In much the same fashion as LL Cool J, Randall Stockton has exhibited typical resilience with the announcement of his latest venture: Sputnik, a burger and hot dog shop located in the old room that hosted The Good Knight.

He faces considerable challenges with this venture.

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It's rare that we visit a restaurant on the first day they've opened.

We much prefer to give the staff and management a few months to sort things out, shed the inevitable kinks and get the machine running smoothly.

But we have no way of knowing today is the first day of business for Gary Figueroa's little food cart; G's 183 Pit Stop on the side of US 183 just south of the Hwy 71 Interchange.

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In The Onions' A.V Club hamburger review series; Cattle Crawl, writer Erik Adams has given Casino El Camino a perfect score of four stomachs.

We wonder if he he has some sort of time machine that has transported him back to the late 90's when Casino was still punching their own french fries, slicing their own buns and putting out high quality hamburgers?

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The workers at The Shack Corner Store are determined to keep the shop spic and span.

Very determined.

As I place my order for a burger, one gentleman begins knocking the tops of my boots with a broom.

I shift a foot or so to the side.

"Sorry man I gotta clean."

Back in Alabama you don't want to ever sweep around a Black man's feet. According to lore that means you're trying to get him sent to the pen.

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Every cafe has an identity and while it's certainly true that the standout comestibles at this tiny luncheonette are the tacos of Alma and Maria, the ladies also turn out an accomplished burger.

I go for the full hamburguesa style here with bacon, pico de gallo, queso blanco, avocado and salsa verde. The patty is the thin, flat top style so extreme garnish work is recommended.

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When New Orleans native Ryan Marks bought Quacks Maplewood a couple years ago he inherited a huge mess.

The cafe was broken.

I love ramshackle, old, beat up joints, but they have to have a certain charm, however rugged that may be.

Quacks was charm free.

The patio was gross with old, rickety chairs featuring nails poking out everywhere, a few tiny, resolutely uncomfortable pic nic tables and sightings of racoons that exhibited all signs of being rabid or perhaps suffering from distemper.

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Arkie's Grill, open since 1948 on Austin's lower east side, has fallen on hard times.

I've always been of the opinion that the little diner is about 5 or 600 miles too far west.

It's really more of a southern restaurant what with all the butter beans, fried chicken and biscuits and gravy on the menu. That is until you order sweet tea and are handed a few packets of sugar to go with your tumbler.

If that don't knock you out of your Deep South reverie nothing will.

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It's rare that I invoke the memory of my grandmother when I'm eating in a honky tonk. But such is the case at Moe's Lounge.

Walking in at lunchtime the smell is invigorating. Potatoes frying, hamburgers sizzling and just a touch of Pall Malls off in the distance. It reminds me of old times...before the puritans came along in Austin and a lot of other places. Thankfully the good folks of Taylor are enlightened and have kept the doctrinaires out of their bar owners' affairs.

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When the Stanish family opened Top Notch in 1971, Richard Linklater was a snot nosed kid growing up in Houston Texas over two decades away from making Dazed and Confused, the film that followed Slacker's putting Austin's profligate lifestyle of sleeping all day, smoking weed and eating tacos....lots of tacos-on the national map.

Dazed and Confused also put Top Notch on that same map with Matthew McConaughey's pivotal scene providing a rallying point for cinephiles to this day, almost 20 years later.

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Often times when you're in serious research mode you have to travel afield to glean the finest prospects of the given category.

While the history of the building Randy's Ice House dwells within goes all the way to 1950 you've only been able to kick back with a cold beer since 1977.

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