1886 Cafe and Bakery

Cattlebaron, Jesse Driskill opened his historic hotel in 1886 after he purchased the entire block in 1885. The price of building the hotel was an outrageous $400,000. The Driskill quickly became the place to see and be seen, especially if you were a politician. Deals were made and even LBJ spent many elections watching returns come in at the hotel. Some supposedly liked it so much that they decided to stay and haunt the place!

But, the hotel isn't only for the rich and famous. There in a nice little cafe in the lobby, that while a little pricey, is still affordable. We went there for breakfast while my mother was in town. I had the Hippy Hollow breakfast skillet, which was eggs with feta cheese, spinach and tomato. It was delicious, but nothing special.

We didn't see any ghosts, but the service was sparing. We only saw our waitress when we ordered and when she brought the food and drinks. Tea was left unfilled and we even got someone else's bill at the end of the meal!

While the ambience is nice, I'm not in a big hurry to return. However, I would like to try their 5 star restaurant in the future!

Treehouse Italian Grill

I had such a wonderful time when my mother came to Austin for the weekend. We all wanted to try something new and settled on going to The The Treehouse Italian Grill on College and South Congress. What a wonderful decision that was! We had the option of sitting indoors or outdoors, but we chose indoors because of the weather. The room was dimly lit with Italian inspired decorations throughout the restaurant.

They started us out with some bread and an olive oil/garlic mixture. I could have made my whole meal on this and I rarely even eat bread! When the actual entrees came out, we couldn't believe our eyes. They had such huge portions that there was no way that we'd be able to eat everything. We all did our best, but still took home a doggy bag for later!

The restaurant was modestly priced and our bottle of wine probably cost as much as all three meals put together! It was a wonderful place to have a dinner date or have fun with a group of friends. I'm sure we'll be back.

Guero's

I've decided that Guero's is a hit or miss kind of place. The first time I went to Guero's on South Congress after hearing about it from several different people. Both my husband and I decided that we would probably never go back. While the people were fun, the food was really not that great. When my sister-in-law came into a couple of months later, we decided to try it again with reservations. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it and decided we must've just come on an off day the last time. Last night, we took my mother there after we found out that Z Tejas had a 1 1/2 hour wait. All of us were very satisfied with the dinners that we chose.

Guero's almost always has a huge wait, but it's a fun wait. You can go next door to their patio bar, hang out under the stars and listen to whatever band is playing on the stage. They even have a version of their famous salsa bar, so you can stave off your hunger with some chips and salsa.

With two good and one marginal, we will probably try it again. Hopefully, that first time was just a fluke, but I'm not ready to put Guero's on my favorites list quite yet.

Ross

I went to Ross off Parmer yesterday to get some new sheets. It was very strange. There were several rows of empty clothes rack. Was there some kind of shopping frenzy over the last couple of days? Maybe they are getting a HUGE shipment in and needed to make room for all the new stuff.

I did, however, manage to find more than just sheets on this trip. That was strange in itself. I'm not really a big Ross fan and usually don't find much there. But, I ended up leaving this trip to the store with the sheets, a comforter set, a sweater and a skirt! YAY! More stuff that I can't fit into my tiny apartment! LOL!

I'll have to go back there soon to see if they get that new shipment!