Yet while it’s characteristic sound creates the melodies in many of our favorite country songs, the instrument itself is arguably one of the least celebrated in the genre. Visually, it appears as a cross between a lap style guitar and an electric keyboard, complete with foot pedals similar to the piano. Yet in truth, the instrument is vastly more complex than a mere mash-up—it’s the product of a signature style in music history.
Ironically enough, the instrument that helped define country’s familiar sound throughout the decades evolved from somewhat foreign origins. Music historians have traced the pedal steel guitar back to the Hawaiian Islands, way back before country music even existed. Modifying classic 6-string guitars brought by European sailors, Hawaiian musicians developed a new playing style in 1874, where the instrument was played flat across the lap using metal fingerpicks and a cylindrical steel bar that slid up and down the neck.
It wasn’t until some 50 years later that this style of guitar made its debut in country music—and other genres as well (even inspiring blues artists to play their guitars with glass bottle necks, sawed-off pipes, and even knives). With this new style came a wave of musical experimentation and innovation, which gradually produced the pedal steel guitar we know today.
Perhaps the biggest step was in 1932, when the first production electric lap steel guitars were made. As the first-ever electric stringed instrument, amplification side-stepped the need for traditional acoustic guitars, so hollow guitar bodies were replaced by flat slabs of wood. Inspired by the new possibilities, musicians explored alternate tunings and even added extra necks or legs so they could play while standing.
Another innovation came later when Alvino Rey invented the “talking” steel guitar, which incorporated foot pedals that offered players a new layer of control to raise the pitch of each note. Then in 1952, player Zane Beck added knee levers to enable the player to also lower the pitch.
Of course, this endless realm of musical possibilities also makes the pedal steel guitar an extremely difficult instrument to master. Today’s pedal steel guitar requires players to use both of their hands, both of their knees, and both feet. Of course, this complexity may explain why the instrument is so often overlooked despite carving such an important role in the evolution of country music.
In spite of its complexity, the pedal steel’s potential is nonetheless being explored by a wide variety of artists across genres. In fact, you may be able to pick out the pedal steel in new ballads from rock bands like Kings of Leon or even the electro-inspired experimental songs of Björk—let alone in most of country’s top 10. Yet regardless of where you may find it, be sure listen in to experience the culmination of over 140 years of musical heritage.
Introduction
The stars of Texas bbq are not wanting for attention; our friends at Texas Monthly, and Texas Highways and even publications outside of Texas are regularly writing about creative brisket and fancy pits and epic long lines. Which is all well and good.
But as Texans and ourselves patrons of great Texas bbq joints, we’ve noticed a little something is always missing from the conversation: the sweets. Call them the menu-bottom dwellers, the after-thoughts, the unsung courses; regardless, we’d argue that the puddings, cobblers, and pies on these menus are often just as worth the trip as the jalapeño-ny links and tangy sauces.
The challenge, of course, is you have to save room for dessert, somehow rationing your portions of the wonderful meats and beans and sandwich bread sopped in sauce. This is not easy to do, we admit. But to inspire you to save room, or at the very least to get some plated to-go, we’re offering some up-close-and-personal photos of some of our favorite bbq desserts across Texas. We’re happy to begin with (and finish with < see what we did there) the Chocolate Banana Pudding at Stiles Switch BBQ and Brew.
The File
The Joint: Stiles Switch BBQ and Brew
Location: Austin, Texas
Save Room For: The Chocolate Banana Pudding
Sweet Notes: Made with fresh bananas and Oreo cookie bits, the Chocolate Banana Pudding is every bit as delicious as you might imagine. Some scoops have more chocolate, some more Oreo, and others more banana. It’s a flavor adventure with every spoonful.
You’ll Have to Ration: Main course all-stars like brisket, pork ribs, smoked turkey sandwiches, and frito pie, and sides that include corn casserole, dill potato salad, and mac & cheese. Operated by owner and founder Shane Stiles together with pit master Lance Kirkpatrick, Stiles Switch is regularly ranked among the top bbq spots in Texas by Texas Monthly and other bbq enthusiasts. So, with respect to your rationing efforts: seriously, good luck with that.
Go Get Some: Stiles Switch BBQ and Brew. 6610 North Lamar Blvd. Austin, TX 78757. Hours: Closed Monday! Tues-Thurs: 11 am - 9 pm; Friday-Sat: 11 am - 10 pm; Sunday: 11 am - 9 pm.
- N4SJ
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Meet Jerry Sims, aka the Happy Toymaker, a moniker he shares with his successful toy company. From his workshop on an unassuming ranch house just outside of town, Jerry makes awesome, ranch-inspired toys.
By “ranch-inspired”, we mean toys that replicate the real working equipment you’d find on any present-day Texas ranch, like overhead cake bins, feedlots, stalls and corrals, loading chutes, and—our favorite—semi trucks.
As with many great business, the Happy Toymaker was born of demand. Jerry’s own children wanted to play with toys that resembled the equipment they grew up around. Not surprisingly, there were no such toys available in the marketplace. So, Jerry built them himself.
That was many years ago. He’s built hundreds of toys since then, with customers all over Texas and far beyond.
These aren’t typical toys. For one thing, they're realistic, with moving parts and pretty accurate to scale. Most notably, they're tough: made of steel, and heavy, with edges that are a more raw than refined. And that's refreshing. In an age when schools have banned activities like tag and even running at recess, it's nice to know that some parents aren't coddling the fun out of their children's upbringing. Toys by the Happy Toymaker are for gritty children, the kind who'd rather post a fence than download an app--and who know how to do so.
We visited Jerry at his place in Happy, Texas. Wandering around town before our tour, the first thing we learned was that Jerry is a well-liked gentleman among his neighbors. In addition to being a toymaker and all around pleasant gentleman, Jerry has, for a long time, served both as fire chief of the volunteer fire department as well as EMS director. To everyone outside of Happy, he's the maker of great toys, but to folks around Happy, he's more akin to a hero who happens to make toys.
Enjoy this photo tour of The Happy Toymaker!
The Tour
- N4SJ
Mark Henry, Boatman
Craig Newkirk piloting on the tanker Montego.
Bobby Kersey, Lineman
Captain Leonard Glass, Houston Pilot
About Lou Vest:
Lou Vest’s work has been featured in exhibitions at the Houston Center for Photography, Williams Tower, Allen Center, Houston Public Library, Houston City Hall, and other venues. In 2012, Vest had a solo exhibition at the Houston Arts Alliance Gallery during the FotoFest biennial. He has been named one of Houston’s 100 Creatives and one of Houston’s Ten Best photographers by the Houston Press. His photos are displayed in public buildings, private collections and offices all over the world, featuring a wide variety of subject matter captured wherever his curiosity carries him—whether on board or on land.
Houston Maritime Museum
If you're in Houston, consider visiting the Houston Maritime Museum, which works to capture and preserve the wonder and influence of maritime history and the marine industry with focus on the development of Houston, the Texas Gulf Coast, and the State of Texas. You may support the Museum's work from afar by donating here.
- JE
]]>Photos by Andrew Miller for No. Four St. James.
Our first visit to the former territory of the Republic of Texas took us to beautiful Creede, Colorado. Today we head 200 miles south, to the rolling foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Northern New Mexico. There, the little town of Chimayo looks today much as it likely did while a part of Texas, with small adobe buildings, friendly dogs in the streets, and red chile peppers—called ristras—dried and strung beneath the eaves.
Chimayo is a quiet place. The town itself is home to fewer than 3,000 people. Yet, more than 300,000 visitors make their way to Chimayo each year. Some of those visitors come to see the famous Chimayo chile peppers, unique in their form and flavor, and still harvested and roasted using traditional methods.
But most visitors visit Chimayo as pilgrims, visiting a modest but picturesque shrine called El Santuario de Chimayo. This small Roman Catholic church, cozily walled within a courtyard, sits on what many Christians and non-Christians alike believe to be holy ground, with healing properties emanating from the very soil itself.
There are different versions of the history here, and the miracles associated with the church’s founding. In one version, a local friar discovered a crucifix buried in the dirt, which miraculously returned to its spot in the dirt three times after being unearthed. The crucifix—called Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas—is on display within the sanctuary to this day. In the more refined version of the story, it was a local Chimayo resident named Bernardo Abeyta who discovered the buried crucifix, and in reverence to the discovery built a chapel there in 1813, only to be replaced three years later by the sanctuary that stands today, and which stood during the time of the Republic of Texas.
Both versions El Santuario’s history include stories of miraculous healing that began shortly after construction of the chapel, and Native Americans attribute healing powers to the surrounding lands long before that. Many of today’s pilgrims travel to Chimayo with hopes of receiving relief from physical and spiritual maladies. A popular destination within the compound is “el pocito,” a small hole in the floor from which visitors extract dirt believed to have healing properties.
Today, El Santuario de Chimayo is cared for by the Sons of the Holy Family, a congregation of priests founded in Spain in 1864. In 1970, it was declared a National Historic Landmark, and has also earned a spot on the National Registry of Historic Places. It remains a special place for all who visit, and for Texans, holds the extra special quality of having been, at one time, in Texas.
For more information about El Santuario’s history, sites, and pilgrimages, visit their official website.
- VF
As soon as we met Tony Smith, founder of Austin-based Jarvis Boards, we wanted to work with him. Tony represents everything we love to discover in our fellow Texans: industriousness, friendliness, and eagerness to take on new challenges.
We already knew, by reputation, the products of his craft. For the past few years, just down the road from our studio here at No. 4 St. James, Tony’s been in his workshop—usually late at night—perfecting the construction and shaping of wooden paddle boards, eschewing the plastics and composites that typify so many mass-produced boards that originate overseas. We observed a while ago that Tony was making boards that were different—indeed, special.
And just as Tony was dismayed by the predominance of plastic-only paddle boards on the market, we were equally dismayed by the lack of boards that were patently expressive of Texas exploration. So many other paddle board brands originate from the west coast, or Florida, and consequently celebrate themes like ocean waves and dolphins and Polynesian art, or Lake Tahoe trees.
And those are all well and good. But we’re in Texas, and we know that there are more than 80,000 miles of rivers and streams across the state that are as distinctive and beautiful as any waterscapes abroad. Not all of them are practically navigable by paddle board, of course, but the ones that are, well, they’re worth discovering, and we wanted to make a paddle board to help inspire that achievement.
The Lone Star Edition stand up paddle board is based on the fast, lightweight and stable “Rio Grande” fitness board developed by Jarvis Boards. Over the course of six months, we worked with Tony to perfect the right look for this special edition of the Rio Grande board. Ultimately, it wasn’t difficult to settle on a lone star as the distinguishing mark: it’s so unmistakably iconic of Texas, and adorning the foredeck, it aptly portrays adventure, and boldness. To further the Texas connection, we drew, with contrasting wood stain, a thin bar down the middle of the board. When viewed together with the lone star, the effect is the subtle imagery of the Texas flag.
On the bottom of the board, we relied on another iconic image for Texas: the shape of the state itself. But we weren't content with the usual shape as defined by its borders. Instead, we made a Texas out of its major waterways, the natural arteries at its edges, and everywhere in between.
We think that the Lone Star Edition stand up paddle board is uniquely beautiful. And we know it's a great paddle board, to boot: it's fast, unusually stable, and surprisingly lightweight. Under all that wood is a foam core, so the board represents a nice marriage between the traditional maritime look of wood and contemporary methods of construction.
You can order your own Rio Grande - Lone Star Edition stand up paddle board; see our product page for more information and specs. Production takes about 5-6 weeks, but it's worth the wait, and all the compliments you'll receive out on the water. We know, because we've heard them first-hand.
- N4SJ
The world is having a love affair with Texas barbecue. There’s a magic alchemy between fire, smoke, seasoning and meat, and it's a source of amusement to watch the rest of us finally catch on to what most Texans have known all along. I myself am an Australian who ended up moving to Austin not entirely indirectly due to a love of barbecue, so it comes as little surprise that even the refined palates of continental Europe are catching the bug.
Enter Thomas Abramowicz – the Frenchman who walked away from a cosmopolitan career working in New York in the luxury spirits industry to preach the virtues of Texas barbecue on the streets of Paris.
His barbecue “joint” The Beast (so named for the hulking pit he imported from Texas) has been in operation since September 2014, serving up brisket, beef rib, pulled pork and baby back ribs, and classically Texan sides of coleslaw and BBQ beans (alongside the decidedly less traditional side of steamed greens).
Thomas and I spoke earlier this week (by phone; a trip to Paris was not in the cards for me, unfortunately). Here is what he shared:
How does a Parisian come to fall in love with Texan barbecue?
It was about seven years ago, I was living and working in New York for about four years and my roommate was from the Hill Country, in Blanco. So we used to travel back and forth to Texas, and that’s really how I discovered Texas culture and Texas barbecue. Ultimately I decided to quit pushing cases of Vodka and Champagne and open a real Texas BBQ joint in Paris.
I’ve heard that your journey to start your own joint has a rather serendipitous beginning?
I was attending Big Apple BBQ fest in Madison Square park , and had just bought the book written by [Texas Monthly’s barbecue editor] Daniel Vaughn called ‘Prophets of Smoked Meat’ about a week before the event. I had Googled him before and seen pictures of his face on the Internet before. I was having lunch with a friend of mine at Hill Country Barbecue in NYC, and guess who I ran into waiting in line for the bathroom?! I went up and introduced myself and explained my plan to open a BBQ joint in Paris, and that I needed help to get trained properly. He said he was happy to help, all in this nice conversation waiting in line in front of the bathroom! The next day at the event he introduced me to Wayne Mueller of Louie Mueller Barbecue. Wayne was kind enough to welcome me to his restaurant for training, and that was really the beginning of the project.
I’d imagine smokers aren’t exactly readily available in Paris. What kinds are you using and how did you acquire it?
I had done my homework before the trip and found out that some of the best commercial smokers available on the market are by J&R Manufacturing in Mesquite, Texas. I spent a week at their factory learning how to operate their bigass smoker called Oyler, which is a wood-operated rotisserie oven. It was custom made and a complete pain to import. The voltage was different and so they had to change all the electronics inside the smoker. Plus it took six months to get it – three months production and then three months shipping.
But it was very important to you to make sure you had a pit from Texas?
It was a must have. I’d always worked with luxury products, Dom Perignon, Hennessy, Belvedere, nice products. So if I was going to do this project, I wanted to do it right, and I needed the right equipment to do it. There was no compromise on the equipment, the cooking, or the meats.
What was it about your first taste of Texas barbecue that was enough to set you on a new career path?
It was a shock to me. It was a complete experience. First, the visual. The huge picnics tables and the sharing. The sharing of food really caught my attention, it’s not something we usually do in France. You know, you don’t sit next to someone you don’t know in a restaurant, there’s always personal space between the tables, but I love the idea of sharing and discussing with people you don’t know, and the food being the centre of that. It’s also the smell of spice, wood and meat mixed together. And finally of course the texture of the meat that’s melt in your mouth, and the low’n’slow flavor.
Are there any adjustments you’ve had to made for the French palate or is it more important for you to preserve authenticity?
I will not compromise on the cooking or the meats. Brisket is a cut that is not available in France, because we butcher different to how the Americans do. The cattle breeds we have in France are also too lean, so I had to import my brisket from the US. I’m very proud to say I’m using the same briskets as Wayne Mueller and Aaron Franklin, that’s Black Angus from Creekstone. I smoke with Oak as they do in Texas. I get beautiful French Oak and was trained to use Oak.
In terms of the palate, the French is a little different to the American. My ‘slaw is much lighter than what they have in Texas, we put very little mayonnaise, and it’s less sweet. I also had to lighten up on my rubs. Easier to digest for French people! The portions are also adapted. I couldn’t offer it by the pound, because people weren’t sure how much to order, so I offer set portions.
Do many American tourists seek you out?
Yeah, it’s absolutely phenomenal. Basically, 30% of my customers are American, both expats and tourists. The best compliment I can hear is from the expats, which is “it feels like a home away from home”.
What’s your favorite part or detail of Texas, aside from barbecue?
Hospitaltiy. I didn’t know much about Texas when I first stepped foot there. I knew what the media brought to my attention, so Dallas the TV show, and the Cowboys and the NRA, but that’s pretty much it. I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived there and I was amazed, especially when I did my training, by the kindness and hospitality of people, the passion they put in to keep this tradition and heritage going. Folks who gave me a bed in their house just to train me properly…that will stay with me forever.
Given your previous career around luxury spirits, which drink do you think pairs best with barbecue?
Before I went to Texas I spent 10 days in Kentucky touring the distilleries and fell in love with Bourbon. I think bourbon and barbecue work pretty well together, I feel like it’s the same texture, very mellow and melting in your mouth, almost caramelised on the outside, and very rich. Bourbon was hard to find in France, but I decided to open a Bourbon bar to go along with the barbecue, and I now have the biggest selection in France. We have approximately 80 bottles of Bourbon and American whiskey, which also attracts a lot of Americans.
Will we be seeing you back in Texas anytime soon to refresh your palate?
[laughs] I just got back to be honest! I was there about two months ago for the Houston BBQ Fest and some extra training at Louie Muellers. I’m planning on coming back every year – you’ll definitely see me in Texas again.
The Beast is at 27 Rue Meslay in Paris and operates from Tuesday thru Saturday with lunch from 12-2.30 and dinner from 7-11 unless sold out prior.
- JP
]]>After what seemed like months of never-ending rain, hot weather has returned to Texas, and summer officially feels like a Texas summer.
Reminiscing about our trip this time last year to Jacob’s Well, we were again drawn to the water’s edge. This year, our search led us to Spring Lake, on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos and well-cared for by the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.
This serene 16-acre lake forms the headwaters of the San Marcos River. Lake water is sourced abundantly by more than 200 underwater artesian springs, pushed up from deep within the Edwards Aquifer. The springs are active even during times of drought, and recent rains have aided the resurgence of additional, previously idle springs. The result is a high volume of constantly replenished fresh water.
The ceaseless outpouring of spring water makes Spring Lake extraordinarily clear: at its greatest depth of 30 feet, the lake’s clarity has been measured to be the equivalent of 70 feet deep—meaning if the lake was 40 feet deeper than it is, you’d still easily see all the way to the bottom.
The springs also result in constantly cool water temperatures, which hold steady around 72 degrees (°F) year-round.
Don’t get too excited about the cool water; swimming’s not allowed in Spring Lake. To enjoy these waters at their freshest point, you can access the San Marcos River several hundred yards away, just below the dam in City Park.
Rather than swim, you’ll experience the splendor of Spring Lake via their charming and informative Glass-Bottom Boat tours. A small fleet of wooden boats, including one built way back in 1945, await you beneath a stunning canopy of 350 year-old Bald Cypress trees.
Your boat tour will likely be led by a friendly Texas State student, who will introduce you to the turtles (Texas River Cooters and Red Eared Sliders); large mouth bass; freshwater eels; and the “cream of wheat,” which is how some refer to the pulsating clouds of sand on the lake floor indicating an underwater spring.
Don’t be surprised if among the wildlife you also see some scuba divers. While swimming’s not allowed, certified scuba divers are permitted to volunteer their time to help maintain the lake (if you’re in Central Texas, check with your local dive shop to see if they’ve partnered with the Meadows Center for such activities).
Your tour guide will also share with you tales of the lake’s former life as a popular theme park called Aquarena Springs. Leading up to the early 1990’s, a generation of visitors to the lake were entertained by underwater dancing Aquamaids, Glurpo the clown, Ralph, a diving pig, and other outrageous attractions. For an excellent read on the Lake’s transition from theme park to conservation, read Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine’s “The Transformation of Aquarena.”
More fascinating than its theme park history is Spring Lake’s human history. Your tour guide will explain that archaeologists have determined humans began congregating around the springs more than 12,000 years ago. Amazingly, that makes little Spring Lake in San Marcos, Texas one of the longest continuously inhabited sites in North America.
The glass-bottom boat tours at Spring Lake are a leisurely, easy activity for families. Tours leave every 30 minutes, and last about 30 minutes.
Afterwards, you can take a guided (a mere $3 added to your boat ticket) or self-guided walk on the Wetlands Boardwalk, which extends out over the marshier, pond-like portion of the lake.
It’s also worth paying a visit to the Discovery Hall and Aquarium Exhibit in the Meadow’s Center’s headquarters, which in yesteryears was the historic Spring Lake Park Hotel. Make sure you head up to the upper terraces to get a birds-eye view of the entire park.
Glass-Boat Tour Hours: Monday - Sunday 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- VF
]]>In this recurring series, we visit the best product brands in the Lone Star State, and introduce you to the Texans behind them. Our Made in Texas series is an extension of our popular 2013 publication, Texas Works: Products and Portraits of Talent. Introduction by Vincent Friedewald; photos and tour narrative are by Caleb Kerr.
We've been wanting to visit Tiny Texas Houses in Luling, Texas for some time now. In 2013, we tried to include them in our aggressive production schedule of Texas Works, but ultimately that schedule proved too aggressive, indeed.
Two summers later, we made it there. Still muddied by the June rains that flooded most of Texas, the property sits just off of Interstate 10 less than an hour east of San Antonio. If you've driven past, you've likely seen the large metal roof with Texas-sized letters, announcing the big things being made there: TINY TEXAS HOUSES.
Even if you've never driven through Luling, you've probably encountered a Tiny Texas House somewhere else. The tiny house movement can fairly still be called a recent one, but it can no longer be called new. By now, we've all seen the tv shows and coffee table books and Sunday edition newspaper articles. We've admired the photos of these cute little architectural marvels on Pinterest.
And chances are, among all of the tiny house media you've admired, you've almost certainly seen a house designed and built by Brad Kittel and his Tiny Texas Houses. As you'll see in this photo tour by our own Caleb Kerr, there's good reason for the attention: it's not just that the Tiny Texas Houses are charming; it's that they're extraordinary, as well. Tiny Texas Houses are distinguished by the special materials used in their construction, and the ingenuity in their achievement of space where little space is otherwise available. There's a term for this achievement, you'll discover below, and the result is, in a word, magical.
Enjoy this Made in Texas photo tour: A visit to Tiny Texas Houses, in Luling.
The Tour
The story of Tiny Texas Houses cannot properly begin without first introducing its founder, Brad Kittel.
Tall, lean, and muscular, Brad is soft-spoken with a big earnest smile. Years ago, while enjoying a successful career in real estate, Brad met another tiny-house builder, and reached a conclusion: he could build tiny houses more economically, and more environmentally friendly than other pioneers in the movement were doing at the time.
His vision was to make what was old new again, collecting materials that had already been created but discarded, and reusing them to build unique homes with distinct personality.
And that's what he's achieved. Each house Brad designs is different, utilizing special materials in creatively functional ways. He generally does not choose a theme for a house, and prefers a product that's more eclectic than thematic.
If there's a word that's most enigmatic of the Tiny Texas Houses brand, it's salvage. We see the phrase "reclaimed wood" a lot nowadays. But Brad doesn't refer to his wood or other building materials that way. Instead, he prefers to call them salvaged. The word itself means "to rescue", and that's what you discover when you inspect a Tiny Texas House: wonderful, old, and very functional materials are finding their salvation.
The wood Brad uses is predominately old-growth long leaf pine and loblolly pine, which there is very little of left standing, and which is a better building material for his purposes than any freshly cut lumber due to its superior strength.
Brad's expertise is evident when you hear him explain the special characteristics of old-growth wood. Essentially it comes down to the spacing of the growth rings. In elementary school, we all learned that counting the rings on a tree stump will tell you its age. But for the strength of the lumber, what's important is how close together those rings are. The dark part of the ring is what gives it strength, so the more tightly spaced they are, the stronger the wood will be. New pine you might buy from a home improvement store will have very widely spaced rings by comparison, and will be relatively weak.
Brad proved these principles to me by standing and bouncing on a small piece of wood, and then remarked that he's done the same test on wood half as wide as this piece, and it's held his weight.
Brad's method of salvage is simple. He scouts real estate deals in which someone buys a plot of land with a teardown house on it with intentions of building a new one. He then offers to come take the old house down and haul it away, free of charge. They accept, and get their lot cleared free of charge, and Brad gets his building materials. As the saying goes, "one man's trash is another man's treasure."
To say that Brad has amassed a lot of building materials over the years is a monumental understatement. The facility in Luling is 20,000 square feet, comprised of material warehouses as well as wood shops and fabrication areas. But there's yet an additional warehouse in Gonzalez, TX about 20 minutes away, with an additional 80,000 square feet of space stacked to the brim with more planks, windows, doors, glass, sinks, bathtubs, and other tiny-house-building necessities.
Brad and his crew salvage buildings all over the country, hauling the goods back home to Texas, where they sit in organized chaos until the right project comes along.
There are likely more doorknobs here than every doorknob you've ever seen in your lifetime, as well as hinges and other fixtures. Large barn door hinges are used on the houses' porch roofs to allow them to fold flat against the siding for transportation.
At the time of our visit, there were three tiny houses under construction, all at varying stages. One was still being framed. The second has it's exterior walls and insulation installed, while the third is nearly finished, with just the final touches being worked out.
The stairs are one of the most interesting aspects of these houses. A traditional staircase takes up an exceptionally large amount of space, so efficient stairs and ladders must be built instead. Brad often designs stairs that require you to step with alternating feet, and have their fronts carved out so that tall people won't clip their knees walking up.
Not everything used in construction is salvaged. A very small percentage includes, by necessity, modern components like spray foam in the walls, which insulates and air seals, and space-age wrappers that go around the exterior, LED lighting, and electrical wires.
Some of Brad's houses aren't wired for electricity at all. On others, main circuit breakers are built right into the interior walls to allow the power to be cut to the whole house easily, giving the homeowner the option of remaining clear of all electrical fields.
Another benefit of old-growth, tight-grained wood is termite resistance. Termites need to eat between the hard rings of any wood growth, and if the space is too small to allow their bodies in, the wood remains untouched.
One feature nearly every Tiny Texas House shares are beautiful windows. American-made stained glass adorns many—and sometimes all—of the windows.
If you visit Brad in Luling, he'll lead you on a tour of a small village of tiny houses on the property, which has been dubbed the town of Salvage, Texas.
And along the tour, Brad will explain to you the concept of "Space Magic."
Space Magic is what Brad refers to when he talks about how to maximize the space inside of the houses. While not necessarily increasing the taxable square footage of a house, by clever design and engineering, spaces can be made to feel larger than they really are. This is Space Magic.
Some of his earlier designs, like the one pictured below, follow a formula that he used several times: a front door leading to a rectangular open room with a small kitchen and bathroom in the back, a loft and bed above that, with a ladder to access it. Small, functional, beautiful, simple.
According to Brad, the house pictured below is the best example of Space Magic. With a large second floor with a large opening connecting the top and bottom, the feeling of openness is unmatched.
While the windows are certainly decorative, they're functional, as well. Opening all the windows creates a cross breeze which pulls out all the air immediately and replaces it with fresh air. But Brad also explained that the reason the houses stay as cool as they do, without air conditioning of any kind, is thanks to the Venturi effect, which you probably don't remember from high school, but you probably did learn about. The basic idea is that when air passes through a tight space, it speeds up and cools. Having small windows, on all sides of the house, and a cross breeze to force air to pass through, creates cooler air inside the house.
Technically speaking—legally speaking—this house named "Heaven" is 240 square feet. This does not include, however, space that is legally deemed "storage" or "attic space." And that's intentional. Brad cleverly designs spaces that are simultaneously livable without increasing your tax footprint.
You can't throw a stone without hitting an example of smart design. Pictured below are cabinet doors that give you access to the space below the sink, but the whole panel folds up on hinges and becomes a table. The support bar that holds up the table also blocks the doors from falling open.
Stairways don't have to be wasted space, as this one shows. Each of the larger steps has built-in drawers.
Along our tour, Brad showed me more than just the houses. He proudly spoke at length about the village he's built, and the ones he intends to build in the future. Each village would be unified under a common theme, be it a group of musicians, or healers, or gardeners. His land is his project; it's more than just the tiny houses he's building on it. When he bought the plot, there was no standing water on it. Now, he has dug a pond and canal system that retains water from a nearby creek, and it feeds his land. While digging the ponds, he would throw handfuls of various seeds out into the fresh dirt just to see what would take naturally. As we walked we saw sunflowers, corn, squash, peas, and radishes.
Tiny above-ground houses are all well and good, but Brad also likes to try new things, and that meant going underground.
If you'd like to visit Tiny Texas Houses for a tour of your own, you'll be welcome there, we assure you. Visit their website for tour times and other details: www.tinytexashouses.com.
- CK
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The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1937 in an effort to protect dwindling populations of migratory birds and other wildlife in the region. Set aside by the executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, this unique Gulf Coast landscape was able to continue it’s ongoing legacy of constant and dramatic transformation—a process that began when it was first formed roughly 120,000 years ago. And while this area has morphed into different shapes, environments and ecosystems throughout the years, one thing has remained constant: its incredible array of wildlife.
Walking through the grasslands and marshes that comprise most of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, it can be difficult to imagine prehistoric lions, camels, and mastodons roaming throughout the trees. Yet this changing landscape bears many remnants of these—and many other—creatures, some even surviving to inhabit the park to this very day.
While the area comprising the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge has maintained a rich history of biodiversity and ecological transformation, it is perhaps best known for its prominent role in the American wildlife conservation movement. In 1941, even amidst the chaos of World War II, the reserve became a national focal point in working to both protect and restore critically endangered animals species such as the whooping crane, whose population fell to only 15 surviving in the wild.
By contrast, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge currently houses over 390 different bird species, including a growing population of whooping cranes. In addition to the only nesting flock of these cranes in the world, visitors can also spot a variety of herons, spoonbills, shorebirds, turkeys, egrets, and songbirds among many others. And that’s just the birds. Because of the area’s unique combination of tidal flats, freshwater ponds, and coastal plains, the reserve also supports a plethora of other animal life such as armadillos, foxes, deer, butterflies, javelina, and bobcats.
The refuge offers visitors many opportunities to fish, bike, and enjoy other activities, but the most popular draw is its network of hiking trails for visitors eager to catch a glimpse of the park’s diverse plant and animal life. Yet for something a bit more secluded, it may be worth going the extra mile to visit Matagorda Island—a significant, but remote barrier island in the refuge that offers an unparalleled opportunity to explore the coastal habitats, especially as there’s no means of public access.
For more information about the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, or to plan a visit, take a look at the US Fish and Wildlife website.
- JE
]]>Article, recipes, and photos by Katherine Hysmith for No. 4 St. James.
The origins of the Bloody Mary are as varied as a Tex-Mex combo plate.
Several people claim to have invented the cocktail, including famous bartender Fernand Petiot who worked at Harry’s Bar in Paris (a popular Hemingway haunt), and American comedian George Jessel, who frequently ordered the drink at the 21 Club in New York during the 1930s. The cocktail’s name has its own slew of possible inspirations ranging from the name of a bartender’s ex-girlfriend to the horrible mispronunciation of Vladimir Smirnov of the famous Smirnoff family whose vodka typically spiked the drink. While completely unrelated to the American processed tomato juice widely available in the early 1930s or the Russian alcohol used in the drink, the name Bloody Mary is most often attributed to Mary Tudor, the mid-sixteenth century Catholic queen of England who held the same unfortunate nickname.
Over the years, the origin stories have been embellished – likely during the consumption of a Bloody Mary or two – and additional ingredients, like lemon juice, spices, and sauces, were added. A popular morning-after tonic, the Bloody Mary is served at both bars and brunches alike, and is garnished with things like pickles, celery stalks, citrus wedges, and olives as well as more outlandish adornments such as miniature hamburgers, meat kebabs, and even whole slices of pizza. Essentially, the Bloody Mary has morphed into a Bloody Mess.
That’s why I’d like to introduce you to the fresh tomato Bloody Mariachi (also known sometimes as the Bloody Maria). Much like the Bloody Mary, the Bloody Mariachi starts with a tomato base. Instead of the traditional heat-processed tomato juice, the Bloody Mariachi uses a bright puree of fresh, ripe tomatoes (but you can, of course, substitute a high quality flash-heated tomato juice instead). Other typical savory flavors – like Worcestershire sauce and celery salt – are swapped for more Mexican inspired notes like cumin and Texas hot sauce. And, of course, tequila replaces the bland, flavorless vodka.
This cocktail begins and ends with the fresh produce: only the sweetest tomatoes will do. Additional flavors are kept to a minimum so that the subtle notes of the tequila and the grassy scent of fresh tomatoes can shine. The final kick of fresh comes in the form of hollowed out cucumber shot glasses and a tasteful garnish of Halo del Santo spiced rim salt and a single cilantro leaf (which you can omit if it seems too flashy).
Like most cocktails, the Bloody Mariachi is also easy to enjoy sans spirit (try subbing in a bit of tonic water or seltzer instead), turning it into a sort of healthy warm-weather refresher perfect for long afternoons on a sun-soaked porch. And in the end, you get to eat the cucumber.
Bloody Mariachi
Makes about a dozen cucumber shots
1 lb fresh tomatoes
3/4 cup Texas tequila blanco (refer to No. 4 St. James' Build Your Texas Bar: The Agave Spirits article to learn about Texas-Based tequilas)
Juice of two limes
1-2 teaspoons hot sauce (such as Yellowbird Sauce from Austin, TX)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of cumin
3-4 large cucumbers, washed and peeled
Salt for garnish (such as Halo del Santo spiced margarita salt)
Cilantro for garnish
1. Puree tomatoes in a blender, press liquids through a sieve, discard solids, and reserve puree.
2. In a large pitcher, combine tomato puree, tequila, lime juice, hot sauce, pepper, salt, and cumin. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use or at least one hour. Be sure to stir again before stirring.
3. Slice a cucumber into 2-inch cylinders. Using a small paring knife, corer, or a small sharp spoon, start at one end of the cucumber cylinder and remove the core (leaving a bit at the very end) until the cucumber resembles a small cup. The walls of the cup should be thin, but not too thin, in order to hold more liquid. Dip the edges of each cup in spiced salt and fill with the chilled tomato mixture.
- KH
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About Katherine Hysmith
Katherine Hysmith is a native Texan living in Massachusetts, and is the creator of the popular food site The Young Austinian. She is a food writer, photographer, and accomplished epicurean, boasting a Masters degree in gastronomy from Boston University and an impressive archives of beautifully photographed recipes, available at The Young Austinian.
Find Katherine:
On Instagram
On Pinterest
Tweeting
On Facebook
No one else was making them — so she decided to do it. Such was Autumn Stanford’s straightforward reasoning behind opening a kolache shop in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Stanford arrived in New York City in 2004 and noticed a void in the food scene where it came to the sweet and/or savory doughy treat whose origins are from the Czech Republic. Still, Stanford would spend many years honing her business acumen at one of the most successful food-delivery companies in the country, Seamless, before formally embarking on her baking dream in 2012.
“I ended up knowing my job [at Seamless] was going to be moved to Salt Lake City,” she explains of her transition into small business owner, operator and baker. “So, I thought back to the things I loved the most — and I Ioved my time working at coffee shops and bakeries when I was in high school and college. There was no kolache bakery [in Brooklyn], so I knew that would set us apart from the other great bakeries. It gave me a year to plan for it.”
To fund the bakery now known as Brooklyn Kolache Co., Stanford turned to Kickstarter and, well, the rest is history. So successful is her culinary operation, that it attracts visitors form out-of-state, and there are exciting plans for expansion. We celebrate this TexPat’s achievements and chatted with her about the learning curves, the best combinations, and the Texas-cuisine trends currently making waves the New York City food scene.
First things first, do you bake the kolaches?
I do, I started off as a baker here. At this point, I still bake them, but I more-so call myself “Problem Solver.” We now have three other bakers, and I do anything and everything that needs to be done.
What was the community’s response to your opening and kolaches in general?
There’s a huge learning curve. People often come in and want a muffin or bagel. In the beginning when we opened, I got used to just explaining what we make. Then I would give them a sample. Or sometimes people were scared to order because they didn’t know how to pronounce it. But now on the weekends we have people coming from Connecticut, New Jersey and Philly who place big orders in advance to take some home to freeze.
How do you explain the difference between a Texas-style kolache, which you say specialize in, and a traditional Czech kolache?
A traditional kolache would be made with fillings like cottage cheese or apricot. We take a lot of liberty with our fillings. Sausage and cheese is our most popular, and it’s really a combination of both Texan and Czech heritage. People don’t think of Texas as being a hub for Europeans, but the Czech Republic and Germany both have huge communities in the state. I’ll give [customers] a little tour of Texas’ history and how Czech settlers might have stuffed kolaches with local ingredients — and that’s what this is.
So your sausage and cheese kolaches are the biggest hits, but what is your favorite combination?
We just got a bunch of New York state cherries, so I’m really into cherry. We also have a mushroom and goat cheese that I love, and we’re doing a limited run with Fletcher’s Brooklyn BBQ with smoked char siu. It’s sort of like the most gourmet pork bun you could have.
There’s a undercurrent passing through New York right now in praise of Texas cuisine. Why do you think that is?
It’s interesting. I feel like the general trend for food in the past 5 or 6 years has been to be really indulgent. A lot of the food I was raised eating was pretty indulgent, too, with lots of queso and meat. So I think part of [the fanfare] comes from sticking to that general trend of Southern indulgence food. You see a lot of Tex-Mex right now, and for a long time it’s only been available as fast food — which isn’t even doing it right. I feel like people have the same reaction to discovering kolaches as they do to discovering queso: “How did I not know about this?!”
What advice would you give to anyone tinkering with opening their own food shop in New York?
I would say, “Do it right the first time.” Peoples’ first impression is the biggest impact you can make. When you open, have the menu you’re going to have, and have the hours you’re going to keep. Show them everything you’re going to offer. And you have to make sure you’re there to control the experience the customers are getting right from the beginning. New York City is so competitive, and there’s so much that’s good, that you really have to go above and beyond right from the get go.
If you're in the New York City area and would like to visit Brooklyn Kolache Co., you can do so Monday - Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays from 7 to 8; on Saturdays from 8 to 8; and Sundays from 8 to 6. You'll find them at 520 Dekalb Ave., Brooklyn NY, 11025.
Website: www.brooklynkolacheco.com
Phone Number: (718) 398-1111
- CR
Photos courtesy of Bev Chapman, John Gary Brown, and Sarah Wallace. Special thanks to Avery Augur for his assistance.
Compared to the current shape of Texas that people everywhere know so well, the shape of the former Republic of Texas (1836-1845) looks a little strange. There was no stout panhandle like we have today; instead, the Republic featured a scrawny stovepipe that meandered, awkwardly, in a narrow, northwesterly stretch through Colorado all the way into southern Wyoming.
At the base of the stovepipe is where you'll find the beautiful area that includes present day Creede, Colorado. Just north of the Rio Grande river, nestled amid the rugged elevations of the San Juan Mountains, lies this small historic mining town of 300 or so people. Creede itself had not been incorporated during the time of the Republic of Texas; that didn’t occur until 1892. But settlers were already planting their roots in the area by 1840, likely unaware that they were technically—albeit temporarily—settling in Texas.
The silver mining boom that formally put Creede on the map ended just before the turn of the century, although other mining sustained the town well into the 1960’s. Today, Creede is valued more as beautiful off-the-beaten-path adventure destination, and is renowned for its award-winning Creede Repertory Theatre, named by USA TODAY as “one of the 10 best places to see the lights way off Broadway.” We're particularly enamored with the architecture of the new Creede America neighborhood, a picturesque development that makes you want to sell everything and move to a valley in the San Juan Mountains.
Thanks to the generosity of Creede residents Avery Augur, Bev Chapman, John Gary Brown, and Sarah Wallace, we're able to share with you these images of Creede and its majestic natural surroundings—together with a glimpse of what was, at one time, in Texas. Enjoy.
- VF
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The repurposed buildings on Austin’s creative east side are, for the most part, artifacts of light industry, with old whitewashed cinderblock walls, rusting steel girders overhead, and more openings made by loading docks than window panes.
But inside these inelegant spaces, beautiful things are made.
That’s the scene at the Artists Screen Printing Co-Op, where we met artist Carolyn Kimball to see her create her pretty tea towels, inspired by the natural world and presented under the label Kimball Prints.
Carolyn is right at home in studios like these. She’s a trained artist, boasting a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a master’s degree in printmaking. And she’s a smart artist, as well, taking the otherwise prosaic hand towel for the home and making it into a canvas for inspired designs. Through her tea towels, she’s found a niche market and a loyal following among folks who love not only the elegant simplicity of her art—but it’s elegant accessibility, as well.
Enjoy this Made in Texas photo tour: In the Studio with Carolyn Kimball.
The Tour
In the very beginning, Carolyn's tea towels typically begin as water color sketches, although she also creates some screen patterns from wood etchings. Below are the original watercolor images that she used as the basis for her Texas Honeycomb Tea Towel. Once satisfied with her original artwork, she burns the images onto professional grade screens.
Her canvas—the tea towel—is comprised of 100% cotton fiber, and her inks are non-toxic.
The screen printing process is all done by hand; each towel is the result of Carolyn's personal effort. There are no interns or automated machines to expedite the process, which means Carolyn's tea towels are authentically artisanal products.
Once printed, the towels pass through a Lawson dryer to set the paint; less than two minutes and 340 degrees later, the towels are completely set, and ready for folding and packaging.
Carolyn uses each design's screen thousands of times each year. Cleaning them thoroughly ensures the pores will remain open and paint-free for future applications. The most popular designs eventually need new screens, however.
Once the screens are cleaned and dry, Carolyn turns her attention to packaging the final product. Each towel comes neatly folded and housed in a Kimball Prints belly band.
A true artist, Carolyn of course has other expressions of her work, including woodcuts, engravings, watercolors, and paintings. You can learn more about her at carolynkimball.com.
- N4SJ
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One of the most well known (and notorious) in this cast of characters is Judge Roy Bean. Originally from rural Kentucky, Bean led a tumultuous and colorful life during the late 1800’s—often fleeing the law between California, Mexico and New Mexico before settling permanently in Texas.
Today, Roy Bean is colloquially known as the “hanging judge.” In fact, neither aspect of that moniker is true. During his life in Texas, Bean was self-proclaimed and widely known as “The Only Law West of the Pecos,” but served as an eccentric and unorthodox Justice of the Peace out of his tent saloon in Vinegarroon, Texas. And while ‘Judge’ Bean was known to hand out strange, often illegal rulings (such as fining a cowboy’s corpse for concealing a weapon in order to pocket the $40 found on the body), he only sentenced two people to be hanged.
After only several months in Vinegarroon, Bean relocated to Langtry where he set up his Jersey Lilly saloon & courtroom in 1883. As far as institutions go, it’s an interesting combination where jury members were expected to buy a drink during recesses and after sentencing. The Jersey Lilly stands to this day for visitors to see and enjoy, adjacent to the Roy Bean Visitor Center in Langtry.
An active Judge for the rest of his life (even after his position was formally dissolved by the state government), Bean’s reputation expanded far outward beyond his courtroom saloon in Langtry. Those eager to learn more about the history and heritage of West Texas (including Judge Bean) should consider visiting the West of the Pecos Museum located in Pecos, TX. Inaugurated in 1963, this historically recognized landmark houses three full floors of exhibits displaying artifacts and lore curated from around West Texas—including a variety of Bean’s personal belongings.
Visit the Jersey Lilly and West of the Pecos Museum online to learn more and plan your trip!
]]>Yet in spite of its recent widespread commercial popularity, there’s no denying that red velvet cake has been an integral and iconic aspect of southern baking for the better half of a century—one with especially strong ties to Texas.
The history behind red velvet cake is as rich as it is unexpected. It would seem safe to presume that, because of its widespread popularity throughout the South, red velvet cake couldn’t have originated anywhere else. Yet surprisingly, the recipe for the red velvet cake we know of today is widely credited to the historic Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
Originally debuting in 1959, this “Waldorf red cake” is noted by most as the first cake of its kind to incorporate large amounts of red food coloring—a notable departure from the cake recipes of the early 20th century that only called for a few drops to produce a beautiful pink hue in otherwise light-colored cakes.
Of course, we Texans prefer not to concede any victory to New Yorkers, so instead of the Waldorf Astoria, we’ll credit the origins of the popular red velvet cake we know today to the creative merchandising by the Adams Extract company of Gonzales, Texas.
Though John A. Adams and his wife Betty weren’t the first to make the cake, they were among the first to try it while staying at the Waldorf. Inspired by their experience, the company promoted red velvet cake in order to garner more interest in their red food dyes. Capitalizing on the cake’s garish appeal, the Adams Extract printed simple in-store recipe cards and displayed their food dyes next to their vanilla extracts to entice shoppers. Suffice it to say that the sensation quickly caught on and red velvet cakes were whipped up in kitchens throughout the South, the Midwest and the Northeast.
While there are countless interpretations of red velvet cake out there (shown here: a red velvet cupcake), it’s worth sharing the original Betty Adams Red Velvet Cake recipe, courtesy of the Adams Extract company. Try it as-is or dress it up with some pecans on the side. Either way, you’re set to enjoy an unadulterated taste of Texan tradition.
Betty Adams “Original” Red Velvet Cake Recipe:
Batter ingredients
1 tsp soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tbl vinegar
½ cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. “Adams Best” Vanilla
1 tsp. Adams Butter Flavor
1 ounce Adams Red Color
3 Tbl cocoa
2-1/3 cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
“Original” white icing ingredients
3 Tbl flour
½ tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tsp “Adams Best” Vanilla
1 cup milk
¼ tsp Adams Butter Flavor
For the cake:
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat vigorously. Add flavors to mixture. In a separate bowl, make paste of cocoa and food coloring and blend into shortening mixture. Sift together dry ingredients and add alternately with buttermilk to mixture. Add vinegar to mixture with the last part of buttermilk. Blend well. Bake in 3-9” or 10” pans for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool completely.
For icing:
Combine milk, flour and salt in saucepan over medium heat. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Take off heat and let cool completely. In separate bowl, cream shortening, sugar and flavors together. Combine milk mixture with shortening mixture and beat well.
- JE
]]>Those born and raised in Texas are an intrepid breed, who often leave the homeland to explore other territories. And when they do, that sweet, sweet self-identification of “Texan” often becomes amplified. Take, for example, Briana Valdez, owner and founder of HomeState in Los Angeles.
HomeState defines itself as “a Texan kitchen,” where fresh flour tortillas and mountains of tacos are served on the daily. The operation is a family affair, in which Briana is joined by her triplet sister, Andy Valdez. Together and with a team of supporters, they serve their collective experience of living all over the Lone Star State in the form of delicacies not commonly known in L.A. — like, gasp, queso!
It would seem Valdez is, at once, winning over Californians and warming the hearts of who she calls “Tex-Patriates” with a roster of breakfast and daytime tacos unlike any other in the area. Here, we celebrate HomeState’s devotion to our very own home state, and find out how Valdez turned living “abroad” into a business.
Where are y'all originally from and how did you end up in LA?
We are from all over the state of Texas — moved around a lot growing up. Started in Lake Jackson, which is along the Gulf of Mexico. From there we went to Victoria, then to Arlington/Dallas, then to San Antonio, back to Lake Jackson, to Austin for college and, finally, to Los Angeles after graduating. I think this gives us a great perspective on all aspects of Texas food and pride, being citizens of the state as opposed to just one city.
Texans often lament the lack of breakfast tacos “living abroad,” i.e., out of the Lone Star State. Did you guys hear a lot of this prior to opening?
Absolutely! We were very much a part of that homesick crowd, crying over the lack of breakfast tacos and queso. Of course, we knew a lot of fellow Texans living in L.A. and referred to ourselves as "Tex Pats.” There was a lot of online chatter about the lack of "Tex-Mex," and it was obvious to me that there was a big desire for the food of our home state.
In a great food city like L.A., where you find just about all regions of the world represented, it felt incomplete to not have breakfast tacos and queso available. I saw this as an opportunity and got to work on making HomeState a reality. Four years later, we opened the doors.
Is there a large contingent of homesick Texans that frequent HomeState?
Yes! It seems to be somewhat of a pilgrimage for Texans living in the Greater-L.A. area. Even Texans visiting from Texas make a stop in to try the food.
People from Texas have a level of pride that stands out and they love to share it. Guests come in dressed in Spurs, Astros, Cowboys, Longhorns and Aggies gear, or boots and cowboy hats, and tell us how happy they are to have a place where they can find the familiar food.
Our biggest motivation is to offer all of our guests a sense of home and hospitality. Instead of hanging big Texas flags we placed a large "Welcome Home" sign in the restaurant, in hopes that all of our guests would feel a sense of hospitality that often isn't found in taco stands or "fast casual" dining spots.
Have you had to introduce and explain the concept of the breakfast taco to Angelenos, or are they already pretty familiar with it?
Texans were our first customers and we used social media and organic PR to spread the word. L.A. has a large creative community that attends SXSW every year giving them good familiarity with "Texas food.”
We were ready and excited to educate guests who were unfamiliar with menu mainstays like queso. I remember one customer asking "what kind of cheese soup we were serving" to a table nearby! There are still guests who refer to our tacos as "burritos" due to the established burrito culture in California. Thankfully, no matter what you call it, our food has been able to please people who just want good quality food at a good price.
Can you explain the difference between a taco you’d typically get in L.A. and the daytime tacos you offer?
The biggest difference is probably the size and type of tortilla. Baja, where the corn tortilla is king, is the biggest influence on L.A. tacos. At a typical taco stand in L.A., you are served a large portion of meat on two or three small corn tortillas. In Texas, the flour tortilla is prevalent. It is also a larger size than the traditional corn. We take a lot of pride in our house made flour tortillas. They are very close to the flour tortillas our grandmother made for us as kids.
The fillings are also different. The fillings of a Baja style taco are typically the chosen meat, raw diced onions and cilantro, with a myriad of hot salsas to choose from. In Texas, tacos are larger and have more variations of fillings. In our experience, Texas fillings are more varied and fill up the taco more. Texas salsas tend to be more simple and straightforward. At HomeState, we make our salsas fresh daily, and serve a red (tomato based) salsa and a green (tomatillo) salsa. Both are medium heat.
What are the appropriate proportions to the perfect breakfast taco?
We prefer the egg to be the star of the show. We source our farm-fresh certified cage free organic Free-Range eggs from Chino Valley Ranchers, not far from L.A. The add-ons compliment the egg and should blend in seamlessly without outshining it. The most often ordered taco at HomeState is The Trinity taco, which is a combination of eggs, thin crisp potatoes, crispy bacon and cheese. It's simple but hits every note of texture and flavor!
I’ve noticed a lot of the names are very familiar (Trinity, Brazos, etc). Looks like you consulted Austin streets for inspiration?
Some of the most famous taco spots in Austin name their tacos using political references, inside jokes, or tongue in cheek references to pop culture. We wanted ours to tell the story of Texas and its roots. Our tacos are named after Texas rivers; Neches, Frio, Brazos are also street names in Austin. The streets of Austin are a familiar and fun references for our time spent living there.
You’ve received great press. How do you feel about the success and do you have plans for any more locations?
We feel incredibly fortunate to be living out this dream and to have been so well received by this city. The idea of being able to share Texas food with even more people is definitely something we'd love to do!
We see this as an opportunity to re-establish what Tex-Mex food can be. Replace a somewhat bad reputation with a more comprehensive — as in, representative of all the influences from Mexico, Europe and native Texans — view of Texas, something more approachable for all. Our hopes are for Texas food to be seen as a legitimate food genre and fill the missing niche in L.A. and beyond.
- CR
If you're in L.A. and would like to visit HomeState, you can do so Monday - Sunday between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. They're located at 4624 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90027.
Website: www.myhomestate.com
Phone Number: (323) 906-1122
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Introduction
Texas is home to one of the best football factories in the world. Few people know that fact, however. The folks at Big Game work in relative obscurity, as most of their products leave their loading dock branded with iconic names like Nike and Adidas, or as commemorative balls celebrating seemingly every brand other than their own.
But in our view, they’re a brand worth celebrating. Their products are quality, their employees are friendly, and most important to any Texan: their enthusiasm for football is unmatched.
In the early fall of 2014, just as the first snaps of the football season were made across America, Big Game USA moved their factory from Frisco, Texas to a larger, more capable facility in North Dallas. We wanted to be among the first to visit their new home, and share with you what we saw.
Well, most of what we saw, anyway. Big Game has perfected the difficult process of consistently manufacturing products that meet the stringent requirements of governing authorities like the NCAA. This achievement is largely the result of their trade secrets, and appropriately, we've kept those secrets to ourselves. What we can show you otherwise is presented in the photo tour below, the first entry to our Made in Texas series: A Visit to Big Game Football Factory.
The Tour
The process of hand-making game play and commemorative footballs begins and ends in this spacious room, with vibrant walls celebrating athletes using Big Game footballs.
The outer skin of each ball is made of four equally sized "football-shaped" pieces, each manually stamped using a die.
There are multiple sizes and regulations for footballs depending on the level of play. Big Game produces balls for all levels.
Beyond balls intended for regulation game play, Big Game also makes commemorative and specialty balls using the same process. Big Game's hero ball, the 1906 Collegiate Leather Football, is made of real leather, while non-gameplay balls use synthetic panels.
Customization is a part of daily production at the factory. Big Game does brand a lot of footballs with their own logo, but the majority of the balls are stamped with "Nike" or "Adidas." Perhaps you've heard of 'em. Those balls are manufactured specifically for the collegiate football programs sponsored by these sporting goods giants. As a result, you can find custom press plates for most of the top college football programs right there on the Big Game factory floor.
Once the panels are cut, they're sewn together by hand using industrial sewing machines.
The panels are sewn inside out to keep the seams concealed on the inside.
Once stitched, the seams are flattened, to eliminate bulges.
At this stage, the primary construction is complete. The balls are now ready to be turned inside out.
Balls are warmed slightly to make the process of inversion easier.
Next, the air bladder is installed and the ball is partially inflated.
The laces are then threaded with the assistance of a special tool akin to a screwdriver with a hole through the tip. This design helps them pull the laces back and forth through the holes more easily than if done with their fingers alone.
After the laces are in place, the ball is inflated fully. A final quality control check makes sure everything is in order, down to the exact alignment of each lace.
Shown below: A finished Nike Vapor Elite ball.
Beyond custom vinyl panels sewn into the ball, some commemorative balls are painted for individual players.
Our favorite photo from our visit to Big Game Football Factory is the photo of our pile of footballs. You can't tell, but the ones on the bottom layer are deflated, keeping them from rolling away.
Special thanks to Big Game USA founder and owner, Chris Calandro (below), as well as Sarah Kaiser, Cory Jensen, and the rest of the talent Big Game staff for hosting us on this tour. If you'd like to visit Big Game Football Factory, you can do so Monday - Friday between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. They're located at 13835 Welch Road, Dallas, Texas 75244.
- N4SJ
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This is a small group: seven distinct brands, only. Notable among these is another quality offering from Bone Spirits, which continues to produce true farm-to-table products, in this case with their Fitch’s Goat Moonshine.
Also notable is Crystal Creek Moonshine. In addition to producing creative moonshine infusions like Serrano & Cumber or Coffee & Pecan, Crystal Creek also seeks to help improve water quality for communities in need. Proceeds from each sale benefit the A Glimmer of Hope Foundation to help build water wells in Ethiopia.
We also really love the Texas-ness of the moonshine offerings from Hill Country Distillers. Few flavors express “Texas” like prickly pear and jalapeño, and Hill Country Distillers makes moonshine out of both.
Once again, entries below that include "Distillery Notes by Texas Spirits Geek" result from our collaboration with Texas spirits expert Andy Creel (aka, the Texas Spirits Geek) to share detailed information he's collected from his personal visits to distilleries across Texas. Clicking on the Distillery Notes entry will take you directly to the Texas Spirits Geek website, where you can read more about the featured brand.
If you're a producer of Texas moonshine, and we have not included your brand below, or, if you’re a producer and have additions or corrections to this guide, please send us a note to hello@fourstjames.com.
This inventory was last updated January 23, 2015. Not pictured:
Ranger Creek .36 White: Premium Texas Moonshine, Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling, San Antonio, Texas
Carpenter's Bluff Moonshine, Iron root Republic Distillery, Denison, Texas
To read other entries in the Build Your Texas Bar eight-part series, follow the links below:
The Vodkas
The Rums
The Gins
The Whiskeys
The Agave Spirits
The Specialty Spirits
The Mixers
_________________________________________________________
Crystal Creek Moonshine
Parent Brand: Crystal Creek Moonshine
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Made using Goodflow Honey (Austin) and Texas-sourced corn and Imperial Sugar;
proceeds from each sale benefit A Glimmer of Hope Foundation to help build water wells in Ethiopia
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.crystalcreekmoonshine.com
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Website: www.whitmeyers.com
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We’d wager that most Texans don’t know you can travel within the state by train. At least, the fact was unknown to us, as well as everyone else we talked to in preparing this story. This was the most common reaction: “You can ride a train in Texas?”
Yes, you can.
Amtrak has two trains serving the Lone Star State: The Texas Eagle, which travels through Texas daily between Los Angeles and Chicago; and the Sunset Limited, running between Los Angeles and New Orleans. If you’re a Texan looking to travel solely within Texas, you can ride any portion of these routes that you like: Dallas to San Antonio; Houston to El Paso; and many variants in between.
But the question is, should you want to? That is, is train travel in Texas really a worthy alternative to driving 85 mph, or flying with your free-flying bags on Southwest Airlines?
We thought it might be useful to our fellow Texans (and probably a little bit fun, for us) to try and help answer that question. So, we bought tickets to ride Amtrak’s Texas Eagle from Austin to Dallas, and set out determined to critique every step of the journey. Our goal was to reach some conclusions, good or bad, about train travel in Texas. And then, to share our conclusions with you.
Below are the photos from our trip, and interspersed among them, notes about our experience, our advice, praises, and precautions.
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Our trip begins: The Austin Station. Although it's in the heart of central Austin, the Austin Amtrak station is tucked away in an easy-to-miss pocket just off busy Lamar Blvd., near the original Whole Foods, and just behind the Town Lake YMCA. Our first caution: your Uber and Lyft drivers won't know how to get here upon your return (trust us).
There's a free parking in the lot, but, as with any public overnight parking, there are warnings advising against leaving valuables in the car. Have someone drop you off (friend or pro) so you don't have to worry about your car while you're gone.
Unlike the airport, you don't need to arrive at the train station any particular amount of time before departure. You can purchase and print your ticket at home, and as long as you have that in hand (with your ID), you can pretty much show up a minute or two before the train leaves. This is the first item in the "pros" column: traveling by train is just so much easier and headache-free than air travel. No shuttle buses, no check-ins, no TSA security lines, no nonsense. Just get there before the train leaves. We needed just enough time to write out our luggage tags (all bags, carryon or otherwise, need tags), and to have our tickets scanned. If you do show up early, there's an indoor waiting area with bathrooms, vending machines, and a ticket window if you still need to make arrangements for your trip.
You can bring large luggage on board, which is loaded into the bottom cargo compartments of the train. Smaller personal items (like a weekend bag or two) can easily be brought on board with no trouble. Unfortunately, pets other than service animals are not allowed.
All aboard: Coach class. If you're traveling in Texas only, you'll probably purchase a Coach class ticket. There are sleeper cars, but these are mostly booked by folks going all the way to Chicago or LA. A roundtrip ticket for one person between Austin and Dallas cost a very reasonable $56. Even with falling gas prices, this is very competitive with driving the full distance via car, and it's certainly cheaper than flying.
The majority of coach seats are on the upper level of the train; the downstairs is mostly for baggage, bathrooms, and a few seats for persons with disabilities. To get to the upper seating, you'll climb an extremely narrow, angled staircase.
Seating is open, just find one that you like and it's yours. The design struck us as remarkably similar to that of an airplane. There are tray tables, seat-back pockets, overhead storage, and a long center aisle. The difference, however, is in the space. Unlike on an airplane, there's more than enough leg room, with additional foot rests and chair backs that recline to a nearly horizontal angle.
Another item in the "pros" column are the electrical outlets at every seat. Trains take longer to get where they're going, so your devices will likely need charging, eventually.
While your devices will stay charged, they won't connect quickly to the Internet. This is the first big item in the "cons" column: no wi-fi. Some Amtrak trains offer it on routes elsewhere in the United States, but not on the Texas Eagle. In our view, this is a major strike against considering the train as a legit alternative for business travelers; you'll essentially spend the entire day getting to Dallas, and that's time that might be put toward some productivity.
The slow travel time is the second major item in the "cons" column. By car, a trip between Austin and Dallas takes approximately 3.5 hours under ideal conditions. You'll spend the same amount of time between airports, assuming you fly Southwest. The train, in contrast, takes a scheduled 6 hours to travel between Austin and Dallas. And that's assuming no delays.
On the other hand, driving on I-35 between Dallas and Austin (and even down to San Antonio) is one of the worst experiences any Texan might endure in their lifetimes. Accidents, traffic, construction, sometimes all at once. The trip can be extended by hours, and tempers can boil over.
The train is refreshingly quiet, and even peaceful. It's slower, yes, but peaceful. And unlike in a car or even the plane, you can stand up, stretch your legs and wander around, or sit and watch the landscape roll by. Or sleep. Or get work done, none of which are options if you're battling drivers on I-35.
Hungry? The Dining Car. We bet your F-150 doesn't have a dining car. All the seating is communal, meaning if you are traveling in groups smaller than 4, you will likely be seated with strangers. This can be a great way to make friends. We found the service to be friendly; in fact, all of the Amtrak personnel were very pleasant to deal with.
The food is surprisingly adequate, if not even a little bit good. We traveled over lunch (both directions), and the burger and the plate of meatballs exceeded our low expectations. Rumor has it that there is a pretty decent Amtrak steak available with the dinner service. Meals are not included with Coach class tickets, but are included if you've booked a sleeper car.
If you prefer to snack rather than dine, there's also a snack bar, stocked with sandwiches and candy bars, sodas, coffee, and beers, among other treats. The snack bar is open throughout the daylight hours.
Light and bright: The Sightseer Lounge. Our favorite part of the train is the Sightseer Lounge Car.
Large wrap-over windows and comfortable chairs makes this car a wonderful alternative to the airplane-style coach seats. The ability to shuffle between both makes passing the hours much easier. You don't need any special ticket to be here; it's all a part of your coach class fare.
On one end of the Sightseer Lounge car is an area with fixed tables where you can set up a laptop, craft projects, artwork, board game, etc. We hope you'll bring Jenga and tell us how it goes.
One note about some of these common areas, and for that matter all other parts of the train we observed: we noticed that the cleanliness and fit & finish was sometimes only marginal. To be fair, these trains get a lot of constant use, traveling weekly from the west coast to Chicago, with passengers boarding and disembarking all along the way. Still, we think there's some room for improvement in the cleanliness and general wear & tear department. We wouldn't grade these problems an F, or even a D. Perhaps more like a C. Just be prepared, and it shouldn't bother you.
Nitpicking the train's cleanliness aside: Kick up your feet, and look out the window at the Texas landscape as it passes by.
The Fort Worth Layover. It's important to know that on the trip between Austin and Dallas, there's a rather long layover in Fort Worth, about 1.5 hours. There, they do a full crew change and conduct routine service on the train. We found the Fort Worth stop to be a little bit frustrating in the "so close yet so far away from Dallas" kind of way. You'll probably endure it easier if you know to expect it, which we didn't. Make the most of the layover by getting off the train and walking around the platform, and take a closer look at the extraordinary machinery you've been traveling on.
Terminus, Dallas. Finally, arriving in Dallas, you're brought right into the center of the city, passing by a number of recognizable landmarks, and finally stopping at Union Station, in the shadow of Reunion Tower. As with the station in Austin, the central location of Union Station is very convenient.
Our Conclusions: The Pros and Cons. Altogether, our trip from Austin to Dallas on the Texas Eagle took almost 8 hours. There were unexpected delays, which can happen due to mechanical problems (we had one) or even traffic on the track by freight trains. This underscores the importance of carefully considering train travel in Texas before you book your trip: it's ideal if you can spare an entire day to get there, and have plenty to read or type on your laptop.
Regardless of its impracticality, we recommend that all traveling Texans try the Amtrak service in Texas at least once. Find a long weekend and make an adventure out of some kind of Texas Eagle or Sunset Limited trip across Texas.
Overall, here's our list of pros and cons. We start with the cons, so we can end, happily, on a positive note.
Amtrak, Texas Eagle Cons:
Amtrak, Texas Eagle Pros:
- VF & CK
]]>It’s not every day that you encounter a place characterized by quick and constant change. Yet nestled in the southern reaches of the Llano Estacado mesa, there is a small state park in West Texas that is marked by daily transformation.
Known simply as the Monahans Sandhills State Park, this 3,840-acre reserve is most commonly distinguished for its incredible expanse of sand dunes, which often protrude up to 70 feet high into the horizon. In addition to creating a striking panorama that is unique to Texas, these dunes comprise a landscape that is also unique in time.
The sand dunes in this remote area are subject to a constant wind, which forms, molds, and eventually topples these formations in a continual cycle. Because the dunes are in a state of perpetual movement, the topography of the park is always in flux—meaning that no two visits to Monahans Sandhills State Park will be the same.
Yet the daily change within the park is not so distinct that visitors are unable to enjoy the pronounced slopes and overall majesty of the dunes. The park welcomes hikers, horseback riders, and a variety of other visitors to explore the terrain every day. In fact, Monahans Sandhills State Park is one of the few areas in Texas known for sandboarding, sand surfing and even sand tobogganing. It is also a sought-out destination for birdwatchers and other outdoor enthusiasts who hope to catch a glimpse of local wildlife.
So the next time you’re looking for something different – whether it's a change of scenery or a mid-summer sled run – it may be worth considering a visit to Monahans Sandhills for an experience as unique as the terrain. - JE
]]>If you're a producer of a Texas-based cocktail mixer and we have not included your brand below, or, if have additions or corrections to this guide, please send us a note to hello@fourstjames.com.
This inventory was last updated December 19, 2014.
To read other entries in the Build Your Texas Bar eight-part series, follow the links below:
The Vodkas
The Rums
The Gins
The Whiskeys
The Agave Spirits
The Specialty Spirits
The Moonshines
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Bad Dog Bar Craft Fire & Damnation Bitters
Parent Brand: Bad Dog Bar Craft
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Handmade in small batches; products are by cocktails recipe experts
Lara Nixon and Bar Congress manager Jason Stevens
Kindred Spirits: Bloody Mary Bitters; Sarsaparilla Dry Bitters
Website: www.baddogbarcraft.com
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Nectar Girl All Natural Skinny Mojito Mix
Parent Brand: Nectar Girl
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Notable: All natural ingredients, including fresh Mexican key lime and Persian lime juices,
organic agave nectar and real fruit oils; only 69 calories
Kindred Spirits: All Natural Skinny Margarita Mix; All Natural Skinny Margarita Ruby Red Grapefruit Mix
Website: www.nectargirl.com
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Liber & Co. Texas Grapefruit Shrub
Parent Brand: Liber & Co.
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Handmade; beyond cocktails, Liber and Co. shrubs and syrups may also
be used in salads, marinades, and desserts
Kindred Spirits: Real Grenadine; Fiery Ginger Syrup; Spiced Tonic Syrup;
Pineapple Gum Syrup; Classic Gum Syrup
Website: www.liberandcompany.com
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Bloody Revolution Gourmet Bloody Mary Mix - Ribeye
Parent Brand: Bloody Revolution
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Gourmet mixes in usual flavors and made using local spices
Kindred Spirits: Pickle Zing; Smoked Habanero; Wasabi Ginger; Original
Website: www.bloodyrevolution.com
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Rocks Mai Tai
Parent Brand: Rocks Brands International dba Rocks Premium Cocktails
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: 88% real fruit juice; no artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup
Kindred Spirits: Rocks Tropical Fusion
Website: www.rocksmixers.com
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Cedar Door Original Mexican Martini Mix
Parent Brand: Cedar Door Patio Bar & Grill
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Based on the popular cocktail recipe served at Cedar Door Patio Bar & Grill in Austin
Website: www.cedardooraustin.com
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Carter’s Select Original Margarita and Mexican Martini Mix
Parent Brand: Carter’s Select Products
Hometown: Bastrop, texas
Notable: The Carter’s product lineup also includes salsas, relishes, and dips
Kindred Spirits: Pineapple and Jalapeño Margarita and Mexican Martini Mix; Prickly Pear Margarita and Mexican Martini Mix; Original Bloody Mary Mix; Bloody Bull Bloody Mary Mix; Extra Spicy Bloody Mary Mix; Michelada Mix
Website: www.cartersselect.com
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It’s incredible to think that our culture is still so heavily influenced by a man born over four and a half centuries ago. And while much of his staying power as a poet and playwright lives tacitly beneath the surface of contemporary culture, there are other, more tangible manifestations of Shakespeare’s legacy.
One of these is “The Globe of the Great Southwest”—a historically accurate replica of Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre reconstructed in Odessa, TX. Opened in 1968, the Globe Theatre Odessa took ten years to build from initial fundraising to the first public performance.
Appropriately, the initial idea to build the Globe Theatre in Odessa was hatched in a high school English class taught by Marjorie Morris. For a project on Shakespeare, a student brought a small-scale model of the original Globe Theatre to class, commenting offhand that it would be vastly more engaging to have a life-sized replica to show instead. It was this that set the wheels in motion for Mrs. Morris, who began fundraising soon after.
The Globe Theatre in Odessa is an exact reconstruction of its original counterpart in London. The theatre seats 418 viewers around an 1,800 square-foot stage that protrudes well into the middle of the building to replicate the intimate actor-audience relationship of Shakespeare’s day. Additionally, the theatre’s octagonal shape and building materials work together to give the space incredible acoustics to add even more to each performance.
Currently, the Globe Theatre in Odessa is run by a non-profit organization that presents classical and contemporary theatre in the unique setting of an Elizabethan stage. As such, the space features a regular rotation of performances, including a variety of plays, community activities, and monthly country western shows.
To learn more about upcoming events, be sure to visit the Globe Theatre’s website.
- JE
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Of course, arguments could be made that the Austin Cocktails belong with the vodkas, or that La Bestia Defavorable would be at home among the whiskeys. But we think all of these products are just unique enough to be labeled “specialties” before anything else.
And they’re all very good, in our view, worth reserving a permanent spot for in your home bar:
As with the other parts to this series, entries below that include "Distillery Notes by Texas Spirits Geek" result from our collaboration with Texas spirits expert Andy Creel (aka, the Texas Spirits Geek) to share detailed information he's collected from his personal visits to distilleries across Texas. Clicking on the Distillery Notes entry will take you directly to the Texas Spirits Geek website, where you can read more about the featured brand.
If you're a producer of an unusual Texas spirit, and we have not included your brand below, or, if you’re a producer and have additions or corrections to this guide, please send us a note to hello@fourstjames.com.
This inventory was last updated December 12, 2014.
To read other entries in the Build Your Texas Bar eight-part series, follow the links below:
The Vodkas
The Rums
The Gins
The Whiskeys
The Agave Spirits
The Mixers
The Moonshines (coming soon)
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Kinsman Handcrafted Premium Texas Rakia
Parent Brand: Dorcol Distilling Company
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Notable: Balkan style white apricot brandy; 160 proof; Gold Winner, World Spirits Championship
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.dorcoldistilling.com
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Tenneyson Absinthe Royale
Parent Brand: Tenneyson Absinthe Royale
Hometown: Austin, Texas via Pontarlier, France
Notable: Swiss style, colorless absinthe distilled in the French birthplace of absinthe; 2-Time Gold Medal Winner 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition
Website: www.tenneyson.com
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Balcones Rumble
Parent Brand: Balcones Distilling
Hometown: Waco, Texas
Notable: Multiple distinguished awards; distilled from Texas wildflower honey, mission figs, turbinado sugar and natural Texas Hill Country spring water
Kindred Spirits: Balcones Rumble Cask Reserve; Balcones Baby Blue Corn Whiskey; Balcones True Blue Corn Whiskey; Balcones Brimstone Corn Whiskey; Balcones True Blue 100 Proof Corn Whiskey
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.balconesdistilling.com
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Austin Cocktails Paradise Found
Parent Brand: Austin Cocktails
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Pre-mixed cocktail in a bottle; fewer than 100 calories per serving; a combination of vodka, natural coconut water, stone and citrus fruits, basil, and organic agave nectar
Kindred Spirits: Vodkarita; Tea Twister; Cucumber Vodka Mojito
Website: www.austincocktails.com
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Ranger Creek La Bestia Defavorable
Parent Brand: Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Notable: Unusual, un-aged white whiskey spirit distilled from belgian style beer
Kindred Spirits: La Bestia Aimable; Ranger Creek Rimfire Mesquite Smoked Single Malt; Ranger Creek .44 Texas Rye Whiskey; Ranger Creek .36 Bourbon Whiskey
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.drinkrangercreek.com
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Paula’s Texas Orange
Parent Brand: Texacello dba Paula’s Texas Spirits
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Notable: Handmade liqueur using fresh orange peel, no artificial flavoring
Kindred Spirits: Paula’s Texas Lemon
Website: www.paulastexasspirits.com
It’s hard to imagine a time when Austin wasn’t filled with bright lights, live music and the distinctive atmosphere that sets it apart from any other city in the US. And yet—unbeknownst to most visitors and locals—Austin has a longstanding legacy when it comes to harboring its unique brand of energy.
In fact, nestled within the cosmopolitan glow of present day Austin, there are traces of an antiquated, yet revolutionary technology that helped bring the city into the modern age—or at least into the 20th Century. In 1894, the City of Austin purchased and installed its first municipal electrical lighting system consisting of 31 light towers spread throughout what was then the greater metropolitan area. Known simply as “Moonlight Towers,” many of these freestanding structures still illuminate downtown Austin over 120 years later.
It goes without saying that these are not your ordinary streetlights. At their introduction in the early 1890’s, Moonlight Towers were at the cutting edge of electrical engineering that harnessed the power of arc lighting. This newly discovered technology far surpassed the lighting power of the other options available at the time—namely candles, oil lamps, and open flame gas lights that each had notable downsides and limitations.
By contrast, arc lights were extremely energy efficient as they could easily illuminate a 1,500 foot radius with a brilliant light that was well suited to downtown areas. This light was so powerful that the arc bulbs were situated roughly 160 ft. in the air atop single iron pedestals that weighed in around 5,000 tons. It was this impressive display of light at such a high altitude that gave Moonlight Towers their name.
Of the 31 Moonlight Towers that were originally erected in Austin, 17 stand throughout the city today—all of which are still functioning. Granted, they have since been retrofitted with modern bulbs, but the ambiance is nonetheless the same. And in some cases the ambiance may be even better, such as the decorative annual light displays that adorn the Moonlight Tower replica in Zilker Park throughout the winter season.
Yet beyond local lore and select scenes from Dazed and Confused, relatively few people know of or even recognize Austin’s Moonlight Towers despite their formative role in shaping the city’s culture since the 1890’s. Of course part of this stems from Austin’s growing skyline and the abundance of other light sources that comes with it. However, another reason that these towers often go unnoticed stems from the fact that they are extremely rare—so much so that they don’t even register for most people. Austin is now the only city in the world where you can find Moonlight Towers, even though they were once ubiquitous across America and Europe.
So the next time you’re in Austin, take a second to look upward to catch a glimpse of one of these rare and long-standing relics that helped to build the city we know and love. If however, you want to seek them out directly, you can find the locations of all 17 Moonlight Towers here. And now is the perfect time to do it, as Austin is set to begin a three- to six-year, $2.2 million dollar historical restoration project to perform maintenance on these historic Moonlight Towers throughout the city.
- JE
]]>This is the most unusual installment in this series because, with one exception, all of the products identified below are primarily products of Mexico, not Texas. The word "tequila" is a trade term that legally refers to agave spirits produced in the Jalisco region of Mexico, so it's not possible to have a true "Texas" tequila. It is possible, however, to have an agave spirit that's just as good as tequila, even if it doesn't originate in Mexico. That's the case with the very high quality El Perico products from Railean Distillery in San Leon, Texas.
It's also possible to have a tequila that finishes its production in Texas, as illustrated by several of the brands listed here. Texas-based brands like Republic Tequila (with our favorite Texas-shaped bottles) and Dulce Vida are getting creative with their aging techniques, adding remarkable distinction to their offerings. Dulce Vida's Lone Star Edition, for example, is tequila aged in Garrison Brothers Distillery Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey barrels.
There's only one Texas-based mezcal brand that we know of, and that's Wahaka Mezcal based in Austin. Their smoky mezcal products taste as good as their beautifully artistic labels look.
As always, entries that include "Distillery Notes by Texas Spirits Geek" result from our collaboration with Texas spirits expert Andy Creel (aka, the Texas Spirits Geek) to share detailed information he's collected from his personal visits to distilleries across Texas. Clicking on the Distillery Notes entry will take you directly to the Texas Spirits Geek website, where you can read more about the featured brand.
If you're a producer of a Texas-based tequila or mezcal, and we have not included your brand below, or, if you’re a producer and have additions or corrections to this guide, please send us a note to hello@fourstjames.com.
Not Shown: El Perrito Tequila, San Antonio via Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico
This inventory was last updated December 5, 2014. Texas-based agave spirit brands not photographed and/or represented as of publication are:
- El Perrito Tequila, San Antonio via Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico
- Puro Verde Tequila, College Station via Jalisco, Mexico
To read other entries in the Build Your Texas Bar eight-part series, follow the links below:
The Vodkas
The Rums
The Gins
The Whiskeys
The Specialty Spirits
The Mixers
The Moonshines
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]]>Mostly in ruins and very hard to get to, it's every bit worth the journey. Terlingua, Texas.
Swim in the creek by day, bathe in the claw foot tub by night. Wimberley, Texas.
Spend the night behind bars, literally. Clifton, Texas.
You'll have the place to yourself, not counting the ghosts. Goliad, Texas.
Teddy Roosevelt once took it on a hunting trip. Fredericksburg, Texas.
Sip coffee on the cozy porch, with views of the cattle below. Waelder, Texas.
- N4SJ
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In November 1835, when the first government of Texas was formed with Henry Smith as governor, a bill was passed to form a navy composed of privateers (an armed ship owned and officered by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war). The Republic of Texas had barely been born and now had to face defending itself from the overwhelming military operations of Mexico. Even so, the relationship between Texas government and its navy began as a tenuous one, with President Houston fearing that Texas would be drawn into another war with its southwardly neighbors. However coastline residents had valid reason to fear the Mexican navy, as sections of the Texas coast were blockaded by the country the very month that the bill for Texas’ own fleet was passed.
Thus the Republic of Texas Navy was officially launched in 1836 with the purchase of four vessels, the Independence, the Invincible, the Brutus and the Liberty (shown below are illustrations of the Independence, top, and the Invincible). Though collectively known as the Big Four, the Republic of Texas Navy was in actuality a rather small and scrappy outfit. Emblazoned with the Republic of Texas Navy flag (shown above; designed to appear as the US flag from afar in order to confuse combatants) and “Fouled Anchor” (an anchor at a slant entwined with a short piece of rope and topped with a five pointed star), the troops performed mighty feats that maintained the young Republic’s independence. The most remarkable of which might have been the 1836 Battle of Matamoros, during which the Texas Navy repeatedly outmaneuvered the Mexican Navy’s Montezuma, eventually running it ashore and forcing abandonment. This Texas victory fractured Mexican troops and forced them to forage for goods in small bands, minimizing the Mexican advantage for years.
The Republic of Texas Navy met its eventual demise in 1845 when Texas became the 28th state of the United States and the remaining ships were transferred to the U.S. Navy. But the Republic of Texas Navy’s short life and impressive reach born from such limited resources reserve a powerful place in state history. Best put by Theodore Roosevelt Jr.: “It's no exaggeration to say that without [The Republic of Texas Navy] there would probably have been no Lone Star Republic and possibly the State of Texas would still be part of Mexico."
Today, the Texas Navy Association is a nonprofit organization which honors individuals’ exemplary service and is headquartered in Galveston, Texas. The honorary Commander-in-Chief? That would be none other than the Texas Governor.
If you’d like to support the Texas Navy Association and participate in its annual activities, you can apply for membership, and enter the ranks as an Admiral or Junior Officer. And if you're in Texas, consider visiting their special exhibits at the Texas Seaport Museum in Galveston, and the Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry, in Austin.
- CR
]]>We've given top billing below to these and other brands that are more authentically "Texas" than some of the others. All brands within this photo inventory are based in Texas, so we've proudly photographed them all. But we wanted to give priority to brands that are doing more than blending and bottling whiskey distilled outside of Texas. For a good read on the scope of authenticity among Texas whiskey brands, see Lauren Drewes Daniels' article in the Dallas Observer. We also like Dan Garrison's brief treatment on the subject, Much Ado About Texas Whiskey.
Entries that include "Distillery Notes by Texas Spirits Geek" result from our collaboration with Texas spirits expert Andy Creel (aka, the Texas Spirits Geek) to share detailed information he's collected from his personal visits to distilleries across Texas. Clicking on the Distillery Notes entry will take you directly to the Texas Spirits Geek website, where you can read more about the featured brand. You can treat the existence of these notes as additional indicators of the brand's Texas authenticity.
If you're a producer of Texas whiskey, and we have not included your brand below, or, if you’re a producer and have additions or corrections to this guide, please send us a note to hello@fourstjames.com.
This inventory was last updated November 21, 2014.
To read other entries in the Build Your Texas Bar eight-part series, follow the links below:
The Vodkas
The Rums
The Gins
The Agave Spirits
The Specialty Spirits
The Mixers
The Moonshines
Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Parent Brand: Garrison Brothers Distillery
Hometown: Hye, Texas
Notable: Garrison Brothers’ Cowboy Bourbon (not shown) was named American Micro Whiskey of the Year by the 2014 Whiskey Bible;
Founder Dan Garrison was featured in our 2013 publication, Texas Works: Products & Portraits of Talent
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.garrisonbros.com
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Herman Marshall Texas Rye Whiskey
Parent Brand: Dallas Distilleries
Hometown: Garland, Texas
Notable: Herman Marshall’s Texas Bourbon Whiskey (not shown) was awarded a silver medal in 2013 by the American Distilling Institute
Kindred Spirits: Herman Marshall Texas Bourbon Whiskey; Herman Marshall Texas Single Malt Whiskey
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.dallasdistilleries.com
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Ranger Creek .36 Texas Bourbon Whiskey
Parent Brand: Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Notable: The small bottles represent the small barrels used in Ranger Creek’s limited edition whiskeys; the .36 Texas Bourbon was awarded a gold medal in 2014 by the American Craft Distiller’s Association
Kindred Spirits: Ranger Creek Rimfire Mesquite Smoked Single Malt; Ranger Creek .44 Texas Rye Whiskey
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.drinkrangercreek.com
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Fitch’s Goat 100% Corn Whiskey
Parent Brand: Bone Spirits
Hometown: Smithville, Texas
Notable: True farm-to-bottle product using locally sourced grains
Kindred Spirits: Moody June American Dry Gin; Fitch’s Goat Moonshine; Smith’s Premium Vodka
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.bonespirits.com
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Swift Single Malt Texas Whiskey
Parent Brand: Swift Distillery
Hometown: Dripping Springs, Texas
Notable: Twice-distilled from 100% Scottish malted barley; finished in Spanish Oloroso Sherry Cask
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.swiftdistillery.com
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World Spirits Competition Double Gold Medal; Winner, Gold Medal and “Best in Class” at the American Distilling Institute 2013 Artisan Competition
Kindred Spirits: Yellow Rose Straight Rye Whiskey; Yellow Rose Blended Whiskey; Yellow Rose Double Barrel Bourbon
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.yellowrosedistilling.com
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Rio Brazos Distillery Whistlestop Texas Whiskey
Parent Brand: Rio Brazos Distillery
Hometown: College Station, Texas
Notable: Rare white whiskey made in small batches, using local ingredients
Kindred Spirits: Boxcar Texas Whiskey
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.riobrazosdistillery.com
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Red Handed Bourbon Whiskey
Parent Brand: Graham Barnes Distilling dba Treaty Oak Distilling Co.
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Kindred Spirits: Waterloo Texas-Style Gin; Treaty Oak Barrel Reserve Rum; Starlite Vodka; Waterloo Antique Barrel Reserve Gin; Graham’s Texas Tea
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.treatyoakdistilling.com
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Witherspoon’s Texas Straight Bourbon
Parent Brand: Witherspoon Distillery
Hometown: Lewisville, Texas
Kindred Spirits: Bonfire Cinnamon Infused Rum; Witherspoon’s River Rum; Witherspoon’s Single Malt Whiskey
Distillery Notes by TX Spirits Geek
Website: www.witherspoondistillery.com
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Jimmy’s Texas Bourbon Whiskey
Parent Brand: Kiepersol Enterprises
Hometown: Tyler, Texas
Notable: Name for WW II torpedo pilot, hero, and Jacksonville, Texas resident Jimmy Hines
Kindred Spirits: Dirk’s Vodka; Pierre’s Rum
Website: www.jimmysbourbon.com
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TX Blended Whiskey
Parent Brand: Firestone & Robertson Distilling Co.
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas
Notable: Bottle caps are handmade and include leather from vintage cowboy boots; first non-blended bourbon whiskey from F&R expected in 2015
Kindred Spirits: Straight Bourbon (expected 2015)
Website: www.frdistilling.com
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Troubadour Bourbon Whiskey
Parent Brand: The Original Texas Legend Distillery
Hometown: Orange, Texas
Kindred Spirits: Troubadour Texas Vodka; Troubadour Blended Whiskey
Website: www.theoriginaltexaslegenddistillery.com
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Rebecca Creek Fine Texas Spirit Whiskey
Parent Brand: Rebecca Creek Distillery
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Kindred Spirits: Enchanted Rock Peach Vodka; Enchanted Rock Ultra-Premium Vodka
Website: www.rebeccacreekdistillery.com
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Website: www.whitmeyers.com
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Red River Texas Bourbon Whiskey
Parent Brand: JEM Beverage Co.
Hometown: Carrolton, Texas
Kindred Spirits: Western Son Texas Vodka; Southern Son Vodka; South House Moonshine; Stingray Spiced Rum; Brazos Gin
Website: www.jembevco.com
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Texas Silver Star Spirit Whiskey
Parent Brand: Trinity River Distillery
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas
Kindred Spirits: Texas Silver Star Texas Honey
Website: www.silverstarwhiskey.com
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