One minute you’re spilling your drink on your cowboy boots, and the next you’re bumming a cigarette from Elijah Wood.
That’s the way we prefer to roll in the Austin scene — or at least the way we (“we” being my sometimes-smoker dinner companion and I, the boot-soaker) enjoyed Sunday’s Somewhere in Time event — indulging in friendly, lively, unpretentious fun along with delicious comestibles, a kindly stance toward minor-league buffoonery and casual elegance in a gorgeous setting.
The weekend’s welcome rain cleared up just in time for arriving guests to be treated to the bucolic sight of the original Congress Avenue bridge — a wood-and-iron structure removed in 1910 and rebuilt over Onion Creek at Moore’s Crossing in 1992, both the beneficiary and the site of the night’s festivities — brimmed by newly green foliage and glowing in the setting sun.
Guests including the aforementioned Mr. Wood and his Grand Piano director, Eugenio Mira, as well as local art, design and real estate movers and shakers both familiar and new — Michael Hsu, Sheryl Cole, Marco Rini, Alex Herrera, Beth and Mark Thompson, Kelly Mahmoud, Kimberly Smith, Oliver Franklin, Sean and Wendy Carnegie, Tere O’Connell, Peter Staats, Gina Andre and Susan Alexander — enjoyed drinks and appetizers from Say LaV while they perused and bid on luxurious silent auction items. The skilled ladies of Austin Phonograph Company spinning (extremely) vintage vinyl on hand-cranked, Victrola-style record players worked perfectly with the contemporary nostalgia at play on the bridge.
The Moore’s Crossing event is a program hosted by Inherit Austin and sponsored by a number of Austin businesses who have a stake in local sustainability. This year’s major sponsors were The Gill Agency (namesake Eileen Gill and her event co-chair, Caroline Wright, hosted with gusto, putting guests at ease with their brightly colored frocks and outgoing charm), CornerStone Home Lending/Beth Thompson Team and Cultivate Public Relations.
The crowd gathered around Travis County Historical Commission chair Bob Ward and the Texas Historical Commission’s Linda Henderson for brief talks about the history of the area, the importance of the bridge and the need to fund preserving it, which falls through the cracks of governmental historic-project funding. Guests then took their seats at a table spanning the length of the bridge, where they were treated to more Say LaV yumminess and warm conversation surrounded by copious candelight. After lingering as long as possible in the glow of a good night, the happy crowd exited piecemeal, its way lighted by candelaria.
Table for several at Moore's Crossing
