Old School Bar and Grill

 On a Sunday, we had the need to be on 6th Street.  We were on our way to Tears of Joy and we were trying to decide on what to have for lunch.  My daughter is a minor, but unbeknownst to many minors can eat at the bars that serve food in Austin as long as it is before a certain time, like maybe 8pm.  So, as we happened to be walking by the Old School Bar and Grill, their greeter stopped us at the door and asked if we wanted to see a menu.  We decided to roll with it, and ended up on the third-floor balcony overlooking 6th Street, waiting for our lunch.

The Old School Bar and Grill is in a really beautiful building, one with a great deal of antique charm.  We were escorted through the ground-floor eatery up two flights of wooden stairs to what appeared to be the dance-floor and stage on the third-floor, and from there to the balcony.  This was the perfect day to be eating outside, maybe in the high 60s and just a little cloudy.  They had probably only opened within the last hour, but the wait-staff proved to be very attentive to the handful of patrons already out on Sunday.

 A couple of items caught my eye on their menu.  They serve a Blue Cheese Buffalo Burger, a hamburger patty seasoned with buffalo sauce, blue cheese, and bacon.  I considered this as an option until I saw they have fish-and-chips, my base-line pub-food of choice.  I elected to have the fish-and-chips, while my daughter went with a burger.

 In addition, there drink menu included a concoction called "The Granpa", a collection of fruit liquors that sounded tasty.  I am one who likes my drinks to taste good, and not require developing a taste for them.

 The order was filled in roughly ten minutes.  The Granpa proved to be an excellent choice; sweet while not syrupy and strong enough to offer a mild buzz.  The fish-and-chips were better than average, but not near the top of my list of good dishes, making me wish I had went with the burger.  My daughter enjoyed her burger, but was neither impressed nor disappointed.  The home-style fries were as good as any other part of the meal. 

 All-in-all, the meal was well worth the $30 spent on two plates and a drink.  I will be going back to try that burger. 

 Old School Bar and Grill Austin Texas

 401 East 6th Street, Austin, TX 78701

 (512) 722-6351

Five Guys Burger and Fries

 My 11 year old, Gabrielle, raves about Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  She must have had it somewhere in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  When we passed the location on Guadalupe in Austin, she was very excited, and said that we had to try it.  Personally, I couldn't imagine what her fuss was about, I mean, it is just another burger-joint.  Still, the next opportunity we had to go out and didn't know what we wanted, we opted to check out Five Guys Burgers and Fries. 

 On the plus side, they keep burgers simple.  There is nothing overly pretentious about the place.  Steak-and-Shake is what I would call an overly pretentious burger-joint... I mean, it is a burger.  Calling ground beef "ground steak" is just assuming that your customers are idiots.  "Burger-and-Shakes" lacks the same ring to it, but that is as far as I would go with the whole "steak" thing.  Five Guys Burgers and Fries has a simple storefront, a simple menu, and is a fairly straight-forward operation.

 I think this is coincidence, but there happened to be five guys working the shift we paid a visit.

 At the front of the store, guiding you to the order-counter, was a walk-way lined with giant bags of what I think were peanuts.  They might have been potatoes, and that seemed to be the impression I had that day, but that would mean that they go through a ridiculous amount of potatoes.  Everything is made fresh.  The place has no freezers, so maybe they were potatoes.  Anyway, I thought it was a nice touch.

 The menu, like I said, is simple.  A burger is 2 patties with whatever toppings.  A little-burger is 1 patty.  You also have hot dogs and (of course) fries, regular of "Cajun".  The variety of toppings allows for 250,000 variations on how you get your burger.  They only do "well-done".  I had a burger with bacon, cheese, and barbecue sauce.

 The burger wasn't too bad.  It wasn't too greasy (not necessarily a "plus" in my book), had only a hint of seasoning, and definitely was better than a once-frozen patty somewhere else.  The fries were good, and they have malted-vinegar on hand for those who like that.

 However, there was nothing outstanding about the burger, nothing worth the hype, anyway.  I am confident that most people could make the same burger at home in a frying-pan on their stove top.  The fries, also, weren't amazing.  My kid was actually a little disappointed.  Apparently, the Ft. Wayne store over-flowed the bag with fries.  Our fries just filled the container.

 Oh, that was the other cool thing.  No trays or anything.  They hand you your food in brown-paper bags, even if you are eating in.

 The food was not bad, but not amazing.  The amazing thing was the price.  My burger, which in size I would compare to a Whopper at Burger King, was $6.99!  That is not with fries and a drink.  My cup-of-soda was another 2 bucks.  To feed the four of us, I spent more than $40.  That is the price I expect to spend at Applebee's, or maybe a local burger-joint like Dirty Martin's where the burger is massive, not a franchise burger-joint.

 So, Five Guys Burgers and Fries was not bad, but was over-priced.  Either make the same burger at home or go somewhere that you get more bang for your buck.

 Five Guys Burgers and Fries

 3208 B Guadalupe St

 Austin, TX 78703

 Tel: 512-452-4300