The Wander List: Will Landing Members Adam and Roxanna Call Austin Home?

Where would you live if you could live anywhere? After their LA jobs became remote, Landing members Adam and Roxanna realized they could find a forever home in any city they wanted. But there was one problem—they had no idea where that was. 

In our new video series, “The Wander List,” Adam, Roxanna, and their dog Fin travel the U.S. in search of their “soul city.” Along the way, they live like locals and seek out hidden gems in each city, sharing the best spots they find and their take on the city’s vibes. 

The trio’s first destination? Austin, Texas! Check out their video below, or read on to learn how they liked living in Austin, where they found the perfect cup of coffee, and whether they’ll call it home or keep on traveling: 

Getting to Austin

We started our adventure by packing the car to its absolute limit. Adam made a rule that we could only bring what fit in the car, and Roxanna bought a giant roof rack for the extra shoes that didn’t fit. Compromise! 

Our goal was to get out there and experience the city’s outstanding food, great live music, and general weirdness, with the ultimate goal of feeling like we had lived in Austin like locals instead of just visiting as tourists. 

To be completely honest, we were a bit nervous about signing a lease without first having walked through the unit and seen the neighborhood. There were a lot of unknowns, but it was also exciting! That energy kept us going along our road trip (the incredible biscuits and gravy at Gralehaus on our stop through Louisville helped, too). 

Once we arrived, our check-in at our Landing went smoothly. A little too smoothly? We thought there had to be some sort of hiccup or some detail we must have forgotten to ask about. Nope! Our host met us at the apartment and showed us the ropes while Fin gave the place a good sniff-over. It all checked out! We made it. It really can be that easy, and the place was great. 

We knew Landing’s apartments come fully furnished, but they are also stocked with essentials like linens, pots, and pans, along with fast Wi-Fi. It actually is living-ready! And the small details you almost don’t think of, like a paper towel holder, scissors, and a TV with Netflix all loaded up, made it easy for us to move in and get settled right away. 

Exploring Austin

Initial impressions 

From there, we immediately started to get to know our new city and get a sense of our neighborhood and its vibes by walking around on foot. The first thing we noticed is how friendly everyone was. We struck up a conversation with probably five people on that first walk. Most of them were about Fin, but still, we met some very lovely people and got the feeling that it was a very dog-friendly town. 

We both work remote jobs with offices on the West Coast, so that meant our working hours are noon to 8 p.m. Austin time, leaving our mornings wide open for wandering. 

Austin is home to a ton of great outdoor spaces. We loved picnicking and playing frisbee with Fin near the Texas State Capital (it’s also really cool inside. If you ever have a chance to go, make sure you look up at the ceiling!), hiking along the Barton Creek Greenbelt (so many great trails!) and hiking up to Mount Bonnell (a perfect place to watch the sunset).

Our favorite days in Austin were the Saturday mornings we spent wandering around eating and making friends at the Barton Creek Farmers Market, one of our favorite farmers’ markets in Austin. Our favorite nights were the ones we spent at Alamo Drafthouse, which shows the best movies and even has bottomless popcorn bowls. 

Boggy Creek Farm 

When we go to a new city, we like to do as much research as possible in advance to find great food, activities, and hikes, but my favorite finds always come from local recs. We want to know where the barista at the coffee shop loves to get breakfast tacos (it’s Tacodeli), and where the cashier at the local HEB hangs out on the weekend (either Mozart’s Coffee or Mayfield Park). Our favorite hidden gems in new cities are places you’d never find on TripAdvisor or Yelp, and that’s what makes them special. 

Some new Austin friends of ours (we told you, very friendly people here) told us we just had to visit Boggy Creek Farm, a family-run farm in East Austin, so naturally, that was our next stop. When our friends told us about the farm, we got ready to drive 20 miles outside the city, but it was actually right in East Austin, less than a 10-minute drive away from downtown Austin. When we walked in, Carol Ann and Tracy, the owners, were both busy tending the farm but immediately said, “Hello” and made us feel welcome. They took the time to show us around and taught us about Boggy Creek’s amazing history. 

The best part was The Farm Stand. It was kind of like a booth at a farmers market, but you can literally see where the carrots or lettuce you’re buying was grown. That’s something really special! 

Cooking classes!

We also took a virtual pasta-making class that our friends shared with us. After signing up, we realized it was with an Italian family we had visited in their home years before on our first trip to Italy! It’s small happenstances things like this that remind us we’re exactly where we need to be, doing exactly what we should be doing—almost as if the universe set it up for us. Making friends all over the world is one of the best parts of traveling. 

Another amazing coincidence is when Roxanna signed us up for a coffee and cheese pairing class at Antonelli’s Cheese Shop, Adam realized he worked on a commercial for them years earlier. The class was amazing. Cheese and coffee—what’s not to love? 

Sampling Austin’s food and coffee scenes

We definitely want to settle down somewhere with a great food and drink scene, so we spent a ton of time in Austin checking out new restaurants and coffee shops for “research.” 

Something we try to practice is not forcing a moment to happen. So when the restaurant we planned to have dinner at closed early, we weren’t deterred—but we were hungry. We ended up stumbling into a tiny sit-down restaurant nearly by accident, called APT. 115. There was maybe one other table occupied in a 10-table dining room, and we were taken on a curated food tour by their brilliant chef. It turns out they had only recently introduced food to what had mostly been a wine bar and hired a young chef ready to make his mark. Well, he did on us! The service was top-notch, and the food was exquisite and unique—a perfect spot for a nice date!

Some of our other favorites were: 

• Home Slice: This place serves some seriously good pizza.
• Franklin BBQ: This barbecue restaurant is a true Austin classic. If you didn’t wait in line at Franklin, did you even go to Austin?
• Veracruz All Natural: This place was my personal pick for the best tacos in Austin 
• Soup Peddler: This was our go-to lunch spot.
• Swedish Hill: Get the pimento cheese, guacamole, and chips, and thank us later!
• Bento Picnic: It was a little bit of a wild card, but we loved it here! 
• Briscuits: This was Adam’s No. 1 pick for Austin food
• Better Half: This was a perfect spot for a more casual date night (order the cauli tots!) 
• Patrizi’s: We might move to Austin just for proximity to our favorite Italian food! 

If we had to pick one on this list, check out Patrizi’s, no question! It’s located at The Vortex, a shared artist space where there’s often music, a bonfire, local kitties roaming, and a bar. To us, our experience here really encapsulated what Austin is—fun, delicious, friendly, and, of course, a little bit weird! 

We looooveee coffee (also known as the lifeblood) and were so impressed with Austin’s coffee scene We couldn’t believe how many great coffee shops we found, and each of these spots has coffee we went back for more than once: 

• Mañana: This spot was a little hard to find but so worth it. 
• Merit Coffee: I had the best matcha latte of my life here. 
• Greater Goods Coffee Roasters: You’ll want to take home a bag of beans the coffee is so good. 
• Flat Track Coffee: This place is special, trust me. 

But, the single best coffee we’ve ever had in our life (and we drink a lot of coffee!) is Desnudo Coffee. It’s run by three incredible humans, Sergio, Juan, and SK, who are trying to do some good in the world through their coffee. We first found their coffee pop-up at the Barton Creek Farmers Market, then they opened a coffee truck of their own, which is now our favorite place in Austin. 

The first time we tried their coffee, it was the last cup of a rare blend they brought back from Colombia themselves. It was enlightening. I thought, “Is this what coffee is supposed to taste like?” Desnudo Coffee is the only coffee I’ve ever preferred to drink black because it’s that good. Oh, and if you don’t live in Austin, you can order their beans online to see for yourself. 

The verdict! 

So, will we call Austin “home?” Maybe! We loved Austin, but feel like if our first city was this great, what else is out there? For us, it’s a bit early to know. We’re only at the start, which is an incredibly exciting, nervous, exhausting, and adventurous feeling. We still have many cities to see before we can declare a winner. 

Our goal was to leave Austin feeling like we lived there instead of just visiting for a while. We absolutely accomplished that. Whether we move there or not, we’d come back to visit Austin in a heartbeat. 

So, we packed our things, checked out of our Landing, and headed to our next destination: Nashville. Check out our blog post about our experience in Music City to see whether it’s the soul city we’ve been searching for.

Looking for a new place to call home?

If you’re on a journey to find your own “soul city,” Landing offers fully furnished apartments in over 375 cities throughout the U.S., all with flexible lease terms that let you live there for as long as it takes to decide whether it’s the right place for you—and easy transfers that let you move on to the next city on your terms. Learn more about what a Landing membership can do for you, and browse our apartments today!