Gallery of Gourdough's

Each day, every city with a Yelp community manager features a Review of the Day for that city. In Yelp-speak, a Review of the Day is also known as a ROTD. A while back, my friend Kimberly coined a tradition amongst the Austin Yelp community called ROTDC, which is a Review of the Day Celebration. If the person who gets Review of the Day wants to celebrate their review, they call an impromptu party at whichever place they'd reviewed for which they'd garnered the ROTD.

On Thursday, Kimberly got ROTD for her utterly hysterical reviews of Gourdough's. Gourdough's is a doughnut trailer which I previously blogged about here and Yelped about here. Kimberly decided to throw a ROTDC party at Gourdough's this morning, so of course it was mandatory to attend. What was great about this gathering is that there were quite a few of us, so we ordered a slew of different doughnuts, and I got photos (and tastes) of all of them. So here, for your drooling pleasure, is a photo gallery of several of Gourdough's offerings.

Starting with the savory doughnuts:

The Flying Pig - Bacon with Maple Syrup Icing


The Mother Clucker - Fried Chicken Strips with Honey Butter. This was INSANELY good. Not too sweet, and the chicken was ridiculously tender and worked beautifully with the buttery, hot, fresh doughnut. Chicken & waffles, move over - we've got chicken & doughnuts.


A special seasonal doughnut, the Gobble Gobble. It's topped with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. We were all sitting around discussing how disgusting this sounded, which for some reason made my husband think he should go purchase one. We ate it. And liked it.

And now for the sweet treats:


The Dirty Berry - Fudge Icing with Grilled Berries. A little sweet for my taste.


The Slow Burn - Habanero Pepper Jelly with Cream Cheese Topping. Tastes pretty much how you might imagine it to taste.


Naughty & Nice - Sugar and Cinnamon. For you old school doughnut fans. Only you may not have ever had one that came out of the fryer five seconds before you ate it. Highly recommend adding some honey butter on the side (pictured).


Margaritaville - Margarita Flavored Filling and Key Lime Icing. Somebody attacked this one before I snapped a pic. Better than it looks (which isn't hard, granted).


Something peach that I can't find on the menu. It reminded me of a Hostess Peach Pie.


The crowning jewel - Mama's Cake - Filled with Yellow Cake Batter (yellow cake batter!!) and topped with Chocolate Fudge. I'm quivering just thinking about this. Or maybe that's my thighs jiggling as a result of eating this...not sure.

We even had sparkling wine to pair with our doughnuts, thanks to the ingenuity of Yelper Hoa N. This practice is highly recommended.



I really can't think of a better way to have kicked off my weekend than a totally over-the-top food outing with some of my favorite Yelp friends. Congrats, Kimberly, on getting ROTD, and throwing a fabulous ROTDC!

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A Yelpaversary Party to Remember

As my profile mentions, the seeds of my food writing were germinated on Yelp.com. My friend Dave first told me about the site in November of 2006; I signed up right away and have since written 519 reviews of restaurants and other businesses on the site. It's been a terrific outlet for sharing my passion for food - and, as it turns out, the Austin Yelp community is full of fun, hilarious, like-minded people with whom I thoroughly enjoy spending time. Needless to say, the site and its community have been a big part of my life for the last couple of years.

Austin is one of I think 24 cities that has its very own Yelp community manager, the one and only Kevin N. Besides handling a busload of details behind the scenes, part of Kevin's job is to throw fabulous parties for the Austin Yelp community. Many of these parties are open to all registered Yelp members (or "Yelpers," as we are wont to call ourselves), but the large majority of them are only open to Elite Yelp members and their guests. I tend to enjoy those parties the most; the smaller scale makes it easier to find and visit with your favorite Yelpers, and the larger shindigs have become so crowded that it can get a little overwhelming.

The most recent Yelp Elite event, this past Tuesday, celebrated the two(ish) year mark of our existence as an "official" Yelp community (as defined by our having our own community manager). Kevin pulled out all the stops for this one; it was the best Yelp party yet. Hosted at Finn & Porter's in the Hilton downtown, it featured a smorgasbord of absolutely fantastic food; Maker's Mark cocktails and wine; spa treatments by the Hilton spa staff; and live music by the Dime Store Poets. All free! Everyone got all gussied up and had a wonderful time...I know I certainly did. Below are a few shots from the event.

Yelpers decked out in their finest


Hello, copious amounts of free sushi.


Shrimp bathing in tomato bisque


Lobster salad on fried pasta sheets


Some of the most melt-in-your-mouth beef tenderloin
I have ever tasted

Amazing free food & drink and the delightful company of some of the coolest people I've had the great fortune to meet...this is why I Yelp.

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