Keeping Austin Weird with the Magnolia Café

A month ago I was lucky enough to be in Austin with Pin-Ups On Tour and after a smashing show we were able to explore the edible adventure known as the Magnolia Café, a place that perpetuates the city’s slogan “Keep Austin Weird.”

As Silverlakey as you can get outside of LA the Magnolia Café is open all night (great for performers finishing their night at one in the morning when most of the time we’re at a pizza joint or Denny’s because it’s the only thing open..) and serves fresh food cooked with passion in a comfortable setting (kind of like your favorite aunt’s giant kitchen, if she had one).  And with their tagline of “Everybody knows, everybody goes,” you know it’s an Austin institution.
 
While there I had to get some Chips & Queso & Salsa ($7.25).   I’m not a lover of this dish (I swing towards the Guacamole side of the Chips and Dish spectrum) but after subjecting to myself to the three hour film known as Boyhood (really Richard Linklater you could have cut an hour; none of us would have noticed…) I felt it was my duty to the city of weird to order up. 

And Hello!!!  The corn tortilla chips were fantastic!  Crunchy, bright golden yellow, and salted to perfection (a pet peeve of mine is when house made chips don’t include the necessary amount of Sodium Chloride to balance the dish out properly…).  The Queso was the proper balance of creaminess peppered with chunks of salsa to add the subtle hint of flavor and texture! 

To balance this saltiness out accurately I was required to share an A&W Root Beer Float (Hey, it was 1 in the morning...).  It was the unmarred pairing; creamy ice cream and sarcastically biting root beer!

Emerging later that night I had experienced Austin; confirming its weirdness and Dinners, Drive-Ins, and Dives eatery level accomplishments.

Here’s to life being delicious and there being enough Sodium Chloride on all your tortilla chips!