Help Me Plan The Texas Toast Tour
Posted on Mar 18, 2010 in Blog
We are going back to Austin in May for the second annual Eat Through Austin tour (and Conan!) after which I’ll be ditching Tara and driving around Texas looking for weird shit and natural splendor a la the Atomic Tour and the Subatomic Tour.
We got some great hints for places to eat and visit for all our previous adventures so I’m hoping you guys can toss out some cool places to eat and visit while I’m driving all over Texas. I’m looking for cool photos opportunities, weird and wonderful locations (both natural and man-made) and good (vegetarian eats) outside of Austin but inside of Texas. Here’s an example of something I will dig: the Contrabando movie set in Big Bend Ranch State Park and like almost everything listed on Atlas Obscura.
The stars at night! are big and bright!…
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What I discovered when I was in Houston in January is that my restaurant knowledge is woefully outdated. So I can’t help on that front.
But there are three things you should see in Houston:
1) The Orange Show — http://www.orangeshow.org/
2) The Beer Can House — http://www.beercanhouse.org/
3) The Flower Man House — http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/7022
All a result of Houston’s absolute lack of zoning and abundant supply of crazy people willing to do amazing things to their houses and/or yards.
If you pass through Houston, you should check out the Orange Show: http://www.orangeshow.org/
On the chance other people might benefit from these recommendations , I’m posting an email I got from a friend here:
About an hour from Austin (south and east) is a little town called Seguin, where they have, on the courthouse lawn, “World’s Largest Pecan.” It isn’t as big as you’d hope, but it and the courthouse are classic small town. Also near there is Palmetto State Park, which is a weird geographic anomaly, in that it’s basically a rain forest in the middle of Texas. But a small one.
As for food, it saddens me that you will be missing out on some fantastic BBQ in the Austin area, but if you like Mexican food, you should ABSOLUTELY go to Matt’s El Rancho in Austin.
I spent every summer of my early life in that part of the world. I’ll ask my cousin, who still lives in the area, if there’s any other oddities you should go see.
Oh wait! I just remembered one.
http://www.buckhornmuseum.com/
It’s like a natural history museum, only bizarre. There’s more antlers there than you could possibly count. Also stuffed animals from all over the world, although to be honest, some of the animals (like the small Kiwi exhibit) aren’t actual taxidermy, but cheap plastic posed in a “natural habitat.” Also: a two-headed snake. It’s the kind of natural history museum a rich crazy Texan would make. And it’s fantastic. Also there’s beer there. Just like there oughta be in a museum.
I think you might enjoy the Beer Can House in Houston. http://www.beercanhouse.org/
There’s a toilet seat museum in San Antonio. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/6166
Don’t forget to visit Huntsville (or as we call it Huntsvegas) The Death Penalty Capitol of the WORLD! You can visit the Texas Prison Museum while there, and see Old Sparky, the original electric chair! http://www.txprisonmuseum.org/index.html
Also, don’t miss “Big Sam” a gigantic statue of Sam Houston, that you can’t go up in or anything! It’s SUPER (it is HUGE and kind of scary, and his head looks a little too small, and I think it’s the largest free standing statue in the world or something) http://www.samhoustonstatue.org/
Also, you can visit Sam Houston’s old house, and museum, and if you’re there at the beginning of May you can even go to the Folk Festival! http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/
(/end hyper sarcasm)
Seriously, I grew up in Huntsville and it is very pretty… kinda scary, but very pretty. I often miss it and can’t wait for my next visit. If you’re looking for kitschy Texas stuff it’s a great place for it, because 1) it claims to be the Birthplace of Sam Houston and has all that crazy stuff.
2) it’s the town that Dazed and Confused was written about, so you can like totally see the groovy football field man… (ok so maybe I wasn’t done with the sarcasm)
and perhaps most importantly 3) it houses all the prisons in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, as well as the “Walls Unit” where they do the executions, (as seen in Life of David Gale and that Kevin Costner movie with the little kid and Tommy Lee Jones) the town is generally pretty pleased with that fact which makes it a bit odd… My favorite food place in the Ville is a bbq joint, so that’s out for you, but I will also say there’s a crazy (in a good ole boy Texas way) diner called the Cafe Texan, which is in the town square… the food is fine, but you go for the atmosphere.
You can totally do all of this in a half a day… not a big town.
Oooh, oooh, oooh! The Art Car Parade in Houston is on May 8 this year. If that fits your schedule, it is a must-see.
http://www.orangeshow.org/en/cev/15
I can definitely say DO NOT go to the Odessa Meteor Crater. It’s the second-largest meteor crater in the country, but it turns out that there’s just not a lot of meteor craters around and this one is basically a dent in the ground.
Marfa has interesting things, including the art of Donald Judd and the Marfa lights. Fort Davis is a very nice little town as well.
I can also tell you to skip the Ima Hogg House in Houston. Beyond the wonder that is her name, it’s just a very nice but plain museum.
And I did remember one food place to check out in Houston — the House of Pies. Every kind of pie you can imagine, open 24 hours — if you go after 2:00 a.m. on a weekend, you will likely be sharing pie with some lovely drag queens.
I think there is no shortage of weird and offbeat in Texas small towns–the vegetarian aspect is the only issue.
http://www.allacrosstexas.com/offbeat.htm
A friend recommended this restaurant in San Antonio
http://www.texasfarmtotable.com/index.html
Marfa would be cool. Lots of great history there, but it’s pretty far from Austin.
A bit late, but: http://www.texasartasylum.com/
Doll heads? Yes, please!
verde camp’s twitter feed brought me to your site (polaroid shots)… you’re probably not in tx anymore, but if you’re ever back and in need of good vegetarian food (and no, i’m not talking about chicken…) head over to downtown bryan (just north of that other college town) and find the village cafe: http://www.thevillagedowntown.com/
happy trails…