Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2007 > October > 24
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Your A-List: Strongest Drinks
This is one of those titles that makes one wonder if the winner will want all the attention.
In fact, we called Stephen F.’s Bar and Terrace, perched so deliciously above Congress Avenue in the Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel, and could find not a soul to comment negatively or positively about the honor of serving the city’s Strongest Drinks, according to 26 percent of Your A-List voters.
There’s no question that Stephen F.’s is a classy place and they serve classy drinks in a setting that, unlike many other hotel bars, is not stuck in the ebb and flow of lobby traffic. Instead, on a gorgeous day like today, one is tempted to order just one Woodford Reserve, neat, to nurse on the entirely civilized terrace, watching the world go by — from a distance.
Some of our other favored watering holes were rewarded for their care and generosity with the cocktails: Cedar Door (16 percent), Club de Ville (12 percent), Brown Bar (9 percent), Lucky Lounge (8 percent), Casino El Camino (8 percent), Whiskey Bar (6 percent) and Red Fez (3 percent). These are the establishments that shot bars on Sixth Street want to be when they grow up.
Scruffy, loveable Hole in the Wall also made the list with 6 percent, as did The Mohawk with 2 percent. Zax, which I associate more with “pints and plates” than cocktails, and Red House took the last two places.
Write-ins: Baby Acapulco, Barfly’s, Boomerz, Club Illusion, Guero’s, La Feria, Matt’s El Rancho, Oilcan Harry’s, Rain, Side Bar, Trudy’s, Vivo and Z’ Tejas.
Photo by Ha Lam.
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Your A-List, Best Men’s Clothing Store: Capra and Cavelli
If you want to drink like an adult, go to Stephen F.’s Bar and Terrace. If you want to dress like an adult, go to Capra & Cavelli, which won Your A List poll for Best Men’s Clothing Store with a trimming 35 percent of the vote. Truth be told, Austin could use a lot more options for men’s fashion. But C&C has long filled a crucial high end niche, and Esquire magazine recognized it as one of the Top 100 clothing stores in America. The shops, now located downtown in the Austin Hilton as as well on 35th Street, are not about the latest fads. They thrive on tailoring and fabrics and classic lines and, of course, service.
Voters chose a popular chain, Banana Republic, for the No. 2 spot, with 19 percent of the tally. Buffalo Exchange took third (13 percent), Service Menswear fourth (10 percent) and Urban Outfitters fifth (9 percent). Keepers, which competes with Capra and Cavelli for class, took 5 percent, while Flipnotics, Blackmail, Creatures and Crown all drew less than 4 percent.
Hey, all these places are valuable, given the overwhelming emphasis on women’s wear in this town. We appreciate each one.
Write-ins: Estilo, Hutson Clothing Co., Jos. A. Banks, Neiman Marcus Last Call, Nordstrom and Texas Clothier.
Pictured: Kenneth Miller, merchandise manager at Capra & Cavelli. Rodolfo Gonzalez photo.
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‘Tuna’ does opening night
The noise of joy said it all. Waiting in the upper lobby for the opening night of “Tuna Does Vegas” to conclude — I had been across downtown for a Kirk Watson event — I heard the familiar Texas twangs of the Tuna characters and the equally familiar gales of laughter from the audience. That and the nearly sold-out shows reveal as much about the series’ fourth edition as will the reviews. (Which I suspect will glow.)
“It’s good to be home,” said Joe Sears, one half of the Tuna creative duo during the short post-show party. “But don’t tell Houston. And don’t tell Washington. And don’t tell Galveston.”
“It’s especially good to be home when you’ve lived in hotels for 24 years,” said Jaston Williams, the other half, both beaming over the first night performance and response.
We ran into John Bernadoni, who helped lead the rescue and renovation of the Paramount Theatre in the 1970s, and — the only personality whose party picture turned out — Sue McFarland (left), who ushered at the Paramount and Bass Concert Hall for decades. She’s happily on the mend from a spine malady. Every time I saw Sue in the lobby of some theater, she’d hug me and say, “I read your story in the paper.” In fact, other than Kip, she may be my most loyal reader. And, stunningly, she hardly ever disagreed with my opinion — to my face.
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Kirk Watson skewered, sweetly
The jibes were gentle during the Caritas roast of Sen. Kirk Watson last night at the Four Seasons Hotel. Receiving the Harvey Penick Award from the city’s trusted social service nonprofit meant enduring some elbows from emcee and super-lawyer Roy Q. Minton, tax reformer and “Dream Team” running mate John Sharp and super-wife Liz Watson. Not only that, the Bar & Grill singers grilled the lawyers in the house with songs about, among other things, lawyerly work obsession and federal judges’ infallibility syndromes.
We’ll share some of the zingers from the event, chaired by Lowell Lebermann and Sue Meller, once we’ve downloaded our digital voice recorder. But first, consider the Triple A List of previous Penick winners, named after its first recipient, the golf and life coach: Rep. J.J. “Jake Pickle, baseball coach Cliff Gustafson, Rep. Barbara Jordan, first lady Lady Bird Johnson, publicist and leader George Christian, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, UT football legend Darrell Royal and his wife Edith, businessman and political backer Lebermann, golfer Ben Crenshaw, investors and philanthropists Angela and Morton Topfer, basketball coach Jody Conradt, singer Larry Gatlin, billionaire do-gooders Michael and Susan Dell and educator/administrator Pat Hayes.
Now that’s a list. Sad that we have lost six of them already.
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