Laura "Bike Nut, or just plain Nut" C.'s Profile

In general, I was not terribly impressed with the food in Terlingua.  This place had pretty good green pork chile. Nice folks despite the tourist onslaught.  Definitely full of locals.  The ambience - well I definitely wouldn't call it that.  Kinda dirty... so don't go to Terlingua to visit this place. Just consider it an option for some reasonably decent Mexican food and burgers.

Yummy food but beware - they may run out of said food on busy (for them) days. We had good coffee, cinammon roll, and the *last* breakfast taco (they had been open less than an hour and ran out of tacos...?)

Everything seems to be made from scratch, excellent.. Just limited options. I think when we walked by around 1 or 2 they had exhausted all of their supplies for the day and closed shop (normal hours until 3 pm, I believe).

HIPSTER CENTRAL, but still worth it.

Delicious and fairly healthy food. Like most places in the area, they're not very fast when they have a crowd, but it's worth the wait.

I had a great New Year's black-eyed pea salad with lentil- collard green- andouille soup. Hubby had the very tasy Marfalafel.

Definitely cozy and cute with a great selection for breakfast - regular coffee and espresso, pastries as well as egg based breakfast items.  We stopped here on our way through town on January 2nd, and things were busy.  The wheat bread, which they apparently bake there, was excellent with my eggs and grits.

Seemed to have a fair number of locals - including people who looked like students/faculty.

Definitely a place to go if you are in Alpine!

My uncles will be saddened to read that I really dsilike this place now.  I don't mind greasy Tex Mex if it's tasty and flavorful.  So this visit - with one uncle who is nostalgic for this place that he frequented in his youth - I was intrigued by the sign on the outside wall that said "cabrito al horno" was a specialty.  I didn't know they had cabrito and I was excited to try it.  Well, apparently the reason I didn't know they had cabrito is - it is horrible.  I think there was perhaps 2 ounces of actual meat on the leg and what appeared to be ribs, and the meat that was there had no flavor except "greasy flavor".  

The beans had too much black pepper.

The salsa had too much black pepper or something like it.

The corn and flour tortillas were run of the mill.

My iced tea was fresh testing, at least, and I shared some pineapple sherbet  - the signature of any old-school Tex Mex dive in these parts - that was pretty great.

And the Pancho Villa calendar kicks ass.  Go there and buy a calendar, then keep driving down to La Michoacana or even Nuevo Leon or any of a dozen other places.

Simultaneously hip and cozy, sleek yet friendly, pared down but with ample indulgence.  Makes this place on the top of my list of places to hang should I require a place to go away from home for a change of pace.

Great true coffeehouse. Worth the mile or so drive off the highway. Excellent iced yerba mate.

They now have a "storefront" of sorts - on Brazos in between 6th and 7th on the east side of the street.  They have a board up to let you know - but it's kind of a challenge to find the place, which is in an office suite.  Just wander around and ask (hopefully the signage will improve soon).  Get 2 cookies for 50 cents!

Honest, friendly, efficient, knowledgeable- what more could you ask for in a dentist?

This is a wonderful place, in one of my favorite parts of Texas - millions of mama Mexican free-tail bats summer here to give birth to and raise their pups.  Their emergence from the cave is spectacular - and you sit so close you can feel the air moving as they go by.

The setting is spectacular in a Hill Country meets West Texas way - crossing the James River and driving up into the rugged hills, hiking through the shrub and small trees and cacti.  Watch out for snakes!  But don't worry too much about them, as apparently even the resident rattlers are fairly mellow.

TIP: you should only drive there in a car with enough clearance to drive through the James River at a low water crossing, so several inches of water normally. We made it fine in our Subaru Outback, and I think my cousin goes in his Camry, but I definitely wouldn't want to take a Honda Fit out there.

You may have to wait until 2010, since they will close soon for the winter, since the bats will fly back to the warmer climes of Mexico to mate again.  

This year, the Nature Conservancy hired a local woman as the guide/caretaker/presenter.  The last time I went, about 10 years ago, it was a younger guy from San Antonio, I think.  They were both good, but the presentation now includes a lot of gory details about gasses in the cave, predators, and more!