Friday, April 21, 2006

Austin City Limits

So, I was out of town on Tuesday and Wednesday meeting with Apple Computers at their Austin campus. My company's Apple rep took us out to dinner @ Eddie V's Edgewater Grill. The food was delicious. We had a seafood sampler platter (with calmari, shrimp, lobster tail, and scallops), then I had a Caesar salad and a 12 oz. Filet Mignon (rare). And well they weren't kidding on the "rare" part- it was cool and red in the middle.

I was cooped up in Apple's Austin campus for much of the day on Wednesday so I saw very little of Austin. I saw a small chunk of the UT campus including where my company will be opening a store this summer, and I saw a bit of the city over by Eddie V's and BookPeople.

The Austin airport was kind of nice, it seemed a bit cleaner than O'Hare, but considering it's a fraction of the size of O'Hare it's probably considerably easier to keep clean. The most surreal experience of the trip was listening to the Asian-American guy at Wok & Roll singing along to country music and telling his customers that the "karaoke" was free.

Oh and it was HOT-- according to the locals, even by Austin standards it was quite hot for April. Being a pasty white boy with more than a fair share of Scandinavian blood in me, I'm really not used to that kind of heat, well at least not in April (July and August in Chicago can get just as hot after all).

5 comments:

SK said...

Glad to hear you enjoyed your short stay! I've never been to Eddive V's... too expensive. I hear it's really good, though.

'Tis a shame you didn't get to venture out more. I think you'd like it. austin has a lot to offer.

I love it here but could do without the 90+ degree temps in April. Summer is always looming around here.

Wok n roll comment was hilarious! That's typical Austin!

Susan as Herself said...

I've heard Austin is a cool town----would like to visit it. There's supposed to be sort of a funky/artsy area that sounds great.

Perplexio said...

lostintx: I believe I'll be going back in a few months to help with setting up the new store going in on Guadolupe where the Tower Records used to be.

Eddie V's was awesome! But I was surprised at how limited the steak offerings were. There's a chophouse near where I work that I've been to for business dinners that has a much more extensive "steak" menu. That being said Eddie V's seafood selections all sounded very good-- but heck when I'm in Texas-- well I think of STEAK, y'know what I mean?

Susan: I really didn't get a chance to see/enjoy Austin. If/when I'm back down there I'm hoping timing will allow me to more fully enjoy the sites and sounds. There are "Keep Austin Weird" T-shirts, bumper stickers, window decals, etc. etc. EVERYWHERE.

SK said...

Yes, we are weird. We even have a local cross dresser who has become quite famous. He can often be seen downtown crusing the streets in various outfits. He's run for mayor quite a few times (his candidate pic consists of him in a red feather boa) and last time he got 3rd place! Scary....

As far as steak goes, I really like Texas Land and Cattle (although I think they are a chain). Texas Roadhouse is good too (partially owned by Willie Nelson). Salt Lick has really good ribs too.

They probably wanted to impress ya'll by taking you to Eddie V's.

The store on Guad should do really well. I'll be in that area today shopping also. Lots of money is spent there by all the rich UT kids.

Perplexio said...

LostinTx: I got that vibe too. It's in a rather high traffic area. They'll be sending several people from the home office here in Oak Brook down in 2 or 3 day shifts probably. I'll be volunteering to go down and help out. I'm going to try to time it so I can go down at the same time as my friend/co-worker Chris. He's about my age and was the usher at my wedding, so I figure in the evenings when we're done setting up he and I can check out the Austin bar scene together.