New and Improved

Toy Joy leaves its campus digs for new home in the Second Street District

For over a decade, folks have enjoyed the treasure trove of fun at the corner of 29th and Guadalupe, where Toy Joy, local purveyor of trinkets for kids and adults, has been located. But this week, Toy Joy announced it will leave its longstanding home in the University of Texas corridor for a new home in downtown Austin's burgeoning Second Street District.

The reason for the move? Toy Joy's lease on The Drag is up, and the Second Street District offered a retail space that will allow for more parking — and more visibility — for the store. "The new space provides an active retail location with more walking space, a kid-friendly location and lots of nearby parking," Toy Joy proprietor Lizzy Newsome tells CultureMap in an email interview.

"The rubber cockroaches, plastic unicorns and pregnant lady keychains will still be an important part of our identity."

While the new space, located at 403 Second Street (one block west of Austin City Hall), might be a cleaner home for one of Austin's favorite shops for keeping it weird, Newsome assures us that loyalists need not worry.

"The new space may be a bit cleaner, but it will still be overflowing with weird and wonderful toys," she says. "The rubber cockroaches, plastic unicorns and pregnant lady keychains will still be an important part of our identity."

For Newsome, the move to a more polished downtown locale is a sign that Toy Joy will always have a home in Austin, no matter how the Capital City continues to evolve. "We know that many Toy Joy loyalists will be saddened by the move, but we hope they will be happy that the store in continuing on. This move will allow Toy Joy to survive in an ever changing Austin retail landscape."

"We are sad about leaving the campus area," Newsome continues, "but we look forward to seeing more families in the store at the more accessible location." Toy Joy's move will leave a definite void on the north side of The Drag, but relocating Austin's weirdest — and most iconic — toy shop to Second Street brings overdue, and deserved, local flavor to the newest section of downtown.

Toy Joy moves to the Second Street District in June 2013. Until then, expect business as usual, along with special in-store events at the original location during May.

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More Foraging

Free 'food forest' in East Austin expands with thousands of new plants

Angelina Alanis at Festival Beach Food Forest

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Angelina Alanis gives a tour of the garden, which is open to anyone.

In East Austin, there is an edible forest garden called Festival Beach Food Forest where anyone can walk around and harvest free produce, nuts, medicinal plant leaves and herbs. And over the summer, it grew to several times its size.

The forest has fig trees, peach trees, grapevines, asparagus and more that's not in season right now. You can grab passionfruit and plants like yaupon holly, with leaves that can make a caffeinated tea, rosemary and lemon balm.

"[Lemon balm] is part of the mint family," said Angelina Alanis, communication and partnership coordinator for Festival Beach Food Forest. "It has a lemony taste but it's good for a nervous stomach. I'm prone to anxiety so I always grab a hunk."

The food forest is located right next to Interstate 35 and Lady Bird Lake on 29 Waller St., near a part of town that's known for being a food desert, lacking grocery stores.

"There's as much as a 20-year life expectancy difference between parts of East and West Austin, and a lot of that comes down to food access, health care access and also access to nature."

Alanis said for the past nine years, the volunteer-based grassroots project been helping with the issue and just recently expanded in the summer from two-thirds of an acre of city parkland to over 3.5 acres.

"We're going to have hundreds of new trees," said Alanis. "We've already planted 150 new trees in the area and then thousands of plants on the ground."

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They also plan to add a community kitchen and a pavilion to do things like cooking classes or informational sessions.

Read the full story at KVUE.com.

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