C3’s Austin City Limits Music Festival is spreading the love around the state: This year’s edition will feature acts including the National, Wild Belle and HAIM playing ACL-branded night-time shows at venues in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio during the festival, which takes place Oct. 4-6 and 11-13. For ACL-goers who don’t mind a road trip, it’s a great opportunity to explore the music, food and fun of all the Lone Star’s major cities in one trip. In this three-for-one special edition of T&E, industry insiders reveal the ins and outs of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, one taco truck at a time.
DALLAS
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STAY: Singer Ryan Cabrera, a Dallas native, is a regular at artsy Hotel Zaza: “They have a great bar called Dragonfly that’s kind of upscale,” he says. “You can go sit outside by the pool and have dinner.” JT Mudd, of local electro outfit Ishi, recommends the Belmont Hotel in Oak Cliff: “It’s nice and modern, but still relatively inexpensive.” When Alexander Beggins of Austin folk-pop act Wild Child makes the three-hour drive to the Big D, he hits the Joule Hotel, which “has a really rad boutique called Tenoversix. You can always find some sick threads there. You’re a fool if you don’t stop here when you’re in town.”
EAT: For a hardy, historic treat, try Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, says Erv Karwelis, president of Dallas indie Idol Records: “They’ve got several locations, but the original, on Central Expressway, has been there since the ’40s. Order the chopped brisket, my personal favorite.” DJ Jagger, on-air personality at Dallas’ adult top 40 KDMX (102.9 Now), dines in the Bishop Arts District, a hipster enclave packed with “great restaurants, including Tillman’s Road House” and locavore-loved Bolsa. C3 talent buyer Emily Kennedy salivates over the Tex-Mex at Fuel City Tacos: “Yes, they are located in a gas station, and yes, they are open 24 hours a day.”
PLAY: Bryce Avary, aka the Rocket Summer, says his favorite venue is the Granada Theater, but he’s played “some of the most impossibly packed and electric shows of my life” at Trees in the Deep Ellum area, home to many of the city’s stages. “It has a lot of history,” he adds. “It was once best known as the place where Kurt Cobain used his Fender Jaguar in self-defense against that one bouncer guy.” Jagger is partial to Oak Cliff’s Kessler Theater, in “an old, historic Art Deco movie house. They book an eclectic mix of smaller acts with strong followings. The sound is amazing.” Beggins, however, goes full-on honky-tonk at Bob’s Texas. “It feels like Texas in there,” he says. “A lot of cowboys and cowgirls dancing and slinging whiskey.”
SAN ANTONIO
EAT: Dixie Chicks’ Emily Robison, a Dallas native, loves San Antonio, her new home. “It’s this hidden gem,” she says. “Sometimes I get jealous of all the music and the food in Austin, but I like my sleepy little Mexican town.” She sends visitors to the centrally located Valencia: “It’s right on Houston Street, with the Majestic Theatre next door.” When C3’s Quinn Donahue can’t make the 80-mile drive back to Austin, he stays near the beautiful San Antonio River at “touristy” St. Anthony Wyndham Hotel or Hotel Havana, which has a “killer bar.”
STAY: Beggins chows down at restaurant/venue Sam’s Burgers. “The myth is true: It is one of the best burgers in Texas,” he says. “I get the barbecue burger, stacked with onion rings and barbecue sauce.” Robison recommends Bohanan’s for business meals. “We tend to do more corporate things there,” she says. “[It’s] just a great steakhouse.” Travis Moon, PD at country KAJA (KJ 97), suggests finding food along the famous River Walk: “There’s so much stuff happening there: Mexican cantinas, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, seafood. It’s touristy, but it’s fun.”
PLAY: Cabrera and his bandmates keep the night going at Howl at the Moon. “We always end up there after shows,” he says. “We’ll sometimes get up and do a couple tunes.” Robison recently saw Boston play the beautiful Sunken Garden Theatre. “It’s almost like an outdoor amphitheater but it’s all stone and rock, with a great Japanese tea garden.” Moon highlights John T. Floore Country Store, “where Willie Nelson played back in the day. It’s a landmark.” Donahue loves strolling the North Saint Mary’s strip, a “smaller version of Austin’s Sixth Street. There’s one fun bar called the Mix. Expect to see lots of hipsters and band T’s. The bartenders are too cool for school.”
HOUSTON
STAY: C3’s Kennedy is all about location when she heads to Houston. The Magnolia “is within walking distance to a ton of venues, restaurants and bars,” she says. “The Four Seasons, too: It’s across the street from House of Blues.” Mark Adams, PD at mainstream top 40 KKHH and country KILT, says the Inn at the Ballpark is a hotel home run. “It’s across the street from Minute Maid, home of the Astros,” he says. “It’s filled with cool baseball memorabilia, and is no further from the downtown music venues than a number of more well-known stops.”
EAT: For a quick bite, try taco truck Tacos, Tierra, Caliente outside of the West Alabama Ice House, says Asli Omar of Houston indie-rock faves the Tons Tons. “It’s one of my favorite things,” she says. “I always get the chicken fajita taco.” But C3’s Brooke Wirth prefers to get her Tex-Mex fix at the classic Ninfa’s on Navigation. “Get the fajitas and a margarita,” she says. “It’s a little bit of a wait, but it’s a Houston staple — definitely worth it.”
PLAY: Beggins says he “grew up playing” at longtime fave Fitzgerald’s. “It looks — and smells — like it’s been there for thousands of years,” he says. “I’ve played sold-out shows and shows for eight people there, I’ve vomited there, I’ve even fallen in love there.” Omar keeps it low-key at divey Double Trouble in rapidly gentrifying Fourth Ward: “Once or twice a month they’ll go all out on the tiki theme, and then they’ll have jazz night or bossa nova night,” she says, though she admits she’s biased: “Our bass player works there.” Notsuoh and Big Top Lounge downtown are good hole-in-the-wall options as well, Kennedy says. “They’re filled with locals. Both have live bands on the weekends, and Notsuoh offers free popcorn — score!”