Austin Food

What I miss the most about Austin, besides the people, is the food. When I started school in Savannah it didn’t take long to realize that Austin had spoiled me with high quality BBQ and TexMex. I didn’t need much as food goes. In fact, I didn’t think I liked food much. It was there, I was hungry it smelled good, and it tended to make me happy. But, once my Kerbey Lane, Rudy’s, Torchy’s Tacos, and even Schlotzskys was taken from me… I wanted them back.

Savannah doesn’t know the first thing about TexMex. Everything is on flour tortillas and more importantly when you find the “good stuff” its expensive. There is Taco Tuesdays where you can get your taco fix for a dollar. But, I still have doubts if that dollar was worth it. The $5.95 I spend at Torchy’s, that is a different story.

Now, I threw a cow when I realized that no one here knew how to cook one. My expectation were not high to begin with. Texas has been rack’n those beaut’s for a long while and they know what they’re doing. I did not come to Savannah expecting Franklin BBQ. However, I was expecting a decent burger. High quality burgers in Austin vary from Hopdoddy, to Phill’s Ice House. I personally like P. Terry’s, cheap and the best fries, but no one comes close to any of those. I was very disappointed. I will confess that I have yet to try Green Truck here in Savannah. So, there might be hope. But, the reason for me not having tried it yet is two fold. One, I am not alone here in Savannah there are other Austinites and they were not very enthusiastic. Two, their burgers are about as expensive as Hopdoddy’s. If people want a decent burger here in the sad south they go to Five Guys. Lets just say there is a reason it took Five Guys so long to come to Austin, and now that it’s there it’s not getting much love.

Admittedly, Austin dose have the benefit of having food trucks. They allow restaurants to start out small and grow into something like Torchy’s. Food trucks have helped Austin’s food to grow and improve while keeping the food cheap. I have heard rumors that Savannah will be getting food trucks soon, fingers crossed. But sadly I am not very optimistic. One, because Savannah makes a lot of money by being a tourist location and that means they want to keep the town looking as authentic as possible. I don’t think General Sherman ordered his dinner at a taco truck. The other reason is Austin is well known for quality food. Many places in Austin are quick to hop onto healthy food choices. Gluten free options are very abundant, people buy local, and everyone is very particular where they buy their meat. In Austin I don’t have to worry about quality. In Savannah from what I have seen quality is expensive and hard to find.

I could go into Savannah’s pizza and how Schlotzskys and Home Slice are much needed but I will spare you. Bottom line I would pay a lot to have Rudy’s ship to me right now, and that’s saying something for a college student.