This weekend is basically a holy trinity of events as we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Derby Day, and Mother’s Day all on the same weekend. Quite a few Austin restaurants seem to be celebrating anniversaries, as well. Plus there’s always the millions of other things happening around Austin, so what better time to kick off our new weekly events roundup? We’ve picked our favorite non-music events (we’ve got a whole other post just for Austin music) and put them all together in one handy dandy post for you. Which events are you most looking forward to this weekend?
Cinco de Mayo Events
As Cinco de Mayo is a very music-oriented holiday, be sure to check out our Austin10 Live post to find more music events to help celebrate.
It’s time to Cinco de Drinko at Pelons on Red River. 10 different tequila vendors will be on hand all day to do tastings alongside a mariachi band from 2-5pm and a DJ from 5-9pm. They’re also doing photos with their famous miniature donkey, Jack the Mini Ass. Wouldn’t want to miss that.
Eat East will be hosting a special Cinco de Mayo edition of its monthly neighborhood dining series as 13 East Austin eateries offer food and drink specials. Starting at 5pm those specials can be found at The Hightower, Silo, Spartan Pizza, Burn Pizza + Bar, Lustre Pearl East, Chicon, Fukimoto, Buenos Aires Cafe Este, Gelateria Gemelli, Hillside Farmacy, and Jacoby’s Restaurant & Mercantile. Counter Cafe East will run an early bird special from 7:30am to 4pm, Tamale House’s special starts at 11am (until 9pm), and Hi Hat Public House will have their burger special from 11:30am to 11pm.
Kentucky Derby Events
It’s Off to the Races at Geraldine’s as they celebrate from 2-6pm with the races on plenty of TVs and serve up plenty of Southern fare and mint juleps.
Hotel Ella will host guests on their beautiful lawn starting at 5pm, with lawn games, cocktails by 9 Banded Austin Whiskey, and the races on TVs under the tent. Complimentary valet is included in your $15 ticket.
Classic cars, big hats, and polo matches make the Victory Cup Derby Day & Polo Match make this family and pet friendly event a one-of-a-kind day. Tickets start at the surprisingly reasonable price of $40
New downtown sports bar Base Camp is hosting a Kentucky Derby viewing party starting at 3pm complete with mint juleps, bourbon cocktails, and a free glass of champagne for the Southern belles. There’s also a raffle for some killer prizes including a pair of Louboutins (what?!?!) and a four pack of tickets to the UT/Notre Dame season opener.
The outdoor lounge at TRACE will host a Kentucky Derby tailgate party from 3-6pm with TVs, cocktails, specialty julep drinks, and for those who forgot their hats at home, a pop up shop by Goorin Bros.
Searsucker owner/celebrity chef Brian Malarkey is a huge Derby fan — he goes to the event every year and photographs the races alongside other photographers in the pit, and he has his own horse named Searsucker. So it’s only natural that the Warehouse District restaurant would offer up some special cocktails and food items including Shrimp n Grits and a Kentucky “Hot Brown” sandwich for Derby Day.
Other bars and restaurants getting you liquored up with mint juleps and showing the races include: Liberty Kitchen, The League, and Juliet.
Mother’s Day Events
Mother’s Day starts a little early at The Driskill as they host a Victorian Tea complete with champagne and adorable finger foods from 3-5pm throughout the weekend starting Thursday.
Get that Mother’s Day shopping done while sipping on specialty cocktails from Austin Cocktails as Hacienda and the Distillery partner to bring Mother’s Day Sip and Shop to downtown Austin on Thursday. Browse vintage jewelry and gifts and make paper flowers for that special lady in your life.
Hotel San Jose will also offer a pop up shop on Saturday where loyal children can browse wares from local designers, pick up a bunch of flowers, and enjoy ice cream specials from Lick.
Photo courtesy of Monger’s
Of course brunch is pretty much a given on Mother’s Day, and if you haven’t made reservations already, you should get right on that. A few of our top picks for brunch include Mongers for its Lobster Benedict and Pineapple Basil Mimosas (drooling so hard right now) and Andiamo for its first ever Mother’s Day brunch featuring a gorgeous four-course prix-fixe menu. You can even find a few lovely brunch buffets at Dine at the Raddison and Prelog’s.
If mom can’t make it to brunch Mama Fu’s is, appropriately enough, offering free dinner for mamas from May 8 through 10 at all Austin locations. It’s a buy one get one free kinda deal, so be sure you join her!
Everything Else
Restaurant Anniversaries:
Kerbey Lane is celebrating 36 years with $1.95 short stacks and 100 percent of net profits at all 7 locations benefiting United Way of Greater Austin from 6am May 5 to 6am May 6. Liberty Kitchen celebrates its first year of business with a crawfish boil on May 7 from 11am-5pm, rounding out the food with music and local brews including Infamous, Independent, and Oasis breweries for just $1.99 per pint. Crawfish will be $6.99 per pound and can either be ordered the Classic Louisiana Spicy Cajun way or the Singapore Style Garlic Butter way, a signature style for the restaurant. Shake Shake is turning 1, and for those customers who make it to their South Lamar location they’re giving out free burgers and shirts (to the first 50 people) starting at 11am on Thursday. There will also be a special Birthday Cake concrete available all day. And finally, Contigo will honor their five years in operation with a party that includes miniature horse rides and airbrush tattoos, to games like their legendary cow tongue eating contest, a cornhole tournament, and more on May 7 from 5-9pm. The event is free and open to the public with food and drink available for purchase. Email [email protected] by Friday, May 6th to sign up your team of two for the Cornhole Tournament or to enter the cow tongue eating contest.
Grab those blankets and lawn chairs as Alamo Drafthouse and the Austin Parks Foundation bring Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to Movies in the Park at Palm Park on Thursday night. Don’t be afraid to get up and twist and shout when the song comes on, because why not?!?!
One thing that Austin has plenty of is really great graffiti, and it’s something that we pride ourselves on as any quick glance at Instagram can show. This weekend is your chance to learn a little more about the history of graffiti in Austin at the From the Ground Up photography exhibit and artist panel discussion on Saturday, May 7.
If you support youth arts education programs (and you definitely should), you’ll want to check out the Beyond the Grade Youth Showcase on Thursday at Jo’s Coffee House on Congress. This showcase of the non-profit’s student bands will definitely leave you in a great mood to kick off your weekend.
Bark Happy and Austin Dog Rescue will close out National Pet Week with the BarkHappy Bar Crawl on Sunday. Tickets for the crawl, which takes place at Rainey Street bars, benefit Austin Dog Rescue.
It’s time for one of the biggest and best annual spring festivals in Austin, and Pecan Street Festival looks to having some great weather this weekend for visitors to enjoy all of the music, activities, food, and arts vendors that it offers.
The Austin Music Summits continue this weekend as District 10 gets together on Thursday to discuss Country and Western Swing with D10 Council Member Sheri Gallo and D10 Music Commissioner Buddy Quaid. District 3’s Latin Music Summit is on Saturday with D3 Councilmember Sabino “Pio” Renteria and D3 Music Commissioner Al Duarte. Saturday is also the District 9 Summit with a discussion about Indie/Pop-Rock with D9 Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo and D9 Music Commissioner Liz Land. This is the last set of summits, so be sure to make it to one this weekend to do your part in helping shape Austin’s music future.
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Featured photo from Flickr user Anne Worner, Creative Commons licensed.
