Little Texas Bistro

Savor unexpected twists on Texas cafe fare in Buda

By Dale Rice
American-Statesman Restaurant Critic
Sept. 2, 2004

BUDA -- The juxtaposition raises a question. Above the front door, there's a rustic Texas greeting: "welcome" spelled out in horseshoes. To the left of the entrance, in the old storefront window on Buda's Main Street, a child's table and chairs form the centerpiece of a culinary antiques display.

What is this Little Texas Bistro? An old Texas cafe or a new fine-dining venue?

In essence, both.

Little Texas Bistro
214 N. Main St., Buda
(512) 312-5828
Hours: 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays
Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover
Wheelchair access: Yes
Wine: 14 by the glass ($4-$9), 20 by the bottle ($16-$160)
Rating:

Sept. 1, 2004 Reviews:
• Little Texas Bistro
• Craig O's Pizza & Pastaria

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The chicken livers ($7), for example, were sautéed and served with spinach and cherry tomatoes over grilled bread with melted Emmenthal cheese and a rich cream sauce made from the pan juices.

The appetizer was delicious, as well as an inspired spin on the chicken-livers-with-cream-gravy standard.

And the man we have to thank for it ended up in Buda by accident.

"When I first got back to Austin from New York City, I went from being sought after in New York to not being able to get a job waiting tables in Austin because of the economy," says chef-owner Paul Petersen.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Petersen had worked with well-known chefs in New York at Union Square, An American Place and the Red Cat.

But he and wife Beth longed to return to Texas, where their families lived in San Antonio. So they packed up and returned, only to find no warm welcome for them.

Faced with that, Petersen decided to open a catering business and was searching for a location for a commercial kitchen when he stumbled across the building in Buda.

"This place had too much character just to be a catering kitchen," he says. "I decided to follow my dreams and turn it into a fine-dining restaurant."

He and Beth opened it a year ago, operating it from Tuesday to Friday nights (with catering dominating the Saturdays). In August the Petersens added Saturdays to the dining schedule.

Clearly the restaurant has built a reputation through word-of-mouth praise. On a recent Friday, an eclectic crowd occupied every table, ranging from a young couple to a foursome of gray-haired seniors.

The limited scope of the menu -- five starters and five entrees, with a couple of daily specials thrown in -- certainly is no deterrent. That's because there is great variety on the list, augmented by friendly, enthusiastic servers and a warm ambience loaded with votives, fresh flowers and antiques.

Another appetizer featured grilled Bandera quail ($8) served over field greens with diced pears cooked in a honey sauce. A rewarding dish, it offset the distinctive taste of the game bird with the sweetness of the honeyed pears.

A salad ($7) also offered a union of disparate flavors, combining watermelon balls, goat cheese and nuts over field greens dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.

For entrees, the grilled pork tenderloin ($17) presented tender slices of meat ringing one side of a molded, creamy corn pudding, with sautéed vegetables lining the other half.

The moist, tasty, medium-rare New York strip ($22), topped with a caramelized onion jam, rested on a bed of "smashed potatoes" with a side of vegetables.

The chicken ($17) twisted another old standard. A boneless half-bird was flattened and sautéed to produce a golden, exceptionally crisp skin that was irresistible (with still-tender meat underneath). It was served over rice pilaf with a truffled mushroom sauce and vegetables on the side.

For dessert, the mixed berry crisp ($7), presented in a cup with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, was disappointingly ordinary after the innovation that launched the meal.

The pear ($7), however, was another story. A take-off on a cheese plate, the small red-wine-poached pear was crowned with mascarpone cheese and ringed with crumbled blue cheese. It was a savory finish to dinner, with only a few fine lines of drizzled syrup to supply a countering touch of sweetness.

That's the kind of creativity I now expect from Petersen and that will prompt me to head periodically to Buda to see what he's come up with next.