2 Hollywood celebrities tried some of Austin’s best sushi this week, plus more top stories

Hot Headlines

Uchi/Instagram

Editor’s note: It’s that time again — time to check in with our top stories. Here are five articles that captured our collective attention over the past seven days.

1. 2 Hollywood celebrities dined at one of Austin’s best restaurants this week. While most Austinites cozied up at home this week, these famous spouses ate at an award-winning restaurant before a screening of their new film.

2. Austin's flagship Kendra Scott store transforms into mini-Museum of Ice Cream for Valentine's Day. Here's one sweet collaboration you won't want to miss — and it launches this weekend!

3. Texas scores top ranking among best states for dating, says new report. This Valentine’s Day is for the unattached, and it turns out Texas is a pretty great place to be single.

4. This Tesla rental service got me from Austin to Houston, despite my best efforts. A Tesla is a smooth ride, and the UFODrive self-service process ensures a smooth trip — if you pay attention.

5. Here are the top 5 things to do in Austin this weekend. Festive (fictional) funerals, demon barbers, live podcasts, and more reasons to venture out as the weather warms up this weekend.

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Texas architect defining Austin's visual style searches for a nonprofit community partner

community building

These days, if you're asking Austinites to come into an office, it'd better be a nice one. Nonprofit workers and beneficiaries often get the short end of this stick, with outdated buildings and cost-cutting, so one acclaimed Austin architecture firm is offering its services to spruce things up.

One nonprofit partner in Austin or Houston will receive $20,000 worth of services to directly support its mission from Michael Hsu Office of Architecture (MHOA). That can be accrued however the partner sees fit within design and consultation services, such as site analysis, feasibility studies, master planning, and even interior design help.

Designs by MHOA are likely familiar to Austinites, who may recognize the firm's work at Uchi, Loro, Tecovas, Local Foods, South Congress Hotel, Westlake Dermatology, P. Terry's Burger Stand, and many more hard-to-miss modern buildings. Many clients have locations in Austin as well as Houston, where Hsu grew up and has another office, resulting in a growing visual connection between the two cities.

This is the second iteration of the Design for All Partnership, following the success of 2022 as an inaugural year with Austin Angels, a community-building organization that supports youth and families in foster care. Although the partnership began last year, MHOA is still working on a community center on 2.5 acres in Buda that used to support a church facility.

Renderings of the new space show an angular structure that prioritizes storage and openness from one area to the next, plus lots of colors through murals. The organization is now in a fundraising phase to bring the ideas to life.

Austin Angels appealed to the architects because of its capacity to anticipate the needs of its community and a background in hospitality design. This overlap is fitting for the goal of the partnership, which beyond providing one-time services, is meant to meaningfully connect the organization with the design industry.

The next partner will also embody values that align with MHOA's, but also must fit within a few hard criteria for eligibility: it must be registered 501C3, be within 50 miles of the Austin or Houston metropolitan areas, and propose a project equal to or smaller than 50 acres for master planning or 20,000 square feet for architecture and interior design.

“Our firm has always done our best to balance community-focused work in our project mix,” said Michael Hsu. “Similar to Austin Angels’ project, we’re looking for a partner who is actively contributing to our communities in Austin or Houston.”

MHOA has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) and is accepting applications until May 19 at 5 pm. It will also be accepting questions until April 14, and plans to start conduct shortlist interviews between June 5-9. The new partner should be announced on June 22, and services will start shortly thereafter in July.

The 7 best bars in Austin are stirring up community

MEET THE TASTEMAKERS

What makes a truly great bar in 2023? In Austin, it takes more than a cutesy name and borrowed nostalgia. A parade of Johnny-come-latelies provide plenty of distraction, but ultimately, we return to the tried-and-true.

That's why readers will see so many familiar faces amongst the seven CultureMap Tastemaker Awards nominees for Bar of the Year. Only one has opened in the past year. In a city that often seems drunk on its own buzz, it's essential to support those places that will call guests a cab at the end of the night.

Join us in celebrating the spots that have set the bar in Bat City — and welcoming a newcomer to the fold. Only one winner will be crowned during our blowout May 11 party at Fair Market, but the city would be lost without all of them. Buy tickets now before they sell out.

DrinkWell
Austin has lost much of its previous identity amongst a flurry of Hermès scarves and Patagonia vests. Neighborhood bars are needed now more than ever. One could rhapsodize at length about DrinkWell owner Jessica Sander's cocktail wizardry or how the burger still hits after all these years. But DrinkWell's je ne sais quoi lies in the sense of community, whether in driving the conversation towards healthier hospitality workplaces or simply greeting the regulars sidling up to the bar.

In Plain Sight
The younger sibling to underground speakeasy Here Nor There, this pocket bar gets its name from its street-level visibility. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to score a seat. With only eight barstools and a small standing area, the joint is packed from opening to close. What draws the guests isn't just the exclusivity or even the promenade of rainbow lights: Irish import Conor O'Reilly plays pied piper with Italian-style sippers that dazzle as brightly as the neon.

Kitty Cohen's
A nude Burt Reynolds reclines in the bathroom. Thrift store bric-a-brac crowds a wood-paneled wall. This East Austin patio bar practically wallows in its Palm Springs kitsch. Dive bars often get stuck in trucker hat grit. With an expressive cocktail menu of frozen favorites and lively originals, this one cleans house with the sweep of an Elizabeth Taylor kaftan.

Nickel City
When this East Austin bar arrived, Capital City nightlife was under the thrall of mustachioed mixologists. The Nickel City team took the piss out with a frozen Irish coffee in a Styrofoam cup. It's not that the cocktails here require a less exacting palate (a current selection employs shiitake mushrooms and seaweed), it just turns out that barcraft with a sense of humor is a hell of a lot more fun.

Small Victory
A vanguard in Austin's shift away from boisterous mega bars, Josh Loving's downtown hideaway has always provided adults sanctuary from the Sixth Street roar of "shots, shots, shots." Now approaching its 10th anniversary, the operation is a bona fide classic. Reserve a spot before an elegant dinner or revive the ancient lost art of the nightcap.

The Roosevelt Room
Sure, cocktail nerds can get an education by thumbing through a reprint of Jerry Thomas' Bartenders Guide, but we've always believed in practical learning. Patrons of this downtown bar can drink their way through decades of America's spirited obsessions, from graceful Boulevardiers to exuberant Cosmos. Lest one think a mortarboard is required for a night on the town, the bar team plays hooky with some eccentric new creations. Run the Jules could be served at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Watertrade
The opening salvo of an Otoko omakase, this South Congress Avenue lounge specializes in Japanese whiskies and carefully crafted tipples. Though there is a focus on seasonal and rare ingredients, Watertrade prefers not to namedrop. Instead, it leans into the vibe. Do you feel "fizzy and playful" or "amazing and robust?" Laze in one of the low-slung chairs and let the staff do the rest.

DrinkWell

DrinkWell is one of Austin's best neighborhood bars.

NASCAR driver Ross Chastain aims for 3rd career win at Circuit of the Americas

HAIL MELON

After his first-ever Cup victory at Circuit of the Americas in 2022, this eighth generation Central Florida watermelon farmer turned NASCAR driver is looking to nab his third career win at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in Austin on March 26.

Trackhouse Racing star Ross Chastain is currently third in the points heading into the race weekend; just four points behind Christopher Bell (second), and five behind Joey Logano (current leader). Chastain finished second behind Logano in the 2022 Cup Series Championship.

The tight standings make for a thrilling weekend at COTA, where Chastain earned his first career win just last year. He says driving on the 3.41-mile road course feels “opposite” to him than what he’s used to with a typical 1.5-mile oval track. He's been making left-only turns since he was 12 years old, and even on his Florida farm he would navigate the grids of watermelons and turn left at the end of every row. Learning to navigate a road course meant seeking help from others who might have better experience.

“I went to driving schools [and] I went to older and other drivers to teach me and give me advice on the simple art of driving a race car at its limit to the right, and COTA’s no different,” he tells CultureMap. “It’s – to me – very ironic that we got our first Cup Series win at a road course.”

Many race car drivers have raised concerns about the bumpy surface of the track, even after parts of it were resurfaced in 2022. For Chastain, he thinks there’s a couple different perspectives a driver can take when it comes to blemished track surfaces. On the one hand, part of him loves the idea of a perfectly smooth track with "symmetrical corners" for him to put down a perfect lap. But the “racing purist” in him also wants to drive on the “worst track possible.”

“I want bumps and cracks, different corners. I want to turn left and right...and just have variety, and COTA is getting that more and more," he says. "Our cars, they bottom out [and] slide...that’s what makes our racing so great is that we are out of control a lot."

Unlike F1 drivers, who tend to be more precise on track, NASCAR drivers use anything and everything to their advantage to get a win, much like Chastain’s straight-from-a-video-game wall-ride move that subsequently got banned at the beginning of January.

COTA might not have a wall to ride, but it does have a 133-foot first turn elevation change. While it can be a challenge for some, it isn’t for Chastain. The high elevation allows him to charge into the corner hard, let gravity slow him down while going uphill, then let the car slide down while heading into turn two.

“I love it. I wish more tracks had more elevation change like [COTA]. It makes the racing more dynamic, and being behind the wheel in the driver’s seat makes it more fun,” he says.

When considering the momentum it will take to score another win, Chastain admits it will be the biggest challenge he’s ever faced, but he’s confident in his ability to carry over that drive and motivation after his 2022 second-place Cup Series finish.

In line with the car’s continuing evolution, as he puts it, a recent aerodynamics change is expected to shake up who ends up at the top of the leaderboard. But his calm demeanor shows he isn’t phased by the changes.

“As simple as it sounds, we race in circles on Sunday afternoons, and this sport is a big circle of teams [and drivers] cycling up, cycling down,” says Chastain. “We’ll have to work harder than ever to try and stay at the top here.”

To kick off the race weekend and initiate some good luck for his Sunday race, Chastain (ever-connected to his roots) will drop watermelons off COTA’s illustrious 251-foot observation tower on Friday, March 24 at 2 pm.

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas will run from 2:30-6 pm on Sunday, March 26. More information about the race can be found at circuitoftheamericas.com, and tickets can be purchased at nascaratcota.com.

View All Listings