St. Elmo Brewing Company + Soursop Food Truck

Happy day-after-Super-Bowl-Sunday…

I’m not going to pretend to be a big football fan….but that game was insane. It makes me a little bit sad for the Falcons; I would have loved for them to have won their first Super Bowl! It all makes me kind of sad, so can we please talk about all 300 drones flying in formation behind Lady Gaga while she sang on the roof at the halftime show? That was crazy! I was watching with some friends, and we all thought it was some sort of computer animation added in advance…we had no idea it was hundreds of drones flying behind the pop star while she sang “God Bless America.”

In addition to the Super Bowl, I had a great weekend here in Austin. I spent a most of January’s weekends playing orchestra concerts or traveling, so I was excited to have the first weekend in February at home. I love the lazy weekends here the best, and this one was perfect. It had a little bit of all of my favorite things: I drank coffee, got to see my sister, had a string quartet rehearsal, read some books, cooked, watched a couple Oscar nominations with my fiancé, and….drank beer!

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St. Elmo Brewing is one of the newest breweries to enter the Austin beer scene; they opened their doors in late fall 2016. As a south Austin resident, I’m always excited to hear about new craft breweries nearby. St. Elmo is just south of highway 71 and S. Congress in what is soon to be the mixed-use space called “St. Elmo Public Market,” which is currently in construction. This project is supposed to mimic the feel of Seattle’s Pike Place Market and New York’s Chelsea Market – a large space with vendors for food and drinks and hanging out, in addition to hotels, working spaces, and apartment living. The new indoor-outdoor market will be formed in what used to be a school bus factory.

Part of the St. Elmo Market District is the new St. Elmo Brewery, and if the rest of the market turns out as well as this brewery…then we’ll be doing pretty well, Austin!

I’ve visited the brewery five or six times since its opening last fall, and I’ve been pleased with it every time! The indoor taproom is small and cozy with some picnic tables, high top tables with stools, and a blank wall and projector for showing football games on Sundays. The outdoor space is large with a stage on one end, plenty of tables and standing room, and the obligatory brewery game of corn hole.

Their beers are solid: nothing too flashy, but they’re well made and great sipping beers for a weekend gathering with friends. My favorites remain the “Chico” pale ale, “Jan” german IPA, and “Carl” kolsch.

Parked outside St. Elmo Brewing Co. is Soursop, an Indian-inspired food truck that’s open during normal brewery hours. The food, quite honestly, is out-of-this-world amazing! I’ve eaten at a lot of food trucks, and this one is truly one of the best I’ve ever tried! Lots of food trucks are gimmicky….they have a cutesy little logo and a fun schtick, but the food isn’t all the good. Soursop is not that truck. They turn out really good food!  The flavors are complex and well prepared. My favorite is the Panang Eggplant with a sweet and spicy coconut curry and a side of flaky Roti  flatbread to scoop up the sauce.

It’s such a fun brewery for a weekend hangout! Thanks for being awesome, St. Elmo Brewing. 😉

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And here we are, back at Monday! Hope it’s a great one for you!

Kelsey