli’s famous book, the Prince, was dedicated to this man. Get your picture in front of his cafe.

He found the name of the café, went to the website, and grabbed the address off of the site. The address on the website was actually pretty far west, and probably halfway out to the location I asked “Are you sure this is right?”

Brad whipped out his phone and Googled the name of the café, scrolled down the list of results, and then he realized: there were 3 locations in Austin. And this one (A) was by far the furthest out of the way.

We made a quick u-turn and headed back east as he apologized profusely for not realizing it the first time around.

10-15 minutes later we came upon clue #7: ROMAN MATH TIME – Get your picture in front of District (VII TIMES XLIII)

And our photographer didn’t waste any time volunteering when we asked her to help us out with part two of clue #9: Get a picture of someone Angelina-ing.

Next we headed to 3rd Street for clue #2: Cujo was this breed. Get your picture in front of the store that goes by this name.

Then a little bit further south to Cesar Chavez for clue #5: This tower was named for an Austin fireman who died in the line of duty in 1972 while attempting a rescue. Go there for a 3 legged dare. Once we arrived at the Buford Tower, our legs were tied together while we participated in a 3 legged race. This is especially interesting when the person you’re paired with is over a foot taller than you.

At this point we were right around the corner from the café we were looking for earlier:

From 2nd & Congress we headed northeast to 718 Red River Street for clue #1: Dawn Zimmer is this city’s first female mayor. She recently rejected a permit to film in her city for Snooki and JWoww. Get your picture in front of the pizza place which goes by this city name.

We headed back west on 8th Street to Colorado, for clue #11: The state capitol burned down in 1881, so they built a temporary one while today’s capitol was being built. Go to the site of the temporary state capitol which was used until 1888 for your Scrabble Stick Dare. Using the scrabble sticks we provide, you must find the Scrabble value of the word on your passport.

And this was where I messed up. This clue was mine, and when we arrived – an Urban Dare official was nowhere to be found. We did a lap around the building, still nothing. We encountered two other teams looking at the same building, for the same clue. We were stumped.

I pulled out my phone and Googled again. This time it told me the temporary state capitol was located at 11th & Congress, and we took off running.

There were stakes in the ground with letters on them, and a corresponding number, just like a Scrabble piece. The word on our passport was ENVIRONMENTAL. Once we found the value for each letter, we were to add it up and submit to the onsite Urban Dare official. The letter ‘N’ gave us a bit of a trouble but we found it, had our passport stamped, and were on our way in about 5 minutes.

Once we were nearing the Capitol, all of the hydrating I had been doing since 5:30am was finally catching up to me. Oh, did I forget to mention I did a 10 mile run with my training group that morning? Yeah. I never said I was the smartest girl. The giant bottle of Gatorade I consumed during the first half of the race probably didn’t help either. We made a quick pitstop at the restroom in the Capitol building and then headed to the other side of the Capitol grounds where clue #4 was located: Get your picture with the memorial to those that survived the attack on the date will live in infamy.

We only had one clue left and then we were in the homestretch! Unfortunately the last clue was on the UT campus and Saturday was also the same day as Explore UT. SO MANY DAMN PEOPLE! The campus was a zoo.

We checked the inscription on every statue we passed for clue #10: "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore" This inscription surrounds his campus statue. Go there for your wheelbarrow dare.

Found it!

The wheelbarrow dare took about a minute, and then we were DONE! We passed a few teams entering campus on our way off-campus, so we knew we definitely weren’t going to come in last. Not that it mattered what place we came in, since this was our first Urban Dare and made a few mistakes along the way.

The trek to the finish line seemed to take FOREVER. We passed a few teams who were already leaving the bar, so that was a bit disheartening. I checked in with my sister to see if she was able to find the answer to the 10 Minute Bonus: Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short played gunfighters in this movie. In the 6th Street District, get your picture in front of the sign where a local drinking hole has a special named after this trio. No such luck.

Finally we arrived at the finish, the Kung Fu Saloon!

photo credit

Our passport was reviewed, photos checked, and our first Urban Dare was officially complete!

We finished in 2:36:26, 16th out of 52 teams. Not too bad considering we got a bit turned around in the beginning. The winners came in at 1:02:42 – absolutely incredible. 2nd place finished in 1:28:55, so the winners had a HUGE lead. Probably not their first Urban Dare.

In hindsight, the best option probably would have been to take a bus (the only form of transportation permitted besides running or walking) to the UT Campus and work our way back. I think that would have shaved a considerable amount of time off of our total. Overall we covered 7.03 miles, and that was with me starting my watch late!

Time for celebratory beers:

And then I spotted something VERY exciting:

I LOVE skeeball. I could play for hours. Or until I run out of quarters. However in this case, skeeball was FREE and we couldn’t pass this up.

I missed that one. That’s my disappointed face.

I beat Brad in a mini-tournament AND scored the highest overall between the two of us. Winner winner, chicken dinner.

We both really enjoyed the Urban Dare and can’t wait to do it again next year!

A Simple Three

Posted by Melissa on January 4, 2012 14 comments

In less than a month my company will be moving, and our office will no longer be located downtown. I’m going to miss the short walk to delicious restaurants (Thai Passion, I’m looking at you), quaint grocery stores with phenomenal daily soup selections (Royal Blue Grocery), and mid-afternoon strolls to the Capitol building to get some fresh air.

Since my time working in the city is coming to a close, I decided I need to start running the streets of downtown at lunch rather than on the hamster wheel in the gym.