Eastside Drive-In

Let me break a couple of paradigms here and use one heading for some quick comments about the food trailers at this location. One reason is I’ve only had bits and druthers from some of these vendors, but the main reason is I probably could come up with four or five separate reviews, but for them to be good enough to stand tall and proud on their own would require huge amounts of Unilocal Viagra, which I run out of occasionally. I’ll admit I’m probably being a tiny bit lazy as well.
Now you may say I’m a dreamer, but if I owned a huge lot rented by a bunch of different trailer food vendors, why wouldn’t I be marketing the wazoo out of this as the «Official Keeping Austin Weird Food Court Mall?» I’d probably offer every customer-​oriented amenity I could think of, like communal cutlery, napkins, pa-​system, advertising, Groupons, those big spray fans or whatever NFL teams use, secure and lit parking, etc., etc. — wouldn’t that help each trailer owner focus solely on their food and operations? Maybe even reduce their prices? Wouldn’t every hip and cool Austinite want to check-​in here, sober or not? And wouldn’t that attract more new and upcoming trailers to set-​up shop here? If a free ice machine and an ATM without fees suddenly appeared, would that help the trailer businesses or hurt them? With all the APD I see eating here daily, would someone actually want to fool around with the ATM?
It appeared to me that Katie T’s ROTDC for Pig Vicious drew a large crowd of Unilocalers eager to be here not only because Katie is hip and cool (which she is), and Pig Vicious puts bacon in everything (which they do), but because a few of the non-​bacon-​salivating people knew they could mix and match takoyaki balls with deviled eggs and cones of piping hot fish and chips and mac and cheese and tamales — there just aren’t that many places where you can do that in Austin, at the same time, and all from trailer people who do their particular specialty very, very well. How can you not be a fan of that? That’s the spirit of «Keep Austin Weird» at its best.
I hope this place keeps growing, and keeps getting better. It can go either way, so we’ll see what happens. Here’s my brief run-​through of the current trailers at the Eastside Drive-​In, Phase I, accompanied by their respective Unilocal page with better and more thorough reviews than mine:
Bits and Druthers:
If you live in Austin, and you like fish and chips, why haven’t you been here? I don’t know how it compares to a genuine UK place, but it beats what you get at Long John Silver’s. I thought the slaw was good, the fries even better, but the fried fish really great. Incidentally, the length of the large-​sized portion is equivalent to a prop from a porn flick. The strawberry Eton dessert is killer here, just a tad more enjoyable to me than the chocolate sundae with pistachios. I think they make their own ice cream.

Pig Vicious:
I don’t know why, but I’ve never sampled or tried anything from this place yet. People appear to love it. I don’t mind bacon, I’m just not nuts about it. Next on my list.

The Local Yolk:
Okay, I can’t make a decent egg salad sandwich at home. Of course I subconsciously sabotage it so I can go out and buy one every now and then, how else would I rationalize paying for a sandwich? Or for that matter, walking into a Thundercloud? The Local Yolk’s egg salad is very, very good. I almost wish they would offer it in a big hoagie roll instead of a light toast, but maybe that would be too much of a good thing. Okay, then.

Pueblo Viejo:
I’ve never seen this place closed, it’s the only place that’s been open every single time I’ve been here. I’ve never tried their plates or tamales from the large menu on the right-​side facing you, because I’ve always ordered from their all-​day breakfast taco menu on the left. They are really good. I have this thing about a smoking-​hot grilled flour tortilla filled with eggs, spinach, and mushrooms. It’s good eating, regardless of the time.

Love Balls:
It’s got nothing to do with the people who run this place, but I just don’t like takoyaki. Never have. Can’t do them. But their $ 3 garlic yaki-​onigiri wrapped in nori? Oh, I can do a lot of those.

Vegan Yacht:
It’s hard for me to catch them when they’re open. We’ll work on it.

Eat Trailer:
The Unilocal page says they’re closed, but they’ve just moved here. I’ve only had their butter chocolate brownie thing, it looks like a chocolate chip cupcake, and it’s superb. I’ve got to try their duck stuff.