Austin in full swing

There is also a slew of new restaurants that wouldn't look out of place in Brooklyn or Portland and first-class food trucks parked on almost every block. Over on the up-and-coming East Side (a less hectic, more low-key version of Shoreditch a decade ago), a weekend farmers' market and cool craft breweries are as much a part of the scene as the piñata shops and dive bars that have been here for years. And instead of big-name fashion brands dominating the main shopping district, SoCo (south of the Congress Bridge, home to 1.5 million bats that fly out to feed at sundown), it's packed with independent stores selling home-grown labels and vintage gems.

Superstars such as Eminem and Calvin Harris fly in for Austin City Limits, the other big annual music festival, and rub shoulders with local legends playing honky-tonk and a traditional two-stepping crowd at the renowned Continental Club. Friendly Austinites really do fly the flag for Texan hospitality; don't be surprised if you find yourself accidentally gatecrashing a birthday party or having dinner bought for you. They are an outdoorsy bunch who spend their downtime swimming in Barton Springs, chilling out at Zilker Park or kayaking on pretty Lady Bird Lake, which slices the city from west to east.

The balance in Austin has certainly shifted somewhat over the last decade. There's a palpable buzz about the place and a sense that it's moving forward but without losing any of its kooky charm.

Where to eat & drink

The East Side

Every Sunday the Hope Farmers Market takes over Plaza Saltillo. Bluegrass and indie groups play on the bandstand, hammocks swing in the breeze and food stalls sell everything from kimchi to vegan cupcakes displayed under bell jars. www.hopefarmersmarket.org

At weekend the queue spills out the door at Hillside Farmacy, a 1950s drugstore turned restaurant. The setting is industrial chic: a monochrome pentagon-patterned floor, old- fashioned weighing scales, tin lights and original cabinets filled with bottles of wine. Go for the piled-high fried-egg sandwich. +1 512 628 0168; www.hillsidefarmacy.com. About £55 for two

Pierre and Justine Pelegrin originally opened French brasserie Justine's as somewhere to hang out with their friends. Now it's a neighbourhood favourite (people come for dinner and stay until 2am). The menu is full of classics - steak tartare, moules frites, endive-and-Roquefort salad - and there's a courtyard with tables and fairy lights. Jovial Pierre is usually behind the bar, choosing the records and chatting. +1 512 385 2900; www.justines1937.com. About £50 for two

Salt & Time is the only whole-animal butcher shop in Austin, selling cuts from sustainable Texan ranches; it's a salumeria, restaurant and bar, too. Tuck into a salumi board with chorizo, salami and cured pork loin while sipping a Pale Dog ale from craft brewer Hops & Grain served by bearded boys in denim shirts. +1 512 524 1383; www.saltandtime.com. About £50 for two

Star chef Paul Qui's flagship restaurant Qui was the hottest East Side opening of the last few years. (He won Top Chef: Texas three years ago and also oversees the three East Side King food trailers.) Grab a table on the terrace and eat delicious crispy pig's head and amberjack ceviche from the Filipino street food menu. Or sit inside and watch chefs in the open kitchen prepare Texas wagyu beef and cheddar-cheese ice cream with waffles for dessert. +1 512 436 9626; www.quiaustin.com. About £85 for two

In a residential-looking grey house with no obvious sign, cocktail bar Weather Up is easily missed. Prop up at the curving copper bar to drink a Count Basie (tequila, whisky, fresh lime and tangerine-habanero syrup) or hang out in the garden at the back. +1 512 524 0464; www.weatherupnyc.com

Step through the red velvet curtains into stripped-back East Side Showroom and order a Southern Belle (bourbon, honey, lemon and elderflower) from the waistcoat-wearing mixologist. Gypsy-jazz bands play at weekends. +1 512 467 4280; www.eastsideshowroom.com

The best food trucks in this area are linked to dive bars. There's Veracruz Taco House (Via 313 beside the Violet Crown for square pizzas eaten on benches. For the best brisket, join the queue for Franklin Barbecue on E11th Street.

South Lamar & South 1st

Elizabeth Street Café is part of Larry McGuire's mini restaurant empire, which also includes Perla's, a New England-style oyster bar on Congress Avenue. This French-Vietnamese coffee shop, bakery/restaurant has turquoise shutters and a candyfloss pink door. Feast on fried rice with crispy redfish or drunken noodles with sausage, jalapeño and mushrooms. +1 512 291 2881; www.elizabethstreetcafe.com. About £40 for two

Owned by five friends (three of them chefs), former food truck Odd Duck reopened as a restaurant at the end of 2013 when the car park it was in was sold to developers. Eat shared plates at the bar, which is dotted with boxes of herbs and jars of pickles, in front of the open kitchen. The crab with French toast is amazing. +1 512 433 6521; www.oddduckaustin.com. About £60 for two

Elote (corn) at La Condesa

A stalwart of the Austin food scene, Uchi is the classic choice for a smart sushi supper. The interior has botanical wallpaper, wicker lights and teak; the food includes a 10-course chef's tasting menu. Uchiko is its newer, less formal sister on North Lamar. +1 512 916 4808; www.uchiaustin.com. About £80 for two

Downtown

At modern-Mexican joint La Condesa, the huevos Condesa - layers of double-yolk fried eggs, bacon and chicken pieces on a base of potatoes and greens - sounds like it shouldn't work. But it does, especially after one too many tequilas the night before. +1 512 499 0300; www.lacondesa.com. About £55 for two

Avoid the strip known as Dirty 6th (it's full of college kids and shot bars) unless you're heading to Easy Tiger, a low-key bakery and German beer garden with table tennis near Waller Creek. The thing to order is a salted pretzel as big as your head. +1 512 614 4972; www.easytigeraustin.com. About £15 for two

Clarksville

Josephine House is a cute neighbourhood spot for ladies who lunch (and brunch). There's a marble counter laid out with cheeses, charcuterie and salads (try the freekeh-and-artichoke) or you can order lamb empanadas and grilled cheese sandwiches from the kitchen. Most of the vegetables are grown in the restaurant's garden, which explains why everything tastes so fresh. +1 512 477 5584; www.josephineofaustin.com. About £50 for two

North Loop

A Scandi-looking café and grocery with white chairs around beech tables and copper lights overhead, Epicerie is open for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, when the menu includes shrimps and grits and buttermilk pancakes. There's a jazz soundtrack, and piles of beignets and crumbly light shortbread by the till. +1 512 371 6840; www.epicerieaustin.com. About £45 for two.

The focus is the food at no-frills restaurant Foreign & Domestic, owned by chef Ned Bryce. Whatever you order - a pretty plate of carrot butter with soft egg and spring vegetables; lamb shoulder with leeks - ask for a popover on the side. It's a bit like a Yorkshire pudding with Gruyère cheese sprinkled on top. +1 512 459 1010; www.fndaustin.com. About £60 for two

Rainey Street

One of the buzziest nightlife spots of the moment, this street is mostly lined with wooden bungalows that have been turned into bars. Some are chilled, others rock with live music every night, but the kingpins are cocktail bar Half Step (www.halfstepbar.com) and Container Bar (www.austincontainerbar.com), a series of stacked up containers, all decorated differently inside and linked by walkways around an outdoor terrace.

Where to shop

The East Side

Take Heart is the place for homeware and gifts handmade in the USA: botanical candles from Seattle; pottery by Vermont artist Jeremy Ayers.

Helm Boots has been designing leather and suede footwear for men in its Austin studio since 2009 and opened a shop two years ago. It also sells accessories, including leather and canvas bags, wallets and shaving soap by other independent brands. The 913 Collective is split into five spaces.

Most interesting are Farewell Books for photography, art and design coffee-table publications and Las Cruxes, which stocks mens- and womenswear, jewellery and LPs. There's a record player so you can listen before you buy.

Housed in a pretty bungalow, Friends & Neighbors has Indonesian and African textiles in a cupboard in the hall, beauty products in the bathroom, lingerie in the bedroom and pottery in the living room. Pick up a cup of Stumptown coffee from the grocery in the kitchen on the way out.

Pastel-coloured paper flowers are strung up along the porch outside Charm School Vintage. It's a second-hand treasure trove with sparkly dresses hanging from the ceiling, tightly coiled leather belts squeezed into an upended crate and cowboy boots on a bookshelf. Ink illustrations line one wall and there are Polaroids in the makeshift changing room.

Solid Gold stocks great independent fashion labels, including Mary Meyer from Brooklyn and San Francisco's Curator, and jewellery by local designers. In the same space is Busy Being, for homeware: chopping boards, aprons and woven, hand-dyed tapestry wall hangings.

Stylist Laura Uhlir opened Olive, named after the family dog, in a little white building last year. It has recently moved to a new location up the block and has a mix of vintage and new womenswear on the rails.

Traveller Denim looks like a log cabin, with floor-to-ceiling wood panelling, but is the go-to spot for custom jeans. Choose the material from rolls on the wall; trousers are hemmed to your spec on the Singer sewing machine at the back.

South Congress & around

There are around a dozen vintage stores on this stretch but the best is Feathers, which also sells its own line made from old textiles.

Cutting-edge Blackmail specialises in black clothing by three Austin labels: Sisters of the Black Moon, Alchemy and designer-owner Gail Chovan - with a handful of white pieces thrown in. There's also punk-style jewellery by Rima Hyena and Chase & Scout.

For better known names, By George stocks Isabel Marant, Rag & Bone and Alexander Wang. South Congress Books sells mostly second-hand tomes, as well as niche magazines and original music posters.

For menswear, hit Stag and Service, where the owners wash all the denim so it's pre-shrunk before it goes on the shop-floor.

The most gorgeous homeware and lifestyle brands in town are Spartan and JM Drygoods, which share a space on South Lamar. There are ceramics, print cushions and Mexican imports, including linen shirts, striped rebozo scarfs and Oaxaca rugs.

Where to stay

The East Side

Heywood is the only hotel in this part of town. From the outside it looks like a normal house with a couple of swing seats on the porch, but at the back of this seven-room hideout there's a fantastic contemporary extension and deck. Rooms have wooden floors softened by monochrome rugs and exposed brickwork behind the beds (some also have a tiny private terrace with a fairy-light-sprinkled trellis) and there's a hotchpotch of textiles and prints by Texan artists. In the morning borrow bicycles to ride to Cenote, a lovely café five minutes down the road, for breakfast. +1 512 271 5522; www.heywoodhotel.com. Doubles from around £135

South Congress

Formerly a rundown motel, Hotel San José is now a hangout for SoCo locals who come in the evenings to drink sake and beer in the lush courtyard while a DJ spins mellow tunes. There's a tiny pool and a wing behind it with three suites right in the middle of the action. Rooms have original, rough-around-the-edges concrete and tiled floors, gorgeous duvet covers made from sewn-together Indian Maharaja Me sheets (buy them at reception) and stripy kimonos in the bathrooms. +1 512 852 2360; www.sanjosehotel.com. Doubles from around £125

By far the most rock'n'roll address in Austin, Saint Cecilia - named after the patron saint of musicians - has been a sanctuary for creatives since it opened six years ago. The sitting room has black leather sofas, a stuffed white peacock on the bar and a smoke-stained wall above the log-burning fireplace; it permanently looks like there's been a debauched party the night before. On the terrace there's a neon 'Soul' sign by local artist Evan Voyles and French-café-style wicker chairs and tables. Of the five rooms in the original 1800s mansion (the poolside bungalows are in new buildings), Suite 1 is particularly cool. +1 512 852 2400; www.hotelsaintcecilia.com. Doubles from about £225

Kimber Modern is an award-winning modernist building with a cluster of bedrooms named by colour and arranged in order of the rainbow around a triangular courtyard. This place is groovy and arty: Perspex boxes by Margo Sawyer on the walls; surreal rabbit paintings by Marfa-based artist Martha Gannon above the beds. Help yourself to breakfast in the open-plan kitchen and wine during happy hour every afternoon. The owners are opening a second, bigger outpost next year on Rainey Street. +1 512 912 1046; www.kimbermodern.com. Doubles from about £225

Judges' Hill

A Greek Revival-style mansion 10 minutes' drive from downtown, Hotel Ella recently reopened after a revamp. The rooms in the historic main building feel grander than the two annexes at the back, which overlook the new pool, but they all share a modern vibe: dark wood wardrobes, plush armchairs and curved bedside lights. On Saturday nights Goodall's restaurant, named after the original owners who were given the house as a wedding present, heaves with a grown-up crowd tucking into buttermilk fried chicken. The hotel's Cadillac can ferry you to nearby sights. +1 512 495 1800; www.hotelella.com. Doubles from around £155

Getting there

British Airways (+44 844 493 0787; www.ba.com) flies daily from Heathrow to Austin.

This feature was first published in Condé Nast Traveller April 2015

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