Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2007 > August > 29
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Your A-List: Best Margarita
A little sweet, a little sour. That’s how you like your margaritas, since 46 percent of austin360.com readers chose the refreshing treats at Trudy’s four locations, including the South Congress Cafe, the local chain’s high-end iteration.
If you’ve ever stopped by Trudy’s Texas Star near the UT campus, you know they adore their margaritas, frozen and with salt. (Grown-up South Congress Cafe is more of a premium tequila / on the rocks kind of place.) The drinks fairly light up the rooms. Mexican Martinis, also made with tequila in a secret recipe, can also lubricate an after-class or after-work gathering.
Unlike many restaurants and bars, which use grain alcohol, Trudy’s blends Montezuma tequila into its frozen delights, along with drink mix and orange liqueur. Lime is the most popular flavor, but the sweeter strawberry — almost a daiquiri — gives it a run for its money. Swirls aplenty.
Top-shelf tequilas, with their bitter agave vegetative tastes, are preferred for the non-frozen varieties.
Z’Tejas (23 percent), El Arroyo (17 percent), Iron Cactus (10 percent) and the Four Seasons (5 percent) also placed highly in our margarita ballot.
Write-ins included: Abuelo’s, Antonio’s, Azul Tequila, Baby Acalpulco, Berryhill Baja Grill, Cantina Laredo, Cedar Door, Chuy’s, Clay Pit, Curra’s, Eddie V’s, El Chile, El Mercado, El Sol y La Luna, Enchiladas y Mas, Flores, Fonda San Miguel, Guero’s, Hula Hut, Iguana Grill, Jaime’s Spanish Village, Jardin Corona, La Feria, Las Palomas, Manuel’s, Margarita’s, Marisco Grill, Matt’s El Rancho, Maudie’s, Nuevo Leon, Oilcan Harry’s, Opal Divine’s, Polvo’s, Rio Grande, Roaring Fork, Santa Rita’s, Sazon, Serrano’s, Shady Grove, Stephen F. Bar, Texas Chili Parlor, The Oasis, Tres Amigos and Vivo.
Think Austin likes margaritas? You guess.
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Your A-List: Best Celeb with Austin Ties
This didn’t drain much brain power: Your favorite celeb with Austin ties, with 47 percent of the vote, was none other than the Red-Headed Stranger.
No stranger he, since Willie Nelson has been among us in Central Texas for decades, having helped launched the progressive country movement and the modern incarnation of Austin’s music scene.
For some, the son of Abbott is associated forever with the late, oft-lamented Armadillo World Headquarters and its unlikely blend of hippie, cowboy and other cultures. For others, it has been his countless recordings, or his movies, from “The Electric Horseman” to “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Still others are enchanted by his “On the Road Again” reputation for endless touring, or his Ambassador to Weedville championship of forbidden pleasures.
Nelson, whose golfing turf and old Western town movie lot on the Pedernales River keep him close to Austin, when he’s not in Hawaii or on the bus, has also championed countless causes, most notably Farm Aid, which most years raises money for family farmers in need.
These days, Austin is besotted with Hollywood movie stars, big-name athletes and leaders from every field of human endeavor. Yet there’s only one superstar: Willie.
Runners-up in our A-List vote included Out & About regulars Sandra Bullock (20 percent), Matthew McConaughey (19 percent), Lance Armstrong (11 percent), and Andy Roddick (3 percent). Write-ins: Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Dennis Quaid, Dixie Chicks, Hat Lady Marcy Fletcher, Luke Wilson, Roky Erickson and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.
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‘I’m not gay’ and other temporary insanity
We can’t make this stuff up. While we’d rather be covering the way that Austin socializes in a constructive manner, the crime, scandals, gaffes, scuffles and heartbreaking tragedies dominate the news this week. We offer a wrap-up, just from the last few hours.
Larry Craig: The Idaho Republican Senator may not be gay, but his toe-tapping incident at the Minneapolis airport restroom and his guilty plea to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges have once again placed the “not gay” population in an unflattering light. (The mainstream media doesn’t help when it refuses to recognize the semi-out status of someone like the late Merv Griffin, even after death.)
Craig’s bad-listing comes on top of other black eyes for the Republican Party, including former Rep. Mark Foley (page boys), Jack Abramoff (prison), Sen. David Vitter (D.C. Madam), Sen. Ted Stevens (FBI target), Rep. Rick Renzik (ditto). One might add the Bush administration insiders who have left recently under a cloud, including Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers.
Owen Wilson has dropped out of the new Ben Stiller movie, “Tropic Thunder,” according to People. While rumors swirl of drugs, depression and so forth, we’ll stick with what we can verify about his suicide attempt and hoped-for recovery.
Andy Roddick, Austin’s best-known and most fetching tennis pro, was not only trashed in several publications for his subpar playing, but Page Six dinged him for lack of wit at a reception in the Hamptons: “My mom always told me to have a joke ready, but I didn’t take her advice,” Roddick said.
Quentin Tarantino, who almost lives in Austin, also made Page Six for a snit fit on a flight back from the Philippines.
Laura Hall, charged with helping Colton Pitonyak’s grisly post-murder behavior in West Campus, endured a surprise witness who said she encouraged the killer to use a saw.
Paul Devoe, accused in Central Texas’ most unsettling murder case in years, turns out to have a record as long as many, many arms. Some parole board is gonna be twisting on the hot seat.
Lisa Nowak, the so-called diaper astronaut whom we’d love to see drop out of the news altogether, is set to plead temporary insanity.
So are we.
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