Creeks is the restaurant in the lobby of that circular Hilton you see at Bergstrom Airport.
Have you ever driven by that circular buidling and ever wondered what it is like inside?
I did that like from the first week I moved to Austin.
It was an Air Force HQ at the time.
Going inside was always on my bucket list.
To write this review, I did just that.
The Circular Hilton looks just as cool inside as you think it would.
And Creeks restaurant in the dead center of the circle is a fine place.
But now that that is out of my system I don't have to go back again.
* * *
There is some serious architecture inside the Airport Hilton.
This will appeal to people like me who love designs in structural steel.
(Think about what the Eiffel Tower looks like as you go up the stairs.)
In this case, the design touch is single steel pillars turning into quadruple steel columnar pillars holding up a large glass dome with steel divisions between the panes.
The visual effect is breathtaking.
The visual effect would be even more breathtaking
If there were not a stupid hotel bar in the middle of the atrium with a lot of Sports TVs that block 2/3 of the view.
But the Hilton people have to actually run a hotel.
The overwhelming majority of their customers want to order drinks at the bar, eat a snack or a meal and watch Sports TV.
Very few of them want to go hungry while staring up at structural steel in meditative contemplation.
My best attempts at meditative contemplation fell woefully short ...
So I just tossed in the towel and watched Sports TV.
It was an afternoon in the middle of the week so a bunch of talking heads were giving their opinion on a variety of NBA players.
Well, they were emotional enough to be entertaining. Some of the video clips were okay.
* * *
Foodwise, Creeks is not too bad.
It is hotel food at hotel prices.
I am not sure how well they are set up for kitchen space.
(Although most hotels do a lot of catering.)
The menu is kept manage-ably small.
The prices for the food were slightly high but not disturbingly high.
(Foreshadowing ........
I did however have to park my car.
You can guess where this review is going to go.)
I ordered a plate of nachos.
The bar nachos were decent.
To justify the mark-up, they were served in a long narrow canoe-like serving dish.
The graphic was appealing.
The quantity was more than enough for lunch.
Even with the large bar-kiosk in the center of the floor,
I could still see a good quarter of the roof.
So there were things to see when I would get bored with basketball chatter.
* * *
Remember this is the airport.
I had to drive through a gate and get a ticket in order to enter the hotel parking lot.
The staff explained that the gate wouldn't be an issue and I could just push a button to get out.
Well, maybe I did things wrong.
But going to the gate I found that it was going to cost me an extra $12 to get out of the parking lot.
That on top of the hotel prices on the nachos.
So this was not a cheap outing.
* * *
The inside of the Airport Hilton is still something to see.
The food they serve in the atrium is not too bad.
Ride your bike to the Hilton, walk from your house to the Hilton, or take the Hilton limo from the terminal if your flight to Austin has just landed.
Driving there and parking is only for people who really really really love lobby-gazing. read more