Hi Bargeot, My name's Chip and I live in Austin. You can PM me and I'll tell you anything you want to know. The list at
www.dmitchell.com is several years out of date, almost all the clubs listed have closed. Miguel's was the headquarters of Austin salsa, but unfortunately they closed this summer. You can see exactly what's going on in the Austin salsa scene each week by checking out the "austinsalsa" newsgroup on Yahoo. The club owners post their schedules there each week. For Thursday night, you're in luck. There's a big Hilton on the north side of the Convention Center, you can't miss it. Just go one block north of the Hilton on Neches St. and you will find Bongo's on the east side of the street. Bongo's has free salsa lessons from 8 to 10 pm by Christian Villalobos (you can see his videos at
www.creativemotions.net ). Christian is very good and has a unique style. He's only recently started up at Bongo's so only a few people come to the classes; it's like getting a free private lesson. Bongo's plays salsa and merengue after 10:00, then around midnight they start playing more reggaeton for the kids.
If you walk about three blocks to the west of the Convention Center, you will find Copa, at 2nd St. and Congress Avenue (formerly Meno), on the west side of the street. Austin's most popular Latin band, The Brew, plays there Thursday nights and usually draws a good crowd. The Copa crowd is a little older than the Bongo's crowd. Bongo's is an 18-and-up club. Copa plays more salsa and has more room to dance than Bongo's, but Bongo's has a wood floor. You can easily walk to both clubs in downtown.
Bongo's has no cover all night, and Copa's cover is only $5.
We have a very friendly, welcoming salsa scene with none of the snobbery I read about in other cities. All ages and races dance together.
You can find out about milongas by getting on the mailing list at
www.austintango.org . My salsa partner is a big tango person, she could introduce you to that crowd. There are several milongas around town on different nights.
As for restaurants, it depends on what your tastes are. The best place for Mexican food (from the interior of Mexico, not Tex-Mex), is Fonda San Miguel (
www.fondasanmiguel.com). They have been profiled in the New York Times and on the Food Network. Their $40 Sunday brunch is the one can't-miss meal in Austin, in my opinion. Fonda San Miguel also has beautiful interior design, it really makes you feel like you're in Mexico.
Obviously there's lots of good barbeque, too, although not much downtown.
I hope you enjoy your stay in our little town. The traffic downtown is pretty light at night, so you shouldn't have any problems driving here. The bad traffic is just the rush hour traffic on the big highways.
