Local Coffee at Jo's

Yesterday a friend and I arranged to meet at a place on South Congress (Botticelli's) so she could buy me a (belated) birthday lunch. I thought the place might be closed on Mondays or holidays or both. But we figured we'd find a place after we met up in any case. I got there early. Some triathlon that involved Town (Lady Bird) Lake was finishing up. The street was awash in people (some with bikes, backpacks and numbers written on their arms with Sharpies). The selected spot was closed so I made a survey of places that were open, snapping pictures. Jo's was open along with Enoteca, South Congress Cafe, El Sol y La Luna, Doc's, Zen, Amy's (eat ice cream only). Lastly Texas French Bread, a bakery and coffee shop was open. Jo's offers limited lunch choices and some of the other places (Enoteca, SoCo Cafe) had long waits. We are savvy though and popped into Texas French Bread where excellent soup and fresh sandwiches on bakery bread was on offer and there was no line and empty tables.

Cool thing is that I think that Zen is a chain, but these other places are local. There are four more restaurants that weren't open at the moment (evening only or Mondays or whatever). All local. Texas French Bread and Jo's are only chains in the sense that their local owners have more than one location. I love supporting local eateries. And my half pimento cheese sandwich (which was gigantic) and chicken tortilla soup was great.