Book Festival Eats

If you've ever attended the Texas Book Festival, you know that you can work up quite an appetite as you walk from event to event, and there are so many interesting authors to see and demonstrations to watch that it's difficult not to spend a significant amount of time on the Capitol grounds. Fortunately, the festival arranges for mobile food vendors to set up near the south gate facing Congress Avenue. Festival organizers have been increasingly engaging popular local businesses and food trailers, and the quality of the available food has become entirely respectable.

Ruby's B-B-Q is always a culinary delight, and this year it'll serve sausage wraps, chopped-beef sandwiches, pulled-pork sandwiches, and vinaigrette coleslaw. Last year, the pulled-pork sandwiches sold out before I could get one, so get to this tent early! Dog Almighty also provides consistently high-quality fare, and this year it'll offer regular hot dogs, chili-cheese dogs, and Frito pie, as well as vegetarian Smart Dogs (with or without vegetarian chili) and vegetarian Frito pie. O's Campus Cafe will make Gruyère and caramelized onion grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade tomato soup, both of which are excellent. A newcomer on the scene this year will be Crepe Crazy, which makes a variety of sweet and savory crepes. Both the chicken-pesto and the chicken-and-mushroom crepes come highly recommended. If you'd like to go the traditional route, Corn Dog Man will be in attendance with his sublime hand-dipped corndogs, which are always extremely popular. Zhi Tea will serve its fabulous Fredericksburg peach iced tea and hibiscus-mint iced tea, and Hey Cupcake! will be on hand with all its cupcake flavors, including this year's first appearance of the Pumpkinator. Usual suspects Hill Country Kettle Korn, Snowie Shaved Ice, Amy's Ice Creams, and Caffé Medici will also be in attendance selling their well-known specialties.