Wink Restaurant & Wine Bar: Fresh Food and Fine Wine in Austin

Austin’s Wink Restaurant & Wine Bar believes in supporting small farms and sustainable agriculture, and it is a member of the international slow food movement. Wink sources more than 75% of its menu items from within 100 miles of the restaurant, and the menu changes daily depending on what ingredients are fresh and available.

For diners who want to take a tasty tour of the day’s best offerings, Wink features a daily chef’s tasting menu of five or seven courses. Wink also features a daily farm and garden vegetarian tasting menu. Appropriate wine-pairings enhance each course. The elegant and intimate restaurant space fills up quickly, so reservations are recommended. Guests can also enjoy the full menu, and a more casual environment, in the Wine Bar.

The Wine Bar opens at 5 p.m. daily. The dining room opens its doors to dinner guests from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and from 5:30 p.m. ‘til 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Wink Restaurant & Wine Bar
1014 North Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 482-8868
www.winkrestaurant.com
www.yelp.com/biz/wink-austin

Spruce Up Your Decor With These Creative Uses for Wallpaper

Wallpaper is an old-fashioned design element that's making quite a comeback, and removable wallpapers make it possible for renters to enjoy the paper's subtle patterns and attractive colors. Even if you aren’t prepared to line your walls with the stuff, these fun tips will show you how to incorporate wallpaper into your home’s decor.

  1. Line your drawers. Instead of traditional drawer liners, which can be bland and unattractive, try lining kitchen or bathroom drawers with a fun pop of wallpaper. Attach the paper with double stick tape or mounting squares, and then cut it to the drawer’s proportions using an sharp paper cutting knife.
  2. Frame it. If you want to create a colorful gallery wall but aren’t sure what to put in each frame, add some beautiful wallpaper to give your walls a pop of your favorite color.
  3. Cover books. Whether the kids are heading off to school or you’re an avid book collector yourself, covering books with wallpaper is a fun makeover that’s much more stylish than store-bought book covers or brown paper bags. Bonus points if you use your freshly covered books in a stylish bookshelf.
  4. Cover shelves. Instead of lining your room with plain white shelves, cover the undersides with some attractive wallpaper for an unexpected bit of color.

Creative Uses of Wallpaper in Any Room [Better Homes and Gardens]
Unexpected Uses for Leftover Wallpaper [Real Simple]
Off the Wall: Creative Uses for Wallpaper [Apartment Therapy]
19 (Other) Ways to Use Wallpaper [iVillage]

Happy Holidays!

We wish you and your loved ones all a very happy and safe holiday season.

Castle Hill Fitness: Exercise, Eat Lunch and Get a Massage All in One Unique Facility

Whether you’re an avid yogi or an extreme cyclist, Castle Hill Fitness has an exercise class for all types of athletes. The unique studio is operated by friendly staff members who are always willing to lend a hand or offer some advice, and the bright, colorful building is much more welcoming than most gyms.

Castle Hill Fitness offers more than 85 different workout classes each week to accommodate all members’ busy schedules, and classes include yoga, spinning, Pilates, boot camp, and many others. Personal trainers are available for those who prefer a more one-on-one exercise style, and the center also offers a gym area filled with free weights and cardio machines.

In addition to its workout facilities, Castle Hill Fitness includes Food4Fitness, an organic cafe stocked with healthy foods. The Natural Healing Arts Studio offers massages and acupuncture, while the bike shop fits customers for the perfect bike right on the spot. Castle Hill Fitness is a standout fitness center that is truly unique to the Austin area.

Castle Hill Fitness
1112 N. Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 478-4567
www.castlehillfitness.com
www.yelp.com/biz/castle-hill-fitness-austin

Today’s Imponderable: Why Does Popcorn Pop?

Popcorn is a tasty snack to make while having a movie night at home, and its noisy popping sounds make it especially fun for the little ones. By now you’re probably used to the popping noise of popcorn, but have you ever wondered how this happens? What is it that makes popcorn pop, while corn on the cob simply cooks?

On the inside, popcorn kernels are filled with oil, water, and starch, and the outside is covered with a protective shell. Heating popcorn—say, in the microwave—causes the liquids inside to expand into steam. Because the hard outer coating leaves nowhere for the steam to go, it simply gets hotter and hotter inside of the kernel until it eventually reaches 365 degrees, which is hot enough to burst through the shell! The action of the starch and oil expanding so quickly and with so much heat transforms the mixture into the familiar foam-like puff that we eat as popcorn.

The next time you make a bag of popcorn at home, examine the kernels and think of the science behind your favorite movie snack!

What Makes Popcorn Pop? [Popcorn.org]
Why Does Popcorn Pop? [Tell Me Why Facts]
Why Does Popcorn Pop? [Mental Floss]
How Popcorn Pops [About.com]

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope everyone has a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill: Modern American Food and Drink

The Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill was revamped in time to open its doors in 2003. This Austin establishment offers modern American food and libations in a laid back atmosphere.

The bar serves classic cocktails, including house-made moonshine and hard lemonade as part of the extensive full bar menu. Start your meal with the corndog shrimp, the creamy and hot bacon dip, or a steaming bowl of spicy chicken tortilla soup. Overstuffed sandwiches and salads are loaded with only the freshest and highest quality ingredients. The platters are known to be hearty and feature Southern favorites such as chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, large, classic cowboy flat-iron steaks and baby back ribs smothered in the restaurant's secret barbecue sauce.

If you’re interested in letting Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill host your next event, check out the banquet facilities that are available for private parties.

Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill
303 Red River Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 236-9599
www.moonshinegrill.com
www.yelp.com/biz/moonshine-patio-bar-and-grill-austin

Kick Back This Weekend With These HGTV Shows

Love watching home shows? Check out these two home renovation programs.

Fixer Upper
Fixer Upper is a fairly new HGTV show that follows married couple Chip and Joanna Gaines as they pair wary homebuyers with run-down, older houses in the Waco-Dallas area. The couple sees the potential in these older homes and helps the buyers to renovate them back to their former glory, from the intricate crown molding to the gleaming hardwood floors. All of the Gaines’s renovations feature a rustic charm that’s very unique to Texas, and once you see Joanna’s storage shed filled with potential design elements that she purchased from junk shops around town, you might become a fan of the show.

House Hunters Renovation
The most DIY-heavy of the House Hunters shows, House Hunters Renovation focuses on homebuyers who don’t mind getting their hands dirty when purchasing a new home. The hour-long show follows the usual formula of a buyer choosing between three potential homes, but the last half of the program is dedicated entirely to the renovation process after they've purchased the property.

Monkey See Monkey Do!: Off-the-Wall Gifts That Can’t be Imitated

Whether you love kitschy, quirky trinkets or you know someone else who does, Monkey See Monkey Do! is one of Austin’s most popular gift shops. This wacky store is like a toy store for adults, and it is positively packed full of all of the magnets, action figures, whoopee cushions, and novelty candies that you can imagine. There’s also a number of Austin-themed gifts!

None of these items are particularly useful, but once you spend a while in this silly shop you'll realize that that’s what makes them great. And of course, Monkey See Monkey Do! even carries a vast assortment of—you guessed it—monkey paraphernalia!

Monkey See Monkey Do! is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Monkey See Monkey Do!
1712 S. Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 443-4999
www.facebook.com/MonkeySeeMonkeyDoAustin
www.yelp.com/biz/monkey-see-monkey-do-austin

Chez Nous: An Austin French Restaurant

Chez Nous’s romantic, candle-lit ambiance and authentic French dishes like foie gras, escargots, and house-made pâté can whisk diners away on a culinary journey.

Visit and you can try the sautéed veal sweetbreads with button mushrooms, or check out the pepper crusted beef tenderloin with a brandy and demi-glaze reduction. All entrees are served with warm French bread, pommesdauphines (crispy potato puffs), and fresh vegetables. At $29.50, many customers praise the affordability and variety of Chez Nous’s three-course prix-fixe dinner menu.

Chez Nous’s downtown location and quiet and intimate atmosphere make it a great go-to spot for business-colleague lunches or catch-up night with friends, or date-night with that special someone. Chez Nous provides hungry patrons with lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday, serves dinner Saturday and Sunday, and is closed Mondays.

Chez Nous
510 Neches Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 473-2413
www.cheznousaustin.com
www.yelp.com/biz/chez-nous-austin

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