Weekend re-cap - Johnson City eats and drinks, Highlands

On Saturday, I purposely ended my hard stop early so that we could leave around 11 a.m. and grab a bite to eat in Johnson City, on our way to try out a couple of new-to-us wineries.

 We landed at Pecan Street Brewing Company, apparently just before the lunch rush!

Hubby and I enjoyed a Red Devil Red Ale.  I wish I had taken a pic of our food - I always feel silly doing that, but it was so good!  He had fresh seared tuna on a bed of arugula, and I had the Korean pork ribs with Caesar salad and a side of baked squash.  All of it was wonderful and the wait staff was very friendly!

Just next door is a very tiny winery, owned by a gentleman whose family were close friends to the Johnson family.  As in President Johnson.  In between free tastings of his wines, the owner pulled out memorabilia and photos to show us.  The wine was good and the mini history tour was sweet!  We were the only ones in there, so we had it all to ourselves.

Mr. Hahne is a former attorney who switched gears, studied viticulture, and now grows grapes on his land in Mason. He told us that he handmade all of the wine racks on the walls, and he put that very unusual ceiling in.  He was a nice guy.

 His mother crochets these crosses, and he let me pick one out from a shoebox full of them.  There are several of her crochet tapestries hanging on the walls, and several more in churches in the area.

Next stop was Hye Meadow Winery.  Not nearly as quaint and cozy,  (looks like an event venue) but a very pretty place with much wide open space in the back, friendly people, and live music on the patio.

Lots of big, shady oaks, too. The tastings were very pricey ($20 each!), so we elected to have a glass only, enjoyed out in the back.  I had a nice Dolcetto, Hubby a Montepulciano.  Good wine, but $13 a glass so we only had one.  They have a decent wine club and look like a great place to hang out....we will visit again.

 I so love big oaks and wide open spaces!

Next stop was Lewis Wines. Set off 290 a bit, down a winding road, and not much to look at from the back where you park...

...but as you round the corner, you come into this massive covered area with lots of seating options and check out that chandelier!

Inside, I loved the lighting and the dimensional shiplap wall - in fact I really enjoyed everything about this place.  We thought $15 a tasting was high, so the girl at the bar offered us a mini taste to compare two reds we were interested in.  Tempranillo won out.

 

We took our bottle and some water (so hot out!) to a shady spot overlooking the vineyards and watched storm clouds move over the area.  No rain, though.

 We will definitely visit here again.

Far off tables and chairs = perfect spot to sit and eat a brisket sammie picnic with your wine.  We could have stayed in this neck of the woods - there are many more wineries to try - but it was getting late in the afternoon.

From Johnson City we headed back towards Burnet for a stop at Save The World to put a little bling on our beer club glasses.  They had a New Orleans style food trailer out front, so we bought some crawfish mac and cheese to enjoy with our dinner.

We grilled salmon, butternut squash, and jalapeno poppers.  So good, but so much food! We saved some of the salmon to enjoy with cheese and crackers the next day at lunch while we sat in another random meadow and drank Mr. Hahne's Blanco wine.  For breakfast, we ate at El Rancho - first time in a while.  We got zero chores at Highlands done since it was Father's Day, however, we did bop around the area a bit.

We found a tree that dropped fruit that looks very much like a pomegranate - I will have to look up some info on it.  There is only one tree, but it's pretty big!  We were home by 5 p.m., and I made Mexican Lasagna with a salad and guacamole for Father's Day.  Scout and Dutch came over and we all enjoyed dinner and each others' company.  A nice weekend, and an even better Monday since I was off!