Home > Forklore > Archives > 2009 > August
August 2009
‘Yes We’re Open’ Report #1
• Open: P. Terry’s Burger Stand, the third location of the popular local chain, at 4228 W. William Cannon Drive (www.pterrys.com).
• Open: Food for Life, a retail food store and cafe featuring only foods that are gluten-free and casein-free at 2051 Cypress Creek Road, Suite L, Cedar Park (331-0096, www.gfcfcuisine.com).
• Open: Moo Moo’s Mini Burgers, a hamburger-and-shake trailer at 903 S. Lamar Blvd.
• Open: Justine’s, a French-inspired bistro in a 1937 house at 4710 E. Fifth St. (385-2900, www.justines1937.com).
• Open: Bob & Mike’s Chicken, a locally owned restaurant specializing in fried and grilled chicken tenders at 10515 N. MoPac Blvd. (Loop 1), No. A-155, in the Shops at Arbor Walk. (244-2536, bobandmikes.com).
(P. Terry’s rendering by Michael Hsu Design Office; Moo Moo’s photo by Mike Sutter)
Good drinks: Margarita flight at Roaring Fork Stonelake
The Roaring Fork, which I reviewed today in our Austin360 magazine, is a cowboy place at heart. Lots of smoke, chiles and grilled meat, with side dishes in cast-iron kettles. But at the Stonelake location, you’re not bludgeoned by the Texas kitsch that “decorates” the downtown location.
The bar could have been taken from almost any nice place with a lake view and patio seating, its horseshoe-shaped red banquettes and modern light fixtures a New American canvas for whatever you want.
No matter. How cowboy could I get with my itty-bitty margaritas, anyway? I’m talking about the frozen margarita flight, with tasters of the huckleberry, house lime and mango blends ($8, $6 during happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m. daily). It’s served in a wire boat that holds three tall shot glasses, like the kamikazes you used to power-slam on Spring Break at Padre.
The huckleberry has no real discernible flavor of its own, but the swirling red paints a pretty picture. The house lime margarita tastes strong and slightly sweet with a big lime pucker. The mango tastes the most like its color, a bright orange burst of straight-up mango puree. All three pack a punch. A punch from three cute little fists in a stainless-steel canoe, but still.
And maybe it’s just me, but the average customer here seems five or 10 years older than at the downtown location, where I really did see two cologned broker-phytes in sack suits high-five each other.
The Roaring Fork Stonelake is at 10850 Stonelake Blvd. 342-2700, www.eddiev.com.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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American Tropics dinner at Cafe Josie
Cafe Josie chef-owner Charles Mayes is among the pioneers of fine dining in Austin. And a freewheeling six-course dinner at Cafe Josie (1200-B W. Sixth St.) from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday (Sept. 1) seems like a good way to get acquainted with his “Cuisine of the American Tropics.”
According to a restaurant representative, this “Wine Me Dine Me” dinner is designed to answer to the question “What is the Cuisine of the American Tropics?” For $55 (which includes tax, gratuity and drinks), here’s the answer (seats must be reserved and pre-paid; 322-9226, winemedineme@cafejosie.com):
• Pre-dinner hibiscus sangria and cold beer.
• Course 1: Classic Peruvian Ceviche, with Misiones de Rengo Sauvignon Blanc, Chile.
• Course 2: Blue Crab Callaloo, with Swanson Pinot Grigio, Napa Valley.
• Course 3: Huachinango Veracruzano, a red snapper dish, with Tolosa Rose, Edna Valley
• Course 4: Jerk Pork, with Llama Malbec, Argentina
• Course 5: Beef Tenderloin, Puerto Rican style, with Maryhill Cabernet Sauvignon, Washington
• Course 6: Cuba Libre Bobo dessert cocktail.
(American-Statesman photo)
Trailer Treasure: Good Seed Organic
Truth be told, Oliver Ponce and Erin Shotwell opened their Good Seed Organic trailer nearly six months ago for selfish reasons: It was hard to find the kind of food they liked unless they made it themselves.
So Ponce took his food-service experience — with Casa de Luz as a cook and manager, at Timpones Market in Dripping Springs, training at the Natural Epicurean school in Austin — and paired it with Shotwell’s sense of design for a trailer that would serve their appetites for business and food at the same time.
The result is a menu of breakfast tacos, salads, sandwiches and smoothies that use made-fresh-daily hemp milk, sprouted grains, raw organic cheeses, agave, farm eggs and fresh produce, with vegan, raw-food and gluten-free options. Good Seed also pours wood-roasted Summermoon coffee.
On a recent lunch break, customer Chalon Dilber ordered two big tacos with fresh eggs and sun-dried tomato pesto ($3.50 each), saying he likes Good Seed because, ‘It lets you be as organic as you want to be. It’s good food, no matter if you’re just looking for something fresh, whether it’s vegetarian, vegan or whatever.’
Other popular choices include a smoothie blended with raw cacao nibs, hemp milk and strawberries ($5.50) as well as a thick burger made with hemp and topped with fresh greens — including sunflower sprouts from Groovy Greens out of Blanco — and agave mustard ($7.50), served with a side of yams, cut into thin rounds and lightly sauteed.
So how does a hemp burger taste? Like the best veggie burger ever, moist and dense, with spices that taste nothing like meat but won’t make you miss it.
Good Seed Organic is at 1402 W. Oltorf St. 444-7333, www.goodseedorganic.com.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Closed Mondays.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Flowers on the ‘Chef’s Table’ at FINO
On Wednesdays, FINO Restaurant Patio & Bar (2905 San Gabriel St., 474-2905, www.finoaustin.com) does a “Chef’s Table” dinner, letting chef Jason Donoho riff on a theme, invite guest chefs or maybe play mad scientist with a special ingredient. This Wednesday (Aug. 26), Donoho is putting together a four-course edible-flowers menu inspired by the “In Bloom” exhibit at the Gallery Shoal Creek located downstairs from the restaurant.
The dinner will be preceded by a sangria cocktail hour at the gallery. $65. Call for the time and to make a reservation at 474-2905.
Here’s the menu:
• Watermelon-rose salad with feta and mint
• Carrot soup with orange flower yogurt spiced almonds
• Seared scallops with a salad of edible flowers
• Rosemary blossom braised lamb with sumac cous cous
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Good drinks: The Paloma at Garrido’s
Unashamed of its simplicity, the Paloma at Garrido’s (read the review here) is a splash drink: fill glass with crushed ice, splash in some tequila, splash in some grapefruit juice, some Mexican Fresca and there it is.
The dusky taste of El Jimador Blanco tequila comes through, propelled by the dry grapefruit and the effervescence of the soda. Unlike its American cousin, Mexican Fresca is full-on sweet, not an apologetic diet drink.
The Paloma is something you could make at home, but for $6 (just $4 at happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m. daily), it’s worth being part of Garrido’s for a while, on the cushy leather stools at the wide, polished wood bar or — in more welcoming weather — on the palm-shaded patio overlooking Shoal Creek.
For $1.50 more, splurge on thick fresh tortilla chips and a bowl of warm guajillo salsa, or for $2.50, get a full bottle of Fresca just to admire the old-school weight of the green glass bottle.
Garrido’s is at 360 Nueces St. 320-8226, garridosaustin.com.
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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Twenty Four: A sneak peek
The Waterloo Ice House at Sixth and Lamar has begun its transformation into an all-night diner called Twenty Four. From designer Roni Koltuniak, here’s an early rendering of Twenty Four, a work-in-progress with many elements subject to change.
The change is coming not because of economic necessity or a sale, Waterloo Ice House co-owner Scott Hentschel said last week. The Waterloo ownership team itself decided to transform the space, spurred by retail and residential trends in the West Sixth Street area.
Most of the restaurant’s 15-20 employees have been placed in jobs at other Waterloo sites, Hentschel said, and the ice-house chain is already considering another downtown location, with plans to add two or three more suburban locations in the near future.
(Rendering by Roni Koltuniak, courtesy of Twenty Four)
Waterloo Ice House on Sixth closing Sunday
Austin’s getting another all-night diner this fall, appropriately called Twenty Four. But it will be a bittersweet moment for the fans of the west-side Waterloo Ice House.
Waterloo Ice House has become an Austin constant since its first restaurant opened at Ninth and Congress in 1976. The original shop is gone, but nine more have sprung up since then.
That number is about to shrink by one when the location at Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard closes this Sunday (Aug. 23). In its place in early October, the Waterloo Ice House team and restaurateur Bob Gillett (Paggi House, Key Bar) plan to open Twenty Four, an around-the-clock diner where Southern comfort food meets chef-driven, locally sourced dishes, a representative for the group said Wednesday.
The Waterloo Ice House concept — a beer-and-burgers casual restaurant oriented toward families, with newer locations favoring playscapes and outdoor seating — has grown beyond its small space at Sixth and Lamar, the representative said.
The West Sixth Street area, which includes iconic restaurants like the Hoffbrau and Katz’s, has seen recent arrivals such as Walton’s Fancy and Staple, Bess, the Belmont, Maiko and others steer the area toward a young urban aesthetic. Katz’s which specializes in New York-style deli food, is also open 24 hours.
Tax-free angst and Angus at McDonald’s
You know the high-end burger phenomenon has peaked when even McDonald’s wants a piece of the action. A third-of-a-pound piece, to be exact.
The Angus Third Pounder hit Austin menus with a 750-calorie thump in July, and I’ve been dying to try one. Maybe you have, too, but I’ll bet you balked at paying $4 for something at Mickey D’s when that snack wrap might do the trick for just a dollar.
McDonald’s wants to help both of us this Friday through Sunday, the same weekend we get a sales-tax break for back-to-school shopping. Aug. 21-23, McDonald’s is giving out a coupon for a free Angus burger when you buy a medium drink. So you go in, buy the drink for a dollar (all the soft drinks, any size, are $1), they give you the coupon, and you get to use it on your next visit for a free burger. What constitutes “next visit” is between you and your maker, or maybe between you and the high-school dude who just waited on you 3.5 minutes ago.
Maybe you’ll get lucky like I did at the McDonald’s at South Lamar and Barton Springs, where the manager chewed the counter guy a new one with a torrent of colorful Spanish obscenities. If your kids speak Spanish, you’ll want to seek shelter from the flying ‘Ch’-bombs. Just not under the Golden Arches.
So what do you get for your troubles? With the “Deluxe,” you get the same McDonald’s product you’re used to, only bigger and with better toppings. The tomato’s bigger and brighter, the lettuce green and curly, the onions are crisp and red, even the pickle slices are more like what you get out of a Vlasic jar than what you get from a 5-gallon plastic bucket. The bun is starchy and chalky, but at least it’s dense enough to hold things together, along with the adhesive American cheese, mayonnaise and mustard. Your other options include an Angus bacon cheeseburger or one with mushrooms and Swiss cheese.
The meat’s noticeably bigger than your standard Quarter Pounder or Big N’ Tasty, but it doesn’t taste appreciably different. Texturally, it’s got more bite, more chew than the others. If anything, it’s drier. And not to be indelicate, but mine had a lot of gristle that stuck to my teeth like spackle on a rent-house wall.
The overall effect? I thought it was all right, but I wouldn’t pay $4 for it again, not when other options start to open up at that level — things like a basic Mighty Fine burger, or a double cheeseburger at P. Terry’s. But for free with a coupon you can get with a $1 drink? It’s worth deciding for yourself. (I’ll be honest: I didn’t know a Quarter Pounder with cheese had gotten up to $3. It’s been 10 years since we’ve bought much of anything at McDonald’s that wasn’t a Happy Meal).
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
Outtakes from Frank Bruni
Last week I interviewed Frank Bruni, who’s wrapping up his last weeks as New York Times restaurant critic. His new book, “Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater,” talks about growing up with an appetite that could never be satisfied and the lifelong struggle with weight and eating that followed. The irony is that the man who once measured his self-worth by his pant size went on to hold one of the most important food jobs in the world.
The interview runs this week in the Food & Life section, but here are a few questions that didn’t make the print edition.
Food has dogged your professional life: the nonstop buffets of the campaign trail for the Times, zooming in on the miseries of MREs on assignment in Iraq for the Detroit Free Press. But you learned the virtues of smaller portions in Italy, where your beat included the Catholic Church. Forcing the metaphor, was that experience a kind of salvation for you?
It reaffirmed some basic truths that we’re all told about eating at a time when I needed those truths affirmed. For all of my angst and all of my yo-yo-ing through life, which very much mirrors what I think a lot of people go through but in a more exaggerated form, I had never really until my mid-30s spun that far out of control. I was always terrified — because my appetite was so big and I had such compulsive ways with food — that I was going to end up fat. But my roller coaster was in the 25-pound range. More often than not, I probably looked within five or 10 pounds of normal. But then in my mid-30s it all went to hell, and I tipped the scales at probably around 270. So Italy was a really fortunate and crucial turn of events for me. It came right after I had lost something like 50 to 60 pounds. And there, the attitude toward portions, the emphasis of quality over quantity, all of that was so in line with what we’re all told to do if we’re people who’ve lost weight and are trying to maintain, that it turned out to be this really great gift and wonderful reinforcement during this two-year period when I had to prevent slipping back to where I’d been in my mid-30s.
You talked about growing up in an Italian family. When we visit my wife’s Italian relatives in Detroit, we get a taste of the abundance you talked about.
What I associated as a kid with an Italian way of eating, meaning lots and lots of food, was in fact an Italian-American immigrant way of eating. I realized fully when I lived in Italy later that there’s a crucial distinction. My Italian-American family was an immigrant family that came from a humble, humble part and humble trappings in southern Italy, so for them an abundance of food as a measure of wealth was much more important than it is for a standard Italian in Italy today.
Growing up in New York and going to college in the South, did you see any stark differences between the regions’ cooking and eating styles, or is that a geographical myth?
I don’t think it’s a geographical myth. There is a homey-ness or a homespun-ness or an emphasis on belly-filling comfort food that is more pronounced in the South than in the North, I think. There’s something about maybe the relative prosperity of the regions going back in time that I think created a different kind of food and eating style in the South.
What do you think of stunt eating, like Andrew Zimmern does on the Travel Channel?
There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s eating as theatrical performance, and I guess it’s eating somewhat as anthropological investigation. It’s pretty far removed, I think, from the life of a gourmand or from serious epicurean interests.
(Penguin Press author photo by Soo-Jeong Kang)
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Call it good chef/bad chef
The white-coat congeniality of the cable TV series “Top Chef Masters” draws to a close on Bravo Wednesday night, with Rick Bayless, Hubert Keller and Michael Chiarello competing to see who’s the most deferential chef ever.
The series has been a charitable break from the foul-mouthed war-movie stereotypes played out in the regular “Top Chef” series. But fear not, they’re back on Bravo Wednesday night, too, with the debut of “Top Chef: Las Vegas.”
Foodie pinup Padma Lakshmi and bullheaded chef Tom Colicchio will preside over a diverse cast of 17 that includes a chef with a neck tattoo, one with a lip ring, a French guy with a scarf, a few pretty faces and a couple of big guys. Let the bleeping begin.
Tune in starting at 8 p.m.
(photos courtesy of Bravo)
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Feedback: Olivia
This comment from Olivia manager and wine savant Jerry Reid regarding my “Three-conomics” review of Olivia’s $38 fixed-price menu deserves better play than it gets in the “comments” field below. It’s a study in professionalism, restraint and class. It’s useful both as commentary and as consumer news.
Thanks for including Olivia in your preview/review of fixed price menus recently (“Three-conomics”, Austin 360, July 30th).
We always appreciate a fresh perspective and try to apply any necessary changes due to any critical comments which we feel improves our food, service or atmosphere.
From the mixed results of your experience we gleaned a need to better represent the value to our $38 4-course (though listed as 3 courses the inclusion of housemade ice cream/sorbet does add up to 4) prix fixe menu.
We increased the portions of our salads and determined that the menu selections do, indeed, add up to a good value.
Glad you liked your companions selections as well as the wine but disappointed your choices didn’t live up to what we expect from ourselves. Again, we take criticism to heart and hope your next time in shows this.
I do wonder what your total bill was at the other restaurants you reviewed as most of the per-person prices were within dollars of ours. Did seem the $120 comment skewed us a wee bit as being less a bargain than the others.
Otherwise, in spite of a less-than-perfect outcome, I really appreciate your comments and, again, your insights.
All the best,
Jerry Reid, manager, etc.
Olivia
NOTE: Jerry’s comment on the final bills for my other four fixed-price reviews is a fair point. Here are my rough totals for each of the other four places (doubled if I did a solo visit):
— Jasper’s: Two four-course dinners and two flights of four wines each, plus tax and 20% tip, was $139.
— Trio: Two three-course dinners and two glasses of wine, plus tax and 20% tip, was $126.
— Cool River Cafe: Two three-course dinners and four half-glasses of wine, plus tax and 20% tip, was $117.
— Siena: Two three-course dinners and two glasses of wine, plus tax and 20% tip, was $109.
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More scenes from Annies Cafe and Bar
Where else can you walk in and find a table of four playing the game of Life right there in the Dining Room? The charms of Annies Cafe and Bar are many, the pictures with the online review few, so here are more scenes from the cafe at 319 Congress Ave.
ABOVE: Preparing for an outreach project, a group from Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing plays the game of Life. Clockwise from right are Lucie Bardone, Beau LeBoeuf, Dandi Nance and Hayden Dunham.
BELOW: Food from Annies, including mussels, Thai chicken salad, coffee-rubbed lamb T-bones and roasted rabbit, and pancakes.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Trailer Treasures: Mmmpanadas
Progress comes at a price, and downtown that means construction has squeezed the big red Mmmpanadas van out of its spot at Fifth and Brazos streets. But for meals-on-wheels entrepreneurs Cody and Kristen Fields, the change opened the way to a higher-profile spot at Second Street and Congress Avenue, sharing with the Delish!Shakes milk-shake trailer the patch of flattened earth that once hosted Las Manitas.
Revving up the van about the same time as the Austin City Limits Festival last year, Cody Fields had fallen sideways into the empanada business while he was living in New York City a few years back, between traveling gigs as a mechanical engineer. With ingredients bought from a bodega near his brownstone, Fields said his first effort was a soy chorizo and brie empanada, a pie that survives on the menu to this day.
The $3.50 hot pastries, crimped in a half-moon the size of your hand, come in savory styles including green chile chicken, barbecue beef, spinach-mushroom and something called the ‘Ham and Cheese Experiment.’ Sweet varieties fold in blueberries, s’mores, peach cobbler and more. For $7.75, you get two empanadas and a cold drink.
The Mmmpanadas van is parked at its new site 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. On Friday and Saturday nights, the van will park outside different Austin nightspots, helping fans catch up by posting their locations at twitter.com/mmmpanadas. So far, locations have included the Longbranch Inn, Scoot Inn and the Luster Pearle.
More information at mmmpanadas.com, 788-2228.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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A (512) night at the new Ginger Man
The new Ginger Man feels about the same inside as the old one, which still stands catty-corner across the street, right there in plain sight of the new place with the olive-painted bricks.
It’s narrower, though, and lower, but there are still side rooms and niches, some with couches and coffee tables, others with metal-topped tables for groups. It’s still a sit-at-the-bar place, the better to soak up the wisdom of the tap wall, not to mention the philosophical inebriates around you.
The patio out back seems to have been lifted up by crane from the old place and set down here, now magically cleaner, with a higher class of table-scratch graffiti, beset on all sides by darkening towers.
I christened my first visit with Texas pints, which are just $3 on Tuesday nights.
The (512) Pecan Porter, brewed in Austin, is on the sweet side, floral even, with a little kiln-dried wood on the way down, a fleeting reminder that this dark style can swing to the dry or sweet side and stay true to its roots.
The (512) Wit, meanwhile, is bready and spicy, cloudy but not opaque in the orange-juice style so common among wheat beers now (though I like that sunrise-in-a-glass effect). But this is cleaner on the finish, a thorough remedy for thirst, with or without the lemon slice.
The Ginger Man is at 301 Lavaca St. 473-8801, gingermanpub.com.
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
Olivia makes Top 10; Carino’s school-supply drive
• The September issue of Bon Appetit magazine has named Olivia, which opened in August 2008, one of its top 10 new restaurants in America. The restaurant (2043 S. Lamar Blvd., 804-2700, oliviaaustin.com) and chef James Holmes drew praise for fresh, produce-based cooking and “riffs on comfort-food classics, like spaghetti cooked in red wine and the milk-braised pork shoulder.” Other restaurants on the list include Bar Jules in San Francisco, Mado in Chicago, Feast in Houston and Cakes & Ale in Decatur, Ga.
• Through Aug. 30, four Carino’s Italian Restaurant locations in Austin will collect school supplies to help 12 area elementary schools. People who donate an item from the “School Supply Menu” (8 oz. bottles of white glue, pencil boxes, No. 2 pencils, crayons, 12-inch rulers, wire-bound notebooks, blue or black ink ballpoint pens, notebook binders, folders with pockets or backpacks) will receive coupons for free kids’ meals and free desserts for teachers. The four participating locations are 5601 Brodie Lane, No. 1600; 12901 N. Interstate 35; 9500 S. Interstate 35 and 11620 RM 620 N. in Cedar Park.
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More dishes from Casa Colombia
My review of Casa Colombia in today’s online version of Austin360 magazine shows desserts and drinks. Here’s something with a little more meat on it.
LEFT: Appetizers, clockwise from bottom: an arepa (a dense cornmeal cake) with a link of chorizo, a meat-and-potato empanada and a plate of arepa wedges served with goat cheese and salsa.
RIGHT: Foreground: arroz con pollo with fried plantains. Background: The Colombian dish Bandeja Paisa, with thin grilled steak, stewed beans, white rice, fried plantains, a fried egg and a long, thick strip of pork belly (skin still attached), crosscut into crispy, chewy parapets of bacon, served with half an avocado and an arepa.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
New from Jezebel: Simplicity Wine and Eats
Parind Vora of Restaurant Jezebel has had an interesting couple of weeks.
First, he was aboard a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Houston on Aug. 3 that was rocked by turbulence that injured several dozen people (he was unhurt). When he finally got to Austin, his house was flooded, the victim of a plumbing leak.
But there’s some good news, both for Vora and for fans of his restaurant at 914 Congress Ave. Sometime in early fall, Vora will open a tapas restaurant called Simplicity Wine and Eats at 4801 Burnet Road.
Tapas — small plates named for the Spanish practice of using them as covers to keep debris out of wine glasses — will be $3.95 and no glass of wine will cost more than $8, said Vora, known at Jezebel for a well-curated wine list and $19-$37 main courses such as veal with green Thai curry and seared filet with truffled goat cheese.
Tapas will include croquettes (salmon, chicken, crab and more), spreads (roasted red pepper, Nutella with cacao nibs), sliced jamon serrano, cheeses, even 3- to 4-ounce pieces of fine chocolate.
“The idea is to make it old-school, without the pretense,” Vora said. “I’m going to make sure the wine is good and that it’s always worth more than the money.” Simplicity will be open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. or midnight six days a week, with paella and sangria on Sundays from early afternoon to about 9 p.m., Vora said.
(American-Statesman photo by Ralph Barrera)
A new restaurant critic in New York
In case you follow these things, the New York Times announced Wednesday that it has named culture editor Sam Sifton to replace Frank Bruni as its restaurant critic.
Bruni, who held the job as the food world’s most influential critic for four years, has published a memoir about his life as a full-time eater called “Born Round” and will continue to write for the Times, chiefly for its Sunday magazine.
“After some overdue vacation and a few weeks of warmup eating, Sam will take over the critic’s chair in October,” executive Times editor Bill Keller said in a memo to the staff, in which he praised Sifton as “one of our finest editors from one of our most important departments.”
Read the announcement here.
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Piranha in the waters on San Jacinto
It’s hard to escape the giant cartoon jaws of the fish above the door next to Max’s Wine Dive downtown.
Piranha Killer Sushi is set to open by the middle of the month, adding to the restaurant crossroads at Second Street and San Jacinto Boulevard that already includes Max’s, P.F. Chang’s, Fogo de Chao, Rio Grande, Le Cafe Crepe and others.
Piranha, which has two restaurants in Arlington and one in Fort Worth, follows a traditional sushi model of pieces and rolls, with specialty rolls such as a Love at First Sight (charbroiled fish over a California roll) and Marry Me (shrimp tempura, ginger cream, avocado, tuna and strawberry), with prices hovering in the $7-$14 range.
Appetizers include Bahamian conch salad and crab cake with mango salsa, and main courses besides sushi encompass ginger beef with sweet potato and asparagus tempura and korean grilled steak with grilled asparagus, with prices from the low teens to low 20s.
(207 San Jacinto Blvd., No. 200, 473-8775, www.piranhakillersushi.com.)
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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Texas wine events in August
The Dallas area is the place to be for wine people in Texas this month:
• On Aug. 15, the Go Texan DrinkLocalWine.com Conference at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts in Dallas will bring together wine writers and bloggers for panel discussions and a Twitter Taste-Off, where participants will taste 40 Texas wines. Their votes will select the top four favorite wines. $35 advance, $45 at the event. Details at drinklocalwine.com.
• Aug. 16-17, the Texas Sommelier Conference (TexSom) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Colinas will feature classes, tastings and the announcement of Texas’ Best Sommelier. Event prices vary, and many are open to the public. Details at www.texsom.com/registration.
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