Oh, Kerbey

Ok, so we all know that Kerbey Lane is an Austin staple, famous for it’s queso and monster pancakes. The relaxed, homey feel of the restaurants and the um…interesting staff make Kerbey right at home in our city. I spent many a late night last year at Kerbey after shows and football games – the turkey avacado quesadilla is delicious.

That said, I have to go on a little rant about the new north location, which moved a little way up Highway 183 on August 21 — in a strip mall! This new Kerbey looks like a generic restaurant inside. There are no tell tale signs of the cool place it used to be. The old location was small, older and had interesting wall art. The new one has stucco walls with run-of-the-mill cheap art. If it weren’t for the sign, I’d never know it was a Kerbey at all.

New Kerbey Lane location

Apparently my views are shared by several other people who have been to this new location and missed the flare of the old Kerbey. To read more reader reviews about the new Kerbey Lane location, read this Statesman article.

Hotel San Jose

Exterior of Hotel San Jose from S. Congress (credit Jennifer H. @ yelp.com)

I love, love, love Hotel San Jose! Located on South Congress across the street from the Continental Club Hotel San Jose is an awesome spot to have a relaxed drink with a friend or spend the night.

Originally built in 1939 as the San Jose Motel, it became dilapidated and used to be a place where prostitutes and drug users stayed until gentrification began to occur and this are of Congress became known as ‘SOCO’.  In the 1990’s the hotel was purchased by Liz Lambert a Lawyer from NY. She planned to do an over-haul of the property and convert it to what it is today.

It took Lambert 2 years to get a bank to loan her money. So, in the meantime she decided to manage the old motel to make ends meet. She used a video camera to document many of the colorful characters and odd experiences she encountered during that time. She cut it into a documentary called: “Last Days of the San Jose.” The film premiered at SXSW in 2005.

Hotel San Jose is a boutique hotel oasis. There is an outside patio open to the public that serves drinks and snacks, occasionally the patio features local DJ’s.

Interior of a suite at Hotel San Jose (credit Clarissa R. @ yelp.com)

The rooms are modern and simplistic. The décor is mainly comprised of vintage posters of musician’s that have preformed in Austin.

As a hotel guest you can:
Check out music and videos
Rent bicycles
Barrow a manual Remington Premier typewriter or Polaroid camera

Hotel San Jose is dog friendly and room range from $95-$375 a night.

Movies in Austin: GRINDHOUSE

One reason I love Austin is because “Grindhouse” was filmed here. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are two of my favorite movie directors. If I ever grow a creepy personality and decide to stalk someone, Tarantino or Rodriguez would be the people I’d stalk. hmm.. or maybe Tim Burton.. yes…

Here’s a trailer of Grindhouse, in case you haven’t seen the movie..

more about "grindhouse – Google Video", posted with vodpod

And here’s a picture of Tarantino and Rodriguez at Austin’s GuitarTown during their visit in Austin for the premier of Grindhouse.

Tarantino and Rodriguez at Austin GuitarTown. Photo by Gary Miller

Places in Austin that were shown in the movie are:

• The Capitol building and Frost Tower in the movie trailer
• A shot of Colorado St. near the Alamo Drafthouse
• Jo’s and Home Slice Pizza on South Congress in a driving scene
• Indoor scenes of Guero’s and the Texas Chili Parlor
• Parking lot and back patio of the Omelettry on Burnet
• Burnet Road – you can make out Camp 4 Paws, Top Drawer Thrift Shop, Sonic and AAA Appliances during a suspenseful driving scene

Texas has such a unique scenery that it is often described as “a whole other country.” This has helped Austin to become one of the hottest centers for film production, and MovieMaker magazine recently ranked Austin as the #1 city amongst its list of “Top American Cities to be a MovieMaker.”

According to the Austin Business Journal, in 2006 “Austin leads all Texas cities in film and television total production budgets” for the sixth consecutive year. Austin has also appeared on the MovieMaker magazine’s annual ranking of the “best places to live, work and make movies” for six consecutive years.

For a list of movies and shows filmed in Austin, click here.

I am so disappointed that I didn’t get to see Tarantino when he was here in Austin!! Oh well.. I’ll just have to try to find out where Rodriguez is filming, since apparently he is in Austin filming Sin City 2 right now.

You guys will definitely be seeing a post about that pretty soon.

Oh, the weather outside is. . .alright.

Expect an incredible update from me on Tuesday all about the Fun Fun Fun Fest and why I love it so. Tonight, because the fest is only halfway through, I am going to focus on a main feature of all music fests in Austin:  the weather.

Austin weather is super unpredictable. Sometimes it will be clear blue skies, but raining by the afternoon. At other times, a random cold front will push in and chill you to the bone in your I-thought-it-was-warm shorts. For some, this unpredictability is something they hate about Austin.

For me, I love this. I love that, as late as November, when Frank Smith played at 1:35pm, I was sweating and toasty in jeans and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, whereas by 8:50pm, when The National’s stage difficulties were over and they came on to play their last show for “a long, long time” (according to the band,) my friend and I had already run back to the car to grab our jackets and huddle for warmth.

I love random rainstorms in the middle of the day.

I love how gorgeous a majority of Austin days are.

I do sometimes wish it was cooler a little longer (as I do love cold weather,) but ultimately, I love Austin weather just as it is, in all of its unpredictable glory. I type this even after shivering all of the way back to the car after the fest this evening. I even like the fact that I am caked in dust from Waterloo Park – it makes me feel like I take a part of the festival experience home. (Yes, I did even feel that way after my first ever ACL experience in Dust Bowl ‘05.) Call me optimistic, but I love our weather!

Rock on this weekend, Austin.

-Caitlin