It’s Just Justin

Moonshine and the Oasis

My grandmother and I went to Austin on Friday to pick Ryan up from the airport.  We had a scare as he nearly missed the flight out of Kansas city but he got in on time and with his bags, whew, what a relief.

From the airport we went to Moonshine, a great restaurant in Austin.  We shared a large selection of appetizers from spinach and artichoke fondue to grilled garlic cloves to polenta.  It was all so very tasty.

After lunch we drove to the capitol and around the downtown area before heading out of town, making one more stop at The Oasis on Lake Travis.

It is very hard to capture the immense size of The Oasis in one shot.  It would probably require a few shots with my fish eye lens to accomplish that.

The Oasis is a restaurant on Lake Travis (as you might have surmised from the full name above).  Only a few years ago the place burned down to the ground.  Well the place has been rebuilt and the food improved and the view is every as stunning.  The guy behind it all is a friend of my grandmother’s best friend.  He’s a little tiny itsy bit rich.  Check out his home, it’s that giant one.  It looks like three homes, it’s one.  Just so you know…

But like I said, the views are fabulous.  The only thing possibly close to being as good are the drinks.  Fun and funky margaritas and mixed drinks.

We had a few drinks, took a few pictures and then headed to Horseshoe Bay where my grandparents live.

So it was a great day, amazing food, amazing drinks and beautiful scenery.

Tags: Austin, Beautiful, Drinks, Family, Food, Fun, Horseshoe Bay, Lake Travis, Photography, Ryan, Texas, Travel, Yay

Forge and Whine

Last night Chadd, Beau, Justin and I went out to Forge and Vine here in Columbia. The last time I went there was with Geoff and let’s just say, we didn’t have the best experience.

Geoff and I went to F&V to try something different last spring. We intended to dine in, try out some wines and maybe write up a review on the place. When we arrived to F&V, the hostess insisted we sit upstairs, they had already shut down the dining room, more or less. This was at prime dining time mind you, so we went up the stairs (btw, large wood carved bears = no so classy, plastic fish and tackle on the walls = atrocious).

Our waitress upstairs was a bit of an idiot and a whole lot of bitchy. We had two gin and tonics and ended up leaving for Addison’s.

So last night I was actually going to eat there and hopefully have a better experience. I walk in with Chadd and Beau (Justin was coming later) and bump into, guess who, none other than Geoff! We hug, he forgets to introduce me to his new boyfriend and we talk about the last time we were there (here).

I order a martini as does Chadd, Beau gets a “top shelf” margarita. Our martinis come to us in stemless cosmo glasses (available from World Market for $7.95). While these might be cute and great for parties at home (don’t have to worry so much about them breaking or toppling over) at a restaurant I want real martini glasses with my real martini. You grasp these glasses with your hand which heats up your martini, so much for shaking that over ice…

So I have a tepid Cherry Tart Martini and Chadd has a cool Cosmopolitan. According to Beau, the only thing about his margarita that is top shelf is the price. In fact, he compared it to the $2.50 margaritas from El Maguay’s (just for $9.00).

So the drinks are not so great. My pasta was ok, the sauce was a bit heavy and the vegetables too few (especially since it was a vegetable dish…). At least our service was good, very cute waiter, though he could use some Invisiline… but that is neither here nor there.

Unfortunately, Geoff’s service wasn’t quite as pleasant. I guess the manager heard them complaining so much that he gave the entire table free dessert. Damn it(!), we should have complained some more!

Slightly ironic, we left The Forge and Vine for drinks at Addison’s where we payed half the price for twice the drink. Another notable tid bit, the entire time we were at F&V, we seemed to keep going back to talking about how good other places in town were, not a good sign haha.

Oh, and BTW, they advertise themselves as a wine bar with a huge wine selection. How about this one… When I asked about the wines, he said, “What color do you prefer?”. What color? WHAT COLOR?! Seriously, if this was a serious wine bar, the “color” of the wine would never have come up. You don’t call wines by their color, yes there are “White” wines and “Red” wines, but their are also “Rosé” and Porte and Zins… Are we supposed to call these “Pink”, “Dark” and… well WTF?  Zin’s come in several varieties.

Let’s not call wines by colors and maybe let’s have more than a few wines by the glass.  I don’t really consider it a wine bar or a restaurant with much of a wine selection if you must purchase the entire bottle.  That’s just lazy and cheap.

And for goodness sake… get that shit off your walls.

Tags: Beau, Chadd, Drinks, Food, Geoffrey, Out, Rant, Restaurant, Review, WTF?