This place opened recently in a the historic Schneider building by Town Lake near City Hall. They (jokingly refer to fancy BBQ but I may be missing something.

My favorite is the brisker platter with mac 'n' cheese and waffle fries for $9 (lunch). Doesn't seem to fancy to me but just right, moist brisket. Beer is a bit pricey though.

Nice outside patio and live music.

I think this place will do well and plan to go back often.

noticed that Prague is almost open, any thoughts?

It's 5th street near Congress by Gruv and Glass

Walked by Salsarita's last night around 8 and noticed that they weren't open. It seems that many causual or counter restaurants open downtown with hours extending late into the night only to scale back later.

Jimmy John's was open until 3am every night but now only do it on the weekends. Salsarita's just did the same thing.

Texadelphia went from being open until 10pm to being only open for lunch to just closing completely.

I hate that Schlotzky's isn't open at night but I guess I should be glad they are open at all.

Hopefully with more people moving downtown it will make business sense for more of these places to stay open in the evening. As much as I love eating at nice sit down restaurants there are plenty of nights when I just want to take a walk and pick up something quick and easy and there aren't many choices for that downtown. Here's what I see:

Which Wich
Jo's Coffee Shop (awesome burger but pricey w/sides and drink)
Wahoo's Fish Tacos
Rocket's

I'll consider the below after drinking:

all the pizza places: Onion, Hoek's, Paparazzi (good chicken tenders, bad pizza), Roppolo's (worst pizza ever
Fajita cart
Wurst cart (pretty good)
Carl's Hot Dogs (get the relish)
other hot dog guy in alley between Fado and Lucky Lounge

they got rid of the sign on Doggie Style hot dogs showing a dog about to take a shit, I may consider eating one now, depending on how drunk I am

So there isn't much, I think the Subway stays open until 9 or 10 but it sucks. Quizno's closes early. Cozzoli's sold my number to loser (personal finance advisor) and their food is terrible anyway and deserves to stay in the mall.

What else is good and easy downtown?

Third Base sports bar just opened and it seems like a great place. Plenty of HDTVs that are setup to display HD, reasonably priced food and drink (particularly when compared to Ringer's), and located on the bottom floor of a parking garage so parking is easy.

6th and mopac may seem like a strange spot for a bar but Mean Eyed Cat seems to be doing well and El Arroyo is an old standby. The south side of 5th street is slated for major development so that can only help in the future.

I like the place but 2 of the guys running it are friends of mine and I know some of the staff from other places so I admit I'm biased.

We can also use more sports bars in Austin!

In related news Fox and Hound closed to no one's surprise. I feel bad for those that worked there that lost their jobs but the place was too corporate and was dead outside of major sporting events. They did have a nice beer selection though.

Didn't feel like going up to Dallas for the TX/OU game so wanted to find a place in Austin where I could the watch the game in HD. I have HD at home and see no reason to downgrade when going out to watch a big game.

BD Riley's recently upgraded their setup and has HD but not every tv is HD yet and the Notre Dame game was taking up the only one. Oh, and I hate Notre Dame too.

Ringer's has a killer setup but it's impossible to get a seat there without going super early and with all the hard surfaces it's a little shrill.

Fox and Hound is out since they opened just before HD became a viable option so their tvs suck, not to mention the spotty service.

219 West has a nice HD setup but LaMonica wasn't working, almost went there anyway since it is a good spot.

Ended up starting out at Joe's Bar and Grill next to the Austin City Lofts (and behind Frank and Angie's and Huts). Unfortunately they only have HD on their projector up front and I ended up with a table in back. Was hungry and ordered mac 'n' cheese with frankfurters. It was great and contributed to me being a pear shaped loser. Left at halftime due to the non-HD setup and it was hot inside. Our older server rocked though, it was crowded but she came by very often.

Wandered to Union Park, wasn't very crowded which was nice and they had a nice HD setup. Wanted to sit outside upstairs but they weren't open up there. They had the tv zoomed in but they were able to fix it quickly. Nice.

Mission accomplished and loved watching the Horns play so physical and beat OU!

And why can a simple place like Wahoo's Fish Tacos have a nice HD setup and not a supposed sports bar like Fox and Hound?

Salsarita's is a chain fast food mexican joint located on trinity between 5th and 6th street in what used to be a part of the Copper Tank. I am going to miss the old Copper Stank from it's hayday back in the mid 90s but that's another topic.

Salsarita's looked like another Chipotle or Baja Fresh which is a bad thing. But the two slackers working there that were outside smoking made me feel better. It was dead so I guess it was a good time for them to take a break. The place itself was clean as a whistle.

Ordered a steak burrito and the ordering style was very similar to Freebirds and so was the end result, a tasty meaty burrito.

Their hours are nice, open to 9pm on weekdays and 3am on Fri and Sat. I hope it's busier than when I went on a Monday around 8 since I'd like to see them stick around. Sure it's chain but hopefully the franchise is locally owned like Wahoo's Fish Tacos.

As much I love Hoek's and Onion pizza along with Carl's hotdogs, I am definitely glad to see this option for late night food. If only we had more options in the Warehouse District instead of having truck over to 6th for some variety.

Stopped by Champion's Sports Bar for lunch today. Hadn't been so figured it would be good to try.

First impression is that it was yet another chain in Austin which isn't surprising since it's in some Mariott derivative hotel by the convention center.

Bartender messed up my order and another guy sitting at the bar. That's ok, it happens and he offered the other guy a free mystery beer.

Later the guy wanted to watch something other than what was playing. There are 3 customers at the bar and 5 tvs. It's Thursday afternoon and not much is going on. The bartender tells him that he's not allowed to change any of the tvs. Customer asks for the manager. Manager doesn't come for 10 minutes. He says that he can't put anything other than sports on (even if it's muted) since they are a "sports bar."

At which point I decide I am not going to come back to a place with overpriced food that won't take care of their customers.

Guess they can join the list with Iron Cactus and a few other places that are too good for their own customers.

So what are the thoughts on Glass? New place at 5th and Congress that seems to be the latest hotspot. I've been several times and it's fun. Only had one mildly annoying experience when they wouldn't let me in over Memorial Day weekend when I was still wearing my lake gear but no biggie.

Foundation just had their 1 year anniv party a few weeks ago, how time flies!