Toast Austin s restaurant and bar stars at the 2021 Tastemaker Awards Join us August 5 for the 2021 Tastemaker Awards.
Photo by Shelley Neuman It s time to toast the Tastemakers. CultureMap s annual culinary celebration returns this summer with our signature in-person tasting event and awards program and tickets are on sale now. Join us August 5 at Fair Market for the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, an evening honoring Austin s and San Antonio s restaurant and bar stars. This is your ticket to sample delectable bites from nominees, sip signature drinks, and, of course, celebrate the winners in our awards ceremony emceed by Alamo Drafthouse legend Tim League.
On April fifteenth, at 8:42 p.m., I had a drink. Not on Zoom. Not alone on my couch. Not outside, under a heat lamp. Nope. Inside, on a stool, at the actual, physical bar. For the first time in more than a year. To sit shoulder to shoulder with friends again, chatting with the bartender about esoteric spirits, hearing the laughter of strangers it felt new and raw. Even with the masked staff and social distancing, the experience was unexpectedly life-affirming. All of a sudden, I felt like me again.
Perhaps it was what I was drinking at Viridian, an Asian American bar in Oakland, one of the places on this year’s Best Bars list; many of the cocktails nodded to flavors of Asian candies my dad would surprise me with when he returned from grocery runs in New York’s Chinatown. But I suspect that I would have been hit with joy if it was any drink at any bar that had reopened its doors to do what bars do best: hospitality.