One of the few convenience stores in downtown Austin [Ben Lim]

Where to Eat: Cheese, Oysters, and (No)odles

Eating during SXSW is a bit tricky. Long lines and crowds can lead to a dinner of Cheez-Its, a granola bar, and a Frosty (mmmm). Fortunately, we arrived in Austin early to attend the interactive—and much less crowded—portion of the fest.

Our first meal was at the hotel TGI Friday’s, where the broccoli-cheddar soup and half a “club sandwich” (it’s served on an untoasted roll) with avocado met our needs. The soup had a robust cheesy flavor and the sandwich was mediocre ingredient-wise, but the combination really hit it. Grade: C+. Radisson Hotel & Suites, 111 E. Cesar Chavez St. → At Roux, a spacious “Cajun bistro” with memorably odd wall art, we sampled stuffed oysters, a peppercorn-crusted ribeye with fixins, and shrimp in brandy cream sauce—one of the best meals of the trip. (Read about the co–best meal in Part 2.) Grade: B. 214 E. 6th St. → The stark, empty, and depressing Mongolian Grille offered possibly the saddest, least appetizing collection of raw ingredients that has ever existed on a buffet line. The noodles, which they confiscated after realizing they weren’t supposed to be set out during lunch, were merely spaghetti and linguini. Around 20 different types of watered-down sauces—green curry, Asian blend, barely-white coconut milk, and so on—rounded out the selections. Grade: F.

Next: Bodegas Don’t Exist (a.k.a. Nodegas) & ATM Tips

(In)convenience Stores

The New Yorker in us felt discomforted by the scarcity of convenience stores in the downtown area. We found three locations:

1. The northwest corner of S. 6th & Brazos
2. The south side of E. 6th between San Jacinto and Trinity*
3. The north side of S. 2nd between Brazos and San Jacinto

For personal care items there’s a CVS on E. 5th & Congress. If you walk toward the UT campus on Lavaca Street, there’s a 7-Eleven somewhere around E. 15th—a short-ish walk away.

$$$$$ All the ATMs seem to charge a $3–4 fee. To avoid them, you can buy something at CVS on Congress and they’ll give you cash back (a maximum amount of $35, so frequent trips may be necessary). Citbank members can use the Citbank ATM at 7-Eleven. For regular folks who are willing to pay for convenience once in awhile, ATMs are widely available.

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