Summer Break for Grazing Group

For all the thousands of followers (lol) of this blog, we are having a summer break only after 3 outings.  Not really by choice but so much is going on with people on vacation including myself to the Carolinas and also Kenny had to have foot surgery and has been unable to get around for about 2 weeks so far and probably another couple of weeks.  He usually doesn't go but I have been sticking close to the house when not at work to keep him company :).  Will post more reviews about our future outings later gator!

More Hopdoddy Reviews

Two more reviews for Hopdoddy were received today and they are both very good recommendations for this place on South Congress. 
Mary says she found the pace clean and fun with a great atmosphere and the staff was very nice.  It seemed to her like our food was at the table in 5 minutes, it arrived so fast.  She had the Ahi-Tuna burger on wheat bun.  "De-licious"!!  She writes it literally tasted like sushi on a bun and said if you like sushi you would love this burger.  She is absolutely going back again and wants to try to other burgers available there!
Ed says he liked the busy place and that it had a lot of atmosphere.  He says we hit it at the right time as far as a wait time.  He liked the wait staff and said it was a different kind of service.  He also had the Ahi-Tuna Burger and said it was "great".  His tip is to ask for extra wasabi if you like it spicy!  He also enjoyed his drink which was the Texas Greyhound.  When asked if he would go back again, he said Yes! Yes!
Thanks to you both for your reviews of Hopdoddy Burger Bar.
Everyone be sure and try this spot when you want a really good burger, beer and fun time.
Keep reading the blog until next time to find out when and where we are going!!

HopDoddy Burger Bar -3rd Grazing congress outing

Time again for another outing on South Congress.  Tonight we went to Hopdoddy Burger Bar.  The name Hop is for beer & Doddy is for cow, thus Hopdoddy.  The place was excellent.  It is set up where you grab a menu, get in line and order your food/drink.  While in line, a server gives you a table number, we were 34 and after you order and pay, your food/drinks are delivered to your table.  Being a Tuesday night it was a short line when we first arrived about 6:15 so we did not wait long in line.  When we were leaving though about 7:30, the line was getting long and almost out the door.  I ordered a turkey burger (Continental Club) and it was probably the best turkey burger I ever ate!  All the buns are made fresh there and my burger had bacon on it also.  It was great!!  I forgot to take the critique sheets so there will more reviews to follow tomorrow.  I had the Sangrita for my drink and it was good too.  There were 5 of us there, myself, Gina C., Linda R. Mary O. and Ed.  It is always nice to meet new people and thanks Ed for buying large fries and sharing with us all.  This place gets a 5star, A+ rating.  I know everyone said their food was great.  There is a parking garage right behind the restaurant so parking was easy and Hopdoddy validated the ticket so parking was free.  Some people were able to find a place right on the street.
Tonight turned into a chance to review another place on South Congress, Hey Cupcake.  Several of us decided to walk down the street to Hey Cupcake and have a cupcake for dessert.  I had the John Lemon (whippersnapper) which was very moist and very delicious.  The whippersnapper is free whipped cream stuck in the middle of the cupcake.  See picture below of the cupcake.
Overall it was a great night of great food and friends getting together.  More Reviews will be forthcoming.  See pics below.  Gina, you get the prize so far for making all three Tuesday night outings.

Lucy's Fried Chicken Photos

Mary with Lucy t-shirt

Teresa & Debbie

Jonathan

Gina & Mary

Lucy's Fried Chicken-YUM

Gina, Mary, Paula

Fun at Lucy's, 2nd Grazing Congress Outing

Boy, did we have a fun time tonight at Lucy's Fried Chicken!  There were a total of 6 of us.  We ate outside in the picnic area which was very nice & cool.  Our waitress named Sam was great.  She saw our critique sheets and said "are y'all taking notes?  Let me start over."  The only problem with the place is the parking, I circled the block several times until I found a spot along the street by the catholic school.  Two ladies braved the HEB parking lot even with signs warning that vehicles would be towed if left there.  Luckily, both the cars were still there after our dinner.  We counted the actual spots for Lucy's and there are 8, 9 if you count the handicap spot so like a lot of downtown Austin places, parking can be a challenge.  It was worth the trouble though to find a parking spot. 
We had no wait time and were told to sit wherever we liked.  We picked a table in the shade and under the fan.  Mary, who is new to Austin, joined us and bought a Lucy's t shirt (see picture below) as her cat is named Lucy.  Mary, it was great to have you join us and I hope you will keep coming.  Also Debbie H. joined us for the first time, welcome Debbie.  Last but not least my stepson Jonathan came and joined us for dinner.
Lucy's had some unique cocktails, Mary and I had the Juicy Lucy which was a watermelon margarita, very good but very strong!  Gina tried and liked the Donkey Show and Debbie had a Front Porch Tea.  Jonathan drank a Texas 512 IPA beer. 
Now on to the food.  Everybody raved about the food.  I ordered a bucket of fried chicken for myself, Jonathan & Gina.  The menu says it will feed 4 but I brought more than half the bucket home to Kenny so it was a large bucket and the chicken was very very good.  The two sides I tried were mexican coke sweet potatoes (as good as they sound) and grilled smashed potatoes (which were potatoes smashed flat and then grilled).  They were also delicious.  I tried the fried deviled egg and it was good too.  I guess you can fry anything and it will taste good.  We had to try the pie also so we tried two out of the five.  The lime pie (lime custard) was my favorite and it was very tart.  The shoofly (oatmeal strudel with molasses) pie was good too and reminded us of a pumpkin pie.  Enough from me, here are the other comments from the group.
Jonathan said the wait time and the waitress were good. He had the fried chicken and said it was great with an awesome taste and flavor.  When asked if he would go back, he said "why not?"  He was the only one of us that could remember what our waitress said her name was.  Maybe her age had something to do with that!
Mary said the place was fun and clean, that our waitress was very nice and funny and that the wait time was perfect.  She had the vegetable skewers (she was the winner for healthy choices).  She said the skewers were delicious but could have had more vegetables on them.  The veggies were grilled perfectly and they had a great vinaigrette dressing.  There was a grilled cactus pad at the bottom of the plate and she said it tasted like cactus :).  Mary will go back there again.
Teresa said the waitress was very nice but she was scared of the food.  She ordered cornbread dressing and grilled corn on the cob.  I did not know this but she does not like any meat on the bone and definitely was not fond of the fried chicken gizzards or fried chicken.  The grilled corn was too spicy for her with cajun spices.  She will not go back.  Sorry Teresa but you were great company and a good sport!  More reviews to come from Gina.
Debbie was our "steak night" tester and she had the Tuesday night steak special.  She said it was good and had great flavors in the steak and potatoes.  She liked their unique drink selections.  She commented "flys were the only problem but what do you expect outdoors?"
Overall it was a very fun night with new and old friends.  Our next outing will be June 5.  Time and place to be announced.  See pictures below and in the next blog.

2nd stop, Lucy's Fried Chicken! Yum Yum.

OK, stop number 2, coming up May 22 at 6:15 pm, will be Lucy's Fried Chicken.  I ate here with my bosses (all 6 of them, even Chris from California was in town) and it is a great place.  There is an outdoor picnic area which will be perfect for our group.  Tuesday night does happen to be steak night for anyone interested but I want to try the fried chicken, appears to be best in Austin according to my bosses ;) so we will see.
I browsed their website and they have some eclectic Austin food to say the least.  Fried deviled eggs, smashed potatoes, sweet tea pie, and a watermelon margarita called Juicy Lucy which I plan to try.
I hope everyone can make it.  I will have the review sheets for you to fill out and YES I will take a few pictures.   That was a big surprise to the 1st group. lol 
The address is 2218 College which is just off Congress north of Oltorf.  Come if you can!

Robyn's Review

Part of our Grazing Congress club is to share our input on the eatery.  So, here goes mine.  I got there a little early, so I enjoyed watching the traffic on Congress and the homeless guys on the other cross street.  The traffic was busy and the homeless guys Happi Hour had obviously started a lot earlier than mine.  It reminded me how some things have changed in Austin (traffic) while others remain the same (homeless having fun!)  The restaurant wasn't full at all when we entered.  This made it feel very much like we were the center of their attention.  If you don't know our group, it's no surprise we are the center of their attention!  That's how we roll.  I already had my mind set on a tall margarita.  Remember, some things never change.  Guess what  - my margarita was served in a very tall and slender glass.  It was very tasty.  Happi Hour ended at 6:30 so right around 6:29, I save a whole dollar while ordering another drink on the HH menu!  My daddy always said, "Every dollar counts"  :)  Great salsa - if you like it hot, and I do, it'll fire you right up.  I eat a lot lighter these days than in the past - so I had tortilla soup.  It wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was tasty.  It had too much liquid and not enough chicken.  Guess I should have ordered a chicken enchilada.  LOL  Again, it was very tasty and what I did eat certainly filled me up.  The waitress was precious.  She took her time and made it obvious she wasn't in a hurry to "turn the table" so we took our time chatting and laughing.  The waitress made sure to bring us pralines, which I was strong and didn't have one.  On the way out to our cars, Paula and I decided to take a picture under the ElGallo sign.  As I reflect back on the picture it reminded me when I first moved to Austin and Congress avenue was where tons of prostitutes "worked the street" - literally.  I would see these half dresses hookers standing by the street, typically leaning on a 'pole'.  Guess next time we might want to keep our "stand by the sign" a little farther from the street. Might want to take a clorox wipe to clean the pole we stand by next time!  Well, for our first Grazing Congress I give it a solid A+.  Many thanks to the organizer - Paula Stewart!

El Gallo - 1st stop, Grazing Congress

Five of us enjoyed the first night of the Grazing Congress food group tonight at El Gallo on south Congress in Austin, TX.  Thanks to the friends at work who went and hope many more will join us for the next outing on May 22.  I heard from many who couldn't make it tonight for various reasons.  A big thank you to my sweet husband who was ready to go with me if no one else was going!  I took him P.Terrys carry out home.
We had an awesome time.  Started off with a few drinks, margaritas, frozen and on the rocks, I tried a vanilla vodka cherryade that was fabulous.  Everyone was given a critique sheet for making comments and posting to this blog about the restaurant.
El Gallo has been open since 1957 and is nestled under a few oak trees on South Congress.  Things are changing all around it but it hasn't changed one bit.  I have not been there in about 10 years and it felt like coming home and brought back good memories.
*My critique is as follows:
Ambiance was very nice, it was comfortable and the place was very clean.  There was no wait for a table.  Our waitress, Michelle, was very nice, joked about checking our IDs and was kind enough to take our picture.  She was very knowledgeable about the menu and offered suggestions.  She kept our drinks filled and was very attentive but not to the point of driving us crazy.
I ordered the carnitas plate.  It was stewed tender pork roast and it was very good.  It came with avocado slices, corn tortillas and rice and beans.  The chips were OK but not the best and the salsa was pretty hot.  Will I go back again?  Definitely!!
*Gina C. commented about the mariachi music playing over the speakers and that there was a nice patio that we didn't use as it was rainy outside.  The time to place our order was delayed but at our request.  Gina mentions also how friendly and knowledgeable the waitress was and states she was attentive but not overbearing.
Gina had chili rellano which was delicious with a :).  It contained ground beef, carrots, pecans and queso.  Gina will go back and wants to try the weight watcher plate of chicken, veggies and queso.  Yes they have a ww plate at a mexican food restaurant.  Gina loved the company and had a good time and said the margaritas were good.  Come out and join our next Grazing Congress event on May 22.  Place and time to be announced!

Tomorrow night - May 8 at 7 PM-El Gallo

Just posted on facebook that we will begin the eating out group on Congress tomorrow night at 7 PM at El Gallo.  Will post reviews and pictures soon so stay tuned.....

One Week Away -

We are one week away tonight from the start of the Grazing Congress food tour.  I think the place to start is El Gallo.  It is the oldest restaurant on South Congress, it is open until 10 PM, has great parking and will be good for our first get together.  The Mexican food plates range from $7 - $13 so they are priced right.  Also, this restaurant opened in 1957, the same year I was born so that was my deciding fact to pick this place to start us off.  I will have some short paper feedback sheets for us which you can fill out and I will post on this blog or the blog is open for anyone who eats with us to post their own feedback.  I will put the exact address on fb and this blog when the day gets closer.  We will meet in the parking lot at El Gallo at 7 pm.  See ya then. 

More Info for the Grazing Congress project.

After a closer review of the Urban Spoon SoCo restaurants, the 151 count includes spots on 1st street and the surrounding area and not just South Congress.  Their list also includes fast food places like Whataburger and McDonalds.  We won't go to those and we will also skip the $$$ and $$$$ range of restaurants for obvious reasons.  Some places listed are desserts so we could hit two spots in one night, for example, Home Slice Pizza and Hey Cupcake on one night.  Having trouble deciding how to go about choosing them.  Should we go in alphabetical order or should we start north to south.    I got a lot of suggestions today of great places and everyone has their favorite.  Here are two pictures of two food trailers I have been to and loved them both.  The first is Cutie Pie Wagon and the second is Hey Cupcake.  Let's go chow down in A-town. lol.  I have had about 6 people show interest in doing this with me.  Can't wait.  My husband though is less than excited and will probably not join in.  I might talk him into a few nights when we eat mexican food at El Gallo or Guero's.

Let's Go Explore Eateries on South Congress

I am starting this blog for a group of family and friends to explore the fun and cool eateries on South Congress in Austin, TX.  Every other Tuesday night at 7 PM we will meet at a different place for dinner.  We will report back our experiences here on this blog.  The Urban Spoon website lists 151 eating places on Congress including the food trailers.  It will take us awhile but my goal for the group is to eat at all of them and give feedback, take pictures, and basically just enjoy good food with friends and family.  Jonathan is the first to sign up for the group.  Tune in for more information about where we will go the first Tuesday night which will be May 8, 2012.  Hope you will join us!!

Bon Appetit!