Let’s talk about the Second Street District

Formerly, I was not impressed with the Second Street District. My main beef was that it’s ridiculously hard to park. I get that it’s a mixed-use development and you’re supposed to walk, but say you don’t live there and you still want to shop there–give me just one free parking garage! Bridges on Lamar has a free parking garage for its retail.

My number two beef is that everything closes early. Some of the shops were closed at 6pm! But I think that’s gradually changing, and the restaurants are obviously open.

Also, the shops are all expensive. And they still are. But it seems like they’ve started finding a good mix of high- and lower-priced items, like $34 shoes next to $230 dresses. Plus there’s always Peyton’s Place, which is very reasonable. Today I LOVED Estilo. Obviously, you say, everyone knows Estilo is the place to go. But today there was just the friendliest sales girl, the cutest LBD, and sweet vintage belts from Moss Mills.

I also loved Shiki–friendly salesgirl again, but also some really cute dresses, especially a short green silk jumper-style dress. Hard to describe, but it was precious. I really missed out on the silk romper craze this summer season … but then again, where in the world do you wear a silk romper?! I might have to break my steadfast no-shorts-at-night rule for a silk romper.

I digress. So the new boutique Minx seems pretty cool, but every time I go there it is closed. This includes a random Saturday, today at noon, and tonight at 6pm. Also, they’re already having a sale. If a boutique just opened AND is never open, what can it possibly have to put on sale?! Um, maybe most of its inventory?

Point is, maybe like me you thought Second Street is an expensive place with boutiques with little selection. True. But remember that it’s Austin, and you can roll up shoe-less or whatever and the salespeople will still happily ask you to let them know if you need any help.

Anyway, go shop. Fuel our downtrodden economy…

UPDATE

MINX was open today! I went around 2pm, and the owner, Kate, was there and as sweet as she could be. They also had great summery silk dresses on sale for $120, beautiful bright yellow, shimmery purple, pretty, un-fussy flowers … good stuff. The prices were a good mix, though the cutest things were all expensive, of course. There was good jewelry too. Worth checking out, and hopefully they’ve worked out the kinks of opening hours!