A new healthy lunch and dinner option is opening in downtown Austin across the street from The Austonian. Snap Kitchen, a healthy prepared foods store with two locations in Austin, is opening Snap Pod, a non-mobile vending unit housed in a recycled shipping container at 215 Congress Avenue.
Snap Kitchen offers healthy, handcrafted prepared foods made with local, organic ingredients. Their menu offers a selection of items made fresh daily including full meals, salads, snacks, diet-friendly desserts, gluten-free options and specialty elixirs. All menu items are portion controlled and labeled with nutritional content, making the meals an ideal choice for people looking to maintain a healthy diet.
The rotating menu at Snap Pod will feature all of the Snap Kitchen staples, but will alternate items throughout the week. Microwaves and picnic tables provide a on-site dining option, but the greatest draw for Snap Pod is the ability to serve the downtown work and urban-dwellers fast, healthy and convenient menu items to go.
The Snap Pod is unofficially open for lunch now, but will host its grand opening the first week of September. More information about Snap Kitchen and the new Snap Pod can be found on their website.
Austin is a city known for its food. Over the last several months, Austin has repeatedly shown up as a trend setter in the food movement. One set of restaurants that has garnered attention locally and nationally since opening at the beginning of 2011 is the trio of spaces in the base of The Austonian: Congress, Bar Congress and Second Bar + Kitchen.
Congress received the city’s first and only five-star rating from Mike Sutter, restaurant critic for the Austin American-Statesman. Congress received the ranking because it is “an extraordinary restaurant experience from start to finish.”
From Bar Congress topping Esquire Magazine’s list of best bars in America, to the Austin Chronicle’s “Destination Dining Downtown” spread, the trio is tastefully paving the way to Austin’s ultimate downtown dining experience.
Berry Austin, the specialty frozen yogurt shop located in the retail level of The Austonian recently won Runner up for Best Frozen Yogurt in The Austin Chronicle 2011 Restaurant Poll.
Berry Austin features ten rotating flavors of soft serve frozen yogurt as well as non-dairy sorbet. Additional menu items offered at BerryAustin2Go include floats, fresh yogurt parfaits, smoothies, coffee and an assortment of frozen drinks.
The yogurt shop is housed in the historic Brown-Dumas façade at the base of The Austonian luxury condo tower in downtown Austin. Read more about the historic preservation efforts of The Austonian and the 2nd Street District here.
The 7th annual Maudie’s Tex Mex Moonlight Margarita Run takes place tonight at 8 p.m. The race, which begins underneath Mopac at the rock, is a 5K followed by an after party featuring fajitas and margaritas at American Legion Hall.
Proceeds from the run benefit The Trail Foundation and the projects the organization does around the trail.
For more information about the event, visit the website here or watch the Fox News segment here.
Bar Congress was recently featured in Esquire Magazine’s “The Best Bars in America 2011,” an annual survey of the best places to drink throughout the U.S. The article, written by Andy Langer, tells of downtown Austin’s recent comeback. The number of people living in downtown Austin has doubled over the past ten years.
See more photos of Second Bar + Kitchen, Bar Congress and Congress, which are located in the base of high-rise condos The Austonian, here.
The Austonian’s new neighbor, ACL Live, will start their new summer music series “Wine Down Wednesdays” this week from 5 to 7 p.m. on the ACL Live Front Porch. The series, running every Wednesday through May and June, will feature Clos du Bois wine at happy hour prices, food from various restaurants in the 2nd Street District and live music. The weekly event is free and open to the public.
La Condesa’s Cinco de Mayo Downtown Block Party takes place this Thursday, May 5 from 5 to 10 p.m. at West 2nd Street (between San Antonio and Guadalupe). This event, which is free and open to the public, celebrates the rich heritage and culture of Mexico and features an array of food and beverages provided by local neighborhood restaurants. Live performances by DJ Chicken George, Mariachi Tamazula, Ocote Soul Sounds (DJ set), La Guerilla and Bombasta will entertain block party attendees.
A construction photo showing the entrance to the theater, which is next to BoConcept in the 2ND Street District. Photo credit: Violet Crown
Violet Crown Cinema, a small theatre specializing in documentaries, art, indie and international films, will open its doors in downtown Austin’s 2nd Street District on Friday.
The theatre features four screens, with 50 seats or fewer in each screening room. A lobby bar and patio will serve heavy appetizers to the general public (no movie ticket required). A full menu is available here. Tickets are $9 for a matinee, $11 weekdays and $13 weekends, and customers may reserve seats online.
For more information, visit the theater’s website.
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Photos by Casey Dunn
The Austonian is featured in The Austin Chronicle for its three dining destinations that showcase downtown Austin’s finest. Executive Chef David Bull and his partners in the La Corsha Restaurant Group hired the best of the best of Austin’s cooks, mixologists, sommeliers and servers to create a team that would run Congress, Bar Congress and Second Bar + Kitchen. Read the full article here.
Congress recently received a five-star review from Austin American-Statesman restaurant critic Mike Sutter, making the restaurant the highest-rated dining spot in the city.
For Earth Day the three establishments have joined Austin Give 5. Five percent of today’s purchases will benefit five Austin nonprofit organizations. More information is available at the Austin Give 5 website.
In the bustling 2nd Street District, historical treasures remain carefully preserved above and below ground. At The Austonian, Austin’s premier luxury residence, a historic landmark has been integrated into the building, allowing visitors to experience Austin’s past while enjoying its more contemporary amenities. Further down the stretch of 2nd Street that’s also known as Willie Nelson Boulevard, a general store stands tucked in a corner, surrounded by a retail and office building that helps to anchor the mixed-use district.
The base of The Austonian high-rise condos features the 100-year-old façade of the Brown-Dumas Blacksmith Shop. At the turn of the 20th century, the shop was an integral part of Austin’s thriving commercial core, where dirt streets and horse and buggies dominated the scene. Built circa 1905, it was the largest building on the block at that time. The original plan was to integrate the historic structure into The Austonian, but when the Brown-Dumas building collapsed in a wind storm in 2006, the plan changed to a reconstruction of the façade at the original site. Today, the restored façade – which is home to frozen yogurt shop BerryAustin2Go – is the only remaining façade of its era near this important intersection of Congress Avenue and 2nd Street (originally known as Live Oak Street). In early 2011, the façade was awarded a historic landmark designation from the City of Austin. An associated tax exemption was not requested or granted to the property.
As for other historic sites along the street, Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, on the southwest corner of 2nd and Guadalupe, is located in the Schneider Brothers Building, which was built in 1873 and housed one of the first general stores in town. The Schneiders were German immigrants and one of Austin’s most prominent families at the turn of the century. Their business expanded to the NW corner of the intersection, where a second store was built over a limestone basement the family had constructed for storage (and, it is believed, in anticipation of brewing beer). La Condesa was literally built around these subterranean vaults, which are available for private dining, hence the restaurant’s distinctive elevated bar.
Austin historic preservation expert Emily Little, FAIA participated in aspects of all of the aforementioned projects. Emily is an architect with Clayton&Little Architects. Other local projects that she has worked on include the Hotel St. Cecilia and The Byrne-Reed House (home of Humanities Texas).