Week 3: East Austin Cool

My adventure for Week 3 took me to the cool and hip east side of Austin.  The purpose of the journey was to absorb and enjoy the coolness and hipness of it all, and just to make the most of a beautiful spring day.

A fabulous day can only be made better by pizza.

East Side Pies is located deep in the heart of east Austin.  Next to Home Slice Pizza (in the equally hip South Congress area) and Italy (the country) I have never had more delicious pizza.  

However, unlike Home Slice and Italy (the country) East Side Pies does not serve beer.  If you want a cold one to go with your pizza you'll have to hit up the Ideal Soul Mart across the street while your pizza's cooking.  Note:  The Ideal Soul Mart is apparently so cool that, in true east side hipster fashion, it has inspired the nomenclature of a local band.

In keeping with the east side hipster Austin indie music theme (I don't know where that came from because I'm pretty sure I was talking about pizza. But oh well; that's the east side for you.), while you're sipping your brown paper bag clad Lone Star and waiting for your pizza to cook, you could take a stroll through the uber cool Trailer Space record shop, where they sell actual records.  Remember those?  Maybe not.  They also sell art and bread mix and condoms.  The owner's name is "Spot".  If that ain't hipster, I don't know what is.

Meanwhile, back at the pizza joint, you can enjoy the alfresco dining area and peruse fliers for local cool upcoming happenings.  I'm not sure what East Side Pies does during extreme weather because there is no indoor seating.  Probably you just get your pizza to go and eat it in your dining room where there are, presumably, no cool fliers of upcoming events to review.  Maybe.

This is what your pizza looks like.  Mmmmmmm.  The crust is super thin making it possible for you (me) to easily eat at least 5 slices.  This trip, though, I modestly limited myself to a slice and a half.

My east Austin cool tour continued on to 11th street.  Below is a shot of the historic Victory Grill which has been "nourishing the soul since 1945".  I guess it just continues the (unexpected) theme of food and music as the Victory Grill definitely and effectively combines both of those things.  Since 1945, apparently.  Although I only passed by it on my way to my destination, I think I'll have to go back and check it out.  Something tells me they have excellent collard greens.

My goal, however, what another type of green.  I found my way into the Longbranch Inn.

The Longbranch Inn's claim to fame, other than being situated in a crazy cool and hip section of east Austin, is that its bar, the actual bar part of the bar, used to be the bar at the legendary Driskill Hotel on Austin's (neither cool nor hip) 6th Street.

I like my greens cold, canned, and served on the back patio.  It was exactly the right spot for observing east Austin's local wildlife in its natural setting...

...and monitoring its nourishment preferences and communication modes.