XL Xtra: ACL Festival 2005
Finding an oasis outside the festival grounds
By Patrick BeachWeb posted: Sept. 22, 2005
|
|
|
Photo by Brian K. Diggs/AA-S
Consider taking a break from the music and cooling off at Barton Springs Pool. |
|
|
|
|
Photo by Matt Rourke/AA-S
Beer Alley isn't a buzz band at the festival. It's the walk-in cooler at the new Whole Foods Market that is a great place to cool your skin. |
• Barton Springs, naturally. (Yes, it'll be open.) It's around 68 degrees. You'll only shiver until hypothermia kicks in. (In Zilker Park.)
• Lake Travis is also cold. And terrifying, if you happen be on my brother-in-law's boat. Experiencing chilly water and white hot panic simultaneously is a singular Austin experience. (West of town.)
• A lime slush from Sonic. (Various locations. The two closest to the festival are at 134 E. Riverside Drive, 443-8666, and in West Lake Hills at 3201 Bee Cave Road, 306-0680.)
• "Beer Alley," the walk-in cooler at the new Whole Foods Market downtown. No, you can't stay there all weekend. (Fifth and Sixth streets at North Lamar Boulevard.)
• Oslo. It's a bar named after a city in, like, Sweden or something. OK, Norway. It must be chilly in there. (301 W. Sixth St.)
• The old Reddy Ice plant on Red River. It's closed, but you can go there and get all nostalgic about how cold it used to be right before you got to town. Oh, you should have seen Austin back then. Not that I was here then, either, but boy, you shoulda seen it. I hear.
• Two words: liquid nitrogen.
• Cold Stone Creamery. If you're really nice, maybe they'll let you put your cheek — not that one — on the slab. (661 Louis Henna Blvd. and 2828 Guadalupe St.)
• Most any restaurant in town is going to have cold storage. We suggest you get a little more inventive. Go to Hudson's Smokey Ridge Sausage, where they process game. Tell them you'd like to pretend to be a deer carcass for just a minute. (1800 S. Congress Ave.)
• This is going to sound more than a little counterintuitive, but sometimes nothing helps you cool off like a nice, copper-colored insanely hopped Christmas beer. Stop by the Ginger Man and ask for a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. With any luck, they'll still have it on tap. (304 W. Fourth St.)
