January 14Jan 14 3 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said: The single biggest...and I mean BIGGEST... mistake I ever made in taking home a casual partner was the result of consuming more than two of their OG Mexican Martinis. I met a buddy and his fiancée and her fat sister for drinks. Fiancée wasn't drinking, but bought her ration of two and let fat sister and me split them (after we each had our two). Next thing you know I'm giving her the two pump special and hopping across her living room while trying to put my pants on and find my car keys at the same time. Mistakes can take many forms.
January 14Jan 14 2 hours ago, CoTex said: Wait a minute - you’re saying that there’s no such thing as a bad restaurant - just an ignorant customer? If I was better informed… I would t order the bad food? Vehemently disagree. Also, those martinis sucked too. Nope I’m saying if a place has been around long enough, 1977 in Trudy’s case, there’s a really good chance there’s at least a few things they do well, or did well for a long time.
January 14Jan 14 21 minutes ago, D_Goose said: Nope I’m saying if a place has been around long enough, 1977 in Trudy’s case, there’s a really good chance there’s at least a few things they do well, or did well for a long time. You’re a glass half full guy. Must be nice. I’m a litmus test guy. A Tex Mex place should get some things right, no matter what. Chips Salsa Guacamole Cheese enchiladas Cold Beer Frozen margarita Beef Fajitas Crispy tacos If I’m hunting through some white queso dipped pecan stuffed rosemary chicken thigh to find the good stuff at a Tex Mex place, I’m just not. I’ve already left and won’t return. Every time I went to Trudy’s it was at the behest of some crowd and likely suggested by some wimmens. I had good times there but it wasn’t the food or the b.s. Mexican martinis.
January 14Jan 14 5 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said: The single biggest...and I mean BIGGEST... mistake I ever made in taking home a casual partner was the result of consuming more than two of their OG Mexican Martinis. I met a buddy and his fiancée and her fat sister for drinks. Fiancée wasn't drinking, but bought her ration of two and let fat sister and me split them (after we each had our two). Next thing you know I'm giving her the two pump special and hopping across her living room while trying to put my pants on and find my car keys at the same time. Fly fisherman now, but in a past life…
January 14Jan 14 I liked their migas enchiladas. Stuffed avocado was tasty as well. Plenty of post-game boozing shenanigans at Northstar and Highland Lanes after company softball at the Havins back in the day. RIP.
January 14Jan 14 Trudy's was a sentimental favorite. My wife worked there in college for a short time so I would go up there often to see her. When we were going down to Austin for UT games when we had season tickets, we'd stop off for postgame Mexican Martinis and she loved the stuffed avocado. RIP
January 14Jan 14 Scattershooting: - The Mexican Martini Challenge was fun. Drink 2 at each of the 3 locations. After completing the challenge, a friend climbed a tree at North Star. His girlfriend, now wife, had to coax him down. Good stuff. - My dumb ass cousin was a few years older than me. He was raised on a steady diet of Los Tios in Houston, but he bizarrely loved Trudy’s. Every time we visited he wanted to go eat there. He was in a Christian “fraternity” so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but eating at Trudy’s sober was miserable. - Definitely a chick birthday place as others have noted upthread. Eating at home, and just ordering drinks was the pro move. - Their food was so shitty I wonder if they would have been better off with a bar food menu only. 1 cook heating up nachos and quesadillas would have been about the same quality with much lower overhead. - Baby A’s is basically the same and still going strong. Purple ritas must be the secret sauce.
January 14Jan 14 38 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said: Baby A’s is basically the same and still going strong. they recently closed the location on barton springs and the one at 35 and howard. i believe there are only 2 left in austin.
January 14Jan 14 Popular Post It was part of a place and time. To really enjoy it you'd have to be just done with an exam or a paper, and shuffle there from whatever subdivided shack you paid too much rent on. Squirrels and grackles and dtf girlfriend and "old" pals you've known for a whole year, and you think you'll see forever. It was there for us then. Then.
January 14Jan 14 11 hours ago, CoTex said: Fly fisherman now, but in a past life… “…. from Hell‘s heart I pump at Thee!”
January 14Jan 14 4 minutes ago, Gatorubet said: “…. from Hell‘s heart I pump at Thee!” "He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it."
January 14Jan 14 1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said: Their food was so shitty I wonder if they would have been better off with a bar food menu only. 1 cook heating up nachos and quesadillas would have been about the same quality with much lower overhead. Reminds me of El Patio / Club No Minors in Houston. Dog food on the menu so you drink their margaritas. Actually, you go for the margaritas but the food is filler to delay the eventual puke.
January 14Jan 14 I vaguely remember the campus location having this chicken sandwich that I think you could only order from the downstairs bar. It was the size of a fucking frisbee, and fairly affordable so I would swing by to eat those sober even. But mostly we just boozed there and had good times (early-mid 90's). I aint gonna hate on Trudy's.
January 14Jan 14 I used to get Trudy’s Enchiladas Caliente which had a New Mexico style green chile sauce which was pretty good. That hasn’t been on the menu for 2 decades.
January 14Jan 14 I used to get Trudy’s Enchiladas Caliente which had a New Mexico style green chile sauce which was pretty good. That hasn’t been on the menu for 2 decades. They had some green chile dishes when not many places had those. Those were their menu standouts (I even recall a green chile CFS?). That’s it.
January 14Jan 14 22 minutes ago, Brisketexan said: They had some green chile dishes when not many places had those. Those were their menu standouts (I even recall a green chile CFS?). That’s it. Yeah you could get green chile on the CFS. But that's not it. Their smoked chicken dishes were really good, their tinga relleno was really good, their chorizo-stuffed chicken was really good, their migas were really good, and their chipotle sauce is my all-time favorite and it's saddening that I'll never get to taste it again.
January 14Jan 14 ciro's special with chicken was always my go-to. they took it off the menu pre-covid and i don't think i ever returned. Quote Marinated chicken or beef fajita meat, smothered in mushrooms, cilantro, onions and Anaheim peppers, topped with chile con queso, spinach, tomatoes and avocado. Served with Spanish Rice and Borracho Beans.
January 14Jan 14 Mid to late 90s we'd hit the campus Trudy's pretty regularly for some weekday afternoon Mexican martinis on the outdoor patio. That was a long time ago but I only remember going there to eat a meal once and it was shitty.
January 14Jan 14 6 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said: - Their food was so shitty I wonder if they would have been better off with a bar food menu only. 1 cook heating up nachos and quesadillas would have been about the same quality with much lower overhead. A lot of places would probably benefit from doing this. Lower food overhead, focus on drink specials and just giving drunk customers some shitty ass food to soak up the alcohol
January 15Jan 15 good memories of Trudy's near campus. I'd get the burger on the patio and the migas and fajitas in the restaurant. i still may have a shirt or two that I can't wash out the cigarette stink from the downstairs bar.
January 15Jan 15 22 hours ago, CoTex said: A Tex Mex place should get some things right, no matter what. Chips Salsa Guacamole Cheese enchiladas Cold Beer Frozen margarita Beef Fajitas Crispy tacos killer nachos and quesadillas are pretty damn easy to knock out. same for killer drinks. sounds like they had dumb management or they place was just a money hole to launder money
January 15Jan 15 The best thing I ever ate there was the chicken fried chicken with regular gravy. It was damn good back in the day.
January 15Jan 15 This thread reminds me to wonder how I even ate while a student at UT. I had an overall budget of about a thousand a month (late 90s). A chunk of that went to rent, utilities, and books, so how did I eat for a whole month with what was left? You had the Vietnamese carts, if you were strong and stoic. I barely knew what a grocery store was (it was the beer store.) Yet somehow I ate out regularly, and drank almost constantly. Never remember missing meals. Sometimes it was just grazing the land, walking into some event winding down and there are 12 sandwiches left on an abandoned table. "Take them, they're free." TLDR: They gave us plenty of beer money but not so much food money.
January 15Jan 15 Happy hour buffet at Symphony Square Serranos was good for a meal while putting down drinks.
January 15Jan 15 For those undergrads in the 1990’s who knew of him, Prof. Alan Sager taught some constitutional pre-law-type courses, and he was polarizing to put it mildly; many considered him an flat-out asshole. But his courses worked my ass off, he was generous enough to pay me as a pseudo-TA my last semester, and I credit him for better preparing me for law school. As it relates to Trudy’s, despite his asshole reputation, Sager would hold office hours there, where any students were invited to talk about the coursework and exam prep, and often other trivial matters such as sports and Blazing Saddles (one of his favorite movies), over several margaritas. That’s how I was introduced to Trudy’s, and that’s how I’ll remember it.
January 15Jan 15 As others have so eloquently stated, it was a restaurant of a certain time and place in Austin. I enjoyed the migas and the Mexican martinis. RIP to the memories of then. And for all the assholes ripping on Trudy’s, you’ve still got that Chili’s on the corner to eat at.
January 15Jan 15 10 hours ago, RDCanecutter said: This thread reminds me to wonder how I even ate while a student at UT. I had an overall budget of about a thousand a month (late 90s). A chunk of that went to rent, utilities, and books, so how did I eat for a whole month with what was left? I also managed to consistently earmark a few shillings to maintain my Street Fighter mastery at Le Fun.
January 15Jan 15 On 1/13/2025 at 4:59 PM, Pescado_Rojo said: The single biggest...and I mean BIGGEST... mistake I ever made in taking home a casual partner was the result of consuming more than two of their OG Mexican Martinis. I met a buddy and his fiancée and her fat sister for drinks. Fiancée wasn't drinking, but bought her ration of two and let fat sister and me split them (after we each had our two). Next thing you know I'm giving her the two pump special and hopping across her living room while trying to put my pants on and find my car keys at the same time.
January 17Jan 17 On 1/15/2025 at 7:47 AM, smuggs said: I also managed to consistently earmark a few shillings to maintain my Street Fighter mastery at Le Fun. I can remember going through the couch cushions to find change to buy a breakfast coke at the convenience store across from my apartment, I can remember getting free saltines and ketchup at restaurants and mixing with hot water to make "tomato soup," and I can remember feeling elated when ramen went on sale for 7 for $1 instead of the normal 5 for $1. And yet somehow, I also never seemed to miss out on beer and burgers at The Posse or the Crown and Anchor, and regularly consumed my weight in margaritas and smoked chicken enchiladas at Trudy's Texas Star. I guess you gotta have priorities. Edited January 17Jan 17 by utee94
January 17Jan 17 On 1/14/2025 at 10:20 AM, Gatorubet said: “…. from Hell‘s heart I pump at in Thee!” fify
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