EE Explores: Palentine’s Day Adventure

Mylo Bissell, Editor-in-Chief|March 4, 2020

Kaia Newton

“With a wonderful view of downtown from across the lake and plenty of friendly dogs running around it quickly becomes a wonderful places to sit and take a break with friends.”

When people think of Valentine’s day, they tend to default to romantic love but something that is equally as important is to appreciate the platonic relationships in your life. Humans by nature are social and friendships are a vital part of maintaining good mental health. So where do we go to celebrate our friends on Valentine’s day? South Congress is a great place to go! With tons of different stores to wander in and out of as well as a wide variety of meal options it’s a good place to start with options on where to go depending on your willingness to explore.

There are few things that bring people together like pizza. It’s one of those foods that has all the components of good food, warmth, cheese with a good pull, the tartness of the sauce. It’s a food that makes people smile and few places in town have managed to perfect it like Homeslice pizza. Homeslice Pizza opened in 2005 and they “vow, humbly and with devotion, to make the world a better place one slice at a time,” as stated on their website. These NY-style slices offer pure elation with each bite and are something to be thoroughly enjoyed. At $23 dollars for a signature pie as well as a custom one topping large, this is a great price especially for that area of town. Both the white pie with spinach as well as eggplant pie and of course age old pepperoni are all wonderful.

While most only think of it as a wonderful festival venue here in the live music capital of the world, it’s actually a wonderful place to have a picnic when there’s nothing going on. With a wonderful view of downtown from across the lake and plenty of friendly dogs running around it quickly becomes a wonderful places to sit and take a break with friends. Grab food from any of the places listed above and bring a blanket with you and boom! A perfect picnic for all your friends to enjoy.

There is a lot about being on South Congress that is deeply enjoyable, but the experience of going into Big Top Candy Shop in unparalleled. The look is styled in a way that immediately makes it exciting turning every person into a kid in a literal candy store as soon as they cross the threshold. The vintage register, the old school soda fountains behind the bar, but the pièce de résistance is the candy by the pound. Splitting the back of the store into half gummy and half chocolate you can fill your bag, though they charge by the quarter pound. This is a place where the cost can quickly add up but grabbing a little of all your favorites is more than worth it.

Torchy’s taco has an incredibly accurate slogan. It’s damn good. Tacos are almost a type of soul food in Texas . It’s checks all those boxes: fats, carbs, and cheese. Plus once you get into some of their specialty items like the fried avocado taco it checks that fried food box making things even better than before. Grabbing a nice variety of tacos and splitting the costs makes for a pretty affordable evening.