FOOD&DRINK

A sample of what's on Austin foodies' platter in 2008

Chefs on TV, new restaurants, changing supermarkets, wine and food events

By Kitty Crider and Dale Rice
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Austinites, keep your forks handy during 2008. Your wineglasses and shopping bags, too. Foodie things to come:

• "Top Chef" competitor Tre Wilcox of Dallas heads to Austin for the 23rd Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival on April 10-13. Joining him will be numerous chefs and winemakers including New York's Joey Campanaro of the Little Owl and Bob Waggoner of Charleston Grill. All sorts of fun events are planned, including a music-oriented Austin Uncorked and Acoustic, a bat watching by boat Sip to Shore, and a wine and barbecue pairing Red, White and 'Cue.

• H-E-B plans to add a Central Market Cafe on the Run, a Cooking Connection, a healthy living department and prime meat case to its Bee Cave store at 12400 Texas 71, beginning the end of April and completing around the end of October. Its store at Four Points also will undergo changes — to accommodate a sushi station, healthy living department, more cheeses and organics, beginning in February and completing in August. And H-E-B will complete the renovation of former Albertson's stores purchased last year, opening the store at the Village at Westlake (the intersection of Bee Cave Road and Loop 360) in the spring.

Randalls, which had the grand reopening of its Bee Cave store last weekend, continues to transform its supermarkets into lifestyle stores. Watch for the Randalls at Brodie and Slaughter lanes to complete its remodel in a few weeks.

Whole Foods Market is beginning a remodel at its downtown store. Again. "That store is an experimental store for the company," says spokesman Scott Simons. "We knew going in that we would be constantly changing it." Basically, this year's remodel will tweak its dining and prepared foods venues. The biggest addition will be a burger and fries grill where the Asian grill is now. The latter is not going away, however, just getting relocated next to sushi. With luck, these changes will be complete before SXSW in March.

• Will Austinite Debbie Finley win the $1 million grand prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest in Dallas April 13-15? Her original Barbecue Cashew-Chicken Pizza with French-Fried Onions was one of 100 final recipes selected in the competition.

• Knives will flash as Kent Rathbun, chef-owner of Jasper's in the Domain, competes on the Food Network's "Iron Chef America." His segment is set to air Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. Then he will re-create his competition menu at his Austin restaurant on Feb. 26. Rathbun spends most of his time in Dallas, where he is the chef-owner of Abacus and Jasper's and his wife Tracy is co-owner of Shinsei. Also set to appear on "Iron Chef America" this year is Austin chef Tyson Cole, founder of Uchi and one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs of 2005. Air date is not set yet, says the Food Network, but will probably be in the spring.

• David Bull, former executive chef of the Driskill Hotel and "Iron Chef America" competitor, will open Bolla, a modern Italian restaurant, at the remodeled Stoneleigh Hotel and Spa in Dallas in February. Since he left the Driskill a year ago, Bull, whose family still lives in Austin, has overseen food and beverage at the St. Anthony's in San Antonio.

• Look for the Austin restaurant surge to continue in 2008. High-profile openings include Perry's Steak House at Seventh and Colorado streets, Parkside (Shawn Cirkiel's new place) at 301 E. Sixth St., Athenian Grill at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue and Fleming's Prime Steaks and Cru Wine Bar in the Domain.

• The Austin Wine Festival is making a big move. The festival, which features Texas Hill Country wineries and was held downtown in Republic Square last year, will be May 24-26 at the Domain shopping center in North Austin. Look for tickets to go on sale in early February.