FOOD MATTERS

Hudson's joins the retail meat game; Waterloo Ice House locale giving way to 24-hour diner

Plus: the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, Snack Bar, Hat Creek, Uchi sommelier named state's best and more

Hot sauce fest: making mouths, eyes water

If you're not sweating already, you will be by the time the Austin Chronicle's annual Hot Sauce Festival is over Sunday . The event, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Waterloo Park at 12th and Red River streets, is free with a donation of three nonperishable food items to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Restaurants, home cooks and commercial hot-sauce makers will show off their creations, and judges will pick winners in several categories. Food will be available from vendors including Matt's El Rancho, Curra's and Santa Rita. Details at http://bit.ly/4Gr954.

- Addie Broyles

Openings, closings and coming soon

• Open: Buffalo Wings & Rings, a restaurant specializing in burgers and wings at 1901 Town Center Drive, Suite 150, in Round Rock (512-310-9464, www.buffalowingsandrings.com ).

• Coming soon: Snack Bar, a diner-by-day, lounge-by-night restaurant at 1224 S. Congress Ave. Owner Bethany Andrée says she is planning an open house Sept. 3 and hopes to open for good a few weeks later (snackbaraustin.com ).

• Coming soon: Hat Creek Burger Co., a drive-through version of the all-natural burger trailer at Sixth and Nueces streets, at 5400 Burnet Road. hatcreekburgers.com .

Variety is the name of Hudson's game

Hudson's Sausage Co., 1800 S. Congress Ave., has been processing hunters' deer and other wild game since it opened in 1969, but the store has expanded to sell sausages and other meats in a small retail section at the front of the facility. Shoppers can buy hardwood smoked beef, pork and venison sausages, jerky, chorizo, chop steaks, snack sticks and fajita meat.

Central Market also recently signed on to carry the company's venison and wild boar sausage links ($6.50 for 12 oz.) at most of the stores in the state, and Hudson's meat is carried at several restaurants in the area, including Frank , the Frisco Shop , Railroad Bar-B-Que and Ken's Subs, Tacos & More .

Supervisor Scott L. Grumbles says Hudson's will process everything from buffalo to wild hogs and elk, and during the deer hunting season this fall, he expects to process more than 6,000 deer for hunters. But you don't have to be a hunter to make sausage at home, and the company sells casings and pork trim for do-it-yourselfers. 445-6611, www.hudsonsausage.com.

- Addie Broyles

At Austin Trailer Park, dinner and a movie al fresco

• Want to watch a film on the side of a dessert trailer? Treat and Torchy's Tacos, along with Vulcan Video, are hosting outdoor movies at the Austin Trailer Park and Eatery at 1311 S. First St. Time travel is the theme of this week's movies, starting with "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" on Thursday night . Movies start at 8:30 p.m. Check out www.austintreat.com for a schedule.

• To kick off the 25th Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, sponsors are hosting a "Bubbles and Boots" tasting from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Long Center featuring sparkling and other wines plus food from select Austin restaurants. $40. 249-6300, www.texaswineandfood.org. The festival will be April 15-18.

• Through Sept. 13, Austin-area IHOP restaurants are offering a free kids' meal with the purchase of each adult entrée. The promotion runs from 4 to 10 p.m. daily for children ages 12 and younger. www.ihop.com.

Souther comfort food 24-7 at Twenty Four

Austin's getting another all-night diner this fall, appropriately called Twenty Four. But the news is bittersweet for the fans of the west-side Waterloo Ice House, a chain that's become an Austin constant since its first restaurant opened at Ninth Street and Congress Avenue in 1976. The original shop is gone, but nine more have sprung up since then. That number shrank by one when the location at Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard closed Sunday . 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, co-owner Scott Hentschel said last week. 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, he said. Most of the restaurant's 15-20 employees have been placed in jobs at other Waterloo sites, he 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.

- Mike Sutter

Uchi's Rodil wins Texas' Top Sommmelier honor

Austinite June-Ann Rodil won the title of Texas' Best Sommelier 2009 - and a $2,000 scholarship - at the annual TexSom Conference in Irving last week. Rodil, who is the beverage director at the Austin sushi and Asian fusion restaurant Uchi, beat 20 of the state's top palates in a three-part test that involved service, blind tasting and theory.

- A.B.

Longhorn ranchers team up in beef co-op

A handful of Texas longhorn beef ranches have teamed up to form the Chisholm Trail Longhorn Beef co-op , which distributes longhorn beef to restaurants, supermarkets and consumers. The meat, which has less fat, cholesterol and calories than most cuts of poultry, comes from free-range and grass-fed longhorns that aren't given hormones or unnecessary antibiotics, says Mike Crawford, one of the ranchers in the co-op. Look for the meat in Central Texas grocery stores and restaurants - including Chez Zee starting next month. Until then, you can order by the pound (it averages $2.75 a pound, Crawford says) at 972-489-3832 or by e-mailing m.crawford@eathealthybeef.org. More information at www.eathealthybeef.org.

­- A.B.