A couple of the guys I went to high school with live in Austin, so we try to meet for lunch once a month or so to catch up. We’re always on the look out for good Mexican food, since we were raised on the border. There was a place in Pharr, supposedly the first place in the country to serve fajitas on the menu, back in the 70’s, called “The Roundup”. They had something they called a “Botana” platter which was basically a huge platter, served family style, with fried corn tortilla chips, 1/2 chips, with re-fried beans, cheese, fajitas, and guacamole and jalapenos. We’ve yet to find a place that has that exact thing but I heard that Maudie’s had something similar so we decided to meet at the north location to see what their “Botana” like platter would be like.
Wade and Avrel, the two buddies that I was meeting with that afternoon, showed up and we sat down and ordered. After a bit, I noticed Avrel, kept giving me a funny look, and I couldn’t figure out what he was doing. He then started whispering to me and I still couldn’t figure out what he was saying…finally I leaned over and he whispered in my ear that Dale Watson was sitting at the table right behind us.
I turned around and sure enough, there he was….I could hear his deep voice cutting through all of the other noise around us. Dale Watson is an Austin legend. His side burns and deep voice fit perfectly in this town. I’ve seen him a few times over the years, and he’s been on Austin City Limits.
Anyway, we waited for the right moment and then I just turned around and introduced myself and my friends and we took a quick picture. Ends up he was in town for SXSW that week. Super nice guy and a great songwriter and musician!
The fajita platter was pretty good too….we’re still on the look out though!