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irishtexan

Burnt Ends
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Posts posted by irishtexan

  1. 1 minute ago, texasdago said:

    Nah just pointing out a cool place on the south side... and what's wrong with rainbow cookies or pain au chocolat for dinner, you snob?

    Gotcha. And nothing. But if I'm eating bakery shit for dinner, I'm eating kolaches and pie.

  2. 23 hours ago, YGIFS said:

    Hyde Park Grill lease taken over by group behind El Chile/El Alma/El Etcetera  

    Apparently it's gonna be yet another concept of theirs based mostly on El Alma.  But you know...different.  I still like most of their locations, so will give it a shot.  T.I. turnaround should be by Q2 next year.  

    Cool. Another expensive Tex-Mex brunch spot for moms that want to get day drunk. My wife will be thrilled at least. 

     

    23 hours ago, texasdago said:

    Was going to pipe in on the Hyde Park Grill on Westgate... never went there because it looked like a "we are trying to capitalize on our name with a bland strip center location" kind of like Kerbey Lane.  I'd rather go hang at the original so never made it.  Lots of the comments I saw on FB were that it really went downhill post-Covid.  Bad service, not as good of an experience.  Some will blame "Au$tIN is CHaNginGGG!!!" but maybe it closed because it sucked.  I don't know.  

    Drive 5 minutes away and Quack's has a great location on Manchaca.  Much bigger than the HP location and it has other stuff going on... https://soundspaceatx.com/

    Perhaps I'm misreading, but Quack's (which is great) isn't an alternative to HPB&G. It's a bakery. Not a restaurant. Why would anyone who wants dinner to go Quack's. 

     

    16 hours ago, ztejas said:

    My mom and I always liked the HPB&G in Westgate. I never had a bad experience food-wise there.

    I just broke the news to her and she had an interesting take. Apparently they had quit servicing the patio because the homeless situation had gotten so sketchy. Wonder if that was a contributing factor. 

    Does anyone know if they own the property the Hyde Park location sits on?

    While the homeless situation over there is sketchy, I'm guessing they stopped servicing the patio because it's a-hundred-and-fuck degrees outside every day. There are usually a handful of homeless people camped out under the 71 underpass (until the city makes them pack up their shit once a week), but you don't see them wandering around the strip center.  

    I like that HPB&G. I ate there a few weeks ago before going to a movie in the same center. I didn't go often, but when I did go I generally enjoyed the food. But it was always pretty empty. 

     

  3. You could make a fermented table sauce. You dilute the heat of the peppers with other ingredients, allowing to flavors of the peppers to still shine through, but not blow your asshole open. I made a hot sauce with like 10 habaneros, two large sweet Mediterranean peppers, a half a pineapple, some ginger and some garlic and it turned out fantastic. It's a great way to bring out the flavors of a pepper that's practically too hot. I did make a version with two ghost peppers and a bunch of red jalapenos but, to be honest, it came out a little too hot for me (and everyone else I've given some to). I still use it, but sparingly. Instead you could make a version with a handful of ghost peppers, some milder red peppers, oranges or pineapple, and whatever other shit you want to throw in there. Making table sauce is about the only thing I've been able to do with peppers that are spicier than serranos. 

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  4. 16 minutes ago, Bodhi said:

    Pics to come but my leg is wrapped in tegaderm at the moment and that isn't coming off.  Got half way through my first tattoo today. Sleeve from knee to ankle that will take 15-16 hours in total. Holy hell, I underestimated the pain.  The first 30 mins wasn't pleasant then I settled in.  Hours 6 - 7.5 sucked ass though.  I don't think I could have gone much longer.  As other's have mentioned, a new appreciation to everyone I see out there covered head to toe in ink.

     

    Just now, Patricio Swayze said:

    7.5 hours of sitting, actual tattooing, is kind of fucking long.

    I've never sat for more than 5 hours. 7.5 is ridiculous. That being said, 16 hours for a 1/4 leg sleeve seems like a lot of time. But that's tough to evaluate based on the level of detail you might be getting. Regardless, god speed. If you can do 7.5 hours you can do almost anything.

    • Like 1
  5. 1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

    Not The Killers or Kings of Leon?

    No. But I also recognize I'm holding rock music to a potentially too-high standard by evaluating rock success on number 1 singles or albums. But still, the bands you cite bring up a good point. Both of those bands are more than 22 years old at this point. I'm asking, is there a band that's playing rock music, that was formed in the last 10 years and that isn't comprised of dudes in their late 30s and 40s that has hit it big? I certainly can't think of one. I can think of pop singers, rap artists, country singers, etc. 

    I feel like we're in a spot similar to what happened right before grunge/alternative broke. Except that I don't feel like there are independent rock artists that are creating their own music who are on the verge of breaking through. Honestly, Olivia Rodrigo was the closest thing that I can think of to a Nirvana-esque breakthrough. Because her lyrics are refreshingly earnest and reflective of what a "younger" generation is feeling. I just don't think there will ever be another rock and roll band to capture, synthesize, and reflect the emotional complexity of what it feels like to "grow up".

    Rock music is dead.

    Except for niche groups who still want to make awesome music. Like @jimmyjazz's daughter's band. Who are, definitively, absolutely, punk as fuck.

    Well fucking done, dad. 

     

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  6. I've always hated this conversation. But I get it. The problem with the argument is that punk rock has too many self-appointed gatekeepers arguing who and what is and is not "punk." That's why Jawbreaker's Boxcar resonates with so many people:

    "You're not punk and I'm telling everyone."
    Save your breath, I never was one
    You don't know what I'm all about
    Like killing cops and reading Kerouac

    My enemies are all too familiar
    They're the ones who used to call me friend
    I'm coloring outside your guidelines
    I was passing out when you were passing out your rules
    One, two, three, four
    Who's punk? What's the score?

    Regardless, for the premise of this discussion, I'd argue that you're being too specific in asking if punk's dead. To me, a more important discussion is "is rock music dead?" And the data says it's totally fucking dead.

    I can't name a single new rock and roll band formed in the last 10 years to hit it big. The last rock band to hit number one on the billboard hot 100 was fucking Creed in 2001 - twenty two years ago. The last rock band to have the number 1 album in the country was AC/DC in 2020. A rock album by dudes in their 70s. 

    So yeah. It's not that punk is dead. It's that the entire rock genre is dead.

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  7. Our company was recently acquired and apparently we have to provide I-9s. I received an email about it at 9:30 this morning. It's due on Monday. I just received a reminder email saying "I am reaching out, as unfortunately my records show that you have not completed your I9 reverification as of 1:33pm EST today, 8/24/23."

    Three hours later. Fucking ridiculous. 

     

    • Haha 1
  8. 9 hours ago, CHIEF said:

    Mrs. CHIEF, CHIEF Jr., his gf, and I are sitting around the living room the other night bullshitting, and Mrs. CHIEF gives me the "you need to quit interrupting me, its rude" line. The only time I interrupt is to tell her to "please, get to the point." Which may be a time or two in an hour long socializing conversation . CHIEF Jr. proceeds to rattle off about a dozen, "MOM, let dad finish what he was saying, you're being rude!" in a little less than five minutes. After the last one, he turned and gave me a wink. I don't think I have been more satisfied in my life. It was like the end of round three in the sack, when we were newlyweds.

    CHIEF

     

    My wife does this. Instead of saying "please, get to the point" try "short story long....". Your wife will appreciate it. 

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  9. Shit, I set mine at 77 but it can't keep the temp below 81 since I lost all my large trees in the freeze a few years ago and we have a West-facing sun room that just cooks the whole fucking house. 

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  10. In some rare "we are NOT losing this place" good news: 

    https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/08/hole-in-the-wall-dodges-closure-secures-20-year-lease-with-1-6m-from-city/

     

    Hole in the Wall dodges closure, secures 20-year lease with $1.6M from city

    TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2023 BY CHAD SWIATECKI

    The Hole in the Wall music venue has secured a 20-year lease and will remain open to celebrate its 50th anniversary next summer, thanks largely to $1.6 million in assistance from the city’s Iconic Venue Fund.

    Will Tanner, who purchased the club located on the stretch of Guadalupe Street known as The Drag in 2008, signed the new lease agreement – an initial 10-year lease with two five-year extensions – with The Weitzman Group realty firm on Monday. The signing followed 10 months of negotiation and work with staff from the city and the Austin Economic Development Corporation to become the first recipient of city funds allocated to preserve culturally significant music venues.

    The University of Texas-area club, which features more than 1,000 live music performances per year, has operated on a month-to-month lease since its most recent yearlong lease expired in May.

    Tanner said that without the city stepping in, the club would have likely closed this spring.

    “It had a good long run, but it was probably done without this,” Tanner told the Austin Monitor.

    He added, “I’m very grateful for the city of Austin to recognize that this is something that they feel like is important to stick around. … Hole in the Wall 100 percent got saved.”

    The $1.6 million will help cover a portion of the club’s roughly $15,000 monthly rent over the length of its lease, and it will pay for improvements to the middle stage area and a rear building of nearly 3,000 square feet that will be made available for lease as a restaurant or other hospitality business.

    The city hopes to close more deals stabilizing threatened music venues and creative spaces in the coming months, using its cultural trust economic development tool. That is funded by a combination of Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars for iconic venues and money from a 2018 bond package that included $12 million to open and preserve creative spaces. The bond package provided $2.4 million late last year to make improvements to the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex and turn a 7,000-square-foot portion of the city’s Permitting and Development Center on Highland Mall Boulevard and Middle Fiskville Road into a work-and-display space for artists.

    The Economic Development Corporation began taking applications for potential cultural trust projects in late 2021 and used that process to identify more than $300 million in needed assistance for venues and creative organizations. The 45 submitted proposals (including Tanner’s) were evaluated, and 14 priority projects were selected, with potential real estate deals ongoing using cultural trust dollars as part of the needed capital stack.

    “The biggest point is that we’ve been able to help negotiate and secure an ability for Hole in the Wall to stay in place and thrive over the next 20 years,” Anne Gatling Haynes, chief transactions officer for the Economic Development Corporation, told the Monitor.

    She added, “This is something we think is a demonstrable way of investing in those businesses that have an economic impact to the city and community benefit. We consider ourselves the Live Music Capital of the World, not just in brand but the fact is that we believe in our artists and musicians, and this is one place where a lot of those musicians have played.”

    Even with city assistance, Haynes said, the deal was made possible by property owners with The Weitzman Group, who were willing to accept a rental rate that was “very low, considering everything else on The Drag right now.”

    The mostly flat rental rate stands out in comparison to the most recent appraisal of the property by the Travis Central Appraisal District that valued the club space at just over $2 million, about a $700,000 increase from its 2022 appraisal.

    Bryan McMurrey, managing director for the Transwestern real estate services company, said the handful of commercial space lease deals he’s closed on The Drag in recent years have brought between $50 and $65 per square foot per year for their owners. He said the Hole in the Wall space would likely fetch a similar figure, while praising the move to preserve it as a culturally important business.

    “You could probably achieve an upper $50 to $60 (per square foot) triple net lease deal there. … Somebody could come in there and make that space really nice. It’s a great spot on The Drag,” he said.

    “The club activates the district, creates foot traffic, and it’s kind of a point of interest for the people that live in the student housing back behind there to the west,” he said. “It’s somewhat of an Austin time capsule that kind of reminds us all of what it used to be back in the day when we went to school at UT.”

    In an acknowledgment of the affordability issues that are pushing artists and musicians out of Austin, Tanner said the increasing rents in West Campus and other areas near the university have made the club less of a hot spot for students and the working class than in years past.

    “There are less folks down there that are of age to drink, is the way to put it,” he said. “West Campus used to be more of a working-class neighborhood, and it still is really densely populated, but it’s densely populated with a lot of people that are pretty transient people.” When Tanner bought Hole in the Wall in 2008, he said, “there was a lot of mix of blue collar, musicians and service industry people that could walk there. That ship has sailed.”

    With its future now certain, Tanner and his staff will work to complete the upgrades around the property in time for next year’s 50th anniversary celebration, with hopes of booking acts from all five decades of showcasing live music on its compact, iconic stage that’s highly visible for pedestrians on the other side of its display window.

    “Stuff like this doesn’t happen at bars like Hole in the Wall,” Tanner said of the city’s financial and negotiating assistance. “We’re not like high-flying anything or fancy in any way. Definitely there’s a vibe there. The people that go there really love it, certain bands really love it, and I really love it.”

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  11. 24 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:


    This is a great dish. I use a whole jar of the sliced pepperocini instead as it makes better eating. I also add lemon zest, capers, and some Kalamata olives to the sauce.

    While eating last night I thought that adding olives would be nice. Good call on the capers and lemon zest.

    As I mentioned above, when I pulled it from the oven and took out the thighs and pepperoncinis, there was a bit too much fat/brine in the pan to properly brown the potatoes, so I reserved about 3/4 cup and browned the potatoes in the remaining fat. I think next time I'm going to pull the potatoes after browning, deglaze the pan (which had a ton of fond) with a little white wine, add back the fat and brine and reduce it down to a bit into a pan sauce to pour over everything. 

    • Like 1
  12. One of the best things about the pepperoncini chicken is the potatoes, which soak up the fat from the chicken thighs and the pepperoncini brine.

    The potatoes really are the star. I had to actually reserve some of the fat/brine from the pan so the potatoes would brown up the way I like, and then poured that mixture back over the plated dish. Chef’s kiss. Will make again.
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