The Ultimate Austin Movable Feast
I fantasize from time to time about staging the ultimate Austin movable dinner. You know, one course at each restaurant with a fleet of limos at our disposal as we move for each course. Of course each limo would be stocked with chilled bottles of Yellow Lable Veuve Cliquot! Starter Cocktail This would be the […]
Austin Ale House Dishes Up Some Serious Food
The current occupant of 301 West 6th is the newish Austin Ale House. After a quick sampling of their food, it’s my firm wish that this places sticks around a lot longer than the former places at this address like the uber-hot and then almost instantly cold Oslo. Emilio Oliva is from Vera Crus, Mexico […]
Rating Zagat Since the Google Purchase
Zagat and Michelin used to to be among the stuffiest and most pretentious restaurant guides around. Michelin still pretty much is. But Zagat, after the recent purchase by Google has, in my opinion, become more approachable and more useful. The likelihood of dining at a 3-star Michelin restaurant for the average American is unlikely at […]
Is Austin Where it Should be on the Ethnic Dining Front?
Could it be that the reason that Austin doesn’t show up on more Top Ten lists for food (as is does on just about every other list these days) is our lack of diversity of ethnic restaurants. And no, Tex Mex doesn’t count. Let’s look at some various cuisines, and analyze our standing on each […]
Stanley’s Farmhouse Pizza: 180 Acres and Lots of Dough
Chad Nemec is a developer by profession yet he and his wife Cinnamon have found themselves making pretty decent pizzas out at the old Stanley Ranch off Fitzhugh Rd. north of Dripping Springs. We tried some pies a few days back, and they were good. There’s lots of variety, and the pizzeria is next to […]
Chinatown Adds New Features for 30th Birthday
When Ronald Cheng first opened Chinatown on Bee Cave 30 years ago, Austin was a town full of sleepy little mom and pop joints with menus where everything had a number. Cheng changed all that by introducing innovations in menu design, variety from different regions, and plating innovations that shocked the average diner at Chinese […]
Perry’s Grows from Houston Butcher Shop to Texas Steakhouse Chain
When Chris Perry was growing up in Houston in the 1980’s, the plan for him was to follow in the path laid out by his father Bob, who had once been the regional manager at Kroeger’s Meat Markets. But a Butcher Shop intervened and soon a second location in Friendswood. And the younger Perry had […]
Austin’s Best Pizzas: Pizza Wars 2013
Welcome to the 7th installment of our annual review of owner-operated central Texas pizza restaurants. We fondly call it Pizza Wars. As many of you may know by now, I grew up in one of the best American pizza cities, New Haven, Ct. Classics like Frank Pepe’s (1925) and Sally’s (1931) both located on Wooster […]
Wild Wood Bakehouse Serves Up Gluten-Free Cuisine Just North of Campus
Joan Griffith is one indomitable lady. She’s taken an amazing work ethic, entrepreneurship, and an abundance of knowledge about various foods and turned it into a successful restaurant called Wild Wood Bakehouse just off Guadalupe near 30th (former site of El Greco). Having breakfast with Joan is like attending a crash course in everything you’ve […]
Making Sense of the Lingering Sushi “Substitute” Problem in Austin
I’ve been getting quite a few emails from our readers lately after the recently released results of a two-year national study by non-profit Oceana. Turned out that according to the study, many restaurants and stores across the US were apparently substituting a cheaper fish for the fish they told the customers they were purchasing. Worse […]
Parind Vora Latest Austin Chef to take on CHOPPED
I’ve always enjoyed Parind Vora’s cuisine, from the early days of Jezebel on Congress to his current Restaurant Jezebel and Bar Mirabeau on 800 West 6th. Vora, who gave up a promising career in medicine to enter the world of the kitchen, will be taking on the ever-so-tough environment of CHOPPED on the Food Network. […]
The Back Story at Soto: Chef Andy and His Family Rock at Lakeline Mall
One of the more dynamic openings in North Austin has to be the recent introduction of Chef Andy Okamoto’s Soto restaurant to Lakeline Mall. Andy’s passions for cooking date back to his 10th birthday where he worked at his uncle’s restaurant in Kyoto, Japan. He moved to Boston several years later and worked at the […]
Judging Taste North Austin Unveils Some Delicious Dishes
A couple of days ago I was baking in the midday heat at the Domain along with my fellow judges at the Taste North Austin competition. Over 20 restaurants participated and at least for me, there were some pleasant surprises. And the heat only started to bother me about the time the 19th dish arrived. […]
David Garrido Latest Austin Chef to Get “Chopped”
Those who watch the Food Network’s “Chopped” will recognize all the elements of contrived reality show drama. Chefs confronting a virtually impossible task thereby revealing their fobiles and even the most minor culinary hiccups. Then they have to present the dish in front of three usually obnoxious and condescending judges. David Garrido’s turn on Chopped […]
Pizza Wars 2013 Part II: Pieous, the Cave, Winflo and More
It says a lot about the Austin pizza scene that our long running Pizza Wars series now requires two complete installments instead of the few paragraphs that we needed way back when. And that’s good for pizza lovers. Let’s start with some of the newer pizza joints that have come on line. Surprisingly, the Dripping […]
