Weird Austin, Texas: Adventures with Dennis & Elizabeth Cole - Sixth Street, Iron Cactus, Driskill Hotel, Bat City, Guero's, South Congress Ave., Allen's Boots, The Broken Spoke, the Dry Creek Cafe and More

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Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. 

Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Liz and Dennis Cole at Guero's Tacos Mexican Restaurant on South Congress Ave. in Austin.

A few months ago, Kay and I stopped off in Austin, Texas to spend a couple of days with my old friend Dennis Cole, his wife Liz and his son Chriss. We were in between stops in New Orleans and Santa Fe. These three cities are an incredible trio to do on the same trip and all of them are among the most fun places in America (stay tuned for New Orleans and Santa Fe).

I love Austin and have been there maybe a half dozen times.   At least four pairs of my cowboy boots are from Allen's Boots on South Congress, one of my favorite stores on the planet.  The following slide shows, cheeky captions and all, are a record of what Kay and I saw and did in Austin in just two and a half days. 

Dennis Cole rents a buffalo to mow his lawn in Austin. Unfortunately, Dennis's rented lawn mower chowed down on the power supply cord to his budding trailer park forcing its inhabitants--Jason Pitcock, Dennis's daughter Michelle Bjorgo and her husband Lloyd Bjorgo  (all from the federal witness protection program)--to have to frequent  his abode (shades of Randy Quaid on a vacation tour!)

Adventures at the Home of Dennis & Liz Cole 
& Their New Trailer Park
(Note:  To watch the slide shows full-screen, double click, go to Picasa and click on "full-screen" in the right corner.)

 

Downtown Austin: Scenes From Weird Austin, Sixth Street,  
The Driskill Hotel and The Iron Cactus

As if Austin ain't weird enough, upping the ante is The Driskill Hotel, which the founder Col. Driskill--who got very rich selling beef to the Confederate Army and built the place--lost in a poker game to his brother-in-law.  Apparently, the Driskill is also haunted.   Two different brides on their honeymoons twenty years apart committed suicide in the bathroom of room 525 at the Driskill.  Must have been some special wedding night.   Hopefully the two unfortunate women did not marry the same guy.  The hotel sealed the bathroom off and closed the room, but it has since been remodeled and reopened, so prospective bridegrooms who might be marrying a woman they don't like, room 525 at the Driskill may be the perfect place to book for the honeymoon.  (No comments about spending one's honeymoon in Weird Austin, please!)

More Weird Austin: Sunset at the Dry Creek Cafe
and an Excursion to the Bat City Bridge

I wrote an article on the 25 best bars in America several years ago. I called Dennis Cole to ask him about the best bars in Austin and he told me about the Dry Creek Cafe. He said the owner, Sarah might throw you out if she didn't like your looks. "But, if she tolerates your being there, you can sit upstairs on the deck and drink long-neck Lone Stars while you watch the sunset over the lake."

Well, I put the Dry Creek Cafe in the Playboy article as an honorable mention, but I hadn't been back to Austin with enough time to go there. This time it was one of my priorities, so Dennis, Kay and I went out there on a Saturday night and had long-neck Lone Stars as the sun went down.  Now, it was a fair-to-middlin' sunset, but you couldn't see the lake from there and we were the only customers in the place, so we had the deck and the sunset, if not the lake view, to ourselves.  Crotchety Sarah, who was so famous for admonishing customers to  "Bring your bottle back down!" that is printed on the back of the Dry Creek Cafe tee-shirt, had died (certainly not in room 525 at the Driskill) and one of her employees had taken over the place. We were the only ones at the Dry Creek until the owner's buddy showed up to watch a football game with him on the downstair's television. 

Dennis, despite his ringing endorsement for my Playboy article, admitted that this was the first time he had ever been to the Dry Creek Cafe.

Dennis and Gerry toasting with long-neck Lone Star beer at the Dry Creek Cafe,
Dennis's candidate for one of America's best bars (not!).

Austin: Congress Ave., Guero's Tacos, Allen's Boots,Uncommon Objects and Elvis Presley Blvd.

Dennis Cole at The Broken Spoke, A Study in Black and White

A Night at The Broken Spoke: Though These Doors Pass  the Greatest Country Music Dancers in The World (We were not among them!)

Gerry and Kay doing the Texas two-step (or something) 
and living the High Life at The Broken Spoke, Austin.

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About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel  

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. 

He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009.

 

Trailer for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  


Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com