I bet you think this is a food blog since I have been posting about food places so much. Well, we eat out a lot in the summer. We have a ton of out of town visitors since we live in such a tourist destination plus it is really hard to turn on the oven when it’s 100 degrees from June until the end of August! And there is the little fact that I hate to cook. I mean, I really hate to cook.
We drove to Austin on Sunday to drop our boy off at UT basketball camp. I probably took 100 pictures of him to record the moment of his checking in at his first overnight camp. He was so embarrassed. I didn’t care. I see it as my job to embarrass him in public. We all hugged and kissed and loved all over him when we left. He didn’t even turn around. When did he grow up this much?
My tears finally dried up as we pulled in to eat at Hoover’s Cooking in Austin. They are located very near the UT campus on Manor Road. They used to have a location in San Antonio where we would go almost every Sunday after church. It was traumatic when they closed down years ago. We stop by their Austin location every summer as we are traveling up and down the interstate. It is a necessary to keep our lives in balance with their home cooking every now and then.
Last summer when we stopped to eat there we noticed that this area would soon look very different. Since the hubby is an economist and I was a mortgage lender for over twenty years, we notice these things when we travel around. You could tell by all the remodeling that was going on in the houses nearby and the lack of for sale signs. The commercial development was showing signs of life too. We find it a fascinating study from an economic development perspective. Aren’t we a fun couple?
Anyway, it was exciting when we drove down the street to see all the brand new restaurants that had just opened up and new and refurbished apartments and condos that weren’t there a year ago. I love to see vibrant and new areas of town that weren’t that way before, I can’t help it. East Austin is seeing a resurgence of growth. It is a wonderful thing to witness in these economic times.
Enough of that kind of talk. Aren’t you ready to the see the food?
Hoover’s Cooking is has been around forever and was opened by Hoover Alexander who has had a long career in the food industry. He draws from his family’s Texas influences. His menu contains smoke flavors,cajun and soul food that all come together for a comfort food type of experience. The cooking is very rich and flavorful, plus he’s an awfully nice guy.
For starters, you have not lived until you have had one of these sweet potato biscuits. The cornbread is fine but it is all about these heavenly little biscuits for us. Sorry cornbread, didn’t mean to give you a complex.
They have wonderful smoked meats of all of kinds. I would normally order their meatloaf that is served with a spicy tomato sauce; but on this visit we all order the veggie plates,even the kids. The sides are served in huge portions. The veggie kids meal with 2 sides and a salad was a bargain at $4.99. The twins had salad,carrots,mashed potatoes,mac and cheese and yams. We all sampled them and had plenty of leftovers to take home.
The adult veggie plate portions are even bigger. The creamed jalapeno spinach in my favorite. I also had salad with the best honey mustard dressing. I should have asked if they make it in house. It has a little kick to it and is just perfectly creamy. The green beans and pinto beans were wonderful too.
The big Stud chose the garlic cheese grits,yams and butter beans. They are all the same color. I wonder if he was going for a color theme in his Father’s Day meal? He thought the yams and beans were out of this world but the grits where missing something on this visit. Maybe beets next time, purple is a fabulous color for food!
We left with a huge amount of leftovers. I might have to eat some for lunch today. All these pictures are making me want Hoover’s again. They serve breakfast on the weekends. Be sure and try the ginger or sweet potato pancakes. The hoe cakes are divine too!
We are going back to Austin this week to pick up our boy from camp. I think we might try the new restaurant Salty Sow in celebration of getting our boy back home, or he will probably want to go to Hoover’s. We’ll let him pick. There are a bunch of new places to try on Manor Rd.
We sure do miss that boy.
Hoover’s Cooking is located at 2002 Manor Rd. Austin,Tx 78722. Their phone number is 512-479-0889. For more detailed information, their website is HOOVERS. They now have a food trailer too. Hoover’s is mobile! You think they might drive over to San Antonio? Pretty,please!
Stay Sassy Y’all.
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