Hillside Farmacy, Austin

After a hot, sunny, Texas-summer-time bike ride on b-cycles, we gave up our quest for the BBQ joint we planned on visiting and ducked into the nearest restaurant we saw: Hillside Farmacy.

The Hillside Farmacy is a New American restaurant and specialty grocer housed in the old Hillside Drugstore building, and has been beautifully restored using the original pharmacy cabinetry. Walking inside feels like taking a step back in time, and can taste like that, too. The beverage menu features homemade fountain sodas, such as a traditional Brooklyn Egg Cream as well as punch, which you can order by the glass (1 cup) or bowl (20 cups). We opted for a couple glasses of this refreshing concoction of gin, bubbles, hibiscus syrup, and grapefruit juice.

A salad and sandwich sounded perfect to me, so I went for “the beets” with fennel, chévre vinaigrette, red onion, arugula, and radish.

Familiar flavors I’ve had many times, yet always one of my favorites. For my sandwich, I tries something a little more unique- the “Thank You.”

Roasted chicken, mozzarella, strawberry jam, sprouts, and aioli. I have one word: YUM.

Hillside Farmacy works with a number of local Austin farms, and sells a nice selection of hand crafted food items such as hot sauces, jams, and Texas rice. This sophisticated yet unpretentious eatery was a pleasant surprise.

The Boulder Passport: Roundhouse Spirits

Roundhouse Spirits is one of Boulder’s first distilleries. I’ve been fond of their gin and Corretto (the best coffee liqueur I’ve ever tasted) for years now. I don’t make it out to the eastern side of town too often, so it’s been a while since I visited the distillery.  Sean had never been. Good thing the Boulder Passport gave us an excuse to ride our Linuses out there for a cocktail in their new Speakeasy Bar.

Roundhouse is offering two-for-one “Craft Cocktails” as their Boulder Passport special. They have a rather large cocktail menu featuring their gin, Imperial (Barrel-Aged) Gin, Corretto, and Pumpkin King Cordial, made with locally grown pumpkins.

Chef went for a Bubbly tail with Blood Orange Sparkling water. I went with a martini. I don’t even drink martini’s, really, but something felt right about a gin martini just steps away from the still at the distillery.  They also just recently built a Speakeasy Bar in the distillery, and it’s a very cool room in town. All the more reason to taste all 40 establishments in the Boulder Passport!

The Boulder Passport: Jax

This place was packed! There were two bar stools available in the entire place when we popped in on Thursday after our stop at Riffs. We realized that since we weren’t ordering food, we should just grab a drink.

Jax is offering a Jax Mule on their two-for one. It totally suits their style.

The Boulder Passport: Riffs

As every single one of my tour guests hear, Riffs is one of my absolute favorite places in Boulder. After one of my cocktail tours, Sean and I got together for our third night (in a row) of Boulder Passport debauchery. Two of my cocktail tour guests had returned there for dinner as well, and they were fellow passport holders, so that essentially means they’re hip and have good taste 🙂

Riffs is offering The Ruby Sipper, a barrel aged cocktail, that is finished with a flamed orange. Nice touch.

Sean, my chef (you all know he’s actually one of the best in town, right..?), was planning on cooking for us that evening as it was his night off from Zeal, so we got a couple appetizers. We ordered their green pea hummus, which I get almost every single time I eat there because it’s one of my favorite bites in Boulder…

We enjoyed a seasonal menu item: Cornmeal Fried Zucchini. I loved this dish last summer, so I’m glad Chef Platt brought it back.

And all of those former menus they place between plates and other dishes had been sliced by one of my favorite servers that afternoon. Reuse, then recycle. I like that, too, about Riffs.

After our snacks we were ready to visit two more places that evening…