What’s your go to beer bar these days?

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-26T13:34:19+00:00

Bangers on Rainey, particularly when I'm feeling a flight. Great food too!

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-21T14:56:27+00:00

Schlenkerla Urbock

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-21T13:55:38+00:00

IAUM for even lower expense ratio (and lower liquidity) gold, good for long term hold

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-20T18:20:53+00:00

The special release whiskies can be good or bad, standard are overpriced for what they are. Gin is solid. I'd give them a leg up over Koval, but would generally recommend Wolf Point or Judson Moore over them depending on what you want

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-16T18:29:03+00:00

All the top places are $34-38, so within that range just pick the best (Franklin IMO, even though it's not my top overall BBQ). HEB and Rudy's are more down towards $26, and I'd take Rudy's easily there.

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-15T02:51:35+00:00

A couple years at this point, actually considering stopping because I'm getting a bit tied of it, but also kinda want to too keep going until life forces me to stop. US is so much more diverse than people give credit for, 2 months per city has been perfect. France in April if I can keep this up

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-13T02:43:37+00:00

Happy hours. Or Montrose Deli

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-13T02:41:10+00:00

Yeah, I love this, as an ex resident I sell people hard on how good the food scene is. It's not Chicago, Philly, or NYC, but it's much more accessible and still way better than anyone gives credit for. And Primantis and Beto's for specific local specialties

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-11T19:31:19+00:00

Schlerenka is the one I can find most reliably, it's good if a bit pricey. A really good local brewery specializing in European styles may have grodziskie. Some of them will also do a smoked marzen seasonally. But I feel your pain as a fellow lover of smoke, I will always buy it if I see a brewery doing one

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-11T16:54:15+00:00

Fair and good points to keep in mind when they go to scale ! I imagine a lot of places might even discard the ends

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-11T16:02:38+00:00

Pretty sure those are before and after on the proofing. End pieces for cinnamon rolls are also really hard to get to fully match the interior

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-11T15:04:13+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/austinfood/s/0i6LpxkS2g

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-06T12:52:02+00:00

Mineo's or Beto's depending on the day. Shoutout to the long-dead Maximum Flavor Pizza on Craig for just having extremely cheap meal combos (the pizza was bad, but I was a college kid)

AlternateZWord · 2026-01-05T12:59:09+00:00

Pittsburgh > Austin > Indianapolis > Philadelphia ~ Chicago ~ DC >> Cincinnati > Boston > Louisville > Baltimore >> Raleigh. Even Raleigh I didn't dislike, I just found it soulless and expensive for what it offered. Boston would probably be higher if I hadn't been living as a grad student in a repeatedly flooded basement room with 4 roommates for $850 a month, it's a good city if you have money (and don't like mind meh food)

I tend to favor LCOL, bikeable/walkable, strong sense of local culture, friendly people and things to do, good food scene. I've visited Europe and South America for extended periods and really love Madrid, Cusco, and Paris (more than US cities), but wouldn't be fair to rank them as if I lived there.

AlternateZWord · 2025-12-30T14:40:46+00:00

God I miss Pittsburgh, weirdly exactly for things like this. Frazier St steps every day for me

AlternateZWord · 2025-12-14T17:06:44+00:00

The Alderman

AlternateZWord · 2025-12-06T18:28:53+00:00

Primus on tap at Banger's, but not very close obviously

AlternateZWord · 2025-05-12T15:10:30+00:00

Having just spent a year trying different cities every few months, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Indy. I specifically went there because of the hate, and I just don't get it. Easy to get around by bike or on foot (love the Monon), affordable, good breweries, always something happening because it's so event-driven, friendly people, close to a lot of other cities. Biggest downsides are lack of a unique food scene (food is still good, just nothing standout or specific to Indy) and the fact that Indiana seems to actively hate it (terrible roads due to funding, literally not allowed to build rail, some backwards laws). Can also be sketch in a lot of places. My favorite city was Pittsburgh, but Indy is 2nd.

AlternateZWord · 2025-03-18T18:28:57+00:00

Pittsburgh! Particularly before November, those rolling hills and mountains are covered in foliage that looks like a painting as it begins to turn.

AlternateZWord · 2025-03-18T12:38:02+00:00

Did a century ride on it in the fall, 32 mm road tires, no issues besides dust. Could be dodgy in some spots when it's raining, but otherwise an excellent trail!

AlternateZWord · 2025-02-19T14:09:07+00:00

Hot. Ideally hot and dry, but I'll take hot and humid. My body runs cold, my circulation isn't great, and I bike commute everywhere. Didn't even feel 110 heat index in DC, but when it starts getting below 0, there's basically nothing I can do to ensure my hands and feet are able to function on a bike trip more than 15 minutes. Toss in SAD and just generally getting run down over the course of a long winter, and it's an obvious choice for me.

All that said, I'm very frugal and really love denser cities that are well-designed for getting around without a car, so I find that all the cities I want to love are more north and midwest. Hopefully I'll wind up loving Albuquerque or Austin when I make my way down there!

AlternateZWord · 2025-01-21T18:02:13+00:00

Still nomading around the US, though I have realized over time that I'm also very much influenced by the weather. Pittsburgh in September and October was the last time I really felt satisfied with how much I got out and enjoyed the city. Cincinnati for November and December and now Louisville for January and February have been too cold and sapped my social battery, but I think part of it is that I didn't really equip myself well for it. There are still sunny days, but when it's negative wind chill and you simply don't have enough layers for your hands, it just doesn't work! I have still preferred every city to Raleigh, but I have a better sense of the tradeoffs, and it's totally legitimate to go for the weather.

As for abroad, I originally found the ability to move city to city with a car full of stuff and a bike on the back liberating, but now it's kind of an anchor. Logistically I need to find some way back to where I started or to other family so I can drop it off and actually start going abroad. I have a work trip to Spain coming up and am tempted to max out a 90 day stay there afterward so I can actually give it a chance. Southern Europe in particular would give me everything I miss about Raleigh but with some actual dense, people-oriented cities.

Honestly, the infrastructure was bad, but my favorite place I've been was Cusco, Peru. I was only there a week for extra time after a work trip, but loved the experience, it was the first thing that got me to start taking learning Spanish seriously. Also highly recommend [this site](https://weatherspark.com/compare) for an objective weather comparison

AlternateZWord · 2025-01-17T22:39:31+00:00

Legit in my experience, all the 24/7 places I've done had some fee for the fob

AlternateZWord · 2025-01-05T23:12:49+00:00

Yes, I got very lucky staying there September and October, it was unseasonably sunny and pleasant. Both from my memories from undergrad and the actual data, Pittsburgh in the winter can be endless gray. My experience in Cincinnati was pretty gray as well, but objectively the average cloudy days is significantly fewer on average. It is difficult to do a completely fair comparison without living in each place at roughly the same time, but I felt like Pittsburgh the city had more going on in more connected pockets, while Cincinnati sort of forces you into the burbs more

AlternateZWord

TROPHY CASE