CNN Grill - Part 2: Max's Wine Dive

Despite my better judgement I returned to downtown on the last Saturday of SXSW.  After taking the MetroRail and walking to a free show, we found ourselves hungry and tired.  With Thursday's memories of the CNN Grill fresh on our minds we headed back to the Convention Center.  I'll admit I was terrified it would take too long and we would miss the last train back, but the pull of Anderson Cooper 360 quesadillas (you know, because they're round), Piers Morgan fish and chips, Jane Velez-Mitchell nachos, and the Larry King corned beef sandwich was too much to resist.  What did we see as we rounded the corner?

Max's Wine Dive was back.  This article from the Austin Chronicle explains the CNN Grill/Max's switch.

That was fine with me as I had been wanting to eat at Max's for some time.  I just didn't want to go there tired and wearing an Evil Dead shirt.  Max's is known for their fried chicken so that was my clear choice for dinner.

It was an excellent meal, and I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture before we destroyed the plate.  The plate came with three pieces of chicken (breast, thigh, leg), mashed potatoes, collard greens, Texas toast, and a serving of honey.  The coating was outstanding.  It had a very homemade crunch and consistency.  It was like fried chicken you might get at a church picnic.  Even the breast meat was very juicy and it wasn't in a greasy way.  The toast was crunchy, buttery, and all around awesome.  The honey was a nice touch for dipping the chicken.

Drumstick dipped in honey and eaten

The potatoes and greens were really nothing special, and while the chicken was very good, like the potatoes it could have used more salt.  It was a very good meal and a nice enough place to take a date or go be fancy with your friends, but not very economical if you want to feed your family fried chicken.  I would still recommend Bill Miller for that.  I hope to make it back there when I'm not tired and worn out and actually have some wine/drinks with it.

Their fried chicken meal was enough to feed both my wife and me.  I wanted to ask the waitress if people routinely order one dinner for each person, and assure her that we aren't cheap, we just can't eat that much.


Video of the Max's Wine Dive to CNN Grill switch.

CNN Grill - Part 1

Prior to this past week I had never attended anything at SXSW.  However one day last week I was wandering around downtown Austin with my girlfriend in a haze of Coors Light and Lone Star when we stumbled on the CNN SXSW Grill in place of Max's Wine Dive.  We were pretty impressed.  The building had a large, rotating, and seemingly permanent sign.  I thought Austin had really arrived when major news organizations are opening up restaurants in the middle of downtown.  Max's had a good run, but you can't stop the Nancy Grace, you can only hope to contain her (incidentally Nancy is now another person who insists on dressing like Han Solo).

Not really wanting to brave the crowds who were surely inside taking pictures with Bernard Shaw and Wolf Blitzer cardboard cutouts, we headed across the street to a soft drink sponsored party zone knowing we would be back to the CNN Grill on another day.

To be continued.