Here’s the first of two posts of my visit to Austin (the second will be the documentation of my getting measured for and ordering custom cowboy boots. On the drive from San Angelo to Austin, which was largely on back roads, I got a good view of Texas country life. Many of the small towns are clearly dying, with their stores shuttered up, but Llano (home of KITY radio!), not far from Austin, retains the charm of small-town Texas life. It appears to be thriving, and has the classic central city hall of Texas, and the row of small stores surrounding its plaza:
This is right out of the movie “The Last Picture Show” (filmed in Archer City, Texas):
I arrived at the home of Matt Dillahunty and Beth Presswood in the early afternoon. Both are atheist activists: Matt co-hosts the the well-known Atheist Experience t.v. show and also does dozens of debates with theists, while Beth is co-host of the Godless Bitches podcast. Austin, being the exceptional Texas city that it is (it’s full of signs and bumper stickers saying, “Keep Austin Weird”, attesting to its non-Republican nature), has a thriving atheist community.
Matt loves reptiles, and has had several in his life, including a rattlesnake. Now he keeps two small ball pythons (Python regius):
For lunch on the day I arrived, we drove the 25 minutes or so to one of my favorite BBQ places, Black’s (established 1932), located in the BBQ Capital of Texas, Lockhart. (They have three famous joints in that small town.)
Here’s a video of Texas’s oldest family-run BBQ:
First you go through the “fixins” line to get potato salad, beans, mac and cheese, biscuits, cornbread, and desserts (including a fantastic warm peach cobbler):
Then you go to the meat section and specify whether you want, ribs, a giant beef rib (which looks like something Fred Flintstone would have eaten), smoked homemade sausage, and—my favorite—brisket. I got about a quarter-pound of brisket.
A lovely lunch (mine): brisket, potato salad, beans, jalapeno cornbread, and, of course, sweet tea. I had peach cobbler for dessert.
Beth and Matt are the staff for four cats. This is Dax, their orange tabby. He has a few stripes but looks a lot like an Abyssinian:
Matt loves his kitties. He claims that he was once a d*g man, but that cats are “growing on him.” Beth is clearly the motivating force behind the feline melange:
This is Hana, a beautiful green-eyed tabby:
Bonsai, the tortoiseshell cat:
There is also a calico named Miso, but she’s shy. I snapped them all at feeding time:
Matt is an accomplished magician, and often performs at atheist conventions when he’s not arguing against theism. He was kind enough to set up his magic table and show me a full hour of close-up magic. It was amazing. He did card tricks, coin tricks, and other tricks, and I had no idea how he did them although he was sitting only a few feet from me.
Here I asked him to set out four “perfect” bridge hands in order, and then shuffle them. He did so repeatedly, cutting and shuffling, and continued until I asked him to stop. Then he fanned out the cards and, mirabile dictu, the suits were still in order. (Clearly he was only pretending to shuffle, but it sure as hell looked real to me. This takes skill acquired from years of practice!)
After I spent 2.5 hours ordering boots (Matt came along because he was interested in boots and owns two pair), we had a nice sushi lunch, Texas style. One of the rolls was called “Texas roadkill roll” and others had jalapenos in them.
And that evening for dinner we went to a famous Austin chain of taco restaurants (now found throughout Texas), Torchy’s Tacos. (Note to Colorado readers: there’s one in Denver, too! Don’t miss it.) Beth favors striking clothes, and here she was a vision in orange:
The food was fantastic. We started with a bowl of molten queso and chips to whet our appetite. I had a lemonade that was pink as it was flavored with red opuntia cactus fruit.
My dinner: a pork and green chile taco and a chicken taco. They were superb: the ingredients were fresh and homemade: the signature of Torchy’s. Two of them (for about six bucks) is an ample meal. Torchy’s is always crowded.
In between boot ordering and eating, Matt and I had lots of conversations about religion, atheism, debating, and so on. I wish I had consulted him when I wrote my latest book: he’s immensely knowledgeable. At any rate, he taped one of our conversations for a video for his Patreon patrons (join the others if you can spare some dosh; it’s a great cause), and I’ll put it up when it’s edited and available.
Thanks to Matt and Beth for their hospitality in Austin!
I recently encountered a “tabbouleh roll”. Diced tomato and cucumber, chopped mint and cilantro, and a little lime juice, as the filling. Not bad as vege sushi goes.
I love a good tabbouleh. But I would prefer to have some raw seafood with my tabbouleh roll! I think it would pair very well, actually.
Another great travel log. After nearly 11 years of living in Texas, I would agree it’s a great place to visit but not my favorite place to live.
Austin or San Antonio are the best. The BBQ is the best anywhere. Some say the Mexican Food gets better the further south you go in Texas. When you go to those places like this where they make their own, you won’t want to go to Taco Bell again.
Snakes, cats, magic tricks . . . ??? Sounds like perfect atheist heaven to me!
If you’re still in Austin, I can’t recommend enough going to the bridge downtown and watching the bats fly out for their nightly foraging. The colony is (was) estimated at over a million and is so dense and numerous they show up on local weather radar when they fly out in the evenings.
I did that on my last two visits to Austin. A truly amazing sight.
Jerry, I hope you never get back home because these posts are phenomenal. As a Canadian, I am completely awestruck by the fabulously varied food that Americans have access to!! Scrumptious!!
Well, I’m hungry again and now dissatisfied with the food I have on hand.
Jerry, if you want a second career as a travel guide, I’m sure it’s there for you for the taking.
b&
I think Jerry doing a show something similar to Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations could work very well. But the locals he meets up with in the various locations he travels would be biased towards interesting skeptics / atheists. And the same with the historical and cultural contents of the show.
Unbelievable looking food.
BBQ has certainly become all the rage everywhere, and even here in Toronto you can’t turn a corner without hitting a new Southern Cooking/BBQ place.
But what I wouldn’t give to haven joined Prof CC for that meal at a real deal BBQ place.
It must be a blast hanging out with Matt!
What a great time.
Any Toronto BBQ places you can recommend, Vaal, now that the Pan Am games are over?
merilee,
There are so many now and I haven’t tried nearly all of them.
The Stockyards is one of the best and quite reliable. Their chicken and waffles is supreme. They do their special ribs and smoked chicken two days a week – Friday and Sunday I think, and they are great. The Stockyards has INCREDIBLE biscuits, probably the best I’ve had anywhere, including anywhere in the States that I’ve tried.
(It’s a tiny place, fun to watch the chefs if you get a seat at the bar overlooking the kitchen).
For brisket, pulled pork and chicken sandwiches, The Black Camel off Yonge not far above Bloor is always fantastic – always ridiculously tender and juicy.
I’ve been meaning to try probably the most well-known and popular BBQ place, Barque Smokehouse in Roncesvalles. It’s a terrific looking menu and seems to be the “go to” place for a big BBQ experience.
Other honorable mentions:
Electric Mud BBQ.
I mean to try it even before I get to Bargue.
Electric Mud is fairly new, a hipster’s ode to the type of BBQ off the highway stop you might make in the states, but they are highly lauded, especially for their “crack rolls,” a super addictive biscuit/bun.
Aft Kitchen and Bar has been getting good notices for their BBQ, and I don’t think it’s one of those hard to get into places either.
Big Crow for a fun eating under a big tent picnic vibe.
A lot of people raving about Smoque N’ Bones as well.
So much food, so little time (and Arterial spacs…)
“and Arterial space…”
Thanks, Vaal;-)
Yum!! Thanks, Vaal. At first I thought you meant Arterial Spaces was the name of a restaurant?
my southern bf thanks you for the biscuits in advance;-)
If you hit The Stockyards usually their huge country biscuits are quite fresh.
Pro Tip: Ask them to split a biscuit and throw it on the grill. That lightly toasted biscuit top with a spread of their lemon butter…mmmm.
And don’t forget to take some home. They are great re-heated.
Gotta try this soon!
I lived in Austin for 2 years in the ’70’s. Still miss it!
Matt Dillahunty was one of my earliest online atheist crushes. He is brilliant and deserves to be better known. I was hoping you might do a stint on “The Atheist Experience” TV show Jerry.
Couldn’t agree more. I was going to say something similar.
I want to eat all of that food you showed, Dr. C. I’d also have to try a tiny bit of ALL the fixins on offer.
The only connection to this thread is “road trip”, but how about the Ethiopians bringing the Lucy skeleton to Obama!
I am really enjoying the travelogue pics — thank you!
Glad you enjoyed Austin! Next time stay a bit longer if you can. Mann’s BBQ is one of my faves for your next visit, and I’m sure some one probably mentioned the justifiably famous Salt Lick BBQ.
I bought FvF this weekend, better tell BookPeople here to order more copies, since I got the next-to-last one. 🙂
Many of those small town Texas city halls and courthouses are beautiful buildings, and make interesting use of local materials. The Llano example is particularly nice.
Glad you got to eat at Black’s BBQ – everything looks delicious, and your photos make me want to drop my work responsibilities and drive up to Lockhart for lunch!
I’ve been in Austin, but I can’t remember that our US guides at the time hit any of those places. Austin is more “european” (and academic) than the usual Texas fare, so that was the reason they wanted us to go there.
Indeed it (Austin) is (more “European”). It would be wonderful to see Austin’s powerful mojo begin to infect the rest of Texas.
Houston is a better city than Austin and is weird naturally.
Tastes vary. I like Austin much better than Houston. Not that I particularly dislike Houston, Houston is fine. I’ve had some good times in Houston.
I agree, but then I’m biased because I grew up in Houston. Houston is a much more diverse, international city than is Austin, and as you say, it’s naturally weird. Weird in an interesting way, because there are inhabitants originating from every part of the globe, with all the fascinating cultural influences they bring. Can’t really say that about Austin – it’s rather parochial, IMO.
Why visit the US and seek out places that are more “European?”
Good question. The last thing I want when I am exploring foreign lands is to find a copy of US culture.
Matt Dillahunty did a very funny satire of God while he was in Australia with Aron Ra and Seth Andrews. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GYI0WZCquc
That was excellent!
I like to think I played a small role in getting you guys together on this trip.
I drive through Archer City somewhat regularly (last time was last week), and for looks, I’d give Llano the edge over Archer City for their courthouse. Archer City isn’t exactly thriving, but they do seem to have revitalized it a bit since I first started driving through a little over a decade a go. Larry McMurtry’s Booked Up (http://www.bookedupac.com/) is definitely worth a visit. There are a few really depressing towns out this way (do a google image search on Chillicothe), so Archer City isn’t too bad by comparison.
Sushi in Texas! What will they think of next? 😉
I’d definitely like to spend some time in Austin… eating…!
Fantastic food. I used to live in Austin. Amazing cuisine throughout the city. And Steven Weinberg lives there, practically making it the center of the known universe.