Building a Podcast: Adventures in Technology
I’d always wanted to have a podcast on our website. A place where we could have complete control to conduct in-depth interviews with fascinating people in the central Texas hospitality/restaurant community. Be careful what you wish for. After some serious searching, I purchased the PRO FX8 board from a company in Oregon. It had four […]
Lick on South Lamar Serves up Honest Ice Cream
Here’s the thing with ice cream for me. It’s an occasional indulgence. When I do have some, I want to be amazed: fat, carbs and calories be damned. So I was pleasantly surprised when I visited Lick the other day and tasted their apparently über-healthy ice creams. I tried the salty caramel and was blown […]
Rating the Vodka at Zed’s Recent Vodka Fest
Along with Chef Adrian’s snacks, one thing I really enjoyed about the recent Vodka Fest at Zed’s in Tech Ridge Center was seeing the preponderance of attractive Austin women happily sipping their vodkas. The marketers are not wrong: women account for 64% of the US vodka market, and the ratio of women to men that […]
Podcast: Ronald Cheng
Ronald Cheng has made perhaps the most significant impact on Chinese cuisine than anyone in central Texas. His amazing first restaurant, Chinatown on Bee Caves in Westlake which opened over 30 years ago, blew me away with its creative approach to regional Chinese food styles and its lovely, beautifully garnished presentations. He would open […]
Our Favorite Cajun Dining Spots Around Austin
Most people I talk to about Cajun cuisine, particularly those from Louisiana, have very strong feelings about all the various dishes and recipes that make up the bulk of what one sees on menus in Austin area restaurants. Some prefer a dark roux, others a lighter (blonde) roux. Boudin evokes all sorts of passionate preferences […]
Fat Sal’s Opens on Guadalupe
Some Jersey/New York friends who eventually migrated to LA, one of whom (Jerry Ferrara) landed the role as Turtle in HBO’s Entourage, decided to go into the restaurant business. The result was Fat Sal’s, named after a famous Jersey sandwich food trailer. Three opened in the cradle of LA’s movie and tv culture, and the […]
Paul Qui Opens Ticketed Tasting Room
Well, another innovation from the chef of the moment, Paul Qui. He has opened a a tasting room that offers prix fixe dinners that are available only by buying a ticket in advance. It also appears that the a la carte menu format is on the way out at the rest of his restaurant, as […]
Tough Sledding Around Austin for Many High End Restaurants
Restaurants come and go with some rapidity in Austin. Everyone acknowledges that it’s a tough business. But no place is it tougher than in the higher end of fine dining restaurants. The recent closing of Kenichi got me to thinking about how many great places we’ve lost around Austin in the past couple of years. […]
