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Austin Trip
So, I had a solid 5 days off, so I and a certain someone else went on a trip to Austin… you know, to get the heck out of Lubbock for awhile.
It just so happened, not planned, that our trip was right smack in the middle of SXSW. It appeared that the entire city was stricken with a plague of hipsters. More than usual, and they all looked more uniform than usual as well.
We decided to see what we could catch, since we hadn’t planned for it, and we didn’t have “tickets” (wristbands), so we head to S. Congress, take a few minutes trying to find a place to park, and then start wondering around.
We spent way too much time at the S. Congress location of Jo’s Coffee. We caught The Octopus Project pretty randomly, and I’m glad we did. They were awesome.
I insisted that we make a trip to the much-hyped Caffe Medici. My insisting was well-received, so the visit was set. I thought it kind of humorous that the sign is the exact same picture as what you see on their website. Inside, there is a wall of bags of Cuvee coffee. The menu is minimalist in nature. There is a shiny red LM FB-80 that’s pretty hard to ignore right as you walk in. I saw Dan who was good enough to say “hi” when I didn’t recognize him right off. Apparently, they do barbecue night once a week, and I happened to catch the day… Dan was a wreck. I thought the place looked nice. I dig the black and white photos all over the place. Nice touch.
Later that night, we went to 6th. It seemed that every single venue was a place for a SXSW-related event. Which was cool. But the pedestrian traffic was ridiculous. We caught this band neither of us had ever heard of, but that totally blew us both away. They were incredibly good. They were called Alpha Rev.
Last day, time to leave. We stopped by a shop that looked like it had just opened not long before called Dominican Joe. The outside looked very cool, inviting, all that fun stuff. The inside, personally, looked a little unfinished and underfunded. We got a Mocha and an Americano, both of which were served in what looked like domestic serve wear cups in a pastel brown/gray color you would expect to find in your neighbor’s kitchen. They are doing good things for sustenanc in coffee. I’d call it direct trade, but that’s a trademarked title.
Overall, it was a much-needed trip away from this flat wasteland. Even if I didn’t have a decent espresso every morning like I normally would.
We really should take more of these.
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So, did you like the coffee at caffe medici, or not? I’ve been to Dominican Joe’s once before: I’m the friend of a friend of the owner of “Do Jo’s” (dominican joe).
6th street sounds. normal to say the least: every friday/saturday night there’s usually bands playing in every possible venue… the fact that it was SXSW made it even worse (better, imo
) I wish i could’ve seen some of the shows… too bad i couldn’t afford a wristband: even if you get a wristband, you’re not even guaranteed access to the shows due to the amount of people/fire marshall max. occupancy rules… I heard that even ppl with “badges” (VIP passes… 1200 bucks a pop) sometimes couldn’t even get into some of the shows… crazy stuff.
glad to hear about your trip to the island of blue in the vast sea of red.
Brent.
p.s. (FB-70 Hybrid, rather than FB-80
)
I am curious as well to know more about your visit. What did I serve you. I was curious as to why you seemed to stay so hidden, i didn’t even realize you had come in that night. I believe we met at the jam and I would have enjoyed talking shop for a bit. Clancy.
I was there with my girlfriend. She had an iced coffee and I had a double capp.
I really made an attempt to stay hidden, in a sense, as it was just a trip for her and I to get away from Lubbock and spend some time together, and if we had started talking shop, we would not have stopped for quite awhile.
We did indeed meet at the jam in SA.
If you want to chat, you can always shoot me an email. CoffeeConsulting(AT)gmail(DOT)com
I was told that Medici was a “must visit”.. so I visited.
Jason,
it was good to see you and meet your g/f, sorry I couldn’t chat at least a minute longer. It was fun to get dirty for “man night” but I can imagine how we looked haha.
I’m disappointed you didn’t comment on how any of your coffee tasted while you were in town, could you please elaborate.
Dominican Joe’s is interesting, I admire what they are doing, but I haven’t been able to get any more answers than their website blurb, about their project. Seems similar to what Ruta Maya, does in chiapas. Although I didn’t see/hear anything about quality.
Jo’s S. congress location is such an awesome place, and John Johnson one of the baristas there will be competing in SCRBC.
Well, Jo’s seemed to care, but the milk looked a bit like dishsoap, and the coffee wasn’t too good. The service was great, and it’s a great place. I may not have gotten the “right” barista. (though I really REALLY hate those situations.. when a shop is built on the skill of 1 or 2 people)
Dominican Joe’s looked cool from the outside. The Americano I had went from okay to pretty bad about half-way through as the cup started to cool off. I didn’t see any crema. To their credit, the barista did seem a bit out of his/her element on bar. Like it was a pretty new experience for them.
Medici wins the contest of atmosphere. Of course, a big red LM right up front is kind of hard to compete with. I loved the purist menu, even if it can come off as a little elitist to some potential customers. It works in some places, and sometimes, it turns people off. I’m hoping for them it’s the former. The iced coffee was good. It was definitely fresh-roasted as evidenced by flavor. A little astringent, but iced coffee always is. The foam in my capp was very nice. The espresso tasted a bit off. Like there was some pretty severe channeling or something. Kind of like what a dry filterbasket locked into a Swift can do to a shot.
The overall level of quality is higher than the average here in Lubbock, but that’s no surprise.
I didn’t want to say bad things about any of these places, because they all seem to care, and anyone at least trying to do something right doesn’t need one bad review from a random sampling of a coffee snob on a state-wide coffee community site. Let’s just say that I’m confident that I didn’t get the best of any of these shops, and I’m sure that they are capable of, and do, put out better on a regular basis.
First time I went to medici I got a great latte made by the owner. Great shot, great microfoam. The second time I got a subpar macchiato made by a guy who was obviously new. I don’t hold it against them and I’d go back. It happens when someone is being trained. They’re obviously trying hard to serve a quality product. The second time I was there on the way out I ran into JonR in the parking lot. Funny thing, that. I wouldn’t have recognized him had I not seen the Houston video piece that featured him.
I was snowboarding in Colorado last week. As fun as that was I was kind of missing going down to hit some SXSW shows. Every year there are a ton of shows that require no wristband that are free or for a minimal cost and are not “officially” on the SXSW roster but feature many of the SXSW bands. I have some land outside of Austin and I’m usually out there during my spring break (teacher) which happens to normally coincide with SXSW and it’s easy to go in and hit some shows. Last year I went to a killer show in Red Hunter’s (of Peter and the Wolf) living room and saw a ton of great artists.