Nubian Queen Lola's

There are some places that you just can't help but smile at hearing the name, and clearly Nubian Queen Lola's Cajun Soul Food is one of those places. I have always been intrigued, but never managed to go -- until this week. I made plans with a friend to go to lunch, and asked where she wanted to go, and she said "Anywhere. You pick." So off on an adventure we went! 

Nestled over at the corner of Rosewood and Chicon in this slowly gentrifying part of East Austin, is a building with two doors, side by side. The door on the left is painted with the Queen Lola name, so that had to be it! We opened the door which hit a clanking bell, and were greeted by a sea of sparkling Mardi Gras beads hanging from the ceiling. Alerted by the bell, Lola herself poked her head out from the back, gave a warm smile and said to sit where we liked. 

If the Mardi Gras beads were any indication, the decor is eccentric. There's a large "Last Supper" painted mirror, with a couch underneath it, some college football memorabilia, and various Cajun and African-themed tchotchkes. On the tables are slips of paper for making a donation to help Lola with one of her passions -- feeding the homeless. She's well known in the community for opening her doors to the less-fortunate on Sundays, where she cooks up her Cajun delights. And without a doubt, she's a woman of faith. {Take a look at her website and see the article that had been written about her in The Austin Chronicle.} We even got invited to a Jesus party this weekend!

Then there's the food. Austin doesn't have many soul food places, and you KNOW that Lola is overseeing everything that's going on in the kitchen. Being a Tuesday, I opted for the daily special -- five fried chicken wings with rice and choice of two sides, so I had butter beans and yams. The chicken was super-hot (temperature wise) with not a lick of grease. They must be frying in 500 degree oil! The batter for the chicken has Cajun seasoning in, and boy, that chicken was FINE! The skin (yeah, it's the best part) was so crispy and flavorful. Wish there had been more butter beans, because they were fine too! The yams are very sweet, and you can taste the cinnamon and a bit of clove in them, and you know you're in the south because the cornbread is sweet too. (I ended up taking two of the wings home; even when I reheated them in the toaster oven, they did not give off much grease at all.)

One friend had the fried pork chops with the butter beans and yams. The chicken wings and pork chops probably have the same batter on them, and the chops were also fried perfectly and were moist and tasty.  What they need is a touch of cream gravy! ;)

Our other friend had the catfish etoufee which tasted real good too! The collards also have the Cajun seasoning in them; surprisingly, I couldn't really tell if they were cooked in bacon fat or had any pork product in them. They were a touch salty but had a nice little kick from the seasoning. The servings are generous; we asked the table next to us what they were eating because one guy had this HUGE plate of food -- it was one of the po-boy sandwiches. And we all had what I believe is the Cajun tea, kind of a combination of Kool-Aide and sweet tea.... or cava-tea, as another friend calls it!

Lola and another female (she was wearing an apron, so she may have been the main cook) would come back and forth from the kitchen to the dining area bringing food and drinks; I think they were the only two people working there. She greeted everyone with warmth, and the place appears to attract quite a range of customers, both in age and race. When we were ready to go, we collected our money and handed it to her (they are a CASH ONLY place, FYI), and told her while we hadn't filled out the paper to "formally" make a donation to help with meals for the homeless, we did leave a little extra for it. She seemed genuinely appreciative, and came around and hugged and blessed each one of us.

No matter what your religious affiliations, you know that Nubian Queen Lola will warm your soul with her cooking and her spirit. Go get you some!

Hillside Farmacy

This past spring, Hillside Farmacy opened in the spot that used to house Gene's Longhorn Po-boy on East 11th. Gene's was a total dive, but served a mean sandwich, and it was sad to see them close a few years ago. Enter Chef Sonya Cote of Eastside Show Room, and her passion and dedication to locally-sourced foods. There's a nice article from the Statesman that tells the story of how they secured the Gene's site and what the inspiration behind the look and feel was.

I was immediately struck by the decor when I walked in to meet a friend for lunch. It's sort of like a Parisian bistro without the cigarette smoke. Loved the black and white wall paper! The walls are lined with Texas products that are for sale, making it a combo grocery and restaurant. The hallway to the men's and women's restrooms has a communal hand washing sink, complete with old-fashioned spigots.

Even at 1 pm on a Thursday, the place was crowded, but fortunately, my dining companion had been a few minutes early and secured us a table. Old apothecary bottles are used for the salt and pepper shakers, and drinks are served in canning jars. My foodie friend has been there several times, and is partial to the crab salad; I chose the Pee Wee sandwich, which features braised pork belly. 

It's a great looking sandwich, but I realized after the fact that I really do prefer my pork belly seared, or at least with a bit of crispiness and caramelization to it. This was pretty floppy. But I think my main disappointment lies in the bread the sandwich came on -- it simply did not hold up to the sandwich. It fairly well disintegrates when you take a bite. It was a white bread, not unlike a brioche with it's very soft crumb. The pork had okay flavor, but nothing really stood out. The tiny pile of salad on the plate didn't add a whole lot of value, and the pickle was limp. Kind of a disappointment for $11.

Neither of us were really hungry for dessert, but opted for a couple of macarons. This was one of the best salted caramel macarons I have ever had, because you could actually taste the salt! The lavender was much more subtle, which was fine by me.

In HF's early days, they were frequently knocked by the local bloggers and media for having poor service, which is one of the reasons it has taken me six months to try them out. They seem to have that worked out now; our waitress was attentive and polite. Water, ice tea and ice coffee glasses got filled regularly. My friend and I were deep in conversation, so I did not share my displeasure about the bread with her, though half a plate of uneaten bread may have been a clue. I would like to go back and try some other menu items, or maybe even a cocktail. But for now, we'll chalk this one up to catching up with an old friend trumps quality of food.
 

Bits and Bites

-- Olive + June will feature a Rosh Hashanah-inspired Italian menu, Sunday, September 16 (tomorrow!), as part of their Sunday suppers, $35/person. 

-- Throughout September at The Carillon  at UT's AT+T Center, they are offering a 3 course menu for $29 from 5:30 - 6:30 pm every night.

-- On Wednesday, September 19, Banger's will host a rare beer tasting with beers from New Belgium Brewery's Lips of Faith series, at 7 pm.

-- Olivia's Beer (Thirsty Planet) + Goat (Windy Hill Farms) dinner is September 19, $75/person for seven courses. Owner/Chef James Holmes must be back in the the kitchen as Chef Andrew Francisco recently departed for Mettle, a new Bridget Dunlap venture.

-- Also on the 19th, Easy Tiger has added a beer pairing dinner with Brooklyn Brewery, $70/person. 

-- The Sunday Supper Club at Sagra will convene again on September 23, four courses, wine pairings with each. $55/person. 

-- Urban: An American Grill at the Domain is starting a local dinner series, beginning September 20 for $30/person, where the three course meal will be sourced locally, and Texas wineries will be featured.

-- Texas Craft Brewers Festival coming up on October 6 at Fiesta Gardens! Purchase tix here.
 
-- Clark's Oyster Bar, a "little brother" to Perla's will open in the  old Portabla spot at 1200 W. 6th Street, in what chef/owner Larry McGuire hopes is mid-October. 

--The Austin Food & Wine Alliance will "award three (3) grants (1 at $10,000 and 2 at $5,000) to selected organizations and/or individuals for the purpose of culinary innovation that contributes to the Austin and/or Central Texas community." Sounds like an awesome opportunity! To apply.

-- Mastman's Deli, a kosher deli that was founded in Buffalo (and closed in 2005) will open in downtown, at 111 W. 6th Street, one block west of Congress; the owner is the grandson of the original owners, and he has his grandmother's recipes!

Bits and Bites

Well, I took a week off from posting while I was in New Mexico visiting family, so here's what's accumulated in my in-box!

-- Tomorrow, Sunday, September 9th, Hope Farmer's Market is holding their 2nd Annual East Side Country Fair! Music, games, moon bounce and more!

-- Easy Tiger has two beer pairing dinners coming up:
    -- Sept 12th with Avery Brewing Company beers, six courses, $70/person.
    -- Sept 24th with Lagunitas beers, five courses, $65/person.

-- September is National Bourbon Heritage Month, so drink.well is more than happy to celebrate with various bourbon-inspired cocktails and flights available throughout the month. There's also Bourbon, Bluegrass and BBQ at Stubbs on Sept 25th, $25/person.

-- An impressive list of area restaurants and vineyards will be participating in the 23rd Annual La Dolce Vita, the annual fundraiser for the Austin Museum of Art-Arthouse, on the stunning Laguna Gloria grounds, on October 11th (10/11/12, get it?). Tickets are $125.

-- J Blacks is announcing their Breakfast Club -- on the morning of every Longhorn home football game, they will open at 10 am for specials throughout the day, and they will run complimentary shuttles to the tailgate parties by the stadium. Nice way to stay safe!

-- A new commercial kitchen space that's available for rentals/commissary has just opened -- Kitchen Ventures at 2600 East Cesar Chavez.

-- Max's Wine Dive has a new fall menu, highlights which include a beer-braised pork cheek with tomato chutney.

-- Chef-owned and operated Ramen Tatsu-ya has opened on Anderson Lane, in the same shopping center as Sunflower and Din Ho. Some pictures of the food and video from Thrillist.

-- The International Wine Guild is holding classes on wine, spirit and sake education this fall at the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts; for more info check here. 

-- Snap Kitchen has opened another site at the Arboretum if you're looking for prepared meals (three locations north of downtown and nothing in south Austin though....where's the love?).

-- Eater Austin maps out some new restaurants that are in the works!  

-- And in case you missed the latest episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, they started their season in Austin, filming during SXSW. It was a sorta odd episode, I thought, converging the music and food scenes. I saw someone's comment on a Facebook post about the episode, wondering why he went to lesser-known spots such as El Azteca and La Mexicana (along with national darlings Barley Swine and Franklin BBQ). That's pretty much THE point. Bourdain has never been all about what's trendy and cool, he finds the out of the way places too. Here are the spots he hit, along with some of his one-liners, again, from Eater Austin.

Bits and Bites

On my radar:

-- Olive and June is now open at 4:30 pm for daily happy hour til 6:30 pm. They're also having one of their family-style dinners, tonight, $35/person.

-- Soul food chef Chef Hoover Alexander's Soular Food Garden trailer is re-opening on August 31st at 12th and Waller Streets, with their veggie-centric offerings. His original goal was to help bring health and wellness back to the east side of Austin, and now with the addition of barbecue, carnivores and vegetarians can co-exist in harmony at his trailer.

-- Local tea company Zhi Tea celebrates their 5-year anniversary next week with lots of specials! Check their website for more info.

-- The Mueller development will be host to their own farmer's market, beginning September 9th! From the same organizers of the Cedar Park Farmers Market, the Browning Hangar will now be home to a Sunday market, from 10 am - 2 pm.

-- There's a new website called Cooking Planit, that's designed to help you plan your meals and be an efficient cook! Their site has chef-tested recipes, along with step by step instructions and shopping lists. You can also search for recipes based on allergy/dietary preferences. iPhone and iPad apps are available...wish they'd make an Android app. (I emailed, and was told "eventually".) Looks like a cool site though!

-- Uncle Billy's Brew and Cue has a new beer brewmeister with Michael Waters now at the helm.

I had the pleasure of volunteering this past week at the Lone Star Paralysis/Pay it Forward for Daniel Curtis fundraiser at the AT+T Conference Center. An incredible collection of local restaurants/chefs came together and prepared some AMAZING food! The live and silent auctions looked to be quite successful too!