Cool Places to hang out! (Dallas, Austin: neighborhoods, high school, living)

[MidasGirl]

Hi Austinites,

I moved here about 3 months ago, and I'm finally settled in the Rollingwood area.

My man and I are looking to join the social scene here - so far it's been a little disappointing. Which surprised me because we're into hippie stuff, we're vegetarian etc and Austin seemed like the perfect place to be for that.

We've pretty much tried all the veggie restaurants and we like them.

Anyway, we're looking for fun things to do - quieter wine/coffee bars, restaurants, or just venues with music/dancing. Any type of hippie things like kirtan or meetups would be great as well.

What fun things do you all do?

Thank you so much!

[bgrn198]

Have you checked out the South Congress area? or see Esther's Follies here's a few links on places to check out.

Welcome to First Thursday, South Congress Ave. Merchant News

Esther's Follies Austin Texas Premier Comedy Show

Home

Beauty Bar Austin

http://www.continentalclub.com/Austin.html

http://vinovinoaustin.com/

http://www.6street.com/

[10scoachrick]

There will be 60-80 folks doing bike rides from Mellow Johnny's on Saturday morning. I'll be with the fun people cycling 20-25 miles out to McKinney Falls State Park and back. A faster group will be going more like 35 miles at a training pace(usually). Should be perfect weather! OR you could just hang out at the Juan Pelota Cafe(in the bike shop) enjoying a coffee. The farmers' market is just two blocks away on 4th St.

By the way, did anyone mention that the weather is like this year-round .

[kiacook]

I'm curious - what has been disappointing?

[MidasGirl]

Originally Posted by bgrn198

Have you checked out the South Congress area? or see Esther's Follies here's a few links on places to check out.

Welcome to First Thursday, South Congress Ave. Merchant News

Esther's Follies Austin Texas Premier Comedy Show

Home

Beauty Bar Austin

Welcome to the Continental Club

Vino Vino, Austin, TX

6th street austin, texas - a TOTAL austin entertainment guide.

Thank you so much! Will check these out.

[MidasGirl]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

There will be 60-80 folks doing bike rides from Mellow Johnny's on Saturday morning. I'll be with the fun people cycling 20-25 miles out to McKinney Falls State Park and back. A faster group will be going more like 35 miles at a training pace(usually). Should be perfect weather! OR you could just hang out at the Juan Pelota Cafe(in the bike shop) enjoying a coffee. The farmers' market is just two blocks away on 4th St.

By the way, did anyone mention that the weather is like this year-round .

Hi there -- thanks. I'm not much into biking, unfortunately :/ But the cafe sounds like fun.

[MidasGirl]

Originally Posted by kiacook

I'm curious - what has been disappointing?

The overall social vibe and availability, actually. I lived in California for many years, then moved to Texas via Dallas (lived in Dallas for 9 months in 2011 until I moved here). We moved here because we fell in love with the hippie "feel" to it when we visited, but now it looks to me like that "feel" is great for visiting, not living. You have to realize though that I'm comparing this to Southern California.

I thought the Dallas area was dreary, but actually, they have a really thriving hippie "tribe" that I kind of regret moving away from.

It's no big deal though. I'm here to stay for another few years till my daughter is done with High school as I think I've moved her around enough as it is (she's in 7th grade). So I'm gonna create the fun I want to see and make my life here fantastic and interesting and all.

Also, I think that if you're the biking/kayaking type then this place is heaven for you. I love South Congress yes - I've gone to a few places there - but nothing seems "all that" to me.

I dunno, maybe next weekend I'll treat my man to a strip club. Anybody know of a fun one here someplace?

[SmartGXL]

Originally Posted by MidasGirl

Hi Austinites,

I moved here about 3 months ago, and I'm finally settled in the Rollingwood area.

My man and I are looking to join the social scene here - so far it's been a little disappointing. Which surprised me because we're into hippie stuff, we're vegetarian etc and Austin seemed like the perfect place to be for that.

We've pretty much tried all the veggie restaurants and we like them.

Anyway, we're looking for fun things to do - quieter wine/coffee bars, restaurants, or just venues with music/dancing. Any type of hippie things like kirtan or meetups would be great as well.

What fun things do you all do?

Thank you so much!

My brother lives down in Austin (Cedar Park, actually), and so I love visiting there and exploring the area. Austin is an amazing city and I love it when I have a chance to visit.

Having said that, now let me say this: The media has created an "Austin paradigm" that makes people think that Austin is some sort of vegan hippie/hipster/rock musician/artist paradise, and yes that exists there in some quantity, but a lot of people who are into that seem to be spread out all across the metro region, and so they are harder to meet and harder to find. It it not like Chicago or NYC, where the the really interesting hipster crowd is concentrated in one or two dense walkable neighborhoods. I mean in Wicker Park in Chicago, you look out your window and you see the aforementioned hipster crowd walking by all day long, every day. And it can be very easy to chat with them and meet them (especially if you are an interesting person yourself). In Austin, you look out your window and you might see the hill country, or maybe you see trees or your lawn, or maybe a neighbor's house. Which is great, but that doesnt easily lead to meeting people and participating in the local scene. Plus, MOST people in Austin are just regular people, with jobs, kids, etc, living their day to day life in a really nice city, but not really trying to be part of any specific paradigm.

Part of the problem is that, Austin is, for the most part, a typical north american driving city, so you have to drive to where the scene is and participate that way. In places like Chicago, where I live, you walk out your door and you are in the "scene" automatically, due to the walkable environment. The challenge there in Austin, is that you have to do research and "find" the scene, which as I mentioned, is more spread out across the region. Sure, there is South Congress and South Austin, and there is a concentration of your crowd there, but again you have to put some effort into the scene, dig deep, scratch beneath the surface, and find things that are going on, show up, talk to people, maybe invite people to do stuff. Meetup.com is great, you just have to get creative with the search feature. Find groups that appeal to your typical hobbies (for example, vegan meetup groups).

[Dr.Mom]

Some cool cooking classes are offered at Whole Foods. That might be a fun way to meet some people, or just do something different.
Culinary Center Calendar | Lamar Culinary Center | WholeFoodsMarket.com (http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/lamar-culinarycenter/culinary-center-calendar/ - broken link)

[bgrn198]

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