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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Is Romeo’s gone for good?
Romeo’s appears to have closed its doors.
A signed spotted on the front door Tuesday afternoon reads: “Tenant has been locked out,” and “Business closed down” was scrawled on a letter left at the front door.
Furniture has been removed from the patio and chairs and tables are stacked inside the restaurant, located at 1500 Barton Springs Road.
A message placed on the Romeo’s Facebook page Thursday indicates work to upgrade wiring was to blame for the closure. That was followed by a post Saturday that reads: “We’re hoping to reopen next week…We miss you too!”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Openings/Closings
SXSW Eats: Registration, tickets available for Bacon Takedown, Taco Experiment
At a cook-off, usually it’s the contestants who are competing.
But in the case of two Brooklyn-based touring cook-offs that are coming through Austin on March 11, it’s the cook-offs that are competing.
For the second year, the Bacon Takedown and the Food Experiments are both taking place on the same day, smack dab in the middle of the South By Southwest Interactive Conference.
Matt Timms has been running Takedowns for almost 10 years now, and it was 2010 that he first brought the Bacon Takedown to Austin. He now travels around the country hosting cook-offs based around fondue, avocados (no guacamole!), cookies, curries, etc. (If you can’t make the Bacon Takedown, check out the Avocado Takedown that will take place in Houston on April 1.)
In 2009, Theo Peck and Nick Suarez (former Takedown contestants) launched the Food Experiments, which is now a 16-city tour with the winner of each contest competing in the finals in Brooklyn in December. (The Food Experiments are heading to Houston for a Beer Experiment contest on March 4.)
(Last year was the first year for an Austin event, and they hosted the Pork Experiment at Club DeVille. We ended up profiling the winner, theoretical physicist Navin Sivanandam, in the paper last summer.)
Both cook-offs are back this year. The Austin Taco Experiment will take place at noon on March 11 at ND at 501 Studios (Fifth and Brushy streets, just east of I-35), and the third annual Bacon Takedown starts at 2 p.m. at Shangri La (1016 E. Sixth St.).
Tickets to the Taco Experiment, which include samples and a beer, cost $10, and you can buy them here. The winner of the Taco Experiment will go on to compete in December against the winners of the 15 other contests, which are taking place as far away as Sweden, and you can sign up to compete by filling out this form.
There are a few spots left for the Bacon Takedown, and you can email Timms to sign up. Tickets to that event, which include samples of all the entries, cost $10 and you can buy them here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Playing with your food, SXSW
Frank Bruni to talk politics, food at the Headliners Club on Feb. 28
Groundbreaking journalist Frank Bruni has had a striking career.
With The New York Times, he covered George W. Bush (as chronicled in his best-selling book “Ambling Into History”); he wrote about food with aplomb and a sharp eye as restaurant critic from 2004 to 2009; and he was the Gray Lady’s first openly gay columnist.
He might be most famous for his memoir “Born Round,” a reflection on size and overeating, which he discussed with the American-Statesman’s then-food critic Mike Sutter in 2009.
“I realized at a certain point that when it came to me and food, there was an extremely involved — and I hoped involving — story to tell,” Bruni said. “I spent a lot of years cajoling and coaching profile subjects to give me good details and to bare their souls and to be forthright and full in their accounts of their lives. I didn’t think I could then turn around and write my own story and be selective and guarded and to kind of varnish the truth.”
On Feb. 28, Bruni joins American-Statesman columnist Ken Herman for a discussion as part of the Michele Kay Distinguished Speakers Series, which memorializes the American-Statesman’s late Washington correspondent, columnist and business editor.
The discussion kicks off at 5:45 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Headliners Club (221 W. Sixth St., 21st floor). Tickets are $85 and can be purchased online. Seating is limited.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Chewing the fat
Qui, Speer and Gilmore named James Beard Awards semi-finalists
Three Austin chefs have been named semi-finalists for prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards.
Barley Swine’s Bryce Gilmore, named one of Food & Wine’s best new chefs of 2011, has made the short list for Rising Star Chef of the Year. “Top Chef” star Paul Qui of Uchiko is one of 21 chefs to make the semi-finals for Best Chef: Southwest. Qui joins Texas chefs Bruce Auden (Biga on the Banks, San Antonio), Bruno Davaillon (Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas), Manabu Horiuchi (Kata Robata, Houston), Anita Jaisinghani (Indika, Houston), Maiya Keck (Maiya’s, Marfa), Hugo Ortega, (Hugo’s, Houston) and Teiichi Sakurai (Tei-An, Dallas) on the list. Qui’s peer in the Uchi empire, Philip Speer, was named one of the 20 semi-finalists for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Qui’s mentor, Tyson Cole of Uchi, won (in a tie) the Best Chef: Southwest award last year.
View the complete list of James Beard semi-finalists here. The winners of the James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced on May 7.
