http://www.ladybedfords.com Pinehurst, NC
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lady-Bedfords-Tea-Parlour-and-Gift-Shoppe/132016440171670
The tea room itself was as you would hope: pastel colors and a Victorian feel. The room filled up as we were there between couples and small parties. The ladies who served us were attentive and sweet. The food came out quickly and was tasty.
Steve got a Tuna Salad sandwich on a croissant with fresh fruit. It tasted how a tuna salad sandwich should taste. There was a good portion of tuna on the sandwich, but he would have liked more fruit.
I got the Tea Plate that came with a bowl of soup, a selection of tea sandwiches, pastries and tea. I chose the Provence Tea with lavender. Although I didn't taste all that much lavender, it was quite nom.
Steve was really disappointed that the $3 lemonade was a mix. With my Tea Plate, I was expecting larger portions or a greater assortment of noms. (I wanted to share more things with Steve). For the price, we expected more food, or more from the food; some thing to elevate it: herbs, finer bread and pastries.
Altogether, it was a lovely experience though, and I am looking forward to bringing my mom back.
We give it 3+ noms out of five, but one goat for the lemonade
(Bad form for a mix)
This post is more about "City" than "Spatula".
Budget
minded, but seeking to see all of Austin metro, I sought out as many
Goodwill stores as I could find. Last time in Austin I went clothes
shopping, but it was haphazard. Since we have been having great success
in Raleigh with consignment stores, I started there.
Steve was
spending the days at the Onion Creek Fields officiating for the Aussie
Rules Football finals. What could I do that would give me an
opportunity to cruise Austin, and not spend too much money, and not eat -
since we had a tight dining schedule? SHOP!
After hitting a few
consignment stores that were too pricey, or uninspiring, I hit on the
chain of Goodwill Stores of Central Texas! (Besides, I found Austin's
first Trader Joe's, and a bunch of new restaurants along the way! - See Verts and P. Terry's)
Score:
1.
All the stores had a similar layout, identical and interesting logo'd
signs marking each area. Reassuring and had a sense of organized
marketing by the whole Goodwill of Central Texas. I walked into each
store and got the lay of the land quickly. Clean, and not cookie-cutter
buildings. Each were unique, but the clean bright stores and signage
UNIFIED all of them. Cool. Very cool.
2. Clothing is sorted
by type and color. Saved so much time! Bless their hearts, we can't
expect them to sort the whole store by size, but by color, yup. And it
looked good, too! (Pretty rainbow colors!!!)
3. Pricing. This was interesting. In the
less desirable neighborhoods, the t-shirt pricing was in the $1-3
range. The nicer parts of town had prices as high as $6. The men's
shirts were a little less, and men's small sizes were considered kids
shirts in half the stores and went for $1!!
I eventually figured
it out: find the men's smalls first, to find shirts for me, Alex, and
Niki. Then go to the women's shirts. It would take maybe one to one
and a half hours to go through each store.
Austin is a capital
city, like Raleigh is. It is a university town, like Raleigh. But,
hey! Austin is weird, right? I found so many interesting and fun
shirts for all of us. I could have spent time looking for purses and
pants, etc., but the "Shirt Safari" was plenty entertaining!
Yet
another "activity" for our next trip to Austin: hitting up more
Goodwill Stores. Yup. Another wonderful first world dilemma!
Five CHA-CHINGS out of five!
http://www.currasgrill.com Austin, TX
https://www.facebook.com/CurrasGrill
The plan:
Find the best barbecue on our way to the
airport so we could fly home bathed in smoke and sauce to savor the
whole flight home.
Reality:
A local told us...
"Oooo. You'll never get in there. They usually sell out by now. They might even be closed."
"So where do we go?"
We
passed Curras many times during the week going to and from the Onion
Creek Field for the Aussie Rule Football finals in Austin, TX. The
place falls in the "hole in the wall" category, based on it's location
and exterior: unassuming. Our Local told us she took ALL her out of
town friends to Curras. Now we know why.
Steve ordered Carnitas
Tacos. I had Chicken Mole. Our young waiter was happy to give us his
opinion. He has Mexican heritage and had worked in several Mexican
restaurants. He emphatically insisted that we would enjoy our food. He
explained the complex preparations of both dishes. The mole had over
27 ingredients! He promised us we would enjoy our meal.
Highlights:
-
Chips and Salsa: crunchy, thick chips, lightly salted. Complex and
gentle heat in the dip. Fresh. No disappointment, but this traditional
appetizer did not stand out from other great places we have enjoyed,
HOWEVER...
- The mole tasted like eating perfume. Seriously.
The flavors were subtle and complex. Light and satisfying. The chicken
was TENDER. Whoa! Whew! Yum! Woo! Wow....
- The Carnitas did not disappoint.
Now,
if you read my review of Hopdoddy this will sound familiar... Is it
Austin? Will we find this at more restaurants here? WHAT is with these
people?! They do not take any part of their menu for granted. For
99.99% restaurants a shell is a shell. Get it out of the bag, serve
your amazing food on the shell and out ya go! Right? Not here. Just
as Hopdoddy serves their amazing food on an amazing bun, Curras serves
their amazing food on an AMAZING corn tortilla.
- Soft Taco
Shells: Scratch-made at the restaurant, these corn tortillas were soft,
tender, flexible, silky. Da BOMB! Steve could not decide whether the
shells were flour or corn. He ordered corn. They smelled like corn.
They felt like flour?! The texture (both to the hand, eye and the
mouth) was CRAZY good! We were eating at a table by a window in the
afternoon with lots of natural light! These shells completely elevated
this dish.
If I sound effusive, I am. Plain and simple, our meal was simply amazing.
So
our flight home was not wrapped in glorious clouds of smoke and BBQ
sauce. Instead we were laughing about judging a "book" by it's cover.
An unassuming restaurant can hold a pearl of delicious dishes, prepared
with love.
Cinco NOMS out of cinco!
I can not wait to get back to Austin to try other dishes from Curras.
http://www.pterrys.com Austin, TX
https://www.facebook.com/pages/P-Terrys/49039729644
Without going into detail, we nearly doubled the cost
of our trip to Austin trying to get off the plane in Dallas to go to
In-N-Out, and then driving on to Austin! DARN that airline!
THEN we found out that In-N-Out had THREE locations in Austin!!!
THEN we discovered that NONE of them were open, yet!!!
The heartache! The sadness! The disappointment!!
With
our heads hung low, we heard that P. Terry's is a pretty good burger
chain in Texas. We expected very little from it (lets face it... It is
not In-N-Out), but thought we would give it a shot. We set aside time in
our eating schedule. While on my far flung Goodwill adventures I found
a P. Terry's on a ridge overlooking Austin in the Hill Country, and
figured the view would be nice in the evening.
Steve was super tired,
but he was game for an adventure. This location had a fun and fabulous
over-the-top mid-century modern (almost Jetson's) design. The city
lights were just coming up and the view is SPEC-tacular.
So much of
what they do is replicated from In-N-Out. Even the way the cooks
dress! Some menu variations, but we were just looking for burgers and
fries. P. Terry's far exceeded our expectations. If we closed our
eyes, we imagined that we could have been eating at In-N-Out. We sat on the
patio, and even though it was chilly, we totally enjoyed the lights of
Austin below.
I have to say, we love Raleigh, but we sure miss the
long-distance views, let alone city views.
We were so happy to quietly
eat our burgers and fries while enjoying the playfulness of the
architecture, and the twinkle of the lights below us.
Happy and sated we headed to the car. We sat as the car warmed up and looked directly out the front window.
"What is THAT?"
"I have NO idea."
"What the...?"
After
a few minutes, we realized we were watching a HUGE Texas moon rise.
HUGE! (We were in Texas, after all...). Within about ten minutes, the
moon was up and we continued to sit and watch in disbelief. If Steve
hadn't been so cold and tired we would have stayed longer ... Lingering
in the post-burger and city lights beauty of the evening.
Five noms out of five, even though it is not In-N-Out.
We will go back to P. Terry's next time, but only to this location with the AMAZING view!
(We'll save In-N-Out for California trips!)
