I’m on Day Five of my early January stay-cation in Austin, and I’ve basically been eating and drinking my way through the city.

For the past few winters, I’ve eschewed cold weather and spent several weeks working from “home” in ATX.  This year, though, since we missed both Thanksgiving and Christmas due to work obligations, my date and I decided to spend a week just hanging out in town with no reports, phone calls, emergencies, etc. from work.  It has been glorious!  Next week I have to fly back to the Midwest and prepare for an early February conference on site – yuck.  I’ve still got five days to go and I’m already dreading the cold.

I’m linking up with Lauren from the My Grey Desk blog to celebrate my five faves from the week.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1. HOME SLICE

Without a doubt, my hands-down favorite pizza on Earth, and that includes both NYC and Chicago.  The pizza is New York style, but the service and atmosphere are all Austin.  And I just love their logo, about which I’ve had many heated gender identity debates (Is the Home Slice Pizza Figure a he or a she?  We may never know).

2. DRINK.WELL

There’s a small menu here (including homemade twinkies, which I have never sampled) – but we love this bar for the “designer” drink menu.  My favorite is the Royale, an absinthe-based concoction with grapefruit flavors.  Can’t get enough of that cocktail.

3. HANABI

The food is fantastic, and they have an awesome happy hour from 4:30 – 6:30 daily.  They will even honor the happy hour menu if you walk through the door at 6:27 p.m. (which a group of us did the other night!)

4. CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS

Although I’m not a race fan myself (the only reason I know about F1 at all is having read about Bernie Ecclestone’s spoiled daughters in a magazine somewhere), I joined my date on a tour of the facility this week when we met up with the sales staff to pick out his permanent seats.  The place was very impressive; since it was empty we even got to tour the swanky box areas and saw the garages from a very short distance.  Also, it turns out the auto manufacturers rent the track to test their new cars, and we saw a super secret prototype car zipping along the track while we were there.  It was painted with a weird camouflage so you couldn’t really make out any details of the body style, but after several passes around the track, we are 90% sure it was a Nissan.  Regardless, it was FAST.

5.GUERO’S

Iconic Mexican restaurant on Congress, it’s another one of my ATX favorites.  In addition to the great food and atmosphere, it is also the home of a happy memory – a few years ago, after finishing our dinner inside, I walked out on to the patio and saw none other than Coach Taylor and Tami Taylor (Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton) enjoying their own late night taco meal.  I could have died.  I’m such a huge fan of Connie Britton and her hair, which looks even better in person!  I kept my cool though, and did not hassle them for an autograph… although I kind of regret that I didn’t snap a spy picture.

If your weekend here in Austin is bordering on the mundane and you find yourself seeking newer locales to hoist a cocktail, I direct you to one of the better additions to the local restaurant and bar scene here in 2012 – drink.well. – a cool, new gastropub located in the funky area in and around North Loop, just east of Lamar, and near other stalwarts, Foreign & Domestic, The Tigress and Workhorse Bar.

Opened this past February by former Forbes Magazine and AMC Network employees, Michael and Jessica Sanders, along with Executive Chef, Aaron Zarczynski, drink.well. portrays itself as both the “bar that has killer food” and a “restaurant that serves brilliant cocktails.”

An excellent selection of craft beers on tap, a well-versed bar staff adept at concocting stellar adult beverages, a “Twinkie of the Week” and, apparently, one of the better burgers in all of Austin are just a few of the highlights from my initial few visits over the last month.

Granted Austin’s newest “American pub,” is not a large place, yet the quaint scene is made all that more intimate by the lack of hostesses or servers, forcing guests to get to know the staff behind the bar, in almost a “Cheers” sort of manner. Not to mention, the flat screen adjacent to the bar constantly screens classic flicks, while great tunes from Pandora emanate through the speakers. A neighborhood stop, if there ever was one.

Open now seven nights a week from 4-11pm, drink.well. will not disappoint. Stop on by and raise a glass!

drink.well.
207 East 53rd Street
Austin, TX 78751
www.drinkwellaustin.com

- Courtesy of Jessica Sanders of Drink.Well American Pub.

- Special thanks to the evening’s sponsors as well, DiSaronno and Tia Maria.

Not that there could be such a thing as healthy soda, I do think I’ve found something that is close to it. For those of you who like soda but want to be healthy and cut back or substitute it with something else, this is a good alternative. It won’t give you that big sugar kick you get from a normal soda since it’s pretty light in flavor, it does satisfy that bubbly craving. I personally am not a big soda fan but every now and then I want something sweet and bubbly and this hits the spot for me. It’s refreshing, light, and herbally. Been on this huge health kick lately, trying to eat well and work out. Drinking this makes me feel less guilty when I want to succumb to some form of soda.

The future of food includes baby puree to improve brain power, beauty drinks to smooth wrinkles and chocolates to help you slim

The Restaurant of the Future at Wageningen University in the Netherlands looks like a staff canteen of the present — well lit, comfortable. There is, sad to report, no freeze-dried ice cream in pellets or nano-nutraceuticals piped straight to your lower gut.

Lunch is salads, a hot dish counter serving chicken breast in a cheese sauce and something vegetarian, pickled fish, a choice of soups. It’s bland but OK, apart from the bottled water. This carries the irritating slogan: “Drink Well, Live Well.” I don’t like beverages that order you around. The other odd thing is a consent form by the self-service tills — sign it and you permit Wageningen University access to the data collected in the restaurant. Everyone who eats here is a guinea pig.

Read the rest of the piece via Times Online