Austin, TX (my last trip for now)

I've finally returned to NY from my month of weekend travelling. 3 Cities in 3 weekends!

From what I've heard, Austin is the liberal enclave of Texas. I'd only been to Texas once before, and I didn't get to see much during a short visit, and that trip was over 8 years ago, I don't think Bush was president yet, and Texas really wasn't on my radar. At the least, this trip would be a learning experience.

Austin turns out to be very eco-conscious, especially including the people I stayed with and their friends who I met. My host showed me her compost heap and her vegetable garden. Her roomate was into designing clothes from recycled products like plastic garbage bags. Pretty cool. My host described all of her housemates as vegetarian.

I have heard and read that Austin is a pretty vegan-friendly city, and this definately turned out to be the case. There were vegan and raw restaurants and juice bars scattered throughout the city that I happened to come by as I biked around the town. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stop at too many places, but here is a rundown of the places I did get to try:

The Parlor (Friday Dinner)

The pizza was impressive, as our toppings we got jalepeno peppers, mushrooms, and [vegan] sausage with the [vegan] cheese. It was also a total dive which I say gets the place some extra points. The menu had all kinds of vegan options! I approve.

Veggie Heaven (Brunch Saturday)

This was essentially an Asian vegetarian fusion restaurant, I can't think of anything in NYC to compare it to - I'd put it somewhere along the lines of Vegetarian Palate but less glamourous. was a genuinely good restaurant with a billion vegan options, and everything was reasonably priced, the kind of place I would probably frequent if conveniently located.

Toy Joy (Sat. Afternoon Snack)

A stop at Toy Joy was well worth it, its a souped up toy store / gag gift / novelty shop, but in the back they have a cafe and bar. They sell vegan soft serve, and it was damn good.

Mother's Cafe and Garden (Saturday Dinner and Sunday Brunch)

Well the plan was to get some genuine Tex-Mex for dinner Saturday night, and then go here for brunch on Sunday morning. Too bad we weren't ready for dinner until quite late on Saturday and the best places were too crowded or too far, so we settled on dinner at Mother's, since I was told they have a good Tex Mex menu. At first I was disappointed not to get to try at least one other restaurant, but fortunately the enchiladas here were off the wall! I got the spinach mushroom and tried some of my friend's spicy tempeh, I also got a full salad with guac for $3.

For brunch the next morning, we got mimosas, and pretty much everything else on their menu: pancakes, potatoes, veg. sausage patty, and I ordered the juevos (tofu) a la Mexicana. No complaints.

All in all, it was a very vegan weekend in Austin, I will have to go back at some point and see everything I missed.