An Austin Evening Out

A Perfect Austin Date Night

Grey Orchard  |  Ruby's Bar on Brushy Creek

Some nights just come together right, and this was one of them. We started at Grey Orchard, a new restaurant that opened in July, splitting a steak frites and a plate of rigatoni — the kind of meal where you keep stealing bites off each other's plates because both dishes are too good to pick just one.

The Meal

Simple, well-executed, exactly what a date night dinner should be. Not sure if it was because it's fairly new, but it was packed on a Tuesday night, which is pretty rare for Tuesday evenings. Our waiter was extremely outgoing and helpful.

Nightcap: Ruby's Bar

From there, we wandered over to Ruby's Bar for cocktails. The building used to be a Denny's — but you'd never guess it from the look and feel inside. It's been reimagined top to bottom into something genuinely local and modern.

We grabbed a spot on the patio overlooking the creek and let the evening slow down — watching a few egrets wade along the water as the light started to change. Sitting out there, we ended up next to a couple of bird watchers in town who said this is the only place they stay when they visit — front-row seats to the herons and egrets working the water below.

Brushy Creek, seen from the patio

There's something about that in-between hour, drink in hand, no rush to be anywhere, that makes a good dinner turn into a great night. By the time the sunset hit its full color over the creek, it felt like the whole evening had been building to that one quiet moment.

"Great place to catch a sunset," the bird watchers told us — and they were right.

Simple night. Great one. — steak frites and rigatoni at Grey Orchard, cocktails and egrets at Ruby's Bar, sunset to close it out.