#microaustin

Cascal Cruiser Parks and Promotes in Austin  

The all-natural soda hits Whole Foods, Texas shelves 

By Cali Bock 

(Austin, TX)- Last month Cascal's Cafe Cruiser parked itself at the Whole Foods in Bee Cave, a suburb about 17 miles northwest of downtown. The sparkling, corn syrup-free and sparkling soda- a segment of Coca-Cola's Venturing and Emerging Brands initiative- was handed out to promote not only the product, but its uses in the cocktail and cooking department as well.  

"We had samplers at Town Lake come up and thank us for actually making it taste good," said marketing representative Paola Belen.   

Karla Raphail, also part of the soda's marketing team, said that Cascal's taste is unique, like wine, and was crafted at the company's Chef's Summit. Its taste is also attributed to the beverage's natural, fruit and veggie coloring, fermented fruit, Stevia extract from sunflowers and sparkling water.  

"There were so many sodas out there. Yet we could not find a beverage that satisfied our adult desires... something that is interesting and complex with low sugar, no caffeine and natural to boot. So we set out to raise the bar," site mission statement. 

About two years ago, Cascal was created by 12 chefs creating a beverage to pair with food and libations, as well as Whole Food's mission to offer a natural alternative to corn syrup allergists and the like. 

"So, we held a Chef Summit, where we worked intensely to create unique and sophisticated flavor combinations. The chefs helped us develop a soft drink with delicious layers of complexity."- site 

The complexity, according to the brand reps, was attributed to the process of the natural fermentation of the fruit juices. 

"We were ecstatic to discover a unique fermentation process that brings out the more complex and subtle flavors of fruits—all naturally without adding sugar to the process."- site

According to Raphail, the product- 60 to 80 calories per can - was originally promoted as an alcohol base to a variety of drinks. 

"Pregnant ladies love us," she said, laughing. "But so do chemo patients," she said seriously, "Because its fermented base gives them the alcohol taste they crave." 

Crafting Drinks and Cooking with Cascal 

As Whole Foods patrons browsed between and sampled the flavors of Ripe Rouge, Fresh Tropical and Crisp White, marketing coordinator Mellie Soumano handed me a recipe pamphlet with food and alcohol pairings:  

        Below: Fusing Food and Cascal

         Click here to browse all flavors and recipes

Digging Deeper, Cascal 

Cascal is part of a 2-month promotion by Busy Bee Promotions, The label is partnered with Coca Cola's Venturing and Emerging brands that also includes the start ups Honest Tea, Naked Juice and Issimo Illy.  Cascal is brewed in Cold Springs, Minnesota and their Cafe Cruiser location can be found here (Facebook link). Hint: whisper the secret passcode to the marketing representatives, found on their Facebook page, for an additional 'complimentary gift'.   

Whole Foods partnered and got involved with the brand as well as the Venturing Brands initiative, because they were interested in stocking bulk quantities of an all-natural soda. 

Contact Cascal  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cascal  

Twitter: @CheersCascal

Website: http://cheerscascal.com/ 

Instagram: cheerscascal (Cascal)   

You may also be interested in: 

A Taste of KoKo blog. Click here for her product review of Cascal. 

Whole Foods Bee Cave, location 

Whole Foods Bee Cave is located at the Hill Country Galleria, an outdoor shopping mall northwest of downtown Austin.

MedMob Takes it to the Streets at the Car-Free Viva Festival in East Austin

A photoessay by Cali Bock 

(Austin, TX)- On May 20 MedMob Austin took their movement- to spread love through public meditation- to the Viva Street Festival along Sixth Street in East Austin. 

Below- Staked out route for the Viva Street Festival 

 Med Mob was established in July of 2011 by a group of peaceful, likeminded locals.

  Above- Dustin Fedako , one of less than 10 founding members of MedMob, reflects in silent meditation. The flash mob has expanded to more than 300 cities across the world 

"A "flash mob" is a large group of people meeting in a crowded public place for the purpose of engaging in a coordinated, unexpected, inspiring activity."

Med Mob Mission Statement

"MedMob aims to create spaces for public meditation. This creates opportunities for people to explore the practice of meditation and brings meditation into the public eye. Meditation cultivates an attitude of response rather than reaction, and this stimulates major paradigm shifts in thinking that sends ripples through all levels of society!" 

  Above- Left to right: Gregory Nathan Hammond, 'Thom Thumb' Clint Greene and MedMob founder Markbob Bennett Shaw in silent meditation at Earth Day Celebration 2012 at Mueller Park in Austin 

From their Facebook

"MedMob will meet in silent meditation at high traffic areas around the city to promote meditation as a means to self discovery. MedMob believes that meditating reveals deep inner truths and inspirations.  Our intention: ... 1. To create an environment for people from all walks of life to come together in meditation. 2. To expose the World to meditation through public display of meditation. 3. To come together as a global community to send positive intentions out into the world. 4. To show that leading by example is the best way to lead. Simple acts can stimulate major paradigm shifts in thinking."

  Mueller Meditation: Earth Day Celebration 2012

Austin Locals Chris and Karin- Enlightenment gurus, Punjab's Meditation Center and crafts draw this couple to India, more than 25 times and counting since 1985 

By Cali Bock

(Austin, TX)- On Sunday on Allandale street corners, day-old garage sale signs withered on their stakes and flapped in the light breeze.

The crinkled, crumpled neons grasped at their wilting dignity like the Veterans that beg on Airport Blvd. and 51st, hands oiled and clutching an equally grungy sign, their deep rivets and desolation haunting the car after you’ve gone.

Farther down road, a new recruit stood rigid on its wooden post, pointing energetically down Allandale Road.

The sign read ‘Indian Craft Sale’ and dazzled red in the sun. 

 Glitter. Nice flair.

 -Mental click of matching red Dorothy shoes-

 There’s no place like a craft sale on a Sunday. 

  Austin local Chris and wife Karin - they didn’t really want to give their last name- sprawled their Indian wares across their front yard in a neat, booth-like display. Hand-stitched beadwork, vibrant tapestries and other trinkets gleamed in the streaming sun. 

Radha Soami Satsang Beas: The religion that started it all for Chris and Karin

Chris, now 57 years old- said God spoke to him at age 21, and told him to become a vegetarian. Thus he came to the Radha Soami  faith: 

                 "Sant-Mat ('Science of Spirituality') is the path to perfect liberation of the soul. It is the worship of the Supreme Divine Power (God). The expression Sant-Mat literally means the ‘point of view of the Saints’.

 Sant-Mat couples a powerful meditation practice with a dynamic, inclusive, positive way of living.

 Life Style: The path of Sant-Mat recommends ethical living. (I.e. inculcation of [asking for] forgiveness, nonviolence, mercy, sweet speech, charity, purity, non-avarice etc.)

 It’s also considered sine qua non- 'essential stepping stone'- to Spirituality. It's believed that it's very difficult to become a good human being at first, but if one becomes good, it is easy to find God!

It is the overcoming of the lowermost aspects of the Mind."  -RS blog

The meditation science also encourages you to be self-supporting, to maintain your freedom of choice and also any cultural or religious affiliations that you choose.   

                   “The basis of every religion is spirituality. RSSB is trying to maintain the core of spirituality without allowing it to take on a formal structure.

Radha' (referring to the soul or spiritual master either of an individual or of the whole) and 'Soami' (referring to the spiritual master who guides the disciple to soul liberation)… and all this through one God.

Radha Soami Satsang Beas is a philosophical organization based on the spiritual teachings of all religions and dedicated to a process of inner development under the guidance of a spiritual teacher.”- site

The religion states four basic principles to adhere to:

1. Vegetarianism

2. No drugs or alcohol to alter your state of mind

3. Lead a clean, moral life

4. Each day requires 2 ½ hours of meditation 

                 “By performing the meditation practice according to the teacher's instructions, individuals can realize the presence of God within themselves.

It is a solitary practice that is done in the quiet of one's own home.

Members commit themselves to a way of life that supports spiritual growth while carrying out their responsibilities to family, friends and society.”- RS philosophy 

When asked about his form of meditation to reach 'God Consciousness', Chris said, “If you can concentrate the mind on a mantra, on anything, the soul and mind leave the body. It’s a progression of one spiritual region to the next.”

‘God Conscious’, definition:

              “At the core of the RSSB philosophy is a belief that there is a spiritual purpose to human life – to experience the divinity of God who resides in all of us. It is through this experience that we will realize the truth of the concept that there is only one God and we are all expressions of his love.” –RS philosophy

Chris took his first trip to the meditation center, the ‘Dera’ in the Beas, Punjab (India) in 1985, and he said he’s now been between 20 and 30 times. 

  Above: the Dera, where millions of Radha Soami followers travel each year to experience Satsangs, where followers meet with their spiritual guru to consult with him on their quests for the higher truth. 

  Chris said, “I wanted to see the master, the guru in person.” 

In his and Karin’s religion, the guru is a spiritual teacher that guides people on their journey to reach the ultimate ‘God Conscious’ state of mind:

               “Central to the RSSB philosophy is a spiritual teacher who explains the purpose of life and guides and instructs members in a method of spirituality based on a daily meditation practice. The present teacher is Baba Gurinder Singh, who lives with his family at the main center in northern India.”- site

“It’s a discipline in itself to be in the presence of an enlightened person.” Chris said, “ A matter of personal experience. You may not even like him, or you may feel an atmosphere of peace and love.”

  Above: Beas, Punjab, the location of the Dera

The Dera: An Incredible Mini Township with a 32 and 42-acre roof

Pictures and text credits here, from the RSSB site. 

Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, or simply the ‘Dera’ as it is generally known, is a mini-township with 6,000 residents.

  The Venue

In order to provide a sheltered venue for these gatherings, the Dera’s engineering department has constructed one of the largest covered structures in Asia, designed and fabricated on site using a lightweight space-frame technology. The roof covers more than 32 acres and can accommodate a crowd of 275,000. A computerized digital audio system was specially designed for the venue to provide the best possible sound for such a challenging environment 

  The Community

The Dera seeks to be as self-sufficient and environmentally friendly as possible. Every year thousands of trees are planted. Many lawns and parks beautify the colony and provide space for visitors and residents to rest and relax. More than 1,000 acres of land are cultivated for growing vegetables and fruits that are used in the langar and by Dera residents. Organic farming methods are being adapted to local conditions. The Dera has its own water supply, water treatment plant and solid waste treatment facility. It has its own electrical sub-station and large electrical generator back-up facility to supply emergency power to the whole community. 

  The Food

To feed the visitors three meals a day, several approaches are taken. The Langar (a place where food is served free of charge) is the primary means. The free langar complex covers over 48 acres and operates around the clock. Capable of feeding up to 300,000 people per meal, 50,000 in a single sitting, it has a mostly volunteer staff who prepare and serve simple but nourishing food suitable to local tastes. As an example, in 2006 the langar cooked more than 150,000 kilos of rice and used more than 2 million kilos of wheat to make the traditional flat breads. Meals are also served at canteens and snack bars at a nominal price.” 

  All rights reserved by Jogindra Singh Danewalia                                                        

Above- Candid inside the Dera in Beas, Punjab

  Chris and other Radha Soami adherers believe that peoples’ journeys to God Consciousness can span across lifetimes, rebirth is optional

When we die, we’ll each have a personal choice to say if we’ve accepted that there’s only one God and that we live as expressions of His love, or we can continue the quest for this realization and opt be born and live again.

Chris said he would not want to be born again.

“When you become detached from this world, you realize how unpleasant of a world it really is,” he said. “It’s not heaven. When you experience something, a better world than this, why would you want to come back?”

The Indian Craft Sale: A driveway-turned-Indian-street-vendor imposter.

The couple is committed to their religion, but they also stumbled and seized upon their other affinity, the handmade Indian goods that they now bring back home in bulk to host craft sales in their driveway three to four times each year. 

  They sell the modestly priced, handmade Indian wares that the two have gleaned from their travels, browsing through more than 50 vendors on the streets.

   Handmade Indian rings, priced at $10 each

Chris said they normally buy the goods from Rajasthan and Maharashtra, India. 

  Above- Rajasthan, where Chris and Karin shop for their wares and the largest state of the Republic of India 

  Above- India's richest state and second most populated, Marharashtra, Map courtesy of Wikipedia

The yard off of Allandale was also saturated with the undulating spectrum of batiks- products of the ancient craft of dying cloth using wax and dye- as they danced and lifted gracefully aloft. 

Above- Chris said batiks are typically used for bedsheets, tapestries and other traditional Indian home decoration.

Craft Sale Update Email: Subscribe

Chris and Karin said anyone’s welcome to sign up for their email list that alerts subscribers to the date and times of their upcoming sales.

[email protected] 

You may also be interested in: 

Batik high fashion 2012: Meet Nanang Halim, revolutionizing yet preserving the cloth-making tradition 

  "If it’s Friday, then chances are there are a lot of people wearing batik, and that’s all right with Nanang Halim. You see, it’s his job to give lovers of the fabric new choices. With his sister at the designer’s table and himself..." - Read more 

Click for Indian Traditional Jewelry:Meenakari 

  "The art of Meena work came to India with the arrival of the Mughals. During the 16th century, the Maharaja of Rajasthan, Raja Man Singh introduced the Meenakari jewellery to Rajasthan. Due to its rapid increase in popularity, Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan became the hub of Meena work jewelry..."- Read more  

The Austin Tea Syndicate: If you dig through all the tealeaves, local Nathan Davis is inspired by and promotes Taiwan’s independent art scene

After eight years of traversing Asia, Davis brought back tea knowledge, the first Taiwanese band to perform at SXSW and a passion to keep the region’s art and music culture alive

By Cali Bock  

(Austin, TX)- On Saturday, I joined Nathan Davis and eight other Austin locals at the  'Urban Tearoom' to contribute to the progressive dialogue (Click here to view the preview post if you'd like to catch up). 

Below- Our group's shoes gathered outside our makeshift tearoom at The Daily Juice in Austin on Sat.

Photo above 'Instagrammed'  by Nathan Davis  

Above and below-The Daily Juice in Austin, Texas. Temporary home of the 'Urban Tearoom'                                                                                                                     By Cali Bock 

Daily Juice customer candid

  Above- Come in, come in. Anyone's welcome in the tearoom at The Daily Juice  

Davis generously poured our nine-member group 10-year-old Pu'er, a tea only produced in Yunnan , a province in Southeastern China. 

  Above and below- Davis steeps the Pu'er tea - click here to define- a third time, effectively drawing out its robust flavor.      

                                                                                                                  It was earthy, steeped correctly, - I didn't know there was such an imperative, at least '3-steep' process to extract the leaves' prime flavor- and I also learned that to get a brick- one pound- of Pu'er imported to America, it'll run you about $1,000. 

Read for yourself, Nathan previewed the loot we sampled Saturday on Facebook last week: 

  After sampling the Pu'er, we discussed its complexity, much like wine. 

I grabbed descriptive snippets as the group chatted about and sipped on the expensive leaves:  

"I taste dates."

"Smoky." 

"Campfire!"

"Earthy!"

   Above- Yunnan province, Southeastern China, sole home of Pu'er tea - Wikipedia 

Most importantly, Davis used tea and also Sufi music to spark our table's intrigue and dialogue concerning the East as we lounged on pillows, laughed, crouched and even meditated.

Below- University of Texas neuroscience graduate student Sucharit Katyal and guest drummer Amlan take a break from playing and singing to enjoy some Oolong tea themselves

Local friends Nick (left) and Elliot (right) analyze the second steep of aged Oolong tea (pictured below) 

"It has a slick quality," said Eric, after draining his cup. 

Above- Davis peacefully clanged medicine bowls to give us the opportunity to level and ingest what we had learned as well as to meditate. 

  Above- Austin local Eric listens in quiet meditation as Sucharit sang ancient Indian love songs in his eery, nostalgic timber 

  "You have stolen my identity, by looking into my eyes. 

After drinking the wine of love, you've made me crazy... 

intoxicated by looking into your eyes."- 700-year-old Indian love song, performed by Sucharit

  As the tea steamed, Sucharit Katyal (pictured above) accompanied himself with his harmonium, and his Radel digi 100, defined below.  

  "The Taalmala digi100 Plus digital tabla produces an amazingly realistic sound of the traditional tabla by utilizing the latest state-of-the-art sampler technology.  It is a sophisticated instrument which not only plays 100 pre-set tabla thekas, but is capable of simulating a 'live accompaniment' effect, so that it can be even used in concerts." - -- Read more

Below- Alam and Davis join in with their drum cadences. 

       Above- Davis on the Djembe, a rope-tuned, skin-covered drum. 

After eight years traversing Asia, Davis said he learned about tea organically as he wandered the streets, pulling up to random tables of elders sipping out of ‘gritty’ tea things. But he also became 'distracted' by a passion that originally, currently drives him to share his Chinese culture knowledge trove today: Taiwan’s fledging music scene.

Davis made history by not only introducing Austin and the United States, but the entire world to KbN -the first Taiwanese band ever- to perform live at SXSW in 2008. 

Snippet from archived article highlighting KbN (May 2008) from the Taipei Times: 

  Above- Bobo Chen, front left, Cheer Hsieh, front right, of KbN, with backing musicians, back row from left, Bob Moody, Jimmy Brettell, Nathan Davis and sound engineer Remi Huang, in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, May 17, 2008. Photo by Ron Brownlow

               “When Cheer Hsieh (謝青翰) and Chet Liu (劉鎮) formed KbN (凱比鳥) in the late 1990s, they were just another group of guys with another punk band. Now, 10 years, several lineup changes and a major musical redirection later, the group made history when they played Saturday night at the Elysium club in Austin,...” – Click here for the full article.

The ‘Urban Teahouse Remix Project’: A work in progress

Davis' passion continues to pour into his current project today, ‘The Urban Teahouse Remix’, an electronic resampling of archival East Asian music with current studio recordings.

I’ll let Nathan Davis take it from here. I asked him to fill the gaps in my notes from Saturday, and he Facebook messaged me with a bit more than gap fillers.

Below is Davis’ story, straight from the tea ninja- in his own words- to you:  

Urban Teahouse Remix Project: Resample, reinterpret East Asian music with modern digital tools, but remain true to its melodies, its roots 

The project: "It's hard to sum it up in just a few lines, but basically it's been 'brewing' in my mind for quite some time. I've been working on blending many different aspects of Eastern and Western culture; ancient, modern etc.

I realized that in a time where there are so many electronic subgenres of ‘global’ music, there has yet to arise any true ventures into electronic resampling of East Asian music, and I don't mean ‘electronic sounding’ music, but utilizing modern digital tools for sampling and reinterpreting traditional East Asian sounds while remaining true to the essential aspects of its roots: the melodies, rhythms, etc. 

Above and below- Davis -on his  Djembe - jams Sufi music with Sucharit and Amlan. 

'The Taichung Archives': 20-year-old Chinese folk music archives meet the modern studio, resampling

The samples come from what I'm calling 'The Taichung Archives', and they came from my good friend Alex Peng in Taichung, Taiwan. He used to be a well-established music producer in Taipei for radio, television and film before retiring.

We connected over the idea of the remix project because he had a similar vision several decades ago to do something similar in Taiwan.

Peng's vision led him to China, where he collected field samples of indigenous music from villages, and he also conducted studio recordings of traditional Chinese folk and traditional music.

He planned to create his own music from these samples, but just never got around to it.

When we connected, I told him that I wanted to do some studio recording with traditional musicians for the Urban Teahouse Remix Project, and he thought it would be easier just to help me create the project by passing along some samples from his extensive archive that he had already collected more than 20 years ago.

‘Scene’, not heard: Taiwan’s Indie art and music landscapes gain momentum without local, global support 

As for the ‘independent arts and music scene’ in Taiwan I wouldn't say that it's nonexistent, just that it's extremely small and not very well supported.

Being from Austin, and having lived in Brighton, England, I was used to having tons of great independent arts, music, and events at my disposal, so I became very inclined to find ways to aid the budding scene in Taiwan.

This led me to bring the first Taiwanese band ever to SXSW in 2008. 

The inspiration behind this was to help the independent music scene in Taiwan to grow by connecting with the rest of the world. 

           "They're basically starting this connection that will turn into something that's much bigger than themselves," said Nathan Davis, a Taipei-based musician who plays with KbN and organized their trip to Austin. "It's much bigger than just one band coming to play a show at South by Southwest."- Taipei Times Article, 2008 

"But KbN's participation has added significance because the band is paving the way for other Taiwanese artists to play here in the future. A survey conducted by Austin   Koop Radio Station found the station's listeners want to hear more independent music from Asia. And SXSW organizers are keen on putting together a Taiwanese showcase next year."-  Taipei Times Article, 2008 

   Above- KbN played the Elysium club in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night becoming the first Taiwanese band to perform at the South by Southwest music festival, March 17, 2008. Photo by Ron Brownlow 

Shifting back to the ‘Urban Teahouse Remix Project’.... 

This project left me extremely exhausted because there's still not a lot of support for this scene from within Taiwan.

It's still going to be along time before things really sink in while the artists and society at large in Taiwan gain a true perspective from this and realize its significance on a long-term global scale. 

While participating in the underground arts scene in Taiwan I was really longing for a connection with traditional culture, something that the younger generations in Taiwan and Asia are not very interested in anymore. 

Most of my Taiwanese artist friends think of traditional music, tea culture and things like Chinese Medicine, Taichi and Qigong to be things for old people.

They would tell me," 你是老人！" (Nǐ shì lǎorén!) 

Literally, "You're an old man!" Haha. 

Some of my Taiwanese friends even experienced brewing traditional tea for the first time with me. Seriously!!

I'd often be told that my close friends were more American than me, and I was more Taiwanese than them. (Jokingly of course, as for sure this is not literally the case)  

So while being involved with the independent arts scene in Taiwan, I was never truly fulfilled by any of it.

A true blend between the ancient and the modern was missing, and this is what I've always truly longed for.

I went there out of an interest in Chinese healing philosophy and ancient wisdom, but working on pop-culture with no depth distracted me. 

This is where I draw my inspiration to create movements to bridge Eastern and Western culture. 

The idea is not only to draw upon ancient wisdom to inspire modern progressive culture in the West, but also to re-inspire the youth in the East to rediscover their own past & truly embrace the culture from which they come as they continue on their path as a modern society. Here's an article that details my first experiments in ‘Sound Art’ while in Asia.... 

Click here for full article, Sound Art: Like Music to Your Ears

            "Davis - who has also played with KbN and visiting musicians like Austin, Texas and world music group Atash- will do an acoustic set using a Djembe hand drum and, possibly, a drum kit and/or some 'random objects.' He will improvise on the drums and run the beats through his Macbook Pro laptop computer. It's hard to describe exactly what this will sound like without using abstract words like 'textural,' 'dynamic' and 'Minimalist'." 

article continued: 

"I guess it's [Sound Art's] like a lot of things," said Davis, who sat down for an interview Wednesday night at Salt Peanuts Cafe in the Shida (師大) neighborhood, where he deejays on Friday nights. "You probably really like it or you really don't."

       "'I'm going to basically sample myself live,' said Davis, who performs under the name (Sounds) In Transition. "Most people who didn't know what it was would probably use the word 'weird' to describe it.'"

     "So what is the uninitiated listener supposed to do?"

    "'As lame and cliched as it sounds, I guess just experience this,' said Davis."- article

As far as timing and release of the Urban Teahouse Remix Project...

I'd love to say ideally it would be done in a few months, and it will be accompanied by some sort of evolving multimedia and interpretive live performance projects but in reality, I can't say for sure at this point. 

I'd just say.... keep an eye out for it. ;{D 

- Nathan Davis 

Find him on:  

Twitter: @syndicatedtea 

Facebook: The Tea Syndicate 

Instagram: syndicatedtea 

Blog: http://syndicatedtea.wordpress.com/ 

MicroAUSTIN Features Crú: A Wine Bar 

By Jennifer Fougerousse 

Austin is a city teeming with amazing restaurants and lively venues where cuisine is passion. Twice a year, our city organizes an event that promotes eating out: Austin Restaurant Week!

This biannual event allows participating restaurants to showcase their top items and create a three-course menu for guests to partake in at the low cost of $25 to $35 per outing.

I was fortunate enough to participate in this event at Crú: A Wine Bar. Walking into the bar/restaurant, you immediately see a quaint outdoor patio littered with small tables looking out on the beautiful Second Street District. Crú's doors were propped open with breezy curtains hanging to the side leading into a dimly lit bar where wine bottle lined the walls. A sliding latter connected to the wall allowed employees to retrieve bottles at the very top, giving it the feel of a organized bookstore.

A large bar to the left was stocked to capacity with various wine selections and to the right there was more seating available for their many customers.

The restaurant week menu allowed you to pick one item from the three course categories. Appetizer options included Crú House Salad, a Pan Seared Crab Cake, or Steamed Prince Edward Mussels.

Click here to view Cru's regular dinner menu

Still hungry?

Well good, because the entrees were prepared to fill you with Pan Roasted Chicken Piccada, Seared Salmon, or a Petite Filet.

Everyone saves room for dessert right? Choose Berries & Cream, Molten Lava Cake or Chocolate Fondue for Two!

With my belly full of delicious mussels, hearty chicken and scrumptious chocolate fondue, I still hadn’t gotten enough of Crú! I went back to interview Manuel Duenes, the General Manager of the wine bar, to get insight into the role they play in participating in ARW. He explained that while restaurant week is hectic, it’s mostly exciting because tons of new customers come to experience what they have to offer.

They have to be at the top of their game and make sure that they transform their new guests into repeat customers, and they do!

Since Crú is a wine bar, they make sure that their guests are introduced to the various wines that they carry.

“Every person from the novice wine drinker to the experienced and collector can find something that they’d really like,” Manuel said.

Crú’s staff makes sure that your perfect bottle will be selected and will compliment the food you decide to indulge in. After experiencing an incredible meal and engaging in conversation with the friendly staff of Crú, I will be sure to return!

Click here to check out their Austin Restaurant Week dinner and brunch menus, or just pop into the cozy little restaurant!

Meet Jenn Fougerousse: This Frenchie joined MicroAUSTIN's editorial team

By Jennifer Fougerousse

Live Art: Collaborative painting in public places… and gasp! you have to interact with public people

What Joel D'Angelo can, and really wants to do for Austin locals 

By Cali Bock

(Austin, TX)- Photographer Joel D'Angelo had those kind maple eyes and the easy smile that never fails to spark my interest, my trust and hopefully progressive dialogue. I met the  Shoot in Manual worker and Boom Light blogger at Whip In, Austin's 26-year-old convenience store transformed into a restaurant/open-mic/wine/beer bar.  

J=Joel | M=MicroAUSTIN

J- I'm taking a local angle with my work. Me and, well, also four other friends had an idea to just set a big canvas up in front of any statue in the city. Then, we'll provide paint, lay brushes all around, and we'll just ask everyone that walks by to come and contribute to the interpretation of the art. 

M- How did you guys think of organizing this? 

J- We were just hanging out in the living room, all of us painting a statue that was on the table and we thought, we could definitely take this into the community to do something positive. It can bring people together.  

M- You're hosting a public event. You obviously have to emanate a  'don't judge me', carefree attitude about it. 

J- We want everyone to get involved, that's what this 'live art' concept is about, bringing Austin locals together. 

If you're interested in getting in touch with this modern-day D'Angelo and taking him up on his collaborative gesture, tell MicroAUSTIN or contact him directly through his blog  Boom Light, an archive of his Austin photography and wanderings.  

If you have any mural, sculpture or other art suggestions for these public painting events, I really encourage you to photo reply MicroAUSTIN with a picture of the art tagged with a location. Suggestions are so much more than welcome.