I do love barbecue but this festival has always been daunting to me! With 30 barbecue joints from all over Texas, it’s a lot of meat to try, not to mention all the sides and dessert they also bring. When we arrived, the smell of barbecue was overwhelmingly delicious. Our strategy was to visit restaurants outside of Austin because we have easier access to Austin barbecue. We ended up trying 10 of the 30 bbq joints!

Here are all the barbecue places that represented this year:

• 2M Smokehouse
• Baker Boys BBQ
• BBQ on the Brazos
• Bodacious Bar-B-Q Mobberly
• Blood Bros. BBQ
• Cattleack Barbeque
• Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
• Evie Mae’s Pit Barbecue
• The Granary ’Cue & Brew
• Guess Family Barbecue
• Hays Co. Bar-B-Que
• Heim Barbecue
• Hutchins BBQ
• Killen’s Barbecue
• la Barbecue
• Lockhart Smokehouse
• Louie Mueller Barbecue
• Micklethwait Craft Meats
• Miller’s Smokehouse
• Pinkerton’s Barbecue
• PODY’s BBQ
• Roegels Barbecue Co.
• Smolik’s Smokehouse
• Snow’s BBQ
• Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew
• Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue
• Terry Black’s Barbecue
• Truth BBQ
• Tyler’s Barbeque
• Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ

My favorite stop was Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue from Tomball. They knew what they were doing because their plate included two slices of meat and two desserts – pork belly, chile relleño sausage, carrot souffle, and spiced chai panna cotta.

Killen’s Barbecue of Pearland served crispy good fried chicken!

I also loved Cattleack Barbeque (of Farmers Branch)’s pastrami burnt ends.

TMBBQFest Tips

Will and I were very unprepared for this festival! It was our first time and we went in with no expectations. We simply wanted to eat some good barbecue and enjoy the day. After up and down weather in Texas in the last two weeks, the weather turned out perfect for this event! We were pleasantly full when we left about an hour and a half later.

However, being the planner that I am, these are the tips I recommend if you go!

1. Wear sunglasses and a hat.

It was a beautiful day but also very sunny! These were must-haves to be comfortable.

2. Get there early.

The lines start as you’re trying to park your car. Since the event is on a Sunday, you could grab a street spot downtown for free and walk across the bridge. The closest parking is at the Palmer Events Center for $8, but get there early as it can take at least 20 minutes to get in. There are also long lines to get into the festival at 1 pm, so if you want to try a specific restaurant, get there early! By 2:30 pm, some restaurants had already run out of bbq, so be early to get the best bites.

3. Splurge for VIP tickets.

One way to avoid the lines is to buy a VIP ticket. This allows you to get into the festival at noon, one hour earlier than general admission. Some restaurants have special items on the menu specifically for VIP hour. General admission tickets were $80 and VIP was $165 and included extra perks like two drink tickets.

4. Split your dishes.

You can get full very easily after visiting a few booths, so to try more restaurants, split the plate with a friend. You’ll save stomach space and help cut down on food waste.

5. Pick your top three must-tries.

If we had prepared more, I would have known exactly which booths to wait in line for instead of meandering. If your goal is to try a specific restaurant’s barbecue or to try the top barbecue joints, know exactly where you’re going and get in line. The barbecue runs out and lines get long! Grab a map at the entrance.

6. Hydrate!

The fest has several water coolers throughout the grounds, so bring a reusable water bottle. The weather can get warm and you’ll be consuming a lot of seasoned meat, so water is necessary!

7. Chill out.

Even the biggest bbq aficionados will agree that after getting your fill of the best barbecue, it’s great to just chill out. Take a seat on the lawn and enjoy live music.

Whether you spell it bbq, barbecue, or barbeque, people who love barbecue will have a fun time at this annual festival.

Have you ever been or what kind of food festival would you want to attend?

Keep up with my food adventures! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

The post Why Every Barbecue Lover Needs to Go to Texas Monthly BBQ Fest appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

Vodka and Sprite. That used to be my alcoholic drink of choice. In my usual ‘late bloomer’ fashion, I started drinking later than most of my college friends, and beer was never my first choice. Beer, the watery amber liquid that smelled and tasted unpleasant, had one job, and that was to fill red solo cups for beer pong or flip cup.

Fast forward to post-college and my discovery of craft breweries in Austin. I’ll admit, I was first attracted by the craft and the passion of the brewers, not the taste of beer, though it was different and much better than the first beers I had tasted in my life. I eventually found appreciation for the flavor of beer after visits and tastings at brewery after brewery. My go-to, favorite beers have shifted from light lagers to hoppy and smooth IPAs.

The past couple of years have propelled my love of craft beer to new heights. It was my first time attending the Texas Craft Brewers Festival, but I know it won’t be the last! The weather was great, though slightly warm, and the beer was tasty and plentiful.

Produced annually by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild since 2003, the Texas Craft Brewers Festival featured 65ish Texas breweries sharing at least two beers each. We see new Austin breweries popping up constantly, but the fest was a strong reminder that new craft beer is being brewed all over Texas. The area most notable to me was the suburbs of Houston. Dallas and Austin also had strong showings. I was glad to see Big Bend Brewing Co and Lone Pint Brewery, two of the more hard-to-get-to breweries we’ve visited, there also.

For about $30, each ticket provided eight three-ounce pours, 24 ounces total per TABC rules. You could buy eight more three-ounce pours for $5.

Some brewers had special tappings that were released at different times throughout the festival.

Next year, I won’t forget my snack necklace! As the maker and wearer of this necklace explained, bringing in outside food and drink is prohibited, but edible jewelry isn’t!

Even though I didn’t wear a snack necklace, I satisfied my munchies at the fest. The food vendors included Salt & Time Butcher Shop and Salumeria, Noble Sandwich Co., Oasis Texas Brewing Company, M’lady’s Bakery, Napa Flats Wood-Fired Kitchen Austin, YAPA Artisan Empanadas, Johnny Joe’s BBQ & Catering, and Leo’s Gorditas.

I aimed for breweries I hadn’t visited with beers I thought I would like. Many of those beers were in the Houston area. Here are a few of the beers I tried:

• Braman Brewing (Richmond) – Double Action (Double IPA)
• Brigadoon Brewery (Plantersville) – Green Ogre (Imperial IPA)
• Jester King Brewery (Austin) – Cherry Funk Metal (Sour Barrel-Aged Stout Refermented with Cherries)
• Lorelei Brewing (Corpus Christi) – Ephyra (Double IPA)
• Orf Brewing (Austin) – Oocheenama (Asian white ale)
• Southern Star Brewing (Conroe) – Mango Theory (Fruit IPA)
• TUPPS Brewery (McKinney) – For Ella (Double IPA)

The breweries represented areas all over Texas. The booths were arranged alphabetically, making them easier to find. The signs also listed the beers the brewery brought.

The fest was a great place to learn about new breweries. Southern Heights Brewing Co, a soon-to-open brewery in Austin, had a prime parking spot for their cute VW van outside the fest entrance.

The fest was also well-managed. Though the line to get in was long, it went through quickly. There were rarely lines at each brewery booth unless it was for a special tapping. There was plenty of space to walk and mingle and lots of areas with shade. Of course, there was live music in the center of the park. Water stations with cups were positioned around the festival.

It was a fun day to celebrate the Texas craft beer community and enjoy the fruits of their labor. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

P.S. Want to plan an Austin craft brewery crawl? Check out this post!

The post Celebrating Craft Beer at Texas Craft Brewers Festival appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

I was super excited about going to Austin Food & Wine Festival this year since it was my first time. I sadly had work commitments for a lot of the weekend, but here are some of my highlights from the festival. 

My festival experience started with Taste of Texas, a showcase for Texas’ talented chefs. My favorite savory dish was the tender and flavorful Pastrami Beef Cheek by Chef Blaine Staniford of Grace in Fort Worth, and my favorite sweet dish was the dessert duo by Philip Speer of Uchi in Austin. Here are just a few of the creative dishes:

Philip Speer of Uchi (Austin)

Blaine Staniford of Grace (Fort Worth)

My highlight for Saturday was Andrew Zimmern’s balls demo where he taught the crowd how to make Duck Tsukune.

Another highlight was stopping by the fire pit for some of Paul Qui’s grilled pork tongue.

Rock Your Taco on Saturday night was full of many, many delicious taco creations by local and national chefs. While Richard Blais walked away with the best taco honor (he created an octopus and lamb taco), my personal favorites were Bryce Gilmore’s goat taco and Tyson Cole’s fish taco.

Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine/Odd Duck

Tyson Cole of Uchi/Uchiko

Overall I thought the Austin Food & Wine Festival was a fun event for food lovers to geek out at and eat their fill. I loved exercising my palate, learning about celebrity chefs and getting to experience everything the talented chefs brought to the table.

The post Austin Food & Wine Festival 2014 appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

There’s just something about seeing and hearing live music performed that connects you much deeper to the lyrics, the chords and the people behind it all. In my case, sometimes the emotional, spiritual experience launches me into an obsession with an artist or band that I wasn’t so familiar with before and sears an amazing memory into my life story.

It first happened when Shayna Zaid and The Catch performed ‘Big Apple Love‘ on Stubb’s inside stage, complete with the haunting violin accompaniment, during SXSW in 2010. It happened when I heard Grace Potter belting out ‘Apologies’ while wearing a gorgeous gold sequin minidress at ACL in 2011. It happened when I danced through Yeasayer’s entire set when they played at Stubb’s in 2012. Most recently, the band and experience found me unexpectedly, sweaty and a little heartbroken, at the Free Press Summer Festival (FPSF) a few weekends ago.

I didn’t go to FPSF for Passion Pit. While I occasionally hear their music on the radio and I gave their new album Gossamer a hear-through when it came out, the band’s impact didn’t strike until I was dancing along during their show. It ended up being my favorite act of the festival. I guess something about lead singer Michael Angelakos singing out a confessional “it’s not right, it’s not right” (‘It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy’) and then professing “I’ll be alright” (‘I’ll Be Alright’) was a little like music therapy. And in a Downtown Houston park with my body swaying, sweat trickling, hands raised and heart cracked more open that I really wanted, happiness found me through simple lyrics and notes strung together carefully by a band I wasn’t expecting to jump for that weekend. It reminded me that life is beautiful.

As for the rest of FPSF, HOLY CRAP HOUSTON IS HOT IN JUNE AND WHO CAME UP WITH THE BRIGHT IDEA FOR A FESTIVAL THEN? Past how hot and humid it was, especially with very crowded festival grounds, I was excited to see Of Monsters and Men (which I realized I don’t really know most of the lyrics to their songs and after looking them up later, they don’t make much sense), Calvin Harris (awesome!) The Postal Service, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (‘Same Love’ gave me chills). Fun experience overall!

What’s your most memorable live music moment/memory?

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