L’Oca d’ Oro Declares Itself a Sanctuary Restaurant
The national furor over sanctuary cities and counties in the U.S. has extended to a local restaurant, L’Oca d’ Oro in the East Side Mueller neighborhood. The owners have a sign out front declaring it to be a sanctuary restaurant, meaning that they would not comply with federal requests to detain undocumented workers without an […]
Chelsea and Cy Buchheister: Sister and Brother Chefs at Cafe Blue
Chelsea and Cy Buchheister: Sister and Brother Chefs at Cafe Blue [Galleria] and [Downtown]. With all the competition for the best culinary talent in Austin it’s rather fortuitous for Cafe Blue, one of our Top 25 restaurants, to have a sister and brother at the helm of both its Galleria and new downtown restaurants. Chelsea […]
El Gallo Closing
One by one the dominos seem to be falling with respect to classic, family-owned restaurants in Austin. The latest casualty is the iconic El Gallo on S Congress which has been dishing up Tex Mex for 60 years. The Kennedy family has had to shut its doors because they simply can’t keep pace with rising […]
Sap: A Profile
It’s been long journey for my friend Sap, the owner of Saps’s Fine Thai Cuisine with locations on Westgate and Burnet. I would attempt to give you his last name but I can’t even spell it let alone pronounce it. He came from Bangkok to Texas in his late teens and in 1972 enrolled at […]
Qui Segues into Kuneho
Paul Qui’s namesake restaurant Qui on E 6th is no longer. The Top Chef winner who had an admittedly tough year in 2016 shuttered Qui and is back in form and looks to make its replacement restaurant Kuneho into another one of his stellar Pan Asian restaurants. Kuneho is now open for business with a […]
Where Have all the Good Jewish Delis Gone?
I have a long time Jewish friend who, despite his infatuation with Rush Limbaugh, I have great admiration and respect for. We were talking about getting lunch the other day and I was a bit surprised about his interest in the pastrami at Pieous which is quite a piece from his house in Northwest Hills. […]
Kemuri Opens
More from Tatsu Aikawa and the Ramen Tatsu-Ya gang: Kemuri Opens on East Side. My old pal Tatsu-san is at it again. The king of the big Ramen slurp has opened Kemuri Tatsu-Ya on 2713 E 2nd. It’s at the site of the old Live Oak BBQ and that’s appropriate because kemuri means “smoke” in […]
Emmer & Rye Snags National Attention from Bloomberg News
I don’t normally cover restaurant awards because there are so damn many of them. But this is special. Bloomberg News rarely strays away from New York or Europe to name best restaurant dishes. And true to form in 2016 they pretty much stayed with their usual coverage for their 19 best dishes. But there was […]
Cannon and Belle Opens at the Hilton
Named after Austin heroine Angelina Belle Eberly who fired the legendary cannon shot in 1842 which ignited the Texas Archive War, Cannon and Belle is the new Fine Dining restaurant at the downtown Hilton. Helmed by Chef Peter Maffei the restaurant replaces Finn and Porter and stands at the forefront of other new entertainment and […]
Merry Christmas Downtown
Although folks might not quite realize it yet, downtown Austin got a nicely wrapped Christmas gift in the form of the new Cafe Blue restaurant at the site of the former Crave across from the convention center on 2nd. This was dead space in an areas of town that could ill afford to have it, […]
Rob’s Christmas Day Dining Recommendations
You’d better not pout, you’d better not cry, and you’d better serve free range turkeys this Christmas. That’s right. It’s time to ponder whether you want to spend half the evening and most of the morning slaving over the ultimate Christmas feast or whether you just want to relax and let some of Austin’s most […]
Cafe Blue to open 2nd Location Downtown
Heard from Jason Landtroop that Cafe Blue is taking the plunge and opening downtown in the vacant location next to Fleming’s (formerly Roy’s and then Crave) across from the convention center. Cafe Blue has been a consistent member of our Top 25 since they opened at the Galleria. Under the direction of Chef Ben Nathan […]
Creek Road Cafe: Inside a Top 25 Restaurant
Our annual list of Top 25 restaurants is always a popular feature for visitors to our site. We get many emails detailing exactly how a restaurant makes the list. Let’s take one of our newest restaurants on the list, Creek Road Cafe in Dripping Springs, and break it down based on our criteria for inclusion. […]
