You may recall that I was in Texas for work for a good chunk of August, and I shared some of the great places I visited during my first weekend in Austin not too long ago. Although I enjoyed all the food and shopping that first weekend, I was not too excited to hang around another weekend. But, I have to say, the food I had the second weekend I ventured down to Texas’s capital was even better than the first.

On Saturday, I spent most of the day sleeping and hanging out in my hotel room (lame, I know), but managed to get to the Eastside Cafe for an early-ish dinner.

 

I don’t mind eating alone, but it’s less awkward if I can sit at the bar. However, since Eastside Cafe doesn’t have a bar, I sat at a table by myself. The restaurant is in a cute old house, and the tables are spread out among various rooms. Because it wasn’t super crowded when I was there, I actually ended up in a room by myself for part of the time I was there.

Still, it was hard to care when I was eating the light, sweet strawberry soup; the spicy, perfect jalapeño cornbread muffin and the vegetable-packed cheesy artichoke manicotti.

While I was eating dinner, I was looking out the window at the adorable Elaine’s Pork & Pie, which appears to be operated by the Eastside Cafe folks, but is more of a casual take-out kind of place. So, although I’m sure the desserts at the Eastside Cafe would have been fabulous, I decided to try Elaine’s instead. This proved to be a very wise decision.

I ordered the bourbon buttermilk pie, with fresh strawberries, and it’s hard to even describe how fantastic it was. I have had Momofuku Milk Bar crack pie, which is similar to buttermilk pie, but this was better. The crust was tender, flaky, buttery and just the right amount of salty, and the filling was sweet and custardy, with just a hint of bourbon flavor. The strawberries were a great touch, too.

After dinner, I went to return a blouse and ended up on kind of a shopping odyssey, which included driving across town and meeting a really sweet girl named Ashley who works in the Nordstrom handbag department and shares my fondness for Betsey Johnson. Then, I thought about going back to the Holy Cacao truck for a cake milkshake, but instead decided to try something new: Amy’s Ice Creams. Amy’s has locations in other Texas cities, too, but it started in Austin.

There were a lot of fun flavors to choose from, but I went with a creamsicle flavor (it had a weird name that I can’t remember) and pineapple upside-down cake. Both were very good, and I liked it better than Lick, but the ice cream still wasn’t as creamy as I would have liked. Oh well.

Sunday, I really wanted to go to to Fonda San Miguel for brunch, so I got up and drove down there… and it was closed. I was pretty upset, but I had written down the names of some other Mexican restaurants that were supposed to be good, so I picked one, googled it and found out that they were still open for brunch.

 

This turned out to be a really good call, even though it was hastily made. La Condesa is in an area that I had wanted to check out anyway, and the food was phenomenal. The restaurant itself is gorgeous, with lots of light, plants and an enormous abstract mural on one wall. They bring you four different kinds of fresh salsa — which is a lot for one person — and I ordered a passionfruit and mango spiced margarita. I also got some tortilla soup, which was a lot spicier than I expected it to be but incredibly delicious nonetheless.

 

That would have been enough, honestly, but I wanted to taste more things, so I ordered two tacos — one with roasted chicken and one with with carnitas. Interestingly, I preferred the carnitas, and not just because I dislike white onions and had to pick them out of the chicken one. I think it was around this time that I noticed La Condesa has a house margarita that I hadn’t seen when I was perusing the drink menu the first time, and it has pineapple juice in it. So, clearly I had to order one.

The house margarita was better than the passion fruit-mango one, and it had some kind of magical “cactus salt” on the rim — a mixture of fancy salt, freeze-dried cactus and lemongrass. Really awesome. And since it was a two margarita brunch, I figured I had better get some dessert.

I ordered the cafe con leche dessert — a coffee-caramel pot de creme with creme fraiche and chocolate sandwich cookies. The cookie wafers were a little dry and the filling was overly sweet, but the pot de creme was divine.

As you can imagine, it ended up being a pretty expensive brunch, and I was so full I could barely stand it. But it was totally worth it.

After my crazy brunch, I walked around the area a bit, which is how I saw this statue of Willie Nelson (it apparently was unveiled at 4:20 p.m. on April 20). There were also several cute shops on the part of W. 2nd Street, and I got a new dress and a few bracelets before driving back to my hotel.

Then, Thursday of that week, I finally left the TownePlace Suites in Killeen (recommended if you ever are in town, by the way) with my new plant/dinosaur Bob, stopped at Round Rock Donuts again on the way to the airport, obviously, and came home to a breath-taking sunset. Texas has some gorgeous skies and wild sunflowers growing by the side of the road, but I think San Diego still wins.

 

If you are in Austin, I would highly recommend you try the Eastside Cafe, Elaine’s Pork & Pie and La Condesa. Amy’s is also good if you’re in the mood for ice cream, and they have several locations.