Queer Eye for the Austin guy — and gal

5 Fab Five-approved local businesses featured on Queer Eye’s new Austin season

The Fab Five are deep in the heart of Texas.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you’ve heard that the Fab Five have left their mark on Austin.

That’s right, the new season of Queer Eye was filmed in our fair city and features 10 episodes highlighting Austinites whose lives were changed by the Fab Five: Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, and Antoni Porowski (and Porowski’s Austin Pets Alive!-adopted dog, Neon).

Netflix announced production had begun on the Austin-based sixth season of the show in March 2020, and we all know what happened shortly thereafter. But after some production delays and what felt like a lifetime of waiting patiently, the new season finally premiered on December 31, just in time to fulfill your New Year’s resolution of crying happy tears while glued to a heartwarming television show.

The Fab Five visited many classic and otherwise beloved Austin locales — the Broken Spoke, Austin Motel, Swedish Hill Bakery, Easy Tiger — but they also highlighted a few local businesses off the beaten path that you may not know about.

Here are five cool Austin spots the Fab Five visited that you — and every other diehard Queer Eye fan in town — will definitely want to add to your 2022 must-visit list.

OMG Squee
The owner of this East Austin dessert shop, Sarah Lim, is the featured hero in episode nine, “A Legend in the Baking.” And OMG Squee is just as cute as the name implies, offering Asian American desserts like mochi doughnuts, bubble tea, macarons, and more. And it’s all gluten-free. Not only are the desserts delicious, but they’re so cute that you might not even want to eat them. (We said “might,” people.) Just look at this adorable Hello Kitty doughnut!

At one point in the OMG Squee episode, Lim even accompanies Porowski and France to Sour Duck Market to teach them how to decorate baked goods (and teaches us all a lesson in relinquishing control and delegating tasks — because, you know, Queer Eye is all about hiding secret life wisdom in the guise of piping glazed doughnuts to look like cute teddy bears).

As you can imagine, OMG Squee is “busier than ever,” as Lim told Bustle in December, but you can pre-order your tasty baked goods online and pick them up from the store.

Damn, Glam!
If you haven’t heard of Austin’s hottest new beauty salon, good luck getting an appointment now that founder and CEO Tiffany Hunter is deservedly in the center of the Queer Eye spotlight.

Featured in episode six of the new season as hero Jereka Thomas embraces her natural hair, Damn, Glam! is a full-service hair and nail salon in an East Austin studio space you’ll want to hang out in all day long.

Bloomers and Frocks Vintage Store
Bloomers and Frocks is also featured in Sarah Lim’s episode as France teaches the baker how to use sustainable fashion to feel confident in her own skin. The South First Street vintage shop specializes in one-of-a-kind finds from the 1910s to the 1980s, but its specialty is classic dresses from the 1960s and earlier. You can even sell your vintage clothes there, too.

Liberation Barbell Club
Featured in episode two, 22-year-old athlete and Olympic weightlifting coach Angel Flores learns to find confidence as a trans woman with the help of the Fab Five, and by training at Liberation Barbell Club. (Her coach at the gym even nominated her for the show.)

A no-frills strength-training gym in Southeast Austin, Liberation Barbell Club offers powerlifting classes, Olympic weightlifting classes (taught by Flores herself), and open gym hours for both the public and gym members.

Garden Seventeen
You may not have heard of this garden center that opened during the height of the pandemic, in the summer of 2020, but if you’re planning your spring gardening strategy (or if you’re a wannabe plant parent unsure where to start), you’ll want to check out Garden Seventeen.

The garden center not only sells indoor and outdoor plants, but also plans to offer classes for plant enthusiasts (stay tuned to the website for details).

Garden Seventeen was also featured in episode six, when Berk visited with Thomas and her son, Carter, to provide fountains, plants, and pots for her home and medical practice. Garden Seventeen’s sister company, Native Edge, provided landscaping for Thomas’ home.

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Movie Review

Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin are both funny and deep in A Real Pain

Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain.

Comedy film duos have a long history, from Laurel and Hardy in the 1920s and ‘30s to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in movies like Baby Mama. But the majority of duos have either been friends or work partners; relationships that can be close, but not as close as family. The new film A Real Pain aims for the comedy that a great duo can bring, but hits deeper because the two lead characters are related to each other.

Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Jesse Eisenberg) are first cousins who decide to take a trip to Poland to visit the childhood home of their grandmother, who has recently passed. Their personalities could not be more different, with David buttoned-down and reserved and Benji extremely social, if a little wild. This contrast is on display from the moment they leave on their trip, affecting almost every aspect of their journey.

The two meet up with a diverse tour group in Poland, including guide James (Will Sharpe), recently divorced Marcia (Jennifer Grey), married couple Mark (Daniel Oreskes) and Diane (Liza Sadovy), and Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), an African man who has converted to Judaism. As the group visits various historical sites, David confronts contrasting feelings about Benji, who goes from charming to abrasive seemingly at the drop of a hat.

Written and directed by Eisenberg, the film is about both the family we have and the history of those who came before us. With Benji and David being Jewish and their grandmother having escaped from the Nazis in World War II, the themes hit harder than they might in other situations. Eisenberg takes care to honor his Jewish ancestors both in the way he has Benji and David talk about their grandmother and the places they visit.

But even though emotions are heightened due to the significance of the trip, the film is far from a dour affair. Benji keeps things interesting at almost all times with a series of impulsive decisions, many that are entertaining for both the tour group and the audience watching the film. He is one of those film characters that is great to watch on screen, but would likely be too much to handle if you were confronted with him in real life.

The relationship between Benji and David is a complicated one; the two obviously have love for each other, but they rarely see eye-to-eye on the best way to approach certain situations. This tension keeps the film grounded, and Eisenberg does a great job at showing the push-and-pull the two cousins have with each other. The little moments, especially when Benji and David go their separate ways, say a lot as the characters try to reconcile where each is at in their respective lives.

Eisenberg has always been an understated performer, so this role is almost perfect for him. Culkin, fresh off his Emmy-winning role in HBO’s Succession, is an ideal foil for Eisenberg, as he has a manic energy that he can control or not control at will. It’s also nice to see Grey in action again, as she brings just the right touch to her supporting role.

The drama in A Real Pain comes from the life experiences of its two main characters, which are on full display despite the story only doling out details in small doses. The film is subtle yet powerful, a testament to Eisenberg’s filmmaking ability and the actors never trying to make too much of their scenes.

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A Real Pain opens in theaters on November 15.

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