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March 2010
Review preview: Snack Bar
Here’s a review-preview of Snack Bar on South Congress. Look for the full text Wednesday at austin360.com/food and on Thursday in our Austin360 magazine.
Printed right there on the menu, Snack Bar’s mission statement is firm in its convictions about affordability, sustainability, compostability, meat with a happy childhood and organic provenance. ‘We will not satisfy everyone,’ it goes on to say, in stubborn contradiction to a restaurant built by people with the consummate host’s desire to do exactly that.
Snack Bar’s own childhood couldn’t exactly be called happy, born on the sanctified site of El Sol y La Luna in October 2009 after protracted labor by owners Bethany Andree and Karl Gilkey to upgrade and renovate, compounded by the challenge to put up a sign as iconic as the old Mexican restaurant’s neon sun and moon, which has found a new perch on East Sixth Street.
So what do we get beneath the Snack Bar sign, the one that looks like a sideways version of the old Pan Am logo?
Dishes can be ordered in a patchwork (your choice) or three to a plate (their choice). The American plate is represented by three tiny sliders, a flavorful toss of potatoes, peppers and other roasted vegetables and a milky bowl of spiral mac and cheese that your kid could make.
Of the pulled pork, wheat-roast and bacon-cheeseburger sliders, the beef was world-class on its amber brioche bun, but the dish was dogged by its stereotyped lack of imagination, a weak value at $12.50. American food deserves better ambassadors than these.
The Asian plate ($14) fared a little better, with a robust shrimp curry and those tangy-crispy cabbage-and-leek hash cakes, slowed down only by spring rolls whose loose collection of noodles, herbs and shredded veggies fell apart on contact.
Not wanting the rest of the planet to feel left out, our tour included crisp little chile-pepper rellenos ($6) filled with quinoa with a bright tomatillo sauce from the Latino side, firm gnocchi dumplings with a subtle herb pesto ($5) standing in for all of Europe and something called ‘Cous Ku’ ($5) from the Mediterranean side, an undermotivated egg tart, which like a ventriloquist dummy had personality only when its side sauces did the talking.
Service at night felt Austin weird, the friendly kind, with a sense of humor and good stories. In the daylight, it was down to eggs-and-bacon business, because we’re never as funny and charming at 11 a.m. as we think we are at 11 p.m.
Snack Bar. 1224 S. Congress Ave. 445-2626, www.snackbaraustin.com.
Hours: 8 a.m. to midnight daily. Rating: 6.1 out of 10
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
Food briefs: Magazines, tequila, movies, festivals & free food
• Magazine update: Uchi chef-owner Tyson Cole is profiled in the new Oxford American magazine issue focusing on Southern food (top left), and the Good Knight on East Sixth Street gets a nod as one of the “Best Bars in America” in the April issue of Esquire.
• Austin-based Dulce Vida Spirits won a top honor at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition earlier this month for its blanco tequila (top right), one of only three silver tequilas in a field of 62 to win the contest’s double gold medal.
• At 8 p.m. Saturday, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s Rolling Roadshow will screen the animated cycling triumph “Triplets of Belleville” (bottom right) with wine and a four-course French dinner at 1305 W. 22nd St. $90, benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. On April 11, the Alamo Ritz (320 E. Sixth St.) will screen the first three “Indiana Jones” films with a six-course feast mirroring the movies’ odd culinary choices (snake curry, “eyeball soup” and the like). $96, $121 with alcohol. Tickets for both events at Tickets at www.originalalamo.com.
• Siena, the upscale Italian restaurant modeled after a Tuscan villa (bottom left) with chef Harvey Harris at the stoves, is celebrating its 10th anniversary from 8 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday with a free appetizer buffet, live music and dancing. 6203 N. Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360). 349-7667, www.sienarestaurant.com.
• A cooking class with New Orleans chef John Besh has sold out, a clear sign that the 25th Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival is approaching April 15-18, with tastings, chef dinners, a Long Center soiree, a charity wine auction and the Sunday Fair in Driftwood. Details at www.texaswineandfood.org.
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Austin’s new food wave? Think Jenny Craig
I got an e-mail from someone in San Antonio asking about fresh, ready-to-heat meals for his elderly father in Austin. “He has high blood pressure, so many packaged foods are too high in sodium,” he wrote, going on to say he’d like food for someone who “can heat it and eat it, but that’s about it.”
There’s a trend developing in Austin for places that put together prepackaged, delivery-ready foods with special attention to nutrition, portion control and weight management. Almost like local versions of the Jenny Craig program. Here’s what we’ve run across:
• My Fit Foods Austin (photo above). Offering health-oriented meals cooked and packaged on-site for take-out and delivery. A quick glance at the menu: Breakfast Tacos, Tenderloin Stir Fry, Scott’s Killuh Green Chicken. (3201 Bee Cave Road, Suite 105, 329-0003. Also at 4301 W. William Cannon Drive, Bldg. G, Suite 300, 358-0123. www.myfitfoods.com.)
• Snap Kitchen. From a press release: “Our chefs prepare and package individual meals throughout the day priced from $3-$11, each with its own nutritional information. We use fresh picked, local ingredients (when available) to make a huge variety of breakfast, lunch, dinner items and snacks that are ready to eat or heat up in a snap.” (Opening soon at 4616 Triangle Ave. Suite 200. www.snapkitchen.com.)
• Tasty Healthy Meals. Take-away and delivery, with gluten-free, low-carb and vegan options. Grazing the menu, I see Apricot Stuffed Pork Loin, Balsamic Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Vegan Quinoa Chili. (706 N. Lamar Blvd. 428-5007, www.tastyhealthymeals.com.)
• Simply Fit Meals. From their Web site: “We offer nutritionally balanced, great tasting, fresh, and convenient meals that are pre-packaged and waiting to be eaten.” With delivery to home, office and fitness partners. The menu includes Adobo Pork Tenderloin, Spaghetti and Bison and a breakfast called Camp Gladiator Power. (2405 Nueces St Ste A. 473-8300, www.simplyfitmeals.com.)
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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Trailer Treasure: El Naranjo
In Houston where I grew up, I had come to associate Mexican food with beans, rice and an entree covered in bubbly orange heartburn, not fresh ingredients and bright colors. El Naranjo has made a mighty effort at changing that association.
Named after a town in Mexico, El Naranjo opened its trailer window in Austin the same week as South by Southwest in the driveway of a house that will eventually become its brick-and-mortar restaurant. It shares the same residential neighborhood as the Indian trailer G’Raj Mahal and the bars Lustre Pearl and Clive.
A tall glass of hibiscus iced tea was surpisingly bitter, but once I knew what to expect, I grew fond of the shock of tartness and drank three glasses. The tea complemented an order of four molotes ($4.25), bite-sized fried nuggets that look like mini corndogs. two filled with meat and two with vegetables. They’re tasty, but they’re small, so don’t count on sharing.
We also had a warm, juicy cochinita pibil taco and a cold, salad-like salpicón de res taco ($4.50 for the pair). Since the guacamole ($6) is house-made, we couldn’t resist getting it, too. I watched, wide-eyed and hungry, as chef Iliana de la Vega mashed together the ingredients and topped the bowl with tortilla chips.
By the end, we were pretty stuffed, but the platanos fritos were calling, slightly caramelized, perfectly ripe slices of heaven. Sure, you might argue that anything dipped in a side of heavy cream is going to taste good, but these were worth the second trip to the trailer.
El Naranjo has a spacious, gravel-covered front lawn with many picnic tables, perfect for this time of year. Bring a six-pack of Negra Modelo (the trailer is BYOB), let the gracious staff bring the food right to your table and plan on staying for a while.
— Emily Macrander, features intern
El Naranjo. 85 Rainey St. 474.2776 Hours: 6 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays. 6 p.m. to midnight Thursdays through Saturdays.
(American-Statesman photo by Emily Macrander)
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Hookah-bar fringe benefits: Phara’s
Research for an Austin360 cover story on hookah lounges is putting me in the orbit of some decent Mediterranean food. Like this plate at Phara’s on North Loop.
It’s lamb shish kebab with steamed rice, grilled vegetables and creamy tzatziki sauce. The meat was charred nicely, though overcooked inside, with a hint of garlic and sweetness, and there was more than I could eat in a sitting.
The dish was $17, and a side of tangy, smooth baba ghanouj was $5. For a $3 charge, Phara’s is BYOB. Add $9 for the hookah (half its usual $18 price, because I came between 6 and 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday). Not cheap. But certainly a step beyond the ordinary.
Phara’s Mediterranean Cuisine. 111 E. North Loop Blvd. 632-7067, www.pharas.com.
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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An Easter brunch sampler
With Easter coming April 4, here’s a sampler of Easter brunches around town. Most require reservations.
• Cru a Wine Bar (238 W. Second St., 472-9463; 11410 Century Oaks Terrace, Suite 104 in the Domain. 339-9463, www.cruawinebar.com): Three-course brunch with choices such as a seafood cocktails, goat-cheese beignets, roasted lamb, steak-and-eggs and molten chocolate cake. $21.95. Half-price for children 12 and younger. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Driskill Grill (604 Brazos St. 391-7121, www.driskillgrill.com): Brunch buffet with a champagne and mimosa bar, truffled egg custard, omelets, lobster Benedict, banana bread French toast, corned duck, oysters, profiteroles and more.$65. $32.50 ages 6-12. Free for children under 6. 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar (11600 Century Oaks Terrace, Suite 140 at the Domain, 835-9463; 320 E. Second St. 457-1500; www.flemingssteakhouse.com): Three-course brunch with main courses such as filet Benedict, crab frittata, berry-stuffed French toast and more. $29.95. 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Four Seasons Hotel Austin (98 San Jacinto Blvd. 685-8300, www.fourseasons.com): Buffet options include salads, pastas, pastries, pates, crab claws, sushi, prime rib and desserts. $75 at Trio, $68 in the ballroom. $20 children 6-11. Free for children 5 and younger. 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• Green Pastures (811 W. Live Oak St., 444-4747, www.greenpasturesrestaurant.com): Brunch buffet with prime rib, smoked ham, game hen, rainbow trout, eggs Benedict, bread pudding, a chocolate fountain and more. $55. 11 a.m., with last reservations at 1:45 p.m.
• Hyatt Regency Lost Pines (575 Hyatt Lost Pines Road in Cedar Creek, 512-308-4860, www.lostpines.hyatt.com): Brunch buffet with breakfast standards, omelets, smoked and fresh seafood, cheeses, antipasti, carving station, dessert station and more. $47. $23.50 ages 4-12. Free for 3 and younger. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Renaissance Austin Hotel (9721 Arboretum Blvd., 795-6100, www.renaissancehotels.com/aussh): Brunch buffet with shrimp, coq au vin, paella, cheeses, roasted lamb a dessert station and more. $45. $19 ages 6-12. Free for children 5 and younger. 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Roaring Fork (10850 Stonelake Blvd., 342-2700, www.eddiev.com): A la carte brunch dishes, including prime rib, leg of lamb, strawberry shortcake and more. Prices vary. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka: A round at SXSW
Surrounded by people with honest-to-God Southern accents, I tipped a glass of vodka, homegrown tea and cane sugar with the South Carolina makers of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka across from Club DeVille on Friday, where the company was part of a free day party with Brooklyn Vegan.
In October, I hit Firefly pretty hard, comparing it to “a rain barrel under a rusty barn roof,” and going on to call it “metallic, bitter, sweet, sour and gas-vapor hot all at the same time — like a Kid Rock video.”
Ain’t I the clever one? The company responded with class and grace, even inviting me for a drink when they came through town in March. It’s March, and I traded them a bottle of home-brewed British-style beer for a sip of Firefly straight from the people who made it. Over ice, straight, Firefly has a deeper aroma and color, coming closer to my memories of sweet tea as a kid in East Texas. (I’ll let you know what they say about the beer.)
Firefly owners Scott Newitt (“outside the bottle”) and distiller Jim Irvin (“inside the bottle”) talked about the challenges of being a homegrown player in a market where giants like Seagram’s and Diageo are putting out tea-flavored vodkas of their own.
“The big companies that have copied us, they go to flavoring houses and they say, ‘Match this,’ ” Newitt said. By comparison, Firefly works with a South Carolina tea grower, then blends the tea with cane sugar and their own five-times-distilled vodka.
How important is the tea? It’s four or five times more expensive than the vodka, they said.
Other Firefly developments:
— The company’s Web guy, Matthew Berman, launched a contest on the site six minutes before we talked, a band-support project called “Flavor the Music.” The company will help six bands, chosen through submissions on the contest site, with connections to their brands. Berman’s a hard-core blues and rock player, a guitar collector from New Orleans.
— In April, Firefly is launching a Sweet Tea Bourbon to complement its flavored vodka sweet-tea line.
(At top: Firefly owners Jim Irvin, left, and Scott Newitt. American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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Free SXSW shows at AMOA: Boston Family Dinner
Out after midnight on Tuesday researching a story on Austin hookah lounges, I walked into a scene at the Kasbah that looked, sounded and smelled like an indie music doc from a former Soviet republic.
Crammed into an upstairs room with wooden floors and a vaguely Middle Eastern decor was a group of about 25 people laughing, drinking coffee and smoking hookah pipes. In the center of this claustrophobic euphoria, a band of telegenic pop poster-kids who could pass for college freshmen played violin, cello, electric bass, acoustic guitar and steel-brush snare drum.
Part hand-clapping pop, part polyphonic free-for-all, part public rehearsal, they were Boston’s Art Decade, and they’re part of a free showcase Thursday (March 18) and Friday (March 19) at the Austin Museum of Art (823 Congress Ave.). The Boston Family Dinner showcase from 6-10 will also feature Boston acts the Dirty Dishes, Emily Elbert and Mike Dunn, plus others.
The shows are free and open to the public.
Here’s the lineup.
THURSDAY
6:15 - 6:45: Mike Dunn
7:00 - 7:30: The White White Lights
7:45 - 8:15: Emily Elbert
8:45 - 9:15: The Dirty Dishes
9:30 - 10:00: Art Decade
FRIDAY
6:15 - 6:45: The Tastydactyls
7:00 - 7:30: Winston Audio
7:45 - 8:15: Harrison Hudson
8:45 - 9:15: The Dirty Dishes
9:30 - 10:00: Art Decade
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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Food in the SXSW Zone: Frietkot, Kebabalicious, Hot Dog King
My colleague Matthew Odam (The M.O.) and I — along with his S.O. and features intern Emily Macrander— hit six downtown food trailers in a one-night monument to SXSW excess consumption. We’ve already reported on Forklore about Bar-B-Que Heaven, Best Wurst, G’Raj Mahal and Chi’Lantro.
Now it’s Matthew’s turn. Check out The M.O. for his reports on Hot Dog King (served by a Midwestern version of Philip Seymour Hoffman), Frietkot (possibly Dutch for “You want sesame-garlic fries with that?”) and what more than just some of us think is the best street food in Austin: Kebabalicious.
Check his reports (with hours and locations) here.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Food at the rodeo: Pizza on a stick, death on a pale horse
We have a small army covering SXSW, so I spent Sunday at the rodeo finding out what to eat while you wait for the Dairy Milking Show and the livestock ribbons. The full story will run Tuesday night at austin360.com/food, but here’s a preview.
I wasn’t going to talk about the pig races, until they brought up the Oreos.
At the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo’s Swine Sprints, four little piglets rocket around a tiny NASCAR oval. They do it for the Oreo cookies waiting at the finish line, rooting them out like trans-fat truffles.
It’s one of the things you can watch for free with your $7 fairgrounds admission, it’s in a shaded tent with bleacher seats, and your kids will lose their minds over how cute the beagle-sized porkers are.
I went to the rodeo chasing after Oreos, too. The deep-fried kind. Ich bin ein swine? Maybe, but I wasn’t the only cookie chaser. “We came from Southwest Austin to see the monkey ride a dog,” Joe Dickie said. “And to eat deep-fried Oreos.”
Yes, there’s a cowboy-monkey show. But this is a story about what to eat at the rodeo.
First, it helps to know the way of the token. Machines all over the fairgrounds will change your folding money into currency from a land where a Bud Light tallboy equals six tinkly golden coins. One token equals one dollar. Bring cash and lots of it.
You’ll find the Oreos for five bucks a handful at a castle-looking thing called Creamalot, with powdered sugar on top and chocolate sauce on the side. In the fryer, the batter-coated cookies go from breaky to cakey, and without that shelf-stable Oreo crunch, it’s just a doughnut with a cupcake in the middle.
The novelty calories pile up in a hurry. A crisp funnel cake slathered with strawberries and soft-serve ice cream is $7 from the Sundae Cakes trailer. The riddle of the starchy crown — is it fries or chips? — calls out from the King’s Taters truck for $6. Dennis and Vickie Bragg of Michigan are rolling out $4 spears of batter-fried pineapple on a stick for the first time in their Donut Diner.
Sticks are in deep supply at the fairgrounds, functioning as handles for chocolate-dipped cheesecake, shrimp, fried chicken, corn dogs, sausage, mushrooms, marshmallows and more.
Over at the Swain Family pizza place, Ronnie Biggers walked away (eight tokens lighter) with pizza on a stick. Biggers was hard to miss, in part because he was wearing Longhorn-baiting Alabama red, but also because he has a verse from Revelations tattooed neatly across his left forearm, the one about a pale horse and death and all that.
He was visiting from Fort Hood in Killeen, where he’s an Army staff sergeant. He liked the pizza, sort of a calzone lollipop stuffed with “cheese, pepperoni and grease, lots of grease. But it’s good,” he said. And it’s good not to argue with the pizza critic of the Apocalypse.
Bonus:Here’s some information to help you navigate the rodeo:
Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo
7311 Decker Lane. 919-3000, www.rodeoaustin.com.
Hours: 11 a.m. to around 10:30 or 11 p.m. daily (whenever the concert and pro rodeo events end each night) through March 27, except for March 22-26, when the fairgrounds won’t open until 4 p.m.
Fairgrounds admission: $7. $4 for ages 3-12. Free for 2 and younger. Does not include pro rodeo and concert admission. Includes access to food, the carnival, shopping, youth livestock shows and exhibits, outdoor music and a few specialty shows such as pig races and yes, a cowboy monkey.
Pro rodeo and concert admission: $20-$37, includes admission to both (unless concert ticket sales exceed rodeo seating; then concert-only standing-room tickets will be sold). Fairground admission is included if you buy tickets in advance at www.rodeoaustin.com.
Parking: $6 per car.
Carnival rides and games: Prices vary, but even simple rides like a slide can cost $3. Wristbands allowing all-day free rides are $15 through Friday (March 19). After that, they’re $20 in advance at www.rodeoaustin.com or $25 at the fairgrounds.
Note: Bring cash. Vendors accept only tokens. The tokens are $1 each from bill-changing machines throughout the fairgrounds.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter. Clockwise from top left: Concessionaire Jimmy Swain with his family’s trademarked pizza on a stick. An order of deep-fried Oreos will cost you $5. Candy cigarettes inside the General Store. Dennis and Vickie Bragg from Michigan are testing their deep-fried pineapple-on-a-stick at their Donut Diner.)
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Kreuz, Frank, Parkside make Esquire’s ‘Where Men Eat’ list
If you can’t wait for the issue to hit newstands March 23, here’s what Esquire says about our local haunts:
• Frank: “The go-to dog from these “purveyors of artisan sausage” is a twist on the mythical jackalope - a local antelope, rabbit, and pork sausage smothered in huckleberry compote and applewood-smoked cheddar. There’s apparently veggie dogs, too, but we’ve never seen anyone order one.”
• Parkside: “Sixth Street is Austin’s nightlife nexus, and chef Shawn Cirkiel’s Parkside combines a second-floor lounge, a first-floor casual restaurant, and a steel-topped oyster bar where you can knock back a dozen or two bivalves, crab fritters, a fried-egg sandwich, marrow bones, and any of twenty beers - Bootlegger brown ale, made in town, is requisite here - or a specialty cocktail called the Dirty Tito.”
• Kreuz Market: “Slabs of smoked beef and pork arrive on brown butcher paper, and they don’t even bother with sides or barbecue sauce - sauce being an effete affectation that only distracts from the meat.”
(American-Statesman photo)
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Easter brunch at your restaurant? Tell me about it
Easter is April 4. If your restaurant has a special Easter brunch planned for that day, please tell me about it at msutter@statesman.com.
Please include your address, phone, Web site, price of the brunch and a few menu highlights.
I’ll post these online and on print as time and space allow.
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Food in the SXSW Zone: Chi’Lantro
This is an idea that sounds good on paper: Mexican food with a Korean streak, a kimchee-and-cilantro mix-tape. In reality, it comes off more like everyday tacos and wraps with a little sesame and ginger.
In a town awash in real-life al pastor palaces, Chi’Lantro hardly makes a wave. Which is not to overlook the good parts: the window service is friendly, the food is made fresh on a grill right there in the trailer, a high-fructose rainbow of drinks radiates from a bin of crushed ice in front, and the price is right for a quick fill-up.
A $2 chicken taco with Korean chili soy vinaigrette and crisp greens made the best impression, more creative than its starchy $5 burrito-wrap cousins with rice and a choice of beef, pork or chicken.
I thoroughly enjoyed a burger made with tender sliced beef and cheese topped with spicy red sauce, served as a $6 special with crisp, hot fries dusted with spice.
A $5 quesadilla with beef and a thick layer of cheese was missing the caramelized kimchee mentioned on the menu, which encourages you to “Spice it up!” by adding the fermented cabbage to anything Chi’Lantro sells. Speak up. It might make the difference between middle-Mex and real Seoul food.
Chi’Lantro. Locations vary. One afternoon at Second Street and Congress Avenue, another day down by the University of Texas. Late nights at Fifth and Colorado Streets over by Antone’s. Who knows? Maybe the trailer’s outside the club you’re in right now. Check daily at twitter.com/ChilantroBBQ.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Food in the SXSW Zone: Bar-B-Que Heaven
Glenn and Darrell Sims are unofficial downtown greeters, jovial men, two brothers who remind you of somebody famous, but you can’t quite think who. An R&B star from the ’50s? Charles Dutton in ‘Rudy’? They’re also serious men of barbecue, smoking ribs, brisket, sausage and pork chops in the shed just behind their wood-sided blue trailer, the one with cords of oak stacked to one side.
Order a pork-chop sandwich for $4 and get ready for a wheel of smoky meat as big around as a Motown single, bone and all, the bun almost too embarrassed to hold it together. Walk-around food? No, unless you’re wearing a hoodie made of butcher paper.
For the less-committed in your crew, there’s chopped beef in sweet barbecue sauce ($3). Plates with potato salad and beans run $6 to $9.50. If a three-chord show at Emo’s awakens your primal side, show it with a $5 turkey leg.
The brothers opened their trailer about a year ago, picking up a fast lesson in the economics of SXSW. “In three days, we made (enough to buy a couple thousand turkey legs),” Darrell Simms said.
This year, they’ll add early-morning breakfast tacos and lunchtime hours, delegating parking spots and holding court on their corner at the Red River gateway to Stubb’s, the Red Eyed Fly and Club de Ville. Everybody gets some love. “It’s my birthday,” a down-at-the heels old gent announced on a Thursday night. A few minutes later, he had a big arm around his shoulder and a sandwich in his hand. “It’s his birthday every day,” Glenn Simms said.
Bar-B-Que Heaven. Seventh and Red River Streets. 945-8970. SXSW hours: 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
SXSW food feedback: The Alamo Drafthouse
This week, you might find yourself at one of the Alamo Drafthouses awaiting a movie screening with a grumbling stomach. You might look at the menu and think, “Yeah, that could work.” But first, consider this: The Drafthouse is a theater before it’s a restaurant, a bar before it’s a bistro.
Faced with the extensive menu and some disappointing Drafthouse meals in her past, food writer Addie Broyles asked readers on Twitter what they’d recommend.
A lot of the tweets kept it simple: pizza, beer, popcorn. The Drafthouse is known for tapping some pretty interesting kegs and offering a variety of beers. If you order popcorn, order the smallest size. I’ve ordered the large to share and have always left with more than half of the tub uneaten.
Milkshakes are a hit. “Alamo has the BEST milkshakes,” tweeted Tastytouring. That sentiment was shared by many tweets. The milkshakes are made with Amy’s ice cream. Another tweeter recommended ordering the monthly specials.
Salads also came highly recommended by the Twitter crowd. Rockmygypsysoul tweeted she likes the goat-cheese salad. She calls it, “awesomeness in a big-ass bowl.” Statesman fashion columnist Marques Harper and other readers have enjoyed the Once Upon a Time in Mexico Salad. If you’re looking for something a bit heavier and easier to share, consider a pizza. Readers suggested the Moonstruck Pizza (made with garlic olive oil rather than pizza sauce), Greek pizza and artichoke pizza.
What do you order at the Alamo?
— Emily Macrander
(American-Statesman photo)
Food in the SXSW Zone: G’Raj Mahal Cafe
This trailer is different from most Austin mobile restaurants because of its extensive seating and waitstaff. It’s a BYOB, sit-down Indian restaurant without walls.
The space, tucked away in the mostly residential Rainey Street neighborhood, is also home to an ethereal bike snake that can seat 100 people. The menu is pricey for trailer food (entrees $9-$14), but there are a lot of options.
We ordered fried vegetable samosas ($4 for two) and a basket of warm and buttery naan bread ($2) to start. We moved on to dark, spicy jalfrezi with lamb ($12) and raisin-sweetened korma with chicken ($11). We finished with creamy, frozen house-made pistachio-cardamon kulfi.
Need a nightcap? Clive Bar and Lustre Pearl are just down the street.
— Emily Macrander
G’Raj Mahal Cafe. 91 Red River St. 480-2255, www.grajmahalcafe.com. Hours: 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily.
(American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter)
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Food in the SXSW Zone: The Best Wurst
The aroma of grilling onions, sizzling and golden, is the first thing that hits you as you approach the trailer. The brats, Italian and jalapeno sausages are lined up, ready to be cooked. The bratwurst bun was a hefty chunk of bread, substantial and not soggy. Curry ketchup added a special kick. The $4 price tag is fair considering how big it is.
— Emily Macrander
The Best Wurst. Two locations. Sixth Street at San Jacinto Boulevard and at Sixth and Red River streets. www.thebestwurst.com. SXSW hours: Nightly until 3 a.m. (or whenever when they run out of sausage).
(ABOVE: Jeremy Craig is a familiar face behind the grill at the Best Wurst stand at Sixth and San Jacinto. American-Statesman photo by Mike Sutter.
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San Antonio talks some taco-smack about Austin
When he woke up Wednesday morning, I doubt that food writer and historian John T. Edge meant to offend the entire city of San Antonio.
Except that he did.
Right there in the second paragraph in a story on Page 2 of the New York Times food section, Edge said this: “When it comes to breakfast tacos, however, Austin trumps all other American cities.”
Through no fault of our own, Edge went on to praise Porfirio’s, Tacodeli, the Tamale House, Torchy’s and a handful of others. “That’s the Austin breakfast taco: inspired by Mexico but not Mexican, a composite food reflecting two cultures.”
In the first paragraph, he ceded that Austin has no claim to the overall taco crown, but that was at least a dozen words ago. And now it’s on.
San Antonio responded on the Web site www.mysanantonio.com. Here’s some of what San Antonio is saying about us:
— “Consider the source. The weird mentality of Austin (as they admit they are very proud of) is a perfect fit for the mind set and slant of the New York times.”
— “yeah… no. austin doesn’t have the best bfast tacos. lol they have some great places. but who wants a black bean & sprout taco after a night of drinking?”
— “Growing up in S.A.I lived off Breakfast Tacos. I then moved to Austin for college and it isn’t the same. Austin tacos are gringo-fied. Get your research right next time.”
Care to respond?
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
Austin Restaurant Week: Parkside
• 301 E. Sixth St. 474-9898, www.parkside-austin.com.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $35 for dinner.
• Austin Restaurant Week ends Wednesday (March 10). Restaurants and menus at www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: Been a long time since I walked Sixth Street with a date. With a woman on your arm, you’re a target for every panhandler waving $5 roses in your face, for every crotch-grabbing loiter-bug with an opinion about her assets. Charming.
That Parkside has survived in this twitchfest of a neighborhood is a credit to Shawn Cirkiel’s food, which ranges from a damn good burger and fries to a full raw oyster roster to veal tongue and braised pork cheeks. The place was packed, and not just for Restaurant Week, our waiter said.
The space is a mash of exposed brick and ducts and contemporary lighting, with a gallery of black-and-white family photos on one wall, a few antique-wood service pieces. It’s the high-low, new-old model favored by places that defy easy classification. Which also means it’s loud.
For Restaurant Week, Parkside has three appetizers, three mains and three desserts, a mix of surf-and-turf and sugar-dusted whimsy.
I’ve eaten on the cheap at Parkside. On Wednesdays (including tonight, the last night of Restaurant Week), oysters and sparkling wines are half-price. I’ve paid lots of money at Parkside, too, for dish after little dish of raw fluke, sweetbreads, bone marrow, pate and those oysters, when they’re full price (about $14 a half-dozen). At $35 for three courses, Restaurant Week is somewhere in-between those price experiences.
Appetizers: Rabbit terrine with herb salad and grain mustard. Hiramasa (raw yellowtail) with ginger-pickled squash, Thai chili and lemon-grass syrup.
Mains: A duo of short rib and strip steak with sweet potato puree. Grilled salmon with lentils.
Desserts: Sugared doughnuts with mascarpone cream and maple ice cream. Goat cheesecake with basil ice cream and pine-nut brittle.
Pros: Small plates with big flavors is Parkside’s calling card. The rabbit pate was firm, rich and garlicky, good on grilled bread with the simple herbs, carrots and mustard. There was such a small portion of hiramasa, but every bite rang with an interplay of raw ocean fish, ginger and heat, brightened with cilantro.
And maybe you’ve seen a piece of meat cooked perfectly rare: a bloom of dark red at the core, washing to light pink, giving way to the mahogany sear of the crust. An airbrush of skill from the grill. The short rib avoided the gamey fate of its brethren, the ones that have steered me away from short-rib anything almost everywhere else. Meanwhile, off the edge of the dock, the salmon was fresh and well-cooked.
Pastry queen Callie Speer has left Parkside to start her own business, but Parkside plated two charming desserts in her absence. Sugar-dusted yeast doughnuts with mascarpone filling? Hot, crunchy, blissful. Goat cheesecake as dense as a cheesemonger’s playbook, tart and rich. The astringent bite of basil from the tiny scoop of green ice cream kept the dish from playing too heavy.
I’d skip the $20 wine pairing option, three 2-ounce glasses that Parkside chooses for you. Instead, look to the bottle list, where our waiter steered us enthusiastically toward a brisk white Chateau Cabannieux Graves for $42.
Cons: I’m still looking for a salmon dish I can endorse with something more enthusiastic than “fresh and well-cooked.” Those traits are important, but brown lentils are as much as a plate-filler as a flavor complement, and the dish doesn’t carry the surprise and wonder I’ve come to expect here.
A quick note to our waiter, who kept his cool and kept us engaged and fed despite his crowded section: If I’m ordering $70 worth of food and more than $60 in wine by the glass and bottle, it makes me feel cheap when you encourage me to order sides. I appreciate the thought for making sure we’re full, but it felt like a “want fries with that?” moment.
The line: One more night for Restaurant Week. Make it count. Count on Parkside.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Austin Restaurant Week: Bagpipes Irish Pub
• 9070 Research Blvd. 467-8600, www.bagpipespub.com.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $15 for lunch.
• Austin Restaurant Week runs through Wednesday (March 10). Restaurants and menus at www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: In my defense, I came here because we’re doing a story on cooking with Guinness for next week’s Food section, and Guinness stew is part of the Restaurant Week menu.
Bagpipes doesn’t seem to fit with the ARW mission of showing off the best Austin restaurants at door-buster prices. It’s like putting Hooters in there. That’s the easy joke, right? Bagpipes is Hooters in a kilt. But it didn’t have that kind of “I can see the stripper pole from here” vibe, at least not in the middle of the afternoon. It’s more of a neighborhood sports bar (lots of soccer on lots of TVs) in a suffering strip mall at 183 and Burnet.
The Austin Restaurant Week special is offered only at lunch, for $15. There are four appetizers. Guinness stew sounds plenty Irish, not so much the chicken salad sliders and green chile queso. Main courses include fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, a corned-beef sub and two more. Two pies and a sundae for dessert.
Appetizer: Guinness stew with beef, peas, hard potatoes and tomatoes in a dark broth that tasted like bay leaves and salt. A lot of salt.
Main: Fish and chips. Hot, crisp, uniform fillets in the inoffensive Long John Silver’s style. No fishy flavor. Come to think of it, no flavor at all. If you miss the baseball-sized fish-grenades at the late Fiddler’s Hearth, you’ll resent these impostors even more. The chips were OK, though, well-fried circles of thin, skin-on potatoes.
Dessert: Scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and crunchy pecan clusters. You’ve made this same drunken dessert by pouring cereal on Blue Bell (because it seemed like a good idea at the time.)
Pros: A 20-ounce glass of Guinness ($5.25; poured too loose, but we’re looking for bright spots here). Service is friendly and the space is big, with good TV-watching vantage points, plus dart boards and pool tables. Drink and a game, yeah, all right.
Cons: Business was slow, and so was lunch. More than an hour for that humble menu; 15 minutes for the scoop of ice cream alone. And $15 was too much to pay, even for three “courses.” Around the way at Pars Deli, I could’ve fed two people a righteous gyro wrap, a salad and a drink for the same money.
The line: What were the Restaurant Week people thinking? What was Bagpipes thinking? Them being part of this event puts both of these enterprises in a bad light. You’re stuck comparing this $15 institutional lunch to a $10 Austin-only experience at Garrido’s, or a farmer’s market fiesta at Somnio’s for $15 or an unbelievable $15 pork-chop eye-gasm at Perry’s. No way Bagpipes fits in with that bunch. They were putting up decorations for St. Patrick’s Day. Go with that.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Lunch flash from Kitty Crider: Perry’s Steakhouse
A Restaurant Week flash (involving pork chops) from Austin food expert and award-winning Statesman alum Kitty Crider:
We lunched with friends at Perry’s Steakhouse yesterday. Went to try the pork chop, which I was told by the waiter is the restaurant’s bestseller. What a mountain of meat! It was said to be a lunch cut but I think it rivaled the restaurant’s evening chop.
The Restaurant Week lunch included a delicious chopped salad topped with slices of good crisp bacon. I could have stopped right there. The massive chop — both Chester and mine were 3-bone each — came with a swirl of mashed potatoes and applesauce. Mostly we nibbled and took the rest of the “roasts” home.
A trio of tastes: creme brulee, a chocolate cup filled with chocolate mousse and a quarter-size bite of hazelnut cheesecake concluded the meal. All this for $15. The guys in our party were really impressed.
I believe Perry’s offers the chop for a regular lunch special on Friday for $10.95, sans the other two courses.
(Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille. 114 W. Seventh St. 474-6300, www.perryssteakhouse.com. Restaurant Week pricing: $15 for lunch, $35 for dinner. Restaurant Week ends Wednesday, March 10.)
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Austin Restaurant Week: 8212 Wine Bar & Grill
• 8212 Barton Club Drive at the Barton Creek Resort & Spa. 329-7959, www.bartoncreek.com.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $35 for dinner.
• Austin Restaurant Week runs through Wednesday (March 10). Restaurants and menus at www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: The Barton Creek Resort doesn’t have an address so much as it has a presence. Make that turn off Bee Cave Road on to Barton Creek Boulevard, and it’s just a matter of time before the hillside Goliath rises into view on the left. The intimidation factor for those of us who don’t wear Italian driving slippers (or drive the car to match) is hard to overstate. The 8212 Wine Bar is the more casual cousin to the austere Hill Country Dining Room, and both are housed in the “Barton Springs Resort” part of the complex. Park or valet, then walk right in like you belong. They’ll ask if you’re a guest or a member. It’s OK to say “no” to both. For Restaurant Week, 8212 offers three choices for each course. I picked the most luxe options. Because for one night, I belonged there.
Appetizer: Garlic seared tiger shrimp with ancho chile, fried avocado and grapefruit. A small plate with a good mix of textures: resilient shrimp, crunchy-smooth avocado, citrus pop from the grapefruit. The heat from the chiles worked wonders for the shrimp and avocado, but clashed with the grapefruit.
Main: Smoked cowboy ribeye with mustard demi-glace and roasted peppers, with three-cheese macaroni.
Dessert: The menu says the red chili-spiced pecan brownie is for two. But because I was feeling the power of ARW, I talked them into making it me-sized. (Don’t say anything, but they’ll do it for anybody who asks, my waitress said.) With prickly pear ice cream and caramel sauce. The sunset-pink ice cream is tart and mystifying, better than the brownie it backs up.
Pros: Congenial service that didn’t feel formal or stuffy. But maybe you like formal at a resort restaurant.
My steak was cooked a grade beyond the rare I asked for. Just as well, because the extra heat helped to cook the extra fat. I expect fat on a ribeye, but this smaller portion had more than I’d want to deal with in polite company. But this is a “pros” section, and the steak just exploded with flavor. The mustard demi-glace had the twang of the best Heinz 57 sauce ever, and the mac and cheese was rich without being runny or sticky, the pasta cooked just right.
The waitress and I had fun with the wine list. This is a wine bar, like the sign says, and there’s a no-nonsense lineup of about 15 whites and 15 reds, split among the Old and New World styles. For $15, I put together a flight of three 2-ounce glasses:
— Stag’s Leap chardonnay (pear, butterscotch, long, smooth finish).
— St. Hallett’s sauvignon blanc blend from Australia (a nose like rubber cement; short and sharp with light acidity and stonefruit)
— Earthquake zinfandel from California (gigantic caramel aromas with a finish of butter-pecan and berries)
Cons: I’m a decent tipper, so I’m always put off by an automatic service charge: 21 percent.
The line: The 8212 is grand without being overwhelming. Tall ceilings, amber glass, dramatically framed black-and-white pictures of Old Austin. Impressive place to take out-of-towners. Walk in like you own the place.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Austin Restaurant Week: Mizu Prime Steak and Sushi
• 3001 RM 620 S. 263-2801, www.mizuaustin.com.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $35 for dinner.
• Austin Restaurant Week runs through Wednesday (March 10). Restaurants and menus at www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: Mizu is a new (relocated, actually) surf-and-turf cathedral overlooking the valleys and hills around Lakeway, with bandanna-clad sushi chefs, waiters dressed in black and a vertigo-inducing patio. It’s a high-end place in appearance and price points: nigiri sushi at $4 per piece, steaks in the high $30s, specialty sushi rolls at $15, main courses from $26 to $39. Three courses for $35 during Restaurant Week is about the least-expensive way to introduce yourself.
Appetizer: One choice, and it’s an eye-opener. A salad of frisee with a tangy vinaigrette is modest enough, but top it with a nugget of foie gras and a sunny-side quail egg, and it’s a lush plate. I had to saw through one tiny ribbon of connective tissue, but the liver, egg and fresh greens, punctuated by the astringent dressing, made for a cohesive quartet of of flavors
Main: A choice of sea bass or a 6-ounce beef filet was an easy one. On the regular menu, the steak costs more than the fish, and this Restaurant Week visit was driven by value for me. The dish worked hard with flavors and textures: Al dente Brussels sprouts, a scattering of exotic mushrooms, truffled mashed potatoes. Truffle oil is a bully on any plate, taking everybody else’s lunch money, robbing them of the chance to be Plate President. Even so, the steak won, thanks to a Napoleon Dynamite dance of char, tenderness and deep red-meat flavor, cooked a glowing medium-rare and sharpened with a slightly sweet demi-glace.
Dessert: I like ginger. I like eggy custard. I like sugar. I like graham crackers. What’s not to like about a well-executed ginger creme brulee? Nothing. That’s what.
Pros: From a phone call to check on availability to a nice exchange with the hostess to the attentive waiter and runners, service here was friendly and professional. The view from the soaring windows gives everybody a prime seat.
Cons: The main dining room reverberates with the din of the tables around you. I’m just sad I wasn’t at one of those tables.
The line: The first taste is only $35. The next one’s gonna cost you. Because if the steak-and-show hits this level, the sushi would be worth a followup. (Come to think of it, I wish sushi had been a Restaurant Week option.)
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Austin Restaurant Week: North
• 11506 Century Oaks Terrace in the Domain. 339-4400, www.foxrc.com/north.html.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $15 for lunch, $25 for dinner.
• Austin Restaurant Week runs through Wednesday (March 10). Restaurants and menus at www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
After three years of living in Austin, and three years of missing Austin Restaurant Week, I was determined this time around to take advantage of the fixed prices ($10-$15 for lunch, $25-35 for dinner) and try a few restaurants that any other time would be too pricey. I was delighted that a friend of mind organized a group on Facebook to eat lunch at North at the Domain last Sunday, the very first day of Restaurant Week. When my friend called the restaurant Sunday morning, I was surprised that they were able to accommodate our reservation for 14.
The Restaurant Week menus were passed out along with the restaurant regular menu. The fixed Restaurant Week menu featured a variety of options, including three-cheese spreads served with toasted breads, pizza made several different ways, spaghetti and meatballs and, for dessert, Nutella mousse cake. In our big group, I’m pretty sure that we ordered at least one of every option.
I started my meal with Tuscan tomato soup. On a cool afternoon, it was perfectly warm and creamy. The soup was topped with Parmesan shavings and toasted bread.
For a main course, I chose the wild mushroom pizza. When it came out with a mound of arugula on top, I mistook it for basil and applauded my friend (who’d ordered the pizza margherita) for ordering such a green, fresh dish. Then, the waiter put it in front of me. It was a good surprise. The pizzas are like flatbread with melted toppings, not deep dish. My pizza was crunchy and earthy tasting.
For dessert, I chose the sour cherry bread pudding, even though I’m not a big sour cherry fan. I looked enviously at my friend’s Nutella mousse cake as I poked around my dessert’s cherries.
Restaurant Week has introduced me to a place that I otherwise might have passed up assuming that it was either too expensive, or the food was too fancy. My only frustration was that the meal took more than three hours. It was as if the restaurant wasn’t prepared for the swarm of Restaurant Week attendees. The food was wonderful, and the extra time just meant more time to catch up with my friends and eye the shops across the way.
— By Emily Macrander
(American-Statesman photo of the wild mushroom pizza with arugula by Emily Macrander.)
Restaurant Recipes: Arkie’s Cabbage-Apple-Raisin Salad
Simple but effective, this kicked-up cole slaw shows up as a special on this East Side diner’s rotating lineup of vegetables. It’s an inexact dish, some would say an artistic one, customizable to suit the creator’s appetite for creaminess and sweetness. Dictated by Steve Jones, who owns Arkie’s with his wife, Brandy.
1 head of green cabbage, cored and shredded
2 red or green apples, cored and chopped
10 oz. of raisins
Mayonnaise to taste
Sugar to taste
In a mixing bowl, combine ingredients thoroughly, adjusting mayonnaise and sugar to taste. A great side for homestyle favorites like chicken-fried steak, catfish or chicken and dumplings.
Arkie’s Grill. 4827 E. Cesar Chavez St. 385-2986, www.arkiesgrill.com.
(American-Statesman photo by Ralph Barrera)
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‘Yes We’re Open’ Report: Moo Moo’s, Katz’s at Charlie’s, Man Bites Dog; Thistle Cafe downtown closes
• Reopened: Moo Moo’s Mini Burgers, a trailer serving burgers they describe as ‘bigger than a slider, smaller than a regular burger’ at 1210 Barton Springs Road. Open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. Closed Tuesdays.
• Open: Katz’s Deli has expanded its operation to include lunch service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Charlie’s, a bar at 1301 Lavaca St. 474-6481, www.charliesaustin.com.
• Open: Man Bites Dog, a second location of the South Austin hot-dog trailer. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays at 2101 Manor Road. www.manbitesdogaustin.com.
• Closed: The Thistle Cafe at 300 W. Sixth St. The location at 3801 N. Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360) is still open. 347-1000, www.thistlecafe.com.
(American-Statesman photos)
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Austin Restaurant Week: Finn & Porter
• At the Hilton Austin hotel, 500 E. Fourth St. 493-4900, www.finnandporter.com/austin.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $35 for dinner.
• Austin Restaurant Week runs Feb. 28-March 3, then March 7-10. www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: Hotel restaurants cater to captive audiences, but they have to work harder to bring people in from the streets. The Restaurant Week menu feels like Finn & Porter’s Hail Mary loss-leader to do exactly that. Sushi, sea bass, a double bone-in pork chop — a collection of dishes with a street value way past the $35 price tag.
Appetizers: A sushi sampler with four pieces of Sea Dragon roll, plus tuna, salmon, hamachi and escolar nigiri. Crab cake with jicama slaw and mango-coconut sauce.
Mains: Steamed Chilean sea bass with truffled tarot root puree, snow peas and mushrooms. Smoked and honey-cured Niman Ranch pork chop with Swiss chard and roasted fingerling potatoes
Desserts: A creme brulee trio: cappuccino, Gran Marnier and vanilla. Sweet potato cheesecake.
Pros: The food, pure and simple. The Sea Dragon sushi roll was a melange of macadamia nut (texture), chopped tuna and serrano (flavor), green apple (for zest) and tiny fish roe (because why not?), and each piece of nigiri was fresh and cut well over firm fingers of rice.
Crab cakes are a tough sell for me, but this one drew character from a crunchy jicama slaw and a mango sauce with a dusky coconut undercurrent.
The pork chop? Smoked and sweet, with the hint of a honeyed crust, fragrant and juicy over tender Swiss chard and potatoes roasted crisp on the outside, feather-soft inside. The sea bass worked as a unified dish, best when every element could be gathered at once to augment fish just hitting the overdone mark.
Wax on about perfect sugared armors and custard textures, but to sample a tiny trio of creme brulee flavored with vanilla, orange liqueur and coffee at this level is a treat.
Cons: The Carlsbad Cavern that is the main floor of Finn & Porter carried a whiff of Restaurant Week malaise, the staff straining to keep up, the air blooming with the shuffle-humph sounds of people on the verge of expressing their frustrations. Remain calm. All is well.
The line: A textbook Restaurant Week example of using a hot deal as a battering ram to get people in the doors, then blowing the doors off with food that makes memories.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Austin Restaurant Week: County Line on the Hill
• 6500 Bee Cave Road. 327-1742, www.countyline.com. Also at County Line on the Lake (5204 RM 2222, 346-3664).
• Restaurant Week pricing: $35 for dinner for two
• Austin Restaurant Week runs Feb. 28-March 3, then March 7-10. www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: The County Line on the Hill is like the late Soap Creek Saloon in some ways: Once an outpost in the boonies off Bee Cave Road, it’s being folded into civilization one development at a time. The difference being that nobody’s smoking brisket — or anything else — at the Soap these days.
Suburban encroachment aside, the County Line’s back-porch view of the deep valley floor invites philosophical expansion the same way the general-store cheesiness of the inside invites expansion of the physical sort.
The Restaurant Week deal is a straight-up Cadillac Platter for two for $35, with six kinds of barbecue plus sides and dessert. Usually, it’s $24 a person, all-you-can-eat. For this event, two people share a plate with no refills (like you’d have room anyway). Then again, you’ve never seen my oldest kid eat barbecue.
Appetizers: Dill potato salad, wide-cut cole slaw, campfire beans and freshly baked white or wheat bread.
Mains: Beef and pork ribs, sausage, lean and fatty brisket, chicken.
Desserts: Plain vanilla or fancy vanilla-bean ice cream, icy and sweet like the home-cranked stuff.
Pros: If this isn’t the walk-off deal of the week, it’s close to it. The plate counts as a gym membership, but the sheer quantity isn’t the whole story. This was County Line like the first time I had it in Lubbock in the ’80s: tender, smoky, intense. I’d fallen out of love with the Austin shops awhile back after a few too many tired bouts.
But now it’s on like a rib bone, as my East Texas cousin would say. Two hammer-sized beef ribs blended a crust of pure char-noir with meat that pulled off the bone and tasted like steak.
A rack of pork ribs came right out of central casting: short, fat, a little sweet. Sausage with snap and heat, golden-skinned chicken in thick butcher cuts, a wide fan of thin brisket slices.
Even the sides had purpose and personality. You might save the meat for later and just eat some good bread and beans.
Cons: Something negative … something negative. OK: The neon sign out front? The word ‘bar-b-q’ doesn’t light up. Oh, and another roll of paper towels, please, plus maybe a firehose. I think there’s brisket in my hair.
The line: Flintstone, party of two. Your table’s ready.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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Austin Restaurant Week: Garrido’s
• 360 Nueces St. 320-8226, www.garridosaustin.com.
• Restaurant Week pricing: $14 for Sunday brunch, $10 for lunch Monday-Wednesday, $25 for dinner.
• Austin Restaurant Week runs Feb. 28-March 3, then March 7-10. www.restaurantweekaustin.com.
Here’s the thing: David Garrido has wrapped his arms around Restaurant Week. Lunch, brunch, dinner, everything, with price points too good to pass up. His Mexican restaurant in the 360 condo tower isn’t even a year old, but Garrido is putting his stamp on the event. And yes, that’s him in the kitchen, the thoroughbred chef working the lunch rush, pushing out six main courses. At dinner, he ramps it up to seven and adds lamb chops, grilled snapper and his signature fried oyster bocaditos to the mix for $25. If you’ve even thought about hitting this brave taqueria from one of Austin’s most storied stove warriors, the food and prices are in perfect formation. Charge.
Appetizers: Mushroom quesadilla with ancho crema. Chips with guacamole and warm, chile-fueled salsa.
Mains: Two tacos with chicken and avocado on flour tortillas, with tortilla soup and anise-spiced refried black beans. Chile relleno with habanero slsa, rice and black beans.
Desserts: Strawberry mousse with Gran Marnier. ‘Final Feliz’ with cocoa-dusted chocolate truffle, chocolate mousse and thin almond wafers.
Pros: What a great way to get to know Garrido’s. Brief as it is, the a la carte menu here can make you freeze up, trying to figure out whether all those little dishes will add up to a full belly at a fair price. (They will, once you figure out the right blend. Plates with two tacos plus rice and beans are a good place to start.) The quesadilla was simple, just a corn tortilla folded over cheese and sauteed mushrooms, but a ribbon of deep orange sauce brought the flavors into sparky relief. Guacamole was unadorned and fresh, the warm salsa a tangy-hot flavor trip. The bright reds and greens of tomatoes and lettuce played Picasso patterns with waves of tomatillo across the tacos. The ‘Final Feliz’ of textured chocolate suggested that lunch can be sexy, too. Cross your fingers for good weather; the creekside patio’s calling.
Cons: Small things. The licorice blast of anise in the beans rang an odd flavor note, a coffee cup came pre-smudged with lipstick, the dining room can make your ears ring, the orange kick of Gran Marnier was an awkward match for strawberry.
The line: A three-course lunch at Garrido’s for $10? It’s all about the Hamiltons, baby.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
Wine dinners: Lost Pines, Mirabelle, Cafe Josie
• Tonight (March 1) at 6:30, Stories Fine Dining at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort (575 Hyatt Lost Pines Road) will host a four-course wine dinner with wines from Chalk Hill. $65. Reservations at 512-308-4882.
• At 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3, Mirabelle restaurant (8127 Mesa Drive) will host a multicourse dinner with seven Burgundy wines, featuring Jacques Lardiere, director of winemaking at Maison Louis Jadot. $85, with proceeds benefiting The Texas Sommelier Conference. Reservations at www.winefoodfoundation.org or 327-7555.
• At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9, Cafe Josie (1200 W. Sixth St.) will host a six-course ‘Wine Me Dine Me’ dinner featuring Biin 36. $55. Reservations at 322-9226 or winemedineme@cafejosie.com.
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