Austin, Texas: barbecue, Tex-Mex, live music, outdoor thrills in the ‘capital of weird’
- The Texas capital is one of the fastest growing cities in the US, and with its relaxed vibe, great cuisine and warm climate, it’s not hard to understand why
- Visit the food trucks, go shopping along South Congress and enjoy a cocktail with a film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
There isn’t one specific reason that the population of Austin, Texas, has been growing by an estimated 150 people per day in recent years. There is the food, the bar scene, the booming tech industry and the weather.
“This is a city where nobody who lives here likes to stay home. Everybody wants to go out, be entertained, be fed,” says Matt Moore, Austin native and co-owner of Dive Bar and Lounge. And with hundreds of thousands pouring in for the city’s renowned festivals, flourishing food scene, and live music venues, the growth will not stop any time soon.
Until recently, if you knew Austin, it was as the place you had to “Keep Weird” (“keep Austin Weird” being the citywide unofficial slogan adopted in 2000), or as the home of South by Southwest (SXSW). A home-grown festival combining “the worlds of interactive, film, music, and comedy”, it has developed into a two-week citywide party that in 2018 drew over 420,000 attendees.
Many of the Americans flocking to live in Austin or to visit are not only seeking out its world-famous barbecue and Tex-Mex cuisine, or a festival badge. They are looking for a relaxed, Western way of life, away from the chill of the northeast – and which costs about half what they would pay on either coast.
Keeping Austin fed
In other parts of America, food from a truck is often seen as a sub-par alternative to the fare in sit-down eateries. Austin’s food trucks, however, are justifiably famous. The city has the second highest concentration of them in America, and most outdoor bars – outside the downtown area – hold space for accompanying food trucks that keep patrons sated and seated for more cocktails.