My trip to Marfa, Texas was exactly what I wanted it to be: Full of food, drinks, oddities, and relaxation. While it was a long journey (6 hours there and back), it was definitely the coolest place I've been in Texas besides Austin. My only regret is that we didn't have an extra day there. We actually considered staying another night but because of my various up coming trips, taking more time off work wasn't really an option :(. So we set out to make the most of the short time we had.
We left San Antonio around 8:30 am on Friday morning and drove straight to Marfa. The drive was probably the most boring I have ever experienced. There is absolutely nothing interesting what so ever on the ride. So naturally I was thrilled when I saw the big colorful banner welcoming me to Marfa. First stop on our list was the famous food truck "Food Shark" that parks its wheels next to the train tracks in town from 11-3:00 each day. Sitting under the metallic atrium we noshed on insanely delicious egg salad sandwiches on homemade ciabatta and falafel wraps washed down with bottles of ice cold Mexican coke. After we finished eating we cruised over to our hotel, The Paisano, to check in. The hotel was quaint and homey and reminded me alot of some of the older hotels in Boulder like the Boulderado. It had a great courtyard and a really sick bar that was decorated in a way that reflected both the western charm and the art deco-ness of the town with a slate rock bar, dark red leather chairs with studs, and cowhide rugs. After we checked in, we walked about 300 ft down the street to climb to the top of the court house which is absolutely stunning from the outside with its light pink paint job and rows of cotton wood trees. The top of the court house features a circular room with 360 glass windows so you can survey the tiny town. Very cool.
After the court house, we decided to take a stroll through the town.Luckily, Marfa is so small you can literally walk everywhere so you waste very little time trying to figure out directions or navigate. Which is a very good thing considering there is no cell service to be had. We opted out of seeing any type of art gallery in Marfa. This is mainly because my parents just went on an art shopping spree in San Antonio which left them with zero wall space to hang anything new. Instead, we decided to simply wonder about and take in vibes. We stumbled upon an adorable retro fairground, the local Montessori school, a west Texas museum, a rock shop, the famous Thunderbird motel, and a tiny beauty salon that had a cooler outside its door offering free bottled water to any passer by,which was much welcomed in the 84 degree heat. We finished off our tour with a stop at Padres, an old mortuary that has been converted into a bar/resturant. While I was a big fan of their prickly pear margaritas the bar it self was a little skeevy. The outside was cool but the inside was insanely dark and smelled very strongly of moth balls. Not exactly the type of place I wanted to set up shop in, especially not at 4:30 PM. Having said that, they DO have live music on Fridays and Saturdays and im sure the smell and the darkness would be far less off putting in the late hours of the night. After Padres we headed back to our hotel to have happy hour at the bar. Even though the service was dismal, the jalapeno margaritas were tasty and the atmosphere was nice and relaxing.
At around 8:00 pm we headed over to Cochineal for dinner. Undoubtedly the best restaurant in town. Cochineal was opened by a famous NYC chef who located to Marfa a few years ago in hopes of a more simple way of life. In true Marfa fashion, the restaurant is quaint and artistic, built with slate walls and dark wood paneling It has an amazing patio with gravel for a floor and birdhouses and bubble lights hanging from the trees. Sadly, I was instantly annoyed by the staff. Nothing makes me more angry than bad service. I had made a reservation over a month prior and when my brother and I arrived they were very rude and told me they had absolutely no record of it. When I showed them my cell phone to prove that they had called me earlier that day to confirm they rolled their eyes and told me "they'd see what they could do". Um, no. You can seat me now, thanks. And I'll take an apology also. After seating us at a four top outside I told the waiter that my parents would be joining us. He told me that he didn't know that and that they might not have enough chairs because "every chair in the restaurant is spoken for". Okay then why the fuck did you seat us at a 4 top? Once again I had to remind him that I HAD A RESERVATION FOR 4. Only then did he grab me too extra chairs that were legit just sitting against the wall of the patio. Even after he gave us our chairs, he didn't give us menus or waters until my parents arrived 15 mins later. Good thing I wasn't fucking hungry or anything.
Even though I was pretty pissed about the service, I have to say the food was pretty incredible. For appetizers we got shrimp and grits with pancetta and poached egg and beer battered fried cauliflower with a fish oil dipping sauce. Everything was cooked perfectly and even though I'm not usually a fan of running yolks, I found the egg to be the perfect topping for the shrimp and grits. And the fish oil dipping sauce? Oh my fucking lord. I could have drank that shit up with a straw. For entrees we got the rib eye steak and the lamb chops. I'm not a lamb fan, but they looked fantastic. The steak was hands down the best I have ever had. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare with a slightly charred outside and covered in caramelized onions. Every single bite was buttery, juicy perfection. I split it with my brother but I could have easily eaten a whole one. Even after the appetizers. We usually don't order desserts, but after seeing a few neighboring tables partaking in the sweets we decided to go for it. We got the date pudding and the chocolate souffle both which are baked to order. The souffle was a little bitter for me, but was still pretty tasty. The date pudding was excellllllllent. Moist, chewy, and served with a delicious merainge. Yum!
After dinner we decided to drive about ten mins east of town to view the "mystery lights". This was a particularly exciting moment for me. As a child, my favorite show was "Unsolved Mysteries" and I remembered the mystery lights featured on one of their episodes ( it can be viewed
here), so I was pretty excited to experience it in person. For those of you unfamiliar they mystery lights are dancing balls of light which separate and then combine and disappear into the night sky. Originally spotted in the 1800's, The lights were originally thought to be Apache camp fires burning in the distance. No official explanation has ever been found and they continue to be the subject of much speculation and controversy. When we arrived at the viewing site I was astounded at how absolutely magical the sky was. I had already been impressed by the stars over head with in the town itself but this was truly impressive. I felt like I was in a giant snow globe with stars falling all around me. I didn't really see any mystery lights, but we did see numerous shooting stars and the milky way which was good enough for me. Even though it was 45 degrees and super windy we wound up sitting outside for about 30 minutes drinking wine, listening to music on an Ipad, and star gazing.
After leaving the viewing area my brother and I decided to top off our first night with a midnight visit to the Museum of electronic wonders and late night grilled cheese parlor. This was by far one of the weirdest experiences ive ever had while sober. The parlor is run by the same guys who run food sharks where we had eaten earlier that day (the guy totally recognized us and called us out). The parlor is open from 9:30pm to around 1:00am on the weekends and features a random daily selection of delicious melted goodness that is served to the hungry drunk people who stumble in from Padres which is across the street. The inside is tiny tiny and is filled with installations created from vintage television sets which are all flashing with different images ranging from female lips and eyes to grilled cheeses. There are no real chairs, only 60's era crochet cushions and plastic bubble roller seats. The "tables" are 1950's TV dinner trays and the plates are plastic trays covered in astro turf. The music comes from a vintage 8 track player that boosts an impressive selection of tapes for patrons to chose from. The whole experience made me feel as if I was in a George Ramero film and I'm fairly confident that that was exactly the feeling the owner had hoped to elicit when he created the place. I felt that everything I was seeing should have been in black and white and that at any moment a heard of zombies would come crawling to the door to eat me or to steal my grilled cheese. Trippy as balls for sure. As cool as the setting was, the food was even better. The fact that it was national grilled cheese day definitely sweetened the pot as well. Even though I was so full from dinner I could honestly hardly move (I still wasn't able to button my pants) we decided to go ahead and order two sandwiches as opposed to our original plan of one. We got a cheddar and bacon grilled cheese on cheddar sourdough and a guyeure grilled cheese served on Texas toast with caramelized onion, grilled mushroom and zucchini and tomillto salsa. O.....M....G. They were both insanely amazing. I have never had a better grilled cheese in my life. They were so good that we ordered one for my mom and woke her up so she could eat it. She claims that that sandwich was the highlight of her whole trip and my Dad is still mad at us for not waking him up. Needless to say, after indulging in such a glutenous experience I slept like a little lamb. Ps: check out my posts about days
two and
three also!
