Austin Food & Wine Festival

 

Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural Austin Food & Wine Festival.  This first time event is being put together through a collaboration between FOOD & WINE and C3 Presents, along with three of Central Texas’ most celebrated chefs/restaurateurs:  Tim Love, Tyson Cole, & Jesse Herman.

The Austin Food & Wine Festival gets underway on the evening of Friday April 27th with the “Taste of Texas VIP Kickoff Event” at Republic Square Park and continues throughout the weekend with 40+ scheduled events and a star-studded cast of top notch culinary talents.

Be sure not to miss out on what I promise to be an amazing weekend and purchase your tickets to the Austin Food & Wine Festival now!

Austin Food & Wine Festival Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Red Robin’s Jim Day

Tomorrow, December 6th, 2011 EVERY person with the first name Jim gets a FREE Sweet Jim Beam® Bacon Swiss Burger.  This is rather convenient as I get called either Jim, Jimmy, or James.  See you tomorrow Red Robin, I’ve got a date with a burger!

Red Robin Website  |  Facebook

Official Details:

Valid only at participating U.S. restaurants, for first name only. Offer valid for one Sweet Jim Beam® Bacon Swiss Burger on 12/6/11 only, for Guests with a valid ID showing proof of their name. Burgers served a la carte– fries, drink and tip not included.  11am – 11pm

Offer is good for all guests named Jim and the derivative of it ~ James, Jamie, Jaime, Jaimie, Jami, Jamey, Jameson, Jimmy, Jimmi, Jimi, Jim and of course, Jimbo.

5th Annual Edible Austin Eat Drink Local Week

This Saturday head down to Republic Square Park for the 5th Annual Edible Austin Eat Drink Local Week’s Kick-Off event at the downtown SFC Farmers’ Market at 10am.  Afterwards, browse the farmers’ market then head off for the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour.  Afterwards be sure to end up at Springdale Farms for the pig roast and harvest dinner to fully kick off the week’s festivities.  That’s only day one with plenty of other events lined up for the rest of the week.  For a full list of events and activities including Chef Dinner Auctions, head on over to their website for more details by clicking here.

Saturday Dec. 3 – Saturday Dec. 10

Edible Austin Eat Drink Local Week - Participating Restaurants

ASTI Trattoria - Barley Swine - Buenos Aires Cafe - Chez Nous - Cipollina - Contigo - East Side Cafe - East Side Pies  - East Side Showroom - Fabi + Rosi - Farmhouse Delivery  - (Food Delivery Service) - Fete Accompli (Catering Service) - Finn & Porter - FINO Restaurant Patio & Bar - Food 4 Fitness -  Greenling (Food Delivery Service) - Green Pastures Restaurant - Guero’s Taco Bar - Home Slice Pizza - Hoover’s Cooking - Hopdoddy Burger Bar - Jack Allen’s Kitchen - Judges Hill Restaurant - Kerbey Lane Cafe - La Condesa - The Leaning Pear - Manuels - Max’s Wine Dive - Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill - Olivia - People’s Rx - Sagra Austin - Snack Bar - Shoreline Grill - Taco Deli - Tacos and Tequila - The Thunder Heart Trailer - TRACE - uchi - uchiko - Urban, an American Grill - Wink

Anthony Bourdain & The Crew from No Reservations @ Google Headquarters

Check out this fun interview of Anthony Bourdain and the crew from “No Reservations” at Google Headquarters on October 20, 2011.  Exerpt below from Google:

“You all may know Anthony Bourdain from his Emmy award winning show, No Reservations, where he does pretty much everyone’s dream job of traveling the world and eating incredible things. He has a second show debuting on The Travel Channel in November called “The Layover” which is a high-octane travel series that follows him to cities around the world as he gives viewers the inside scoop on where to eat, where to drink, and what to do on a 24-hour layover. 

He has written several books including Kitchen Confidential, A Cook’s Tour and Medium Raw.

He is joined by his Emmy-award winning team for No Reservations and The Layover:

TOM VITALE, an Emmy-nominee, Producer/Director of No Reservations and “The Layover”

ZACH ZAMBONI, 2-time Emmy-winning Director of Photography of No Reservations and also the Director of Photography of “The Layover”

TODD LIEBLER, 2-time Emmy-winning Director of Photography of No Reservations”

Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival

Head out to Auditorium  Shores tomorrow for the second annual Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival.  If you’re an Austin Foodie, then this is a don’t miss event!  There will be over 40 unique and local trailer food vendors set up selling small portioned meals at very discounted prices around $3 apiece.  So feel free to try out a bunch of different trailers and find yourself a new favorite.

Saturday, October 22, 2011
11AM to 8PM
Auditorium Shores 
Austin, Texas

Check out the official website for all the details including the entire list of vendors, live musical acts, and much more.

Texas Craft Brewers Festival

Looking for something to do this Saturday in the absence of U.T. football?  If so, then the Texas Craft Brewers Festival is just what you need.   18 Texas Craft Brewers are participating in this years event at Fiesta Gardens located in East Austin on the shores of Lady Bird Lake.  Check out their website for full details here.

 

 

Texas Craft Brewers Festival

Website  |  Facebook

September 24, 2011 – 2pm till 8pm

Fiesta Gardens – Austin, TX – 78702

Win a Year’s Supply of Sweet Leaf Tea

Sweat Leaf Tea has finally given away all of their free passes to ACL Festival, but they’ve still got a bunch of other great prizes up for grabs through their “Great Grannyism Cap Off Contest”.  They have also provided 512 Food Blog with a bunch of coupons for FREE bottles of iced tea to give away to my readers.  If you’d like to win one of these free coupons, here’s what you’ve gotta do:

Post a comment below, or email me directly with your saying/submission into the “Great Grannyism Cap Off Contest”.  I’ll send out coupons to the first 5 submissions I receive.  (Don’t forget to include your mailing address)  So even if you don’t win the grand prize at least you’ll get a free sample of that delicious Sweet Leaf Iced Tea.

New Contest/Promotional Website  |  Official Website  |  Facebook Page  |  Twitter  |  flickr

Austin City Limits Music Festival Food Vendors

During your three days at this year’s ACL Festival you will inevitably work up a huge appetite and need fuel to keep you going late into the night.  Getting to and from the festival can be a journey in it’s own, but wandering around the 46 acres of Zilker Park will also take it’s toll.  As this will be my 5th consecutive ACL Festival, trust me when I tell you that you’ll need to supplement your liquid based diet with plenty of eats throughout the day.  Good thing for you concert goers, ACL Fest provides its attendees with a plethora of great food options that will satisfy everyone in your group.

Check out the list of food vendors below, along with links to their websites to get a sneak peak of what might be available to you.  My favorite strategy for an event like this is to just wander through the food area and see what others are eating, and what seems most popular.  As most of these are well established, highly praised local joints, which are serving a special festival menu, my recommendation to you: TRY THEM ALL!

• Amy’s Ice Creams
• Aquarelle
• Austin’s Pizza
• Fresh Squeezed Best Lemonade
• Bess Bistro
• Boomerang’s Pies
• Children Of The Kettle Corn
• Daily Juice
• Freebird’s World Burrito
• Garrido’s
• Lonesome Dove Western Bistro
• Tim Love’s Love Shack
• Maine Root
• Mandola’s Italian Market
• Mangia Pizza
• Maudie’s Tex Mex
• Odd Duck Farm to Trailer
• Olivia
• P. Terry’s Burger Stand
• Pureheart
• The Salt Lick
• Stubb’s BBQ
• Sweet Leaf Tea
• The Mighty Cone
• The Best Wurst
• Tiff’s Treats
• Torchy’s Tacos
• Wahoo’s Fish Taco
• HOPE Farmer’s Market

 

Win $25,000 in Best Sandwich Competition

If you’ve got a custom sandwich recipe that stacks up with the best NY Deli special, then here’s the contest for you.  Mezzetta is giving away $25,000 to the winner of their “Make That Sandwich Contest”.   All you’ve gotta do is go to their website and fill in their simple form with your own recipe.  Act quick though, because this contest ends on September 6th, 2011.

Mezzetta “Make That Sandwich Contest” Website  |  Mezzetta on Facebook  |  Mezzetta on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival – 2011

If, as Andre 3000 from Outkast stated, that “What’s cooler than being cool” is “Ice Cold”, then riddle me this:  What’s hotter than being hot?  How about having a hot sauce festival during the hottest part of the year in Austin, TX.  Now I personally love hot sauce and use it on a daily basis, but ingesting mass quantities of hot sauce in the 105 degree heat of Waterloo Park can almost be regarded as cruel and unusual punishment.  I can only assume this is why the guys at Austin’s very own Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop named their hottest sauce: “August in Austin”.  (Which is a damn good hot sauce, BTW)

Sunday, August 28th, 2011 marks the 21st annual hosting of the event at Waterloo Park.  The event is FREE with your donation of 3 non-perishable food items, which all go towards the Capitol Area Food Bank of Texas.  You can expect the crowd to exceed 15,000 people along with 350+ entries.  The hot sauce competition is broken down into three general groups: individuals (homemade), restaurants, and commercial bottlers.  Check out the Austin Chronicle’s official website for full details.

This years food vendors will include:

• Aster’s Ethiopian Restaurant
• Buffalo Billiards
• Curra’s Grill
• Matt’s Famous El Rancho
• Santa Rita Tex Mex Cantina
• Sun Garden Shaved Ice
• Torchy’s Tacos

They’ve also got a great musical lineup for the 2011 festival including my personal favorite local band, “The Bright Light Social Hour”, which guarantees you an incredibly fun, high energy show every time.

• THE BRIGHT LIGHT SOCIAL HOUR - 4-5:15pm
• LA GUERRILLA - 2:30-3:30pm
• FOOT PATROL - 1-2pm
• MOONLIGHT SOCIAL - NOON-12:30pm
• SCHMILLION - 11-11:30am

The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival – 2011

Waterloo Park

Sunday, August 28th: 11:00 am – 5:30 pm