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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
One Dish Wonders: Chez Nous
For SXSW, I hit six restaurants in the festival’s orbit — places worth ducking into for a sit-down meal between shows. Look for all six on Thursday in XL and at austin360.com/food. Until then, here’s a taste:
Chez Nous
Menu du Jour ($25.50), glass of house Cotes de Gascogne white wine ($6)
At Sixth and Neches Streets, just off the carnival midway of the entertainment district, this tiny twinkling light of a French restaurant offers a three-course fixed dinner menu for $25.50, with an appetizer, main course and dessert.
And what a bright surprise it was to find brie cheese as one of three dessert choices. Cheese for dessert is an Old World thing, and Chez Nous (shay noo) knows how to lay it down: a thin wedge about 6 inches long, served with fanned green apple slices and walnuts. Perfect with a cool, honeydewed glass of the house Cotes de Gascogne white.
But speaking of the Old World and other Euro-quirky things, I could have done without the extended version of someone loudly whining the tune to “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” on the sound system, but it eventually segued into a cool Bebel Gilberto groove and stayed there, keeping much more in line with the deft, calm elan of the service staff.
The main courses on the Menu du Jour change with regularity, but on a recent night I skipped past hanger steak with anchovy butter and salmon in a port reduction and picked the fresh and firm ruby trout with crabmeat in champagne beurre blanc sauce. Alongside the fish came pommes dauphine (breaded globes of garlic mashed potatoes) and sautéed zucchini, tomato and yellow squash — all of it served with crusty French bread and the grace to let me enjoy it with the unhurried reverie it deserved.
(Chez Nous is at 510 Neches St. 473-2413, www.cheznousaustin.com. Open 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 6 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Closed Monday.)
Need your SXSW fuel faster? See my street-food sampler Wednesday in the American-Statesman’s Food & Life section and at austin360.com/food.
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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One Dish Wonders: El Sol y La Luna
For SXSW, I hit six restaurants in the festival’s orbit — places worth ducking into for a sit-down meal between shows. Look for all six on Thursday in XL and at austin360.com/food. Until then, here’s a taste:
El Sol y La Luna
Chilaquiles rojos ($5), coffee ($2)
We were just going to do five of these One Dish Wonders until I found out that the mighty Sun and Moon had risen again. You can’t leave out a place that serves eggs and coffee in the morning and enchiladas and top-shelf margaritas after dark, all tucked into a corner between two of Emo’s zillion SXSW music venues.
Pried from its 14-year spot on South Congress Avenue in December, this eclectic home of Austin-style Mexican food reopened just two weeks ago. The El Sol y La Luna menu has always read like a Wikipedia entry on Mexican food, from ceviche to caldo to tacos al pastor to enchiladas de mole.
And now the place is bigger, yellow-er, blue-er and more formal, but the humble breakfast chilaquiles (chee-lah-KEE-lays) plate hasn’t changed a bit. It’s simple: strips of fried corn tortilla topped with a smoky, slightly sweet red (or green) salsa blanketed with jack cheese, broiled until it’s a mass of crunchy, cheesy indulgence that’s more fun than scrambled eggs but not as fussy as nachos.
Served with black beans and a big dab of sour cream, it’s just the right size for a late breakfast, or with chicken for an extra $2, call it lunch.
(El Sol y La Luna is at 600 E. Sixth St. 444-7770, www.elsolylalunaaustin.com. Open 7 a.m. to midnight Tuesday-Thursday; 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday-Saturday; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.)
Need your SXSW fuel faster? See my street-food sampler Wednesday in the American-Statesman’s Food & Life section and at austin360.com/food.
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
