Take A Tasty Adventure & Explore

It's not like Austinites to sit around on the weekends watching TV, staying indoors, but to get out in our beautiful city and experience it. I know my weekends are full of activities around Austin, and that's not just because I'm a college student. I know many families that attend festivals, venture downtown, visit parks, and the list could on forever.

The one thing that Austinites or even non-locals can ALWAYS do on a weekend in is be engaged with Austin's food. Everyone has to eat and why not make one of your weekend activities revolve around food. Sounds perfect to me!
In answer to that I might say, "I have no idea where to start, or where to go." The perfect solution to this is Austin Eats Food Tours!


Austin Eats Food Tours offers spectacular tours every Saturday and Sunday. You take a 3 hour tour from 10am-1pm, visiting 7-8 local eateries and sampling there most tasty dishes. Walking in between restaurants not only do you get a little bit of site-seeing of Austin, but some exercise as well.

Austin Eats Food Tours only started a couple months ago, which is why you might not have heard much about them. The tours were only recently created by a cute young couple home to Austin who wanted to share that love for that local Austin vibe.

They currently have 2 tours up and running that can be booked today and 2 tours in the making.
The South Congress Tour is held every Sunday. Taking you on a trip down South Congress to experience some of the hip, eclectic food Austin has to offer.
The Downtown Tour is held every Saturday. Taking you to enjoy the relaxed side of downtown at various restaurants and the famers market before the party begins on 6th street at night.
The Barton Springs Tour and a tour Condensed Tour, having three tours complied into one, will be coming soon. So something new to look forward to if you’ve already checked out the other 2 tours.

Being a recently new business, Austin Eats Food Tours has made sure to get right on track with their social media and is doing a great job at it. Keeping their website very informational and updating their Facebook and Twitter keeps them just in line with other local businesses. This is giving them a good fresh start to stay connected with the community.

I think Austin Eats Food Tours is something worth checking out. I look forward to hearing more people talk about their experience on the tours and about the new ones coming up as well.
I guess this is another thing to put on my list of To Do’s for my weekend!

Check out their website to book today at http://www.austineatsfoodtours.com/
Also check out their Facebook http://www.facebook.com/austinfoodtours & Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/austinfoodtours

Pictures from their Facbook page and from www.bakingpictures.blogspot

"One city. Two weeks. Three courses."

Despite a delay and a little bit of website technical difficulties, Austin Restaurant Week is still on the calendar and soon to be arriving!
To ensure that Austinites and non-local foodies are able to experience it "all", Austin Restaurant Week has been pushed back to April 10-13 & April 17-20. This way it won't interfere with Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival, which talked about previously and we know is something no one wants to miss out on.

I must say that Austin hosts many fun-filled weekends and weeks for its foodies: SXSW, Wine & Food Festival, and now Austin Restaurant Week. If you haven't had the chance to experience Austin's food industry, March and April have given plenty of opportunities to do so.

Austin Restaurant Weeks is to celebrate Austin dinning and the culinary arts.
Get excited college students this time it's not too expensive! Costs ranging for lunch $10-15 and dinner $25-35.
This is your opportunity to dine at some of Austin's fabulous restaurants for their favorite three course meals.
Whether you want to go to your favorite place or venture and try something new, this is the week to do it!

Austin Restaurant Week has its own website, which is very appealing and helpful. On the website is the list of participating restaurants. It gives you the option to view the different menus, read reviews, and even make a reservation. Also on the website you are able to download the new app. This app can allow you to find out all your information on the go. So if you want to show a co-worker or a friend you can show them straight from your phone if you download this new app. The app can do all the same things as the website can. You can see the list of restaurants, view menus, read reviews, see maps, and make reservations.

Although this app is very specific for the actual event, I think that events like this are a great time to bring our new apps such as bringing out a new food app. That way if there's an event people will have an opportunity and a reason to check it out and then there's more of a possibility that they will use it in the future. I also think that events are soon going to be almost expected to have some kind of phone app to make it more accessible.

So foodies get out there and do what you do best! Catch another week of tasteful adventures and download the new app to help you along the way.

For more information go to Austin Restaurant Week Website : http://restaurantweekaustin.com/

Find Your Hotspot on Hotpot

"Another social media tool to help me find places near me, what's the difference from all the other ones ..."
This is what most people might be saying when Google Hotpot launched. Even I felt this way until I did some research to see what it was all about.

Although Google Hotpot hasn't been out long, an app for your phone has just been released. This way you can find places while you're out and about.

What is Google Hotpot?
Google is not only to find places near you, but also to find ratings and reviews on different places.
I decided to go online and check it out and fell in love. It's so quick, easy, and kind of fun actually.
You start out by rating the places you know. The more places you rate and give reviews for the more recommendations you receive.
Check it out! You might be given a recommendation that could be your new favorite place!

Local Campaign in Austin
Google Hotpot has launched a campaign in Portland and has decided to come to Austin because of Austin's sense of localness.

Early February Google Hotpot teamed up with Torchy's Tacos to kick off their marketing campaign here in Austin.
To help promote Hotspot Torchy's gave away free tacos at any Torchy's location for one weekend limiting up to 10,000 tacos.
That's a lot of tacos if you ask me, but here in Austin Torchy's is so popular that I bet they ran out fast.


Today, March 29th, Google Hotpot teamed up with Amy's Ice Cream to keep promoting their new tool. They held a Free Ice Cream Day at all Amy's locations giving away a free small cup of ice cream! What a nice treat since summer is now approaching!

Teaming up with local hotspots in Austin is not only helping Google Hotpot get their new tool exposed, but also giving local businesses the exposure that they need. Not only will they bring in customer's with these events, but also Hotpot will help bring in the right customers who are being recommended to these places.

I'm really excited to use Google Hotpot and share with friends and family! This way I might find my new favorite restaurant that otherwise I would have never tried!

For more information:
Check out Google Hotpot: http://www.google.com/hotpot#
Amy's Ice Cream Website: http://www.amysicecreams.com/2.0/#/home/
Torchy's Tacos Website: http://torchystacos.com/

Wine & Food Festival Just Around The Corner

You thought SXSW brought in a crowd.
In just over a week the annual Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival will be held in Austin not only bringing in local foodies but foodies from all over Texas.

Texas Wine & Food Festival is the largest wine and food festival in the lone star state and brings out Texas’s customs, traditions and flavors. This weekend-long event occurs at numerous local Austin venues. With luncheons, educational seminars, live music, celebrity chefs, wine, and food it’s sure to bring about some attention.

I found out about this festival on my daily trip home from work. Even without the slow 5 o’clock traffic I would have still noticed the big banner over Whole Foods, who is this years main sponsor for the festival.
I thought, “Oh this would be perfect for my PR blog and something I might want to check out.”


This event is taking place March 31 through April 3, 2011 and if I wasn’t a poor college student I might drag along a few friends to go check it out.
The word around is to get tickets now before some of the events sell out.
Since tickets are a bit pricy I would recommend doing a little bit of reading to find out which events most interest you. On the website is a free full event download with detailed descriptions and prices.

Getting the word out … with a sneak peak.
Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival decided to give a sneak peak in early February of their annual event happening at the beginning of April.
What a great idea. Giving the community a little taste of what’s to come with an actual mini event.

Here they revealed their new logo. Not only did they present this logo, but also had this new logo in temporary tattoo form. How cool is that?!


Not to say that some people wouldn’t, but personally I’m not sure if I would want to sport a Wine Food tattoo though the idea is still unique and creative.

Events and celebrity chefs were announced as well.
Two chef demonstrations along with buffet of samples were present at the event.
All in all I think the sneak peak was a great way to get the word out about the event to ensure that people know and understand what the festival is all about.

I’m exited to see how the event turns out!
I might even be able to convince my mom to come to Austin for the weekend to attend considering her great obsession with wine!

For more information here are some helpful links:
Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival Website: http://texaswineandfood.org/
Whole Foods Website: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/
Download Free Events Schedule: http://texaswineandfood.org/schedule-events/

SXSW gives a "taste" of Austin

Not only is South By Southwest an annual gig for the music industry, but SXSW now also allows Austin to promote and display its eclectic food industry as well.

People are coming from all over Texas and the United States to attend SXSW. Although they come for the music people have to eat too.

This is a great opportunity for Austin to give people a “taste” of the Texas state capital.

The overwhelming hussel and bussel of the city scares away visitors or new residents from trying new things. Our non-Austinites might cling to the familiar chain restaurants unless they are given information or opportunities to venture out.
I know I've only recently started to break out of my bubble of the recognizable and customary restaurants like Chili's and this will be my third year living in the city.

This year Foodspotting is teaming up with SXSW for a street food scavenger hunt.

March 13, 2010 from 11am-3pm Foodspotting will be hosting a street food scavenger hunt at SXSW bringing together some of Austin’s best street food trucks and carts.

Participating in the scavenger hunt you not only have the potential to win prizes but also get the privilege to taste and experience tons of different types of food.

This is an innovative way of promoting a part of Austin’s food industry that it needs to take advantage of.

I recently enjoyed a vanilla cupcake with strawberry icing and sprinkles from Hey Cupcake, a well-known local truck parked on South Congress. If given the opportunity I wouldn’t want to miss out on trying some of the other local carts and SXSW Street Food Scavenger Hunt is just that.



Follow Foodspotting on Twitter for daily shout-outs of the Scavenger Hunt prize sponsors.

If not able to attend because of Spring Break plans take a trip down South Congress one weekend with a couple a friends. Stroll down the street to find some of Austin’s best food carts. Or venture out on your own scavenger hunt. Print out your guide and make a day of trying some of Austin's most tasty foods.



For more information here is a list of links:

South by Southwest website http://sxsw.com/
Foodspotting website http://www.foodspotting.com/#/
Hey Cupcake website http://www.heycupcake.com/
SXSW Street Food Scavenger Hunt Information & Guide http://www.foodspotting.com/guides/51
Foodspotting on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/foodspotting