I woke up today thinking that one of the reasons Austin seems great to so many people has to do with the dining culture. They must eat out more frequently, I thought, perhaps because the city offers so many low-cost eateries.
This report gives credence to my theory that it all comes down to dining, but beyond that, it confounds me. It says Atlantan's spend the highest PERCENTAGE of the food budget on Dining out, but that Austins have the highest total food budget.
I understand that Austin buys its groceries at expensive outlets like WholeFoods and Central Market, but that still doesn't seem to add up to me.
I wonder if the report takes into consideration that in Austin people are buying Booze as a "Grocery" at the supermarket? Or, for that matter, bars and happyhours are inflating both sides of the Austin metric.
I wonder if , and this is touchy ground here, Atlanta Poor eat out more than Austin Poor, or if that could even explain something like this.
http://money.bundle.com/article/food-spending-in-the-biggest-US-cities-11040
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Friday, August 26
Wait a minute honey I'm gonna add it up
by
Sean
on August 26, 2011 08:53AM (PDT)
Tuesday, August 23
Polo down to my socks Im posted in the A
In one glorious west-side block, Atlanta shows how to throw it big city cultural and gastronomical weight around. Smaller, 'it' cities like Austin may be more compact and uniformly hip, but they can't keep up with the pearl of the South.
Abattoir, which is as comprehensive and detailed a meat-lover’s shrine as any in this county, sits just across a small footbridge. On the other end of the building JCT Kitchen has taken over One Midtown’s claim as the perfect mid-price date restaurant. And if you are thinking, ‘Yeah but in my city you can get great food for far cheaper”, this same city corner in Atlanta gives you ‘Yeah! Burger”, a burger bar whose only equal in Austin is Frank, a hotdog bar. Hidden underneath it all is Ormsbys’ a fun-pub extravaganza with indoor bocce ball, shuffleboard, billiards and a top notch bar-menu that, were it opened in Austin, would be heralded as evidence of that city’s vibrant youthful culture. The corner also has wine and clothes boutiques, and the James-Beard nominated Taqueria del sol, which has had a queue out front for 12 years straight minus Sundays. I've never loved this taco stand, and while I ultimately give the Mexican food nod to Austin, Taqueria del Sol is better than Austin's much loved equivalent, Taco Deli. Yeah, I said it. (Sushi nod goes to Austin too, thanks to Uchi, and Soto's betrayal of Atlanta. Yes, I’m still bitter). A small block south lies the West Egg, which in another city would be the standout breakfast star. It runs rings around Austin favorite Kerby Lane, but in Atlanta, it’s throwing elbows with a slew of restaurants that compete for breakfast dominance (Flying Biscuit, NH Bakery, Murphy's, Rita's Blue Bird). The Northside Lounge has been offering live blues every night in its charmingly uncondemned hotbox just across the street, . They may fight to keep Austin Weird, but the Northside Lounge is effortlessly unaffected as can be, and unlike all of Austin, has never felt it needed a 'weirdness' movement to protect its unmolested existence. A mile north gets you to Richard Blaise’s famed burger-bar Flip. Turn left and make the mile long trek to the interior-Mexican favorite Nuevo Laredo Cantina. NLC's mole rivals any I had in Austin, but sits in a roadhouse, that would be heralded as a shining example of austin-roots-chic were it there. Here, is quietly serves hard hats and truckers mid-day and overflows with swarms of professionals each night. All of this is mere Minutes away are miles of picturesque neighborhoods hidden behind rolling hills and under white oak canopies and intertwined with beautiful golf courses and three of the top private schools in the state. Thanks to the Atlanta Real estate Market’s crash, prices in these neighborhoods, which to blanket the northern half if the inside-the-perimeter area, are an unbelievable value. They are not all cheap, but Atlanta's hard-hit real-estate market allows for prices that beat rival suburban townhouse prices years ago. But these houses are mere minutes away the West Side Provisions district, and more importantly, Midtown Proper, proudly and unabashedly the heart of the South’s greatest city. Midtown’s Fabulous Fox theater
and the sprawling Piedmont Park are triumphant centerpieces of big-city
Southern Living. Though not offering the variety of activities of
Austin’s Zilker park, like spring fed pools and disc-golf, Piedmont is better
located, more picturesque, offers on-site dining, open air theater, and
botanical gardens. The Fox is a world class theater that wows you on movie
night and blows you away during a Broadway show. Get dressed up and
eat at Master Chef Kevin Smith's Empire State South then walk to
the Fox to see a play, then finish with a drink and Ecco and you will have
experiences as elegant of a night as this country offers. A
dozen other magnificent nights in a dozen other distinctive neighborhoods spring to mind. If the Fox isn't
‘weird’ enough, or 'real' enough, or edgy enough, try underground dance at MJQ,
urban speakeasy at the Sound Table, award world class new rock at the Earle,
drive-in theater at the Star-light, Drink-in-movies and independent-films
at midtown arts cinema, or the myriad of quirky parks dotting the east side.
Not athletic enough? Try biking the epic length, family safe, silver comet
trail, or try your hand at the world class in-town mountain biking
trails. Not expensive enough? Try the high-end amenities of Lenox
and bottomless dining and shopping in Bulkhead. Austin tried to emulate
the luxury of the Lenox/Phipps corridor with “the Domain”, and succeeded in
imbuing this desolate project with all charm and convenience of an outlet
mall. Austin's beautiful South congress
district boasts the San Jose Hotel , The
Mighty Cone, and Continental club, out-doing Atlanta's Little Five points, with
its Star Bar , Variety Playhouse, and Vortex,. But the difference is only
a flock of food cars, currently heard rumbling south. Plus, clothing
shopping is at least twice as fun in Atlanta, a city that has four magnificent seasons.
Austin in great. I love it. It is perhaps the best city in the county for a large segment of the population: The young, music-philes, and those without family roots elsewhere, might pick Austin. If you want the best BBQ brisket in the world, or to be surrounded by world class musicians, or to be compelled by peer pressure to live a 'more fit' lifestyle then Austin is for you. Or you could just drive to the much prettier Athens for the weekend. Atlanta is better for all of the most important reasons: It is closer to your friends and family, it has better weather, the cost of living is better, it’s prettier, there is greater diversity, and it is easier to travel to and from. The beaches in Florida are closer, the river and mountain playgrounds of the Blue-ridge mountains are closer, the golfing is better, the restaurants are better, the pizza is better, the schools are better, the seasons are better. Zoos, Museums, Aquariums, SEC football, pulled pork, sec football, SEC FOOTBALL....
by
Sean
on August 23, 2011 01:56PM (PDT)
Tuesday, August 9
not even the pain kicks in, tell me when the pain kicks in
How great was Bill Mahar's timing when he asked "weren't we such a better country in the 60's when the rich has a smaller percentage of the wealth", and then ended the show before anyone could collect themselves long enough to respond. I have some questions: How many seconds after a conservative had asked that question would Bill manage to call him a racist, misogynist reactionary? I'd have love to played the role of name caller, "So Bill, you think there are now too many women in the workforce taking men's jobs?", but if I had to take the high road I would argue that his statistic is simply irrelevant: There is no pile of wealth that can be distributed, or even considered in such terms. For instance, Google is relatively new 100 billion dollar company, from which poor was that money taken? Did Google cause all this pverty, or perhaps, is it possible that wealth doesn't conform to Bill's covetous zero-sum world view? Secondly, the world is a completely different place: For instance, how did the poor in Bill's asinine little pie game stack up to today's poor? Amenities in the Median Poor Household. We then examined poor households, meaning households with a reported income below the official government poverty income thresholds in 2005. Analysis revealed that poor households had a median household amenity score of 14. This means that half of all poor households had a score at or below 14 and half of households had score at or above 14. Having determined that the amenity score of the median poor household was 14, we then examined all poor households with that score to determine which amenities appeared most frequently within the median poor group.
Now, despite the fact that in general our poor are better off than pretty much any poor ever, anywhere, I'm not disagreeing with Bill. In fact the reason I jumped all over Bill is because I used to ask a similar question in mixed company: "If you were going to be born a black child tomorrow morning, what decade would you want to be born in". Everyone wanted to tell me that the answer was a no-brainer "Today". Fine, I am not a student of history or civil rights, but I reserve the right, guaranteed by Bill Mahar now standing to my right, to be skeptical without being called a racist. I will go out of my way to say that the oft repeated republican talking point that 50% of Americans pay no taxes in most likely incorrect: That only refers to Federal Income tax. It doesn't factor in the more regressive Sales tax, or State taxes, or Payrol deductions, which by any fair standard, is just another tax. (If I am wrong, I suspect Ed can tell me how). It seems to me that more defensible point is just how much of this nation's tax revenue is paid by those rich folk (top 1% pay around 40%) . And then ask, how much higher it needs to be, before it's 'fair'. Now, have I bought enough credibility throwing conservative pundits under the bus, to say that Obama pushing the meme that the S&P downgrade is the fault of the tea-party is is perhaps the biggest whopper ever told in politics? I've always admired how he sticks to his guns, but that's some serious bunk. The only plan he ever put forward was to increase the debt ceiling and to increase spending by 10 trillion. Exactly opposite of what the S&P wanted, and eighty-some of his own democrats voted against it. After that he hid far and well behind a nebulous and undocumented 'balanced approach" suggestion, and now groans that he only got to increase spending by 7 trillion. I was thinking about his use of the term 'Balance'. I hate that word. People used to say 'a balanced diet' as a way to save space on their plate from things that are entirely unhelpful: A scoop of ice-cream and two slices of bread , per meal. At somepoint, when you are laid up in the hospital on a ventilator, you have to accept that despite what is written on the box, Cocoa-Crispies are not part of a balanced diet. I am not prepared to say Taxes are the Cocoa- Crispies of solution, they are, more likely, more like candied yams.
by
Sean
on August 9, 2011 12:06PM (PDT)
Friday, August 5
In the end I bet no one learns a lesson
Craig Finn is learning from Townes. This is not remarkable, since , Separation Sunday is pretty much Mr Mudd and Mr Gold, just subbing Sex and Drugs and Religion, for aces and spades.
http://pitchfork.com/news/43421-the-hold-steadys-craig-finn-talks-solo-project/
by
Sean
on August 5, 2011 09:45AM (PDT)
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