Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2009 > May > 07
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The other beverages at Spider House Cafe
The liquor selections include standard club fare, but also some higher end spirits, such as Maker’s Mark Bourbon, Bombay Sapphire Gin and Patrón Tequila. Local distilleries are represented by Paula’s various liqueurs and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
The dozen or so wine offerings include sparkling options (Chardonnay is way popular). Yet the real gold is in the brews — understandable at a campus-area establishment. More than 25 beers and ales are available by the bottle, while Live Oak Hefeweizen, Chimay, Brooklyn Lager and Murphy’s Irish Stout come on tap.
Scoop: Spider House’s annex, the U.S. Art Authority, already a favorite special-events facility, is nearing final OKs as a full-time bar.
(This is an entry in a series edited by restaurant critic Mike Sutter that will appear in next week’s print Austin360.)
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The other beverages at Little City
One thing it didn’t serve was alcoholic beverages. This, despite a burgeoning downtown nightlife scene and a late-late crowd at the popular caffeine dealer. It just didn’t fit into owner Donna Taylor’s scheme, as she expanded to a campus-area location, since closed.
He rotates the wines so much, no label or varietal has triumphed. On the counter recently were a white and a rosé from the Rhone region, a “red table wine” under the banner L’Ancien de Jean-Paul Brun and other fairly inexpensive offerings. Coffee remains Little City’s core business, but if one is in an alternative mood …
(This is an entry in a series edited by restaurant critic Mike Sutter that will appear in next week’s print Austin360.)
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Clink Debut at Threshold
Thursday, Clink and Soirée got married.
Callie Potts, Gina Whittington, Tacy Infante
The two admired Austin events planners are now joined under the name “Clink.” With 11 employees, they are now an even more potent force on the social scene. (Thank goodness Texas allows marriage between businesses.)
David Kaso, Liz Young (from the Stephen F. Austin Hotel)
Business partners Tanya Posavatz, Denise Silverman and team — all dressed in purple — welcomed their friends with lemony drinks and a gigantic cake.
Kay Avrian, Molly Smith, Sarah LaBorde
The blessed event took place at Threshold, a mod furniture showroom in the Monarch complex.
Tanya Posavatz, Denise Silverman
They crowd glowed in the late afternoon light and, given the Spring Death Haze outside, I was grateful the event was indoors.
Neil Petty, Jason Kovacs
My favorite couple, though, I met just briefly on the steps outside the shop. Robert and Keenah Armitage said they were moving here from New York. Imagine making the society pages before you even arrive.
Keenah Armitage, Robert Armitage
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Dinner at Povey/Tolar Residence
Why would Edward Povey move to Central Texas?
The auspicious artist has lived all over his native United Kingdom, not counting those years in Grenada. On that teensy Caribbean isle, with his first wife, he raised two children in a day-dreamy culture, dodging soldiers only briefly during the Reagan-era intervention. And, over a lifetime of painting in what he calls a Figurative Symbolist style, London-born Povey’s picked up collectors all over the world. Not bad for an artist who has always worked outside the mainstream fashions in his field (although figurative work has returned recently). Well, for one thing, Povey has visited Central Texas frequently over the past two decades — his primary home had been in a tiny northern Wales town. His paintings, which often delve into costumed images untangled on the subconscious level, have always sold extremely well here. But that’s not why he and D.L. Tolar, his wife, also a painter, chose to live in Wimberley. “We fell in love with the people,” the soft-spoken, soft-eyed Povey says. “They are so kind. And so open.” Povey said the magic word — “open” — over dinner at his temporary Wimberley residence on Wednesday. To me, that’s the best way to describe the state of mind peculiar native to this region. Not “friendly,” which too often translates into an aggressive protectiveness of the status quo. Open. Povey is planning a big media event soon to unveil some legacy plans for the artistic community. Yet I learned more during one intimate dinner than during 100 press conferences, gallery openings or artist lectures. The couple’s rental house is overwhelmed by their Asian antiques and haunted paintings, only a fraction of which are on display, while they build a house a few miles north of Wimberley. Over inventive Thai food, our candlelit conversation spun deep into the night. I hope it’s just the first of many such nights. They get Austin.
