5 Ways You Can Keep Austin Weird
“Keep Austin weird” is a phrase that is plastered on bumper stickers all over the city, and if you’ve ever wondered what exactly makes Austin weird, the origin story of the phrase is the best place to start.
In 2000, librarian Red Wassenich phoned a local radio station to make a pledge. When asked why he was contributing, Wassenich replied, “I don’t know. It helps keep Austin weird.” Wassenich didn’t know it at the time but he coined a term that became the city’s unofficial motto.
Locals resonated with his description of Austin, and the phrase caught on. The business community adopted the tagline to encourage people to shop locally, and to this day, the slogan lives on.
Austin’s weird culture ranges from art to cuisine to unusual pastimes that make the city truly one-of-a-kind.
If you live in Austin and you want to explore its weirdness, I’m going to give you the five best ways to start.
1. Museum of the Weird
What would a weird city be without a weird museum?
Owner Steve Busti has a lifelong fascination with all things weird, and he has collected some bizarre items over the years. He opened the museum with his wife Veronica to showcase his collection, and it is truly a labor of love.
Austin’s Museum of the Weird on Historic 6th Street is home to all kinds of oddities like a two-headed cow, a 3,000-year-old-mummy, shrunken heads, and a Fiji mermaid.
You can get your picture taken with King Kong, and you can look at (but not touch) cursed items. And depending on who you ask, it’s also haunted.
One of its greatest treasures is the frozen Minnesota Ice Man, which Busti keeps locked up in a refrigerated chamber.
2. Texas Toy Museum
If you’re an 80s or 90s kid or a fan of Stranger Things, walking through the Texas Toy Museum on Congress Avenue is like time traveling in Doc Brown’s time machine.
The Texas Toy Museum is a nonprofit dedicated to collecting, preserving, and educating the community on the cultural impact of rare and vintage toys.
It’s filled with all kinds of treasures like a wall of GI Joes, Barbie dolls from different eras, X-Men, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and a Peewee’s Playhouse. It even has a display of video consoles from different eras.
They have a scavenger hunt, an arcade room with pinball games, and adult beverages.
3. Cathedral of Junk
The Cathedral of Junk is exactly what it sounds like: a cathedral-like structure constructed entirely of junk, and it’s symbolic of how weirdly creative Austin can be.
Located on the south side of Austin in the backyard of the suburban home of its creator, Vince Hanneman began constructing it in 1988 and has been building on it ever since. He’s used all kinds of scrap for materials like bicycle rims, car bumpers, kitchen utensils, road signs, license plates, hubcaps, bed frames, and so much more.
The structure is Hanneman’s idea of a quirky clubhouse, and in case you were wondering, people do tie the knot in the cathedral.
4. Breakfast Tacos
What do you get when you blend the most important meal of the day with one of the most beloved meals in America? Austin has an incredible food scene, but the one thing it does best is breakfast tacos.
There is the classic breakfast taco with beans, cheese, egg, and bacon, but at some places, you’ll find that they put a special touch on their tacos like mole sauce, goat cheese, and chorizo.
Some hot spots include Valentina’s Tex Mex in south Austin, Joe’s Bakery & Coffee Shop in east Austin, and Pueblo Viejo with locations around the city. But no matter where you pick up a breakfast taco, you won’t be disappointed. You can find breakfast tacos all over the city in coffee shops, food carts, push carts, and even a converted ambulance.
5. Bat City
“Bat City” may not sound like a desirable place to live, but locals love their unofficial mascot of the Mexican free-tail bat.
The 1980 renovation of the Congress Bridge transformed it into an ideal bat cave. It became a haven for migrating Mexican free-tail bats to rear their young, making Austin the city with the largest bat population in North America.
Austinites are more than happy to house the nocturnal critters. Every night they feast on 10,000-30,000 insects including mosquitoes, keeping the city’s bug population in check.
Plus, when they take flight at night, they put on a pretty good show. Starting in late March and continuing through the fall you can watch the bats take flight at sunset over a 45-minute period. The best place to observe it is from the Congress Avenue Bridge or the Statesman Bat Observation Center.
When it comes down to it, Austin is what makes Austin weird. The city has a culture that embraces creativity and quirky traditions that you can’t find anywhere else. If you want to get weird in Austin, all you need to do is support local businesses and get to know your neighborhood.
Every neighborhood and suburb in the Austin area has something special to offer home-buyers and there’s always something new to discover. If you want to know the ins and outs of the city, give me a call, and I can help you hone in on which area best suits what you’re looking for.