My dear friend and co-worker Amber celebrated her 24th birthday today. Birthdays at work are always fun for me, since I can't resist obliterating the birthday person's office, as well as buying them their favorite cake. Amber is no exception! She truly rocks as a human being, so I wanted to make sure I got her the cake she loves most in the world (a Tres Leches from Luby's - hey, don't knock it till you've tried it. It's to DIE for!), as well as a gift or two that would make her smile. On top of this tradition is the ever-popular birthday lunch. (And that's where the most fun came for me, naturally.) Her birthday was made double-good by the fact that it was a payday Friday, then triple-good by the fact that 95.5 FM started their Christmas music marathon today. Amber, like me, loves Christmas music so it was all too fitting that they should begin their yearly tradition of 24-hr Christmas music on her special day. I love when days go this well for my friends. She's topping off her evening with a new outfit, a group of friends, and a limo that's going to cart them all around so no one is driving drunk. Smart! But, since most of you don't even know Amber, I will stop spewing about her day, and get to the good stuff ... lunch.
This place has been around for a few years, but I personally had never heard of it. This is probably because it is VERY trendy, and I tend to avoid things that make the Austin Chronicle's "best of" list. Boy, am I glad she chose this place, because it would have been a shame for me to have never experienced food this delicious right here in our own town! Most of you know my love of food, so the fact that I'm about to dedicate a few paragraphs to my lunch shouldn't shock anyone. The place I am speaking of is South Congress Cafe. Amber went there a few months ago and came in to work the next day talking non-stop about a) how good it was, and b) how much I would love this place. Yeah, she was spot-on, because I can't wait to go back.
From the outside, you would never know what goodies lie inside. It almost blends in with all the other drab buildings on South Congress.
I have never really been a fan of this side of town, probably because I'm old-school Austin. I can remember the days when South Congress was a place to avoid & the only noteworthy thing down there was the porn theater. (Ok, and Lucy In Disguise.) But, over the past 10 years, it has gone under a massive transformation. It's turned into boutique after boutique, all offering quirky clothing & furniture to help "keep Austin weird" [gag] and overpriced trinkets. But, Amber was the birthday girl, so it was her choice where we went, and wow, I'm glad we did. I started off with a cup of the soup de jour, which happened to be a sweet onion chipotle soup. Holy mother. I thought I had died & gone to culinary heaven with the first spoonful. It was a thick, creamy masterpiece with the absolute perfect amount of heat. All the people at our table were laughing at me because I was licking the spoon when I was done, just to make sure I didn't miss a drop. I ordered the charbroiled beef tenderloins for lunch, which was served with garlic mashed potatoes and a spring mix salad, tossed with a citrus vinaigrette. My God, it was divine. Three medallions, perfectly cooked, sitting in a pool of gravy goodness. Amber knows about and shares my love of potatoes, so she had me take part of her smoked gouda potato pancake that came as her side dish. Can we say fantabulous?! I wanted six more of those things to take home with me. To finish things off, Amber ordered one piece of their carrot cake french toast, served with cream-cheese pecan syrup for us to share. [eyes rolling in the back of my head] That was one of the yummiest things I have ever eaten. E-v-e-r.
I may be a late bloomer to this restaurant, but better late than never. I highly suggest trying this place out, but of course, as with every other damn place in this town, beware of the crowds. We didn't hit a big one because it was 11:30am when we got there, but apparently evenings and weekends are insane. Everything about this place was fantastic, and rarely can you find a restaurant these days where that is the case. The food, the service, even the plates they use are all incredible. I told Amber and the gang that I just may have to pick this place as my birthday lunch pick in a few weeks! No one seemed to mind. ;) I'm glad I'll at least have that chance, since Aaron hates the South Congress area even more than I do, and it'd be a small miracle getting him to go down there.
Speaking of "the gang", I just have to add in here how much I love my co-workers. I know this job tests me often, and ends up pissing me off about three months out of every year, but it's so uncommon to find a job where you genuinely like the people you work with. Amber, Daniel, Simon, Jessenya, and Jaime are a great bunch of people and I'm lucky to know them. They are one of the top reasons I stick around, aside from the fact that I like to eat and I like having a car. Thank you guys, for being so darn great.
I will now list my three things I'm grateful for today, before I forget. I bet most of you can guess at least two of them before you continue reading:
1. South Congress Cafe!
2. Christmas music.
3. Kick-ass co-workers.
I will close this up for now, because I'm taking Z to see Wall-e at the discount theatre tonight.
It will be my second time seeing it, his third. But for now, it's time for me to start getting ready & find something warm for us both to wear. A drastic cold-front is moving through right about now, and it's going to be quite chilly when we get out of the movie in a few hours. Aaron has to close tonight, so it'll just be me & my pint-sized date for the movie. I must say, I like Wall-e quite a lot, so I'm excited to be seeing it again. Until next time ...
Peace & pastries.
1 comment:
I have never been there either! Sounds DELISH!
Happy birthday Amber! :) I am glad yall had so much fun!
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