Logo from Edible AustinEdible Austin’s first annual Eat Local Week celebration runs from Saturday December 8th through Saturday December 15th. While you’re nourishing body and soul with locally-grown and handmade foods from an extensive list of participating restaurants and markets, a portion of proceeds will go to Urban Roots, a program which teaches sustainable agriculture fundamentals to East Austin youth. 15-20 participants aged 14-18 will be awarded a paid internship to grow food on an......

Flyer courtesy Downtown Austin Alliance Holiday Sing-Along, Tree Lighting and Congress Ave. StrollSaturday, December 1Texas State Capitol (1100 Congress Ave)6-9pm[info]The annual Holiday Sing-Along, Capitol Tree Lighting and Congress Avenue Stroll takes place tomorrow evening. Here's the schedule of events, courtesy the good people at the Downtown Austin Alliance: The evening starts at 6:00 p.m. when crowds gather on the south steps of the Capitol to sing the songs of the season during John Aielli's Holiday......

Image from www.gordonramsay.comWe ran across this post on Craigslist, and have to admit we love the idea of surly superchef Gordon Ramsay kicking ass in some of our not-so-favorite Austin restaurants. According to the (highly excited and haphazardly capitalized) post: FOx TV’s KITCHEN NIGHTMARES IS CASTING in Austin ! Acclaimed Chef , Culinary Expert & Award Winning Restaurateur GORDON RAMSAY IS LOOKING TO HELP RESUSCITATE & FIX YOUR RESTAURANT ISSUES! IF YOUR RESTAURANT IS HAVING......

Original menu image courtesy the Frisco Shop With the Brentwood Tavern and the Travis County Farmer's Market both closing last month, the Allandale culinary scene is certainly undergoing some transition. The Austin Business Journal and the Statesman's Dale Rice report that the Frisco Shop (North Central Austin's haven of pie and artery-clogging comfort food) has found a new home and will not close its doors after learning last year that its location would soon house......

Sip 'N' Stroll: As a warm-up for next spring's Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, the organization is sponsoring a very enjoyable-sounding Sip 'N' Stroll event at three of The Domain's new restaurants. The concept is simple: you wander from restaurant to restaurant in groups, and each of them serves you a flight of wines and some paired appetizers. NoRTH features Italian eats, so naturally they'll be focusing on Italy's wine varietals. Regan Jasper, the......

Nearly 1 million people have been displaced by the California wildfires. Heckuva job: Former FEMA director Michael Brown is making himself available for interviews about the wildfires. Home sales went down 8% in September. Russia's "Chessboard killer" found guilty of 48 murders. Turkish planes attacked Kurdish positions in Turkey today, just outside the Iraq border. It may be more beneficial to the environment to be a carnivore who eats locally-made meat than to be......

At least that's according to Travel + Leisure magazine, which just released its annual rankings of America's Favorite Cities, as based on a survey taken by over 60,000 people. Austinites are ranked as the fourth Most Attractive, and first in "Overall" characteristics. The results, presented from both the visitor and resident's perspective, also give a pretty accurate general indication of how we feel about the state of things here, from what we're most jazzed about......

The Health Alliance For Austin Musicians (or HAAM) provides local artists with low-cost health care and other related services. This year’s HAAM Benefit Day is here (today), and the organization is presenting numerous shows all over town this evening, along with a Telethon on ME Television. One can offer their assistance in funds by donating online as well. The HAAM Benefit Day is presented with support from a number of entities, including Whole Foods......

Fall is here, the weather is cooling, and the prospect of an outdoor food and wine tasting has mentally moved from "it's too hot!" to "that sounds perfect." One of the marquee wine events of the fall, Tour De Vin pairs eleven chefs and over 100 wines in a "sip and stroll" format tasting on Thursday, October 4th. This is the fifth anniversary of the event, and the wine lineup looks to be the......

Tribeza's Fashion Show was the ultimate mixer, attracting well over 300 people last Friday night at the Blanton Museum. During the hour leading up to the show, crafty DIY designers chatted up boutique owners and journalists in the VIP section, while impossibly slim women, wearing everything from vintage hats to shorts and sandals, sipped cocktails under the museum terrace. We arrived early to sample complimentary hors d'oeurves of the raw-fish variety, prepared by Truluck's, Starlite,......

Have you been wanting to eat out at a great restaurant lately but just needed a good reason? If so, then we've got just the reason to get you out of the house tonight. Dining for Life is Monday and Tuesday night and is a great, and very easy, way to help benefit Aids Services of Austin. More than 60 of Austin's best restaurants donate 15% of their dinner proceeds to AIDS Services of......

We know you're coming to ACL Fest for the amazing live music, not the culinary delights. That said, you're going to need to keep your blood sugar up to withstand three days of dirty heat and canned beer. The Austin Chronicle has helpfully detailed the food vendors and their offerings at the park grounds as well as the restaurants near Zilker within walking distance should you decide to venture out. Gourmet foodies may want to......

Austin is full of small, out of the way places that we have grown to love. These aren't the big name restaurants that everyone already knows about or the restaurants in the warehouse district or downtown locations. In fact, two of them are in nondescript strip malls, and one is surrounded by giant safety cones. These places offer up good (and in the case of Tomo, great) food in locations away from the city center.......

Some Austin restaurants are doing their part to help folks in Sudan and Chad. To help raise funds for the American Jewish World Service's work for the people of Darfur, local restaurants are donating a percentage of their proceeds from today's sales. AJWS provides basic health care, water, therapeutic feeding centers, medicine, activities/programs for children, and education to many of the displaced and traumatized refugees who have been violently forced from their homes and are......

If there is one thing that we love, it’s a good party. There are stipulations of course: there needs to be great people, great food, great drinks, great entertainment and of course, the crowning factor, we must have had absolutely nothing to do with organizing it. Thankfully, we can always count on the Austin Film Festival to do the heavy lifting for us and on Wednesday, October 10th, they are serving up just what we......

As summer draws to a close, it's frustrating at times to realize what you never got around to during the season. Whether you meant to rent a boat, go to the beach, or visit the ballpark, sometimes the time just flies right by. Thankfully, the Wine and Food Foundation of Texas have given all foodies an excuse to drive up to Round Rock and check out the Dell Diamond before summer's end (though there......

Two news items coming out this afternoon relate to Chester's, the East Austin nightclub near where a fatal shooting occurred earlier this summer. First off, Sgt. Michael Olsen has been cleared of any possible charges related to the shooting; the grand jury decided that Olsen's killing of Kevin Brown was not criminal. Brown had been patronizing Chester's before being shot as he raced from police. Secondly, and perhaps more damning to the club and......

Each week, Austinist's staff takes some time to introduce you to the bands playing at this year's Austin City Limits festival. Some you know, some not so much, but they're all going to be here, so stay tuned. --Paige Maguire, Music Editor The Gospel Silvertones specialize in soothing R&B and soul fit to kick off most mornings -- the band plays regularly at some of Austin’s favorite breakfast and brunch spots on weekends. They recently......

Dale Rice over at the Statesman is reporting that a rash of vandalism has erupted among downtown restaurants because they serve foies gras, the pate made from the liver of geese who are force-fed. The vandalized restaurants comprise Aquarelle, Eddie V's Edgewater Grille, Fleming's, Restaurant Jezebel, Ruth's Chris Steak House, the Spaghetti Warehouse and Truluck's. Apparently, what's getting the restaurants' collective geese are obscenities spray-painted on their signs and doors. photo by cappellmeister on......

East coast pizza fans lost a local mecca Saturday night when an after hours fire swept through the Saccone's Pizza on 183. The Statesman* spoke with owner Daniel Saccone who said that someone broke into his restaurant sometime after midnight, stole money “and then torched it.” Saccone said that all employees at the restaurant will be retained and each transferred to one of his two other restaurants in Round Rock and Leander. “We have......

Last fall, a friend referred us to a mysterious new website. The page at Supper Underground promised a multi-course meal at a secret location with a small group of guests. Intrigued, we signed up for the next dinner, and received a cryptic email with an address and time several days later. The September event was held at a tony Westlake Hills estate with a lovely back patio garden. Candles flickered on the porch, quiet......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

If you haven't driven north on Lavaca recently, the popular downtown to campus route is starting to take on a different feel. A drive up Lavaca used to mean a straight-ahead view of the UT Tower, akin to a huge welcome sign from the excitement of downtown to the equally exciting (but less glamorous) campus area. You may remember when Player's fought for its life when the university's original plan called for tearing down the......

If your first thought upon hearing of the new movie I'm Reed Fish is "Who's Reed Fish?" you're certainly not alone. Who is Reed Fish? Is that even a real name? How could his (her?) parents be so cruel/awesome? Why don't more people have animal last names (we want to meet a Mr. Platypus)? Shouldn't Reed Fish & Co. be the name of a hedge fund company? And are there real live "reed fish"? (Yes,......

The little pocket of tex-mex restaurants on Manor just east of I-35 never ceases to delight and impress, and El Gringo is no exception. Sunday's brunch outing was fruitful and exciting for the future of this establishment. Brunch was an addition to the full menu, meaning we had a wealth of options if one of us wasn't up for traditional morning fare. We began with gorgeous chorizo empanadas with a perfect crust - substantial......

After moving to Austin from New York last year, it was easy to feel disappointment in the limited food delivery options available. The restaurant delivery services aren't always prompt and charge steep delivery fees, many of the good ethnic food restaurants are dine-in or take-out only, and the best of the pizza places only deliver within a mile or two of their locations. Which brings us to The Soup Peddler, a unique concept in......

This morning, the long-awaited remodeling of Bass Concert Hall -- the main performance center on UT campus, located between the LBJ Library and Royal-Memorial Football Stadium -- began in earnest. The renovations will cost a total of approximately $15 million and will include upgrades in fire code compliance, improvements in sound and lighting systems, restaurants, a rooftop lounge, a donor lounge, as well as additional exhibition spaces. It will also include a new glass-front......

Several East Austin groups are asking the city to wait to implement the VMU ordinance until October 1. Their primary concern is that "East Austin is experiencing rampant gentrification ... and that the application of vertical mixed-use zoning will further speed the loss of affordable housing and locally-owned businesses." East Austin is certainly experiencing rampant gentrification. Property values (particularly in 78702) have risen faster than almost anywhere else in the city. However, VMU zoning......

Talk about getting a bad reputation for no reason! Zinfandel is the quintessential American grape: author Mark Oldman calls it the "great American wine" and describes it as "a varietal with mouth-filling heft and massive alcohol...which offers a lovable, jammy excursion built for immediate gratification." Unfortunately, many casual wine drinkers only associate the word Zinfandel with the horrible pink blush wine that comes out of a Franzia box. To help combat this misguided idea,......

Jeffrey Willard Smith, a 49-year-old man from Midland, Texas, now faces a felony burglary charge after airport security allegedly caught him stealing a banana from one of the restaurants in the terminal. From the Statesman: According to an arrest affidavit, an airport security guard caught Jeffrey Willard Smith reaching through a locked gate at the Waterloo restaurant inside the terminal. Smith, 49, took the banana, sat down at Gate 10 and ate it, the affidavit......