Recent News

Rio Grande Receives Review from Austin American-Statesman

September 28, 2006


Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, located in bustling downtown Austin, recently received a review from acclaimed restaurant critic, Dale Rice, of the Austin American-Statesman.

Following is the review from the Thursday, September 28, edition of the newspaper.

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"Eatery adds depth to Convention Center dining"

A neon Big Tex peers across the room from a corner near the entrance to the restaurant, where his intensity strengthens as dusk diminishes the light that sweeps in from nearby windows.

The floor-to-ceiling neon character appears at home in the new restaurant, which seems appropriate given that this is the first Texas location in a Colorado chain of Tex-Mex restaurants.

Big Tex, the decades-old emblem of the State Fair of Texas, fits right in in another way: it symbolizes the midway approach to the interior design. In contrast to many of the new warehouse restaurants that emphasize cold, minimalistic space, Rio Grande is a carnival of eclectic accessories.

Take the lighting, for example. Orange, retro-style lamps hang over one section of tables, while pierced-metal, Southwestern-style shades dangle in another and almost-Gothic chandeliers shine over a third section.

A grand mixture of other decorations abounds, from branches suspended from the ceiling and wrapped with colored lights to a large statue of a horse to an indoor fountain. That fountain, the remnants of what was once a deeper pool, is a piece of the cultural history of the building, which was the home base of MTV's 2005 "Real World: Austin."

The building was later gutted and transformed into the restaurant in an area near the Convention Center that is rapidly becoming one of Austin's premier dining destinations.

Rio Grande adds depth to the dining in that area, featuring one of Austin's most popular types of food. Plus, this is a Mexican restaurant that does things right.

The queso verduras ($6.75) combines sautéed mushrooms, onions and green peppers with melted Monterey jack cheese for a tasty blend to spread on homemade flour tortillas.

In the nachos simpatico ($6.95), the corn tortilla chips were individually made with black beans, cheese, jalapeños and guacamole and topped with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes.

For the main course, the camarones "diabla" ($14.95) featured Gulf shrimp in a spicy sauce made from chiles de arbol, the long, narrow, quite hot pepper often found in dried form in wreaths. The shrimp were served with generous portions of black beans, Spanish rice and steamed mixed vegetables.

The steak fajitas ($12.95) brought a tender piece of wonderfully seasoned, grilled beef that had been sliced in narrow strips that remained in the shape of the original steak. They were accompanied by black beans, rice, tortillas and the traditional condiments: guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo.

For dessert, the restaurant offers sopapillas or ice cream. Combining the two ($3.50), as other patrons were doing, turned out to be less satisfactory than having the crisp pastries alone because the melting ice cream quickly softened the sopapillas. (Also, the restaurant should lighten up on the cinnamon, which had been sprinkled in a heavy coating over the sopapillas.)

Service at Rio Grande was cheerful and attentive, with members of the young staff other than our server frequently stopping by the table to see if we needed anything.

With that service, fare and ambience, Rio Grande should be more than a stop for visitors to the Convention Center. It's good enough to be a destination for local diners.



LPGA U.S. Open Champion and Twin Creeks Regular, Hilary Lunke, Scores Big for Charity

September 13, 2006



Hilary Lunke, the five-year LPGA Tour veteran and former U.S. Open champion whose home course is Twin Creeks Country Club, made a resounding statement to one of Austin's top sports radio personalities while helping raise money for a tremendous golf charity at the recent Bucky Godbolt Women's Golf Challenge, held Sept. 13, at the Harvey Penick Golf Campus in East Austin.

Lunke was joined by fellow professional golfer Cindy Figg-Currier and open qualifier Laura Gunia in this second-annual skins format competition, which pitted the women golfers against Bucky Godbolt of KVET-AM 1300 The Zone. Godbolt, the former Boston College football star and coach at the University of Illinois and the University of Texas, regularly boasts of his golf acumen while discrediting the capabilities of female golfers. Responding to a challenge by Lunke and Courier last year to back up his strong words, the event was born and proved to be a tremendous success in raising funds for local golf-related charities.

This year, Twin Creeks had an additional presence on the course in the way of Club Member Kari Kieper, who volunteered to show her support for Lunke and the women's game by caddying for the professional during the competition. Kieper, herself an avid golfer, thoroughly enjoyed the event and deftly handled the many responsibilities of the assignment.

At the end of the day, Lunke came out head and shoulders above the entire group, earning five skins on the nine-hole course for a total of $1,750. Open qualifier Gunia, a former golfer at the University of Nebraska, won an impressive three skins for a total of $1,450. Fig-Currier, the Women's Sports Hall of Fame inductee at The University of Texas, scored one skin for $400. The story of the day, without question, was Godbolt, who began the round by presenting his challengers with a gift of oven mitts and a rolling pin to signify his feelings that women did not belong on the golf course. The radio personality was forced to eat his words throughout the two-hour round, during which he won no skins and was continuously teased by his female counterparts.

All proceeds from the event benefitted the LPGA-USGA Girl's Golf Program of Austin.



Veterans Brian Lopes and Katrina Miller Out-Duel Young Champions to Earn Jeep King of the Mountain Titles at Beaver Creek, Colo.

September 04, 2006


Given the outcome of the first two legs of the Jeep® King of the Mountain (www.jeepsports.com) 2006 Mountain Biking World Professional Championships, where Michal Prokop of the Czech Republic and Jill Kintner of Seattle, Wash., captured the men's and women's titles in convincing fashion, it would take a brilliant day of racing by the star-studded field of competitors at the grand finale in Beaver Creek, Colo., to prevent a season sweep by these phenoms in their mid 20's.

Several thousand spectators took advantage of the pristine fall weather conditions and extended Labor Day holiday weekend to take in the world-class racing, which coincided with the city's renowned Oktoberfest celebration. They didn't leave disappointed, as the day was filled with a wealth of tight passes, unnerving crashes, extreme air and down to the wire finishes that resulted in numerous upsets in the men?s and women's brackets.

At the end of the day, 17-year veteran Brian Lopes of San Clemente, Calif., brought home the men's individual event title following an outstanding head-to-head victory over Prokop, the defending Jeep King of the Mountain World Professional Champion, in the day's final Championship Heat. On the women's side, 31-year-old Katrina Miller of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, fought neck and neck with Kintner in the Championship Heat before watching the defending Jeep King of the Mountain World Professional Champion suffer a horrific spill after a 30-foot jump that left her unable to complete the final runs of the day. As a result, Miller walked away with the individual event title.

Despite having their two-race streaks snapped, Prokop and Kintner kept their crowns and were named Jeep King of the Mountain 2006 World Professional Champions based on points earned for their second place finishes in Beaver Creek and first place finishes earlier in the season at San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Elkhart Lake, Wis. The pair will leave Beaver Creek with the keys to a new 2007 Jeep Compass, as well as a healthy share of the record $100,000 case purse for the series.

The athletes at Beaver Creek competed on the Jeep King of the Mountain's innovative Y-Cross racecourse, which was designed by racer Lopes, in one of the industry's first examples of competitor-inspired design. The wily veteran used his many years of racing experience to create a layout that offered both parallel giant slalom and mountain cross racing elements, as well as a number of features such as banked turns, tabletops, step-down jumps and rollers. It was a big hit with the athletes, as well as the fans, during the season's grand finale.

"This was by far one of my favorite racing venues, and we were able to put together a course that had nice slope, technical elements and a little something for everyone," said Lopes. "It was definitely the most challenging one we've faced this season, and the most fun. Hopefully we were able to show the spectators what we can do on our bikes."

Each race of the 2006 Mountain Biking World Professional Championships is televised to a national broadcast audience on CBS Sports, representing the most expansive coverage of professional mountain bike racing in recent history. The race from Beaver Creek will air on CBS Sports on Oct. 8 from 5:00-6:00 p.m. EST.