Southwest Pasta at Lakehouse Café a Wish Fulfilled

Years ago when The Ganite Cafe was arguably the best restaurant in Austin, my favorite dish there was a smoked chicken and bowtie pasta with an adobo cream sauce. The flavors were amazing. It was a dish I used to daydream about during mid-week (and this was long before I assumed my food critic duties for KLBJ-AM and FOX 7 TV).

But owner Reed Clemmons, in a move that was to become his signature style for years to come with every restaurant he opened, started fiddling with the menu which gradually led to an entire rebooting of the concept. And ultimately, like so many of Clemmon’s restaurants, the Granite Cafe simply faded away: and along with it went my smoked chicken and pasta dish.

Now here’s the irony: for about the next fifteen years I tried countless smoked chicken and pasta dishes at numerous Austin restaurants. But all came up short. There seemed to be this annoying trend of putting huge slices of chicken in with the pasta. I felt that the chicken should enhance the dish, not dominate it. I even tried the smoked chicken and pasta at Clemmon’s red hot The Grove on Bee Caves. Alas, that was not up to the original Granite Cafe dish.

So I happened to wander in to this little family owned spot over the weekend called The Lakehouse Café. It’s just outside of Pace Bend park; in fact, Willie Nelson had a restaurant several years ago at the same location. And there it was, taunting me like a mythical siren calling a Greek sailor: smoked chicken and bowtie pasta. So I ordered it. I wasn’t expecting much, based on past experience, but Chef Sean Huitt absolutely nailed it. The flavors were subtle, the bow tie pasta aldente, and the tender morsels of chicken were not only beautifully smoky but moist and perfectly integrated. Wow, finally my long-standing wish has been granted. And I couldn’t be happier.