Freddie's Place is closing (Houston, Dallas: section 8, 2015, live)

[centralaustinite]

Fran's was an institution! Matt's El Rancho is an institution. I still remember the restaurant that was in that spot before Freddie's (Griswolds). It was a great location with average to barely adequate food.

[Austin97]

we like phils ice house. Didnt really like freddies.

phils ice house comes with a playground, is paired with amys and has great burgers.

[Mdlx]

The food was terrible to okay. Went there a couple times with friends and always had slow service. Hope whatever moves in has much better food.

[Aquitaine]

Matt's seems to make more than a token effort to actually serve good food and drinks, though, unlike some 'institutions.'

[cBach]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

Matt's seems to make more than a token effort to actually serve good food and drinks, though, unlike some 'institutions.'

You have to remember, good food was not a part of Austin's 'culture' until around 2010.

When I got here I got used to crappy food. BBQ and TexMex was the only good food around with a couple of good burger joints. The 'old Austin' was not about gourmet food. So the food may be better but the atmosphere worse.

[cBach]

My only worry is the new place won't be kid or dog friendly.

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by cBach

To me it symbolized what was good about Austin: family friendly, plenty of alcohol available, fun activities and games for adults and kids, outdoorsy restaurant (set back from the street not on the street, streetside cafes are a European and Northeastern US institution, in TX we like more of a backyard setting).

I agree with you, but that concept is going to be more and more difficult to pull off. A spread out, outdoor type of place takes a lot of space per amount of revenue you get for it. Combine that with extremely high real estate and there you go.

[Aquitaine]

You have to remember, good food was not a part of Austin's 'culture' until around 2010.

Bupkus. You have some nostalgic way of looking at this stuff that takes your own feeling about a handful of places (perfectly reasonable) and turns it into 'a description of the Austin scene,' which it ain't.

There's no question that there's been a huge uptick in haute cuisine hipster joints in the last five years, but I was here in '04 and '05 and had no trouble finding excellent food. The South Congress Cafe opened in '03. Z'Tejas was great back then (less so now, perhaps because one of the owners left to start Jack Allen's). Places like Teo had great coffee and gelato and still do.

The audience for those things is just bigger and so there are more of them, but there was not some memo that went out in 2010 that altered the restaurant biz from folksy overdone cheesburgers to overpriced garlic aioli sanwiches.

[sojourner77]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

I agree with you, but that concept is going to be more and more difficult to pull off. A spread out, outdoor type of place takes a lot of space per amount of revenue you get for it. Combine that with extremely high real estate and there you go.

These arrangements will flourish in the 'burbs, though. Moontower Saloon down in South Austin is a prime example.


https://www.moontowersaloon.com/

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

Bupkus. You have some nostalgic way of looking at this stuff that takes your own feeling about a handful of places (perfectly reasonable) and turns it into 'a description of the Austin scene,' which it ain't.

Exactly. Jeffery's, Shoreline Grill, Driskill Grill, Wink, Zoot, Hudson's on the Bend, Eddie V's, Castle Hill, Vespaio, Andiamo, Fonda San Miguel, Musashino Sushi Dokoro, Uchi, Chinatown -- all here WAAAAAAY before 2010. Not exactly BBQ, Tex-Mex or burgers.

What changed in 2010 was more people with money. Ergo, more places. But not like it was a wasteland before.