Houston is much worse.
Dennis brings up a good point. I drive the tollway north in the morning after rush hour. I’m consistently hitting 90-100 with no worries. It’s great.
Does it still have drive-thru liquor stores as it did when I spent a month there in the 80’s?
Austin is a clusterf*ck with its traffic. I’m an ex-Texan and wouldn’t live anywhere there anymore.
I did say ‘remotely’. 
Hmmm. While I don’t disagree that Austin’s traffic situation is not great, my experiences in Houston make Austin’s issues seem like a mellow drive on a quiet country road. As for Dallas, I think Mr. French’s response was appropriate (in spite, or maybe because of, the fact that I am originally from Dallas).
Mr. Williams take on the only place to live in Texas is, IMNSHO, correct. I find his affinity for Austin perplexing, however, given my (admittedly vague) understanding of his political bent.
All that having been stated, DON’T MOVE HERE! GO TO DALLAS, or HOUSTON, or SAN ANTONIO, or ANY OF THE OTHER LAME PLACES IN TEXAS, BUT STAY THE HELL OUT OF AUSTIN, WE ALREADY HAVE TOO MANY!
1 Like
I live in Shreveport, Louisiana, about 3 1/2 hours away from Dallas/Ft Worth area. Dallas driving is very scary!!!
I drive to Houston with regularity and, though the city’s drivers are fast and aggressive, nobody is rougher than Dallas behind the wheel. Just my opinion…
Sorry I must have ran you off the road once 
+1 The man has a verb (WIML) named after him.
I lived there for one summer I think it was 1978 and remember the drive-thru liquor. I lived in a dry area, so we would just drive a few miles and sit in the car while they loaded us up.
Bourbon was the drink of choice back then. I worked as an engineering intern at Texas Instruments, it was over 100 degrees everyday quite miserable.
And his last name is Dulworth with one L. Pm me if you want his email address. He runs a tasting group that several of us belong to. We come from all over the Metroplex area and try to meet somewhere once a month. Sometimes a member hosts at their house. Other times we go to a restaurant.
There are more great restaurants than anyone can name in the area. I live north of Dallas in Plano. A city of 310,000 people and booming employment due to Toyota USA building its U.S. HQ here and adding 4,000 jobs, Liberty Mutual adding 5,000 jobs, JP Morgan Chase adding 6.000 jobs, and the beat goes on. Plenty of great restaurants here too.
That said, the BYOB thing is difficult because of our archaic wine laws and the fact that many restaurants that could allow it, don’t unless you know someone. Sometimes we know someone.
AND MEET MICHEAL O’BRIEN!!
(sorry, typo on Joe’s name)
A weekend in Big D remain one of my fave wine weekends ever. Texas-sized hospitality.
Still ready for you to head east for a visit M. O’B.
Hi all
Infrequent poster but thought I’d add my 2 cents. I’m in Lakewood also, work in Richardson. Some of this is just repetitive affirmation at this point but I enjoyed the thread so thought I’d jump in.
Wine Shops - Pogos has great selections but a bit expensive, also the Sigals on Haskell (or Fitzhugh) has decent selection. We also have the big box Specs and Total. Found some Rayas Pleide at Total there so cant be all bad. Graileys email lists can be interesting but I find their pricing easily beaten.
Bars - if you are in Dallas Bodega bar at Mockingbird & Abrams is good. Amier is a very knowledge wine guy and a good and personable host. You can also buy from his inventory and consume on premise as well as BYOB and pay a modest corkage. Anyone who went to his now legendary Travis St. Chateau Wine Market tasting should have very fond memories. Introduced me to Usseglio MA, Blankiet, Shafer, etc. He still does a monthly wine fair last Saturday of each month which are good but not as epic as the old ones.
Urbano - good BYOB in Dallas as others have mentioned. all the previous restaurant recommendations are great.
Shipping - no issue direct from wineries, and more retailers seem to be getting back in the game. Call them if their website does show Texas as good to go. Because winery direct is easier you may find your California cellar % going up!
Traffic - can be a pain, talk to your brother about it and where you will be working. I would stay within a 15 mile radius to avoid undue aggro. The metroplex as they call it is booming and it seems like 300K people move here every year to the greater Dallas area. Also depends if you have kids of course as public schools districts are varied and most people move to the northern bubs for this.
Weather - yes it sucks when it’s 100 from mid June to mid Sept, but it’s 77 today while it was minus 1 in NYC 2 days ago!
Cost of Living - buy a house in the city for $400K-$ 600K or cheaper outside. Or move to San Rafael in Marin and buy the same house for $1.7M. Yes the weather is better there but the cost of living here is hard to beat for a major city. No hate for Cali I love it and my sister lives in SR.
And the Uptown eye candy comment is right on!
No has yet piped up with the “I’m not from Texas but I got here as soon as I could”. I’m not by the but been here a long time…
Lastly, if you’ll organize a Beserker tasting soon I would love to be included and meet some of your locals
ok - I’ll shamelessly piggy-back on this!
I am headed to Dallas on Sunday to judge at the Texsom competition. Sunday night we are on our own for dinner, so where should a crew of good winos head?
We stay at the Four Seasons - so within a good uber ride is ideal.
Thanks!
Pappa’s Bros Steakhouse. Steaks are great and one of the best wine lists you will find. As others have noted, pricing can be rather night but I’ve found some real gems at reasonable prices in the past. Plenty of back vintage stuff and very nice Old World selection.
Agree that Pappas Bros. would be a good destination, especially given that it is much closer to Four Seasons than if you were to head to Downtown/Uptown.
I am going to have to get serious about that soon. Don’t know why I haven’t done it yet. Now that the wife is retired, we have a lot more flexibility.
You might see if these two are close enough for you. Both are very good.
http://www.trionewamerican.com/ This one is BYOB
+2 Moe, Went there the last two years during Texsom. Are you going to be there in August?
Unfortunately Pappa’s is closed on Sunday’s. I was actually at the Houston location earlier this week for a ribeye. So good.