ThienX

Sorry to bombard with personal posts, but I just want to quickly update those who care about me (no one?). 

I’ve started my internship at Strange Fruit Public Relations, a restaurant and hospitality PR firm, this week! Don’t judge the not quite developed website yet. The two girls Mary and Ali started in January after breaking away from their other PR firm. I’ve seen some drafts of the new website and it looks aaaawesome!

Mary’s from SanFran and Ali’s from Chicago but they’ve both lived in Austin for a few tears now. We all have a common love for food and drink, as well as film and music (they love Mayer Hawthorne and Sam Sparro, and they already know my obsession for Diplo and the Biebs), which they are also trying to incorporate in terms of clients for the firm. The office is essentially Mary’s dining room table, but she foresees a full-on office early next year. These are here two Westies Yoshi and Astor!

My first day was packed with client meetings. One was with a sausage and beer garden that seems really effing cool. It’s a huge outdoor and indoor space on Rainey Street (a cool street of bars that have been transformed from houses), and they’re going to section off a part for a dog park! Because so many people bring their dogs to bars! We also met with a personal chef who uses local and fresh food to create healthy meal programs for customers. We ate lunch at Hillside Farmacy (1209 East 11th St), whose interior was absolutely adorable. The right amount of old school diner with modern touches of white.

And the salt and peppers shakers are freakin awesome.

We shared the panzanella salad, which is a salad I’ve only seen here (the other time at the first wedding I worked at). It kind of reminds me of a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad. It’s got arugula, tomatoes, maybe some cucumbers and peppers, and a vinaigrette of Dijon, olive oil, salt. Not sure about the exact ingredients, but I think the kicker is the pieces of baguette that is soaked with the salad and dressing that really soaks up the flavor. And this panzanella had an egg on top! So the delicious broken yolk was definitely a great addition. I would never think to do so!

After lunch we went back to the office and had a meeting with a cold brew coffee company. They come in these awesome bottles and one of the guys that owns it is really cool. He gave us a tasting of a bunch of ways to drink it. Now, I HATE coffee ever since I was little and at the airport my dad gave me coffee instead of hot chocolate instead (been scarred ever since), but I actually enjoyed these a bit. Well, mostly the ones that were light colored because they had like almond milk, toffee and caramel in it. Other ingredients I actually don’t like that much but actually all mixed together, I guess I do! I felt a bit sick afterward because I have never consumed so much coffee in my life but it was still pretty cool.

Anyway, it’s weird to have a consistent work schedule since.. December of last year, was it? Wowie. Well I really love the girls I work for already and I can’t wait to see what other cool food places we work with (and that I get to sample!)

So our friend Beau invited us to his annual Memorial Day weekend white party. There is nothing I love more than a themed party on a boat. But it is hard to wear all white without looking too cheesy or douchey. I think we pulled it off well.

It took place on the Lonestar Riverboat on Town Lake, which is also called Lady Bird Lake (after LBJ’s wifey). But it is technically the Colorado River. Just one of the ways that Austin confuses me, via its multiple names for things.

It was $30 all inclusive which I thought might mean food, but no. So once we were on the boat and I realized all I had eaten was a popsicle and mango and there was unlimited alcohol, I started to panic. Luckily, before we set sail, a couple boats pulled in and I saw the had trays of catered food. I boldly went over and asked if I could have some and they were so nice! They gave us trays of sandwiches, cheese and chicken wings. Totally saving the day. And the white party peeps totally dug it.

Leave it to me to make the chic white party a fat party. 

Can we get Thai food delivered?

Last night, after hanging out with the cool kids of Giant Noise and Guerrilla Suit, where we consumed free beer from a tap on a bus, mixed drinks and tortas from a taco truck, we stumbled upon the East 6th St Trailer Park Eatery.

Where we decided to consume pizza (named after mythological characters, gourmet mac n cheese, chicken and waffles, and sample Coolhaus ice-cream (whiskey lucky charm and bacon brown butter). Needless to say, I have a food hangover. But we biked to and from and there were hills so it all balances out in the end, yes?