FOOD MATTERS

Eat and see great art

Cafe opens in new building across from Blanton Museum of Art

By Addie Broyles, Ed Crowell
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Blanton Cafe elevates the art of eating well

Those University of Texas students are lucky. Not only do they have the largest university-based art museum in the country on the south side of campus, they now have a fine museum cafe to go with it. You don't have to pay admission to the Blanton Museum of Art to enjoy the Blanton Cafe, which opened Sunday in the Edgar A. Smith classrooms and administration building across an outdoor walkway from the museum, which debuted in 2006. Executive chef Peter Maffei took over the menu spearheaded by Josh Watkins, executive chef of the new campus AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. Maffei, who recently relocated to Austin from New York, offers sandwiches and paninis as well as flatbread pizzas beautiful enough to join the art hanging on the walls in the nearby galleries. Beer and wine will be available soon. On weekday mornings, you can enjoy a pastry and coffee and watch the UT campus wake up through the floor-to-ceiling windows. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Congress Avenue. 471-7324, blantonmuseum.org.

- Addie Broyles

Recipe book feeds need for warm, hearty meals

Now that colder weather has come, we want to eat the kind of warming meals that much of the country started enjoying this fall. "Eat Feed Autumn Winter" by Anne Bramley ($35, Stewart, Tabori & Chang) can fill that desire with plenty of recipes. Bramley, whose podcast through eatfeed.com was named one of the top podcasts of 2005 by Slate, is a Midwesterner now living in Boston who learned to appreciate the hearty fare of England when she studied there. These recipes celebrate the season with meats, root vegetables and a nod to British holidays. The first section of the book tells "Secrets of the Cold-Weather Pantry" and does a good job explaining ingredients. Her 30 dinner menus offer simple courses guaranteed to warm stomachs.

- Ed Crowell

Hey, Cupcake! Burnet road site is sweet

Hey, Cupcake! owner Wes Hurt wanted to bring the feel of his popular South Congress Avenue trailer to North Austin, which meant taking apart an Airstream trailer and reconstructing it inside the building where he has installed his commercial kitchen. The new location, which features the same cupcakes including Red Velvet, 24 Carrot and the Michael Jackson (a chocolate cake with cream cheese on top), opened Saturday at 5530 Burnet Road. New at the north location is a selection of cupcake-inspired clothing by Austin designer Chelsea Fullerton. As for the south location? Though the lot it is on has been sold, Hurt assures us that the South Congress trailer won't move far. Hours for the Burnet Road store: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 9 p.m. Sundays. 476-2253, heycupcake.com.

- A.B.

Coffee shop giving away everything on its menu

Running Progress Coffee for four years must have made Joshua Bingaman a little loopy, because from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, he's giving away everything on his menu. Either he's crazy or just really focused on the mission of his East Austin coffeehouse, which is to promote Austin's food, art and music cultures and help build a better community. In exchange for the free drinks, pastries, salads, paninis and wraps, Bingaman asks that customers consider making a donation to Bread for the World and/or the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. All the proceeds from the day will go to the charities. 500 San Marcos St. 493-0963, www.progresscoffee.com.

- A.B.

Twin Liquors to open its biggest store yet Friday

Through 70 years and several generations of the Jabour family of Austin, Twin Liquors has been a major seller of alcoholic beverages - small neighborhood store by neighborhood store until today's 55 locations in Central Texas. On Friday, Twin Liquors will open its biggest place by far with its 15,000-square-foot Twin Liquor Marketplace in Hancock Center. Features include a walk-through beer cooler, a fine wines cellar that can double as a small dining room, a cigar humidor and a classroom. A curved, 20-foot-long stone wine-tasting bar with tables sits up front in the oak-accented space, which doesn't feel like a big-box store. David Jabour, president of the company, said that with an H-E-B just a few doors away and with the city's great food stores, he sees no need to sell groceries as well. And he said the store is designed not to be overwhelming in size. Obviously he has a certain competitor/newcomer to town in mind. 1000 E. 41st St. at Red River. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. 451-7400.

- E.C.