Where To Eat & Drink At SXSW... And Why

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences & Festivals are going on now through March 17, and this yearly event draws a lot of people from outside Austin TX.  In between the various planned activities, the attendees want to drink in (literally in some cases) the local sights, scenes, sounds and senses.  And we'd like to help.

We have gathered up all the stories we have collected from around the web that talk about food & drink related places in the Austin area, and put them on one map.  Click on each dot to see what place it is, and who was talking about it.

The full list of the stories are below the map - Enjoy!:



The stories we've collected relating to Austin are:

Veggie Tales: Austin's best spots for plant-based dining - The Austin Chronicle
You Gotta Try This, SXSW: Vegetarian favorites - Austin360.com
You Gotta Try This, SXSW: Lunch, dinner downtown - Austin360.com
You Gotta Try This, SXSW: Lunch, dinner outside the downtown core - Austin360.com
Top Austin Restaurants for SXSW, According to TripIt Users - TripIt Blog
Find time for a long, tall taste of Austin during SXSW madness - Austin American-Statesman
Austin, Texas: Where to Eat and Drink - Bon Appetit Magazine
10 places to see in 2013 - Los Angeles Times
101 Best Restaurants in America for 2013 - The Daily Meal
The Best Burgers in 25 Cities - Zagat
The Most Important Restaurants in America - Bon Appetit Magazine
'Where Chefs Eat': Insiders Guide to the World's Best Dining Delights - PRI's The World
America’s Best Bagels - The Daily Meal
A trio of Austin art galleries - San Antonio Express-News
After Crispy Pig Ears, 10 Trends for 2013 - The New York Times
America’s 12 Best Donut Shops - The Daily Meal
The Best Burritos in America - The Daily Meal
What to eat in Austin right now - New York Post
Best French Fries in the U.S. - Travel + Leisure
America's Coolest New Diners - Travel + Leisure
Top sandwich shops: Travelers pick their favorites - USATODAY.com
10 of America's best historic restaurants - CNN.com
The 25 Best Ice Cream Shops in the U.S. - Complex
Best Ice Cream Spots in the U.S. - Food & Wine Magazine
World Beer Cup 2012 Winners - USA & CAN
100 Restaurants with the Best Service in the U.S. - OpenTable
The Ten Best New Restaurants in America: Restaurants + Bars: - GQ Magazine
Best Restaurants 2011 - Esquire
The Best New Restaurants in America, 2011 - Bon Appetit Magazine
2011 Top 100 Chinese Restaurants Competition - Top 100 Overall Excellence (USA)
2009 Top 100 Chinese Restaurants Competition - Top 100 Overall Excellence (USA)
Food Wars - Travel Channel
America's Best Donuts - Travel + Leisure
National Carousel Association
Sweet Tooth - Food Network
Bar-B-Que - Food Network

U.S. 2012 World Beer Cup Winners

Where can you find the best craft beer?

Earlier this month the Brewers Association held the World Beer Cup 2012 - 'The Olympics of Beer Competition'. 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entered 3,921 beers in 95 beer style categories.

U.S. breweries won 212 of the 284 total awards, with California (55 awards) winning the most, and Colorado (27 awards) winning more than the next highest country (Germany with 23 awards).

So where can you find the best craft beer?  On our map!

We have mapped the winning small & medium sized breweries that you can visit, tour or drink at.  Zoom in to where you are, or where you're going, and click the map pins to see the brewery name and their awards. The map pins are even color coded.  Read more after the map...



In the U.S., the Brewers Association says there were 250 new breweries that opened in 2011, and though overall beer sales by volume were down, craft brewery volume was up by 13%.  Clearly more and more people are enjoying the unique beers being crafted by these mainly local breweries.

You don't have to be a beer expert to enjoy craft beer, but you may want to brush up on some definitions:

• Microbrewery - A brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels (17,600 hectoliters) of beer per year with 75% or more of its beer sold off-site.
• Brewpub - A restaurant-brewery that sells 25% or more of its beer on site. The beer is brewed primarily for sale in the restaurant and bar.

Two resources to find a craft brewery, or your favorite craft beer are:

• CraftBeer.com -published by the Brewers Association, they have an extensive database of breweries and beer-related information
• TapHunter - They don't cover every market, but they specialize in connecting craft beer fanatics with the beers they love, the brewers who brew them and the locations that pour them. They have a website plus iPhone and Android apps

If you want to share your beer experiences, two of the largest forums are:

• BeerAdvocate - a global, grassroots network, powered by an independent community of beer enthusiasts and industry professionals who are dedicated to supporting and promoting beer
• RateBeer - an independent world site for craft beer enthusiasts that is dedicated to serving the entire craft beer community through beer education, promotion and outreach.

Things To Do: Orange County, CA

Just south of Los Angeles and north of San Diego lies Orange County California. If you're not familiar with Southern California, it's where Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm are located (and a lot more).  Zoom our map out to get your bearings, then zoom in to find lots of things to see and do.

To give you a flavor of what you can find in Orange County, we have mapped the places from ten different articles from four different local media - those that know Orange County the best.

Click around to explore, and see the article list below:



Articles we've mapped:

• Southern California Close-Up: 10 places to explore in Inland Orange County - Los Angeles Times
• One perfect day in Irvine, CA - Sunset
• Cruise California's Newport Harbor - Sunset
• Best of Orange County 2011 - Best Hole in the Wall - The Orange County Register
• Best of Orange County 2011 - Best Restaurant - The Orange County Register
• Best of Orange County 2011 - Best Romantic Restaurant - The Orange County Register
• Best of Orange County 2011 - Best Museum - The Orange County Register
• 10 Great Breweries In Orange County - The Orange County Register
• Delectable Donuts - The Orange County Register
• Donut Gold - Coast Magazine

If you need more local info, check out the official website for Orange County.

Things To Do: New Orleans

Mardi Gras in New Orleans ends on Tuesday - so what else is there to do?  Lots.

Food is definitely a big reason to roam around city, and there is plenty of history to view too.  We have mapped three lists to help you decide what to do, and where to go:

• New York Times - 36 Hours - New Orleans
• Msnbc.com - 15 things you didn't know about New Orleans
• Food Network - Diners, Drive-ins & Dives

You don't have to wait for Mardi Gras to visit New Orleans, and considering how much there is to do, it's going to take more than one trip to see it all.
View Larger Map

Best Road Food - Western U.S.

Sunset magazine, which is "the premier resource for achieving the ultimate Western lifestyle", has put together the absolutely best places to eat along Western highways.

In their article called "Top 41 road food spots in the West", they show you the best places to pull off the road and chow down burgers, milkshakes, fish taco's, breakfast, pie, or just good road food.  Yum!

And if you're in Hawaii, or planning to travel there, don't forget to check out the food places on Kauai and Oahu.

America's Best Hot Chocolate

Where can you get the best cup of hot chocolate? It's hard to beat the one you make at home when you're snuggling up on a cold winter night, but Travel + Leisure has put together 30 places to try out when you're out for the evening, or out of town.

From vegan to mexican, Miami Beach to Bozeman Montana, and cafe to hotel, there is something for everyone, and every taste.

View Larger Map
View Larger Map

American Whiskey Trail Maps

The history of whiskey is intertwined with the history of the founding of the United States.  Because of that, as a tourist you don't have to drink whiskey to partake in the tours of the numerous distilleries and historical sites.

There are two different "whiskey trails".

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail (a trademark of the Kentucky Distillers Association) consists of six distilleries open for tours. The American Whiskey Trail, from the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., has compiled a list of distilleries and historical sites for their list.

There is some overlap between the two, so we combined them together on one map to make it easier to find and visit them, although we've left off the Bacardi and Cruzan rum distilleries since they are outside the continental U.S. * NEW * We have also added some independent distilleries from the American Distilling Institute 2012 Directory.

Sunset - Wine tasting in Humboldt County

It's amazing how many wine regions we have in the U.S., and one way to get an idea is to check out the list of them on the American Viticultural Area (AVA) list.  There were 198 AVA's as of April 2010.

Sunset magazine found an area in Humboldt County California that is partly in one AVA, but otherwise the wineries are on their own.

In their article Wine Tasting in Humboldt County, Sunset visits the smaller wineries that are as much labors of love as they are businesses.  As you'll find in any trip to small town America, they also find some great places to eat, making any future trip one to savor on many levels.  Read the article, explore the places on our map, and keep them in mind for a future trip up the California coast.


View Larger Map

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -