klanch's Profile
Austin Food and Wine Festival- worth going to?
Unfortunately, I have thought for years that the prices would have to go up drastically, if only to get the crowd size cut back to something manageable. The last few times I went to the Hill Country Food and Wine Festival, the precursor to the Austin fest, it was something of a nightmare. The lines were so long you had to have a bottle of water to keep you hydrated while you waited to reach a sample table. And there were way too many people who obviously considered it just another drunkfest. I *wish* I didn't sound like a snob for saying things like this but at a festival that was supposed to be about high-quality food and wine, there were too many people who looked like their best speed was drinking their Bud Lite out of real glasses instead of plastic cups. The only way to reduce the mob was to raise ticket prices so high that only people who really care about quality would pay. I just hope some good comes of charging so much.
Hard Hat Report Vol 8
I tried CoalVines once and frankly, I think Cru just a couple of blocks east is better. There is something about trying to make pizza fancy that gravels me. The non-pizza menu is not very good. I tried a glass of the malbec at CoalVines, and it was so heavily loaded with sulfites that I had a bad reaction to it. It made me feel overheated and made my skin itch, and I normally have no problem with sulfites.
Braise...oh my...
I ate there several times. The only thing I remember is an appetizer of backed chevre with a tart tomato sauce and olives. That may sound gross but it tasted wonderful.
The building is currently occupied by something called the Palm Door. Anyone know what that is.
El Greco Closed?
You have to remember that they choose the restaurants for show business reasons, not restaurant business reasons. The places they pick are the ones they think will give them the greatest drama, to jack up the ratings. Whether or not they think Ramsay can actually turn the place into a good restaurant is secondary, if not outright irrelevant.
East Side Show Room
I bet that half a person was a trick to feed - probably things kept falling out the side.
East Side Show Room
How many people? $144 sounds darn good for five and hideous for one.
What about Cooper's?
The thread started by "overresearched" about Texas Monthly's top 5 BBQ places made me wonder: what do other people think about Cooper's up in Llano? I've been there a couple of times and both times I loved the sausage and brisket. I think the expansion place they built in New Braunfels isn't as good as the original, but I think the one in Llano is probably at least as good as Mueller's or Smitty's.
I ate at Texas Monthly’s Top 5 BBQ Pits in One Weekend.
I can't disagree strongly enough. Fat is just fine if it is distributed evenly enough that it doesn't form a distinct element. But fatty brisket almost always has strands of fat that are pretty nasty to bit into. The texture sometimes makes me nearly gag. Yes, it's easy to overcook lean brisket and dry it out too much, but a properly done lean brisket is infinitely superior.
Visiting from San Francisco -- Need some suggestions!
The only place I can think of that's still open at that time of night and is worth anything is the 24 Diner at the intersection of Lamar and 6th. There are other all-night places, but none where the food is better than 3rd rate. Most places close between 10 and 11 on Wednesdays.
For Thursday night, if you're more interested in the atmosphere than in fine food, I'd say go to Vespaio Enoteca on South Congress. It's an Italian restaurant that serves a more rustic style of food than most Italian restaurants; it's really good. If not that, then go to the Shady Grove on Barton Springs Road and get the Airstream chili.
PS: In my opinion, Manuel's on Congress has the best ceviche in town.
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Enoteca
1610 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
Shady Grove
1624 Barton Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78704
New 24-hour place in Austin
A new place opened about a month ago - it's called just "24" and it's at the intersection of Lamar Boulevard and 6th street, where the Waterloo Icehouse used to be. (It's owned by the company that owns the Waterloo chain.)
I've eaten there a couple of times. The menu says breakfast any time - haven't tried that yet. They're trying to make it artsy/upscale food. For example, the club sandwich uses Applewood smoked bacon and blue cheese. It is excellent taste-wise, but they need to use a different bread. The bread they're using now has a crust so hard it gouges the roof of your mouth when you take a bite, and it's so full of voids caused by carbon dioxide when it rises that the bread is likely to break into pieces, which makes the sandwich kind of hard to handle sometime. The macaroni and cheese is too bland.
One really good thing about this new joint is the fact that the parking is still free. Lately, Austin has gone crazy putting in pay-for-parking things. ALL the parking around Katz's is now pay slots. I predict Katz's will fail because of it. Nobody with any sense will pay $6 just to park so they can go to a place that serves 2nd-rate food.
Steiner Ranch - Am I Missing Something?
I take it you've been to the Iguana Grill and were not impressed? Personally I love the place but maybe I'm prejudiced because I love the view. I think their ceviche is the 2nd best in town, after Manuel's.
Sometimes I like to go over to Carlos & Charlie's and fill up on their nachos. They're one of the few places left that still serve nachos the way they should be.
Blacks
I've been way too busy or I would have posted earlier. I'd say either place is fine, but I kind of prefer Black's. I think they have the best sausage of any of the Lockhard barbeque places - try the garlic or jalapeno sausage. And, they also so a really nice pork loin.
Any places with good cornbread?
Does anyone know a place in Austin that has real cornbread? (And please don't say Threadgill's because I've already been disappointed in them.) All the places I've tried make it like cake - they use what tastes like a mixture of cake flour and fine-ground corn meal, and put so much sugar in it that it's more like a corn-scented cupcake. Since I moved here, every place where I've tried the cornbread, you can't put butter on it because it falls apart if you breathe on it too hard. That may be what you're supposed to get with a souffle but for cornbread it just doesn't cut the mustard.
What I would REALLY like is to find a place that serves what I know as hoecake - the thin, hard type of cornbread.
Dog Friendly in Austin?
I know this is a bit late, but add to the list BB Rover's, in the strip center on Jollyville Road next to the Kerby Lane Cafe. The food is so-so at best, but they have a huge selection of imported beers.
Great meal for visiting friend
Well yes, Buca de Beppo can handle large parties easily, but the food is third rate at best and the decor is about as garish as is humanly possible - it's like eating inside a juke box. I've eaten there twice and sworn I'll never go back because both times the food was underdone and tasteless. I ordered tortellini there once. The pasta tasted like undercooked library paste and the filling had literally no taste at all. None. How they managed that I'll never know and I don't want to know.
As to the original purpose of the thread: If you friends will be staying downtown, I second the recommendation for Starlite. I've eaten there and it was unblievably good. Or, they could go down to the Shorline Grill, which is my second favorite downtown spot. The food is not quite as good as Starlite, but the decor and the location are almost impossible to beat.
Price of Joe Dimaggios?
When I went there, I had the braciole and my date had the pork chop, and I believe both those were about about $26.
I do remember thinking the prices were about the same as at Sullivan's. I had been prepared for really ruinous prices, and was a little pleasantly surprised.
7 days in Austin...
I can't add anything about markets and seafood. But as for places where you do a single high end meal, I'd say flip a coin between Hudson's on the Bend and the Cafe at the Four Seasons. Both of them can do things that are nothing short of magnificent, and both are kind of unique. They're not part of a chain where you wind up thinking, "is this as good as the one is Dubuque?"
As for creative comfort food, go to the Hyde Park Bar and Grill - the one north in Hyde Park, not the one down south. Get some fries and mac and cheese, then go next door to Dolce Vita, which has the best selection of liquers in town, and get a shot of krupnik.
If you are interested in BBQ, by all means go to Lockhart and go to Black's (my favorite) or Smitty's. Kruez Market is good but in my opinion it's a little bit overrated.
New best restaurant in Austin
Last night I lucked out and was present for the public opening night at Joe DiMaggio's Italian Chop House, in the Dominion shopping center. The food was nothing short of magnificent.
My date and I split an appetizer of soft polenta with mushrooms. It was without a doubt the best polenta I had ever had and possibly the best in the country. It was cooked in two wedges that held its shape, but inside it was so soft and light it melted in the mouth like a good souffle. It rested on a mushroom-butter sauce that was so good I had to use a couple of pieces bread to make sure I got it all.
We also split a wedge salad. It was large enough that splitting it between two people gave each what I thought was just the right amount. I actually ate most of the lettuce because it came with three halves of roma tomatoes that were baked and topped with herbs, and my date, being a tomato fiend, concentrated on them. She said they were delicious.
I ordered the braciole, which had two rolls of veal stuffed with a mix of fontina cheese, pine nuts, and a few other things I couldn't identify. It tasted wonderful. It came with a few sprigs of sauted broccoli rabe, crisp-sauteed carrots, and generous helpings of rosemary polenta and marinara sauce. I loved it. My date ordered a pork chop. She ordered it a little past medium but it came out pretty well done, so they have a little work to do on getting the grill timing right. That said, it was a great cut of meat - about 2 inches thick, very rich and not a speck of extraneous fat on it.
The deserts we ordered were absolutely marvelous. I had a thing that I think was called a "boboloni," which was 3 small pastries resembling "donut holes" filled with vanilla cream, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over it. If they can mass-produce those pastries and keep the result as good as what I had, Krispy Kreme would be run out of business. My date had the pistachio pana cotta and was absolutely in love with it. It came with a chunk of sugar lace and was drizzled with a sauce that included dried cherries, and the only reason she didn't order a second round of it was because I talked her out of because by then I was getting a little numb from sitting so long.
The wine list is heavy on Italian and California wines, but they do have some good selections of reds.
The prices were not as ruinous as I had originally feared. My braciole (which included sides) was $25. My date's pork chop, with a generous helping of mixed vegetables and au gratin potatoes, was $32 if I remember correctly. It's certainly not cheap, but it's no worse than any other major restaurant today.
As for the environment:
You enter at a corner near the end of the bar. The bar area is pretty sizable and has a multitude of seats available. The bar itself is pretty long. At the opposite end of the bar is an opening into what looks like a waiting area, with lots of low tables and overstuffed seats. Outside in front, they have an awning over a seating area that includes overstuffed seats and an outdoor fire pit.
The main dining area is sort of a cross between the classic dark wood steak house design, and modern. It was not as old-timey as I had expected it to be. To use a comparison, the decor looked sort of like the Belmont, only lighter and a bit more streamlined.
Even with a piano and guitar playing on the small stage near the door to the bathroom area, it was significantly quieter than most modern restaurants, I think due mostly to the fact that, contrary to modern practice, the place is carpeted. Also, about half the seating in the main dining room is booths that have soft coverings, and that helps deaden the noise a lot.
Wonderful food, and its location makes it even better for me. Since I live out by Cedar Park, having a restaurant of this caliber on this side of town is a real blessing; a lot of times I just didn't feel like driving all the way downtown to eat out. Having Trulucks and Eddie V's near the Arboretum is kind of nice, but I've been there often enough. Now there is another place nearby that is at least in the same league and may prove to be better. I very strongly recommend that everyone in town who really enjoys good food check it out.
Austin wine bars?
Vinosity (sic) has a pretty good selection, and it also has covered parking. That's a good point not just during this Noahesque period but also on hot days. And Vinosity is especially good for people who are allergic to wheat. My girlfriend is, and she likes this place because they have a lot of food selections that she can eat, unlike most places.
2 questions about Houston
Thanks for the replies - and you're right, I hadn't really considered the weather. OK, I'll rethink my plans. Have a good summer.
2 questions about Houston
I'm in Houston for a few days and was wondering: Any good restaurants with seating on balconies? I'd like to find a place that has decent outside seating upstairs. Also, what would you recommend for an Italian restaurant?
Pairing for almond, sweet sipping wine?
Sounds like it would go well with flan or pana cotta (sic). Or may cherry cheesecake.
Truth in Advertising? Rudy’s Barbecue Is (Practically) the Worst
Rudy's certainly isn't really the worst barbeque I've ever eaten. I do avoid the sausage - I don't know where they get it, but it's always too soft, and it is tasteless. It also usually has more gristle in it than I like.
However, I really like the extra lean brisket. Its great for sandwiches or just for eating straight. I usually put nothing on it but maybe a pinch of salt; the char on the edges gives it quite a nice pit flavor. I'm pretty sure the extra lean isn't been boiled or steamed or anything like that; I don't see how it could be that firm if it were.
And I actually enjoy the turkey. Most turkey is too bland for my liking but their stuff has a good smoky flavor, however it's cooked.
Recent Austin Trip - need recs for next trip
Try Starlite - it's one of the 10 best in the city, in my opinion.
If you want places that serve very good "comfort" food, try either Bess, which is on west 6th street near the old post office, or The Woodland on South Congress.
Also on South Congress, try Vespaio Enoteca. It's simple, rustic Italian but quite good.
And I agree heartily with the other poster about trying the barbeque places in Lockhart. Black's and Smitty's may have the best in the state.
Yes to Chez Nous also. They do some wonderful stuff - simple but perfectly cooked and presented.
34th street cafe
I haven't been there in months (mostly money problems) but I remember their chicken piccata very fondly.
