SoCo · Music Lane · Congress Ave Bridge · Unsplash @juanfernino
Know Your Corner · Neighborhood II
South Congress
Walkable, slightly touristy, still worth your time.
Walkable, slightly touristy, still worth your time.
Yes, there are pedicabs and bachelorette parties. There are also perfect oysters on a shaded patio, one of the state's great boot stores, and 1.5 million bats commuting overhead every summer evening. SoCo earns its postcard status — you just have to know when to go.
The strip runs from the river up past Music Lane. Weekday mornings and golden-hour evenings are the locals' windows.
The picks we actually send friends to.
The celebration patio. Coastal oysters, cold rosé, big oak shade — when Austinites want to mark an occasion, this is where they book.
NY-style slices with a line that moves fast and a late-night window for the walk home.
Upscale diner meets Tex-Mex next to the Austin Motel. Breakfast till late, frozen drinks always.
Home of the "i love you so much" wall. Get the iced turbo and watch the street go by.
The Austin institution. Mexican vanilla, crushed-in candy, occasionally airborne scoops.
The red boot sign is the old guard; Tecovas' flagship is the new. Try both, walk out taller.
The polished newer block — jewelry, apparel, home goods, and patios to recover on.
March through October, walk down to the Congress Avenue Bridge at sunset for North America's largest urban bat colony taking flight.
The 1955-vintage anchor of the avenue — rockabilly, soul and two-steppers most nights of the week.
Dark, red-lit R&B den a few blocks south. Late sets, small stage, no bad seats.
Do the strip backwards: boots and browsing at 5, Perla's happy-hour oysters at 6, then walk north to the bridge for the bat emergence at dusk. You'll pass every photo op on the way.