If your hunger for things to do in Austin wasn’t satiated last time, Maudie’s Tex Mex has a litany of other suggestions as to how you can fill your time between eating amazing Tex Mex and exploring the city. As the premier authentic Tex Mex restaurant in the area, we take pride in being connected to our community and having an acute understanding of where the cool things are happening — the things that make Austin so deliciously weird. If you’ve become enchanted with the city from afar, we have many things to enhance and deepen your appreciation of our super unique city. If you’re a local, we attempt to find some new spots and locales to explore to keep you involved and passionate about our city like we are. Be sure to visit these amazing jewels in the crown of Austin, Texas.
The Bullock Museum
From the Alamo to the Civil War, Texas has an amazingly rich history. The state was once a refuge for outlaws and scallywags during the civil war, where confederates in trouble with the Yankees would flee to. It hosted a series of important, influential families, and it grows richer in history every day. Since Texas has been the epicenter of interesting things happening in the West since we grabbed it from Mexico (and before then), it’s no shock that the museums are rich in exhibits of interest. Since Texas was once a country of its own, there’s a wealth of interesting information about the great state. You’ll be able to find an entire 400-year-old shipwreck on permanent display in the museum and incredible exhibits about the Bush family and the buffalo soldiers, as well as on the Alamo along with various Civil War mementos. If you’re a history buff, you’ll find the Bullock can satisfy some of your hunger to see the interesting facets that come together to make this jewel of a state.
Popular Culture Still Applies to You
Few things are as rich in interest as the pop culture that has marked the many decades of the 20th and 21st century. If you love yourself a bit of pop culture history, you’ll find the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture to be absolutely enchanting. Native Austinites love to talk about our pop culture, considering we still fancy ourselves as the origin of all of the popular trends since the city was founded, or at least since SXSW took off, but seeing is believing. If you’d rather pass on the oral retellings of how great Austin is, head to the Museum of Popular Culture to see physical work of culture from the ’60s forward. You’ll get to glimpse local art as well as music posters, films, videos and paintings chronicling the lifespan of Austin culture. The museum has an archive of more than 3,000 works. Coolest piece of all? The museum is an official 501c3 non-profit that makes money for the local economy, so whatever purchases you make will be directly contributing to the city of Austin producing more artwork.
Traditional Art
If you’re more of a Renaissance and impressionist fan, you’ll find the Blanton Museum of Art to be your favorite spot in town. It’s actually the university’s art gallery and has been called out as one of the best university art museums in the country, probably because it can boast more than 17,000 works of art. They keep it fresh by ensuring there’s a type of art for every kind of art lover available and on display. You’ll be able to glimpse Contemporary American works, European art as well as Latin American. They have around 124,000 feet of area to explore and it’s chock full of beautiful, inspiring art that gives new meaning to the phrase “Weird Austin.”
Contemporary Austin
Contemporary art is strange, it’s weird and yet it still manages to be totally stunning, much like the city it occupies. The first thing to know about the museum is there are two locations, the much smaller location downtown by the name of the Jones Center and the 14 acres Laguna Gloria that’s just a touch northwest from downtown. On the 14-acre area of the museum, you’ll find the installation-ready Gatehouse Gallery is amazing in a way that only contemporary art can be. You’ll also be able to visit the Betty and Marcus Sculpture part that rounds out the museum nicely. The Jones Center’s building is an example of contemporary art in and of itself. It’s a contemporary, yet nearly brutalist style building that’s equipped with a softening projector screen that visitors can even glimpse from the outside of the building in the middle of the night. It features plenty of noteworthy artist like Charles Long, John Grade, and Monika Sosnowska.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum
With the most recent drama in the Oval Office, it can be easy to forget that the whole position was once shrouded in a touch more tasteful mystery than it is now. Whatever your opinion of Lyndon B Johnson’s presidency, you can at least respect him for rising to the occasion after JFK was assassinated. This museum is hardly what you’ll expect it to be. It’s actually a collection of 1960s history (speaking of Contemporary Austin ), and a peek into what a presidency of the United States used to be and what the noble office inspire in people who rise to meet the challenge it presents. If that hardly interests you, there’s always the idealism of examining another time and making comparisons, because if history is recorded for any reason, it’s so we don’t make the same mistakes again.
Visit Maudie’s Tex Mex
When you’ve had a hard day of browsing museums and reveling in the folds of history books and years far gone, you’ll be hungry. Treat yourself to some beyond delicious Tex Mex cuisine at Maudie’s Tex Mex. Reanimate your excitement and enthusiasm with a few tacos and an amazing margarita. After a day of appreciating others’ memories, all you have left to do to round out the day is making your own. As we all know, tequila certainly helps when your goal is to make new memories. Feel free to contact us to find out more about catering and to-go orders. We’re excited to share our authentic cuisine with you.