Bits and Bites -- Austin Food News

Openings, etc.
-- Houndstooth Coffee in the Frost Bank Tower downtown, 401 Congress.

-- DFG Noodles (Darn Freakin' Good), a new trailer on Rainey Street, specializing in all things noodles. 

-- WuWu Sushi, at 1407 E. 7th -- Asian fusion with a full bar.
 
-- Benji's Cantina at 6th and West, will open May 24th, offering rooftop seating and Mexican classics. 
 
-- Umami Mia Pizzeria at 1500 Barton Springs (old Romeo's), opening May 31st.

-- Patrizi's Italian food trailer, soft opening next week, at 2307 Manor Road, inside the Vortex Theater complex. (Went to a tasting last night, blog post coming, but some amazing meatballs!)

-- Celebrating their one-year anniversary, SPIN Modern Thai Cuisine is now offering a social hour menu, Monday - Thursday,  5 - 6:30 pm, 14005 US Hwy 183, near Lakeline Blvd.

--  El Monumento in Georgetown has created Mixology Wednesdays, where the craft cocktail are celebrated with three pours for $14.

-- El Chile on Manor Road is moving to the old La Reyna at South First and Mary Streets (my Bouldin 'hood!).

Closed
-- Longhorn Food Court (food trailers) and Texadelphia on Guadalupe 

Events
-- Through May 20th, Uchi and Uchiko are celebrating Uchi's 10 year anniversary, with special six-course omakase menus.

-- Rough Hollow in Lakeway is holding their 4th Annual Crawfish Boil, Sunday, May 19, from 12 - 4 pm,  $20/person.
 
-- The Escoffier School of Culinary Arts will host a Backyard BBQ Party in on Sunday, May 19 from 6 - 9 pm, to celebrate AUSTIN Foodstyle Magazine’s publication launch. Ticktets are $55 and benefit the school's culinary scholarships. 

-- Olive + June will host a benefit for the Sustainable Food Center on Sunday, June 1st, $25/person. 

-- On Sunday, June 9th, Dai Due will present a special Supper Club fundraiser event for Heather Love, one of their employees who was seriously injured in an accident. The  four-course dinner with wine pairings will be held at Parkside, tickets are $150/person, and will include dishes from Jesse Griffiths, Rene Ortiz, Todd Duplechan, Jessica Maher, Barrie Cullinan and Shawn Cirkiel.  

 All about ME! ;)
-- Top Chef alum Chef Fabio Viviani was at BookPeople recently to promote his new cookbook. He took some time beforehand to meet with a group of food bloggers; he was very personable and didn't stop talking! He was not very impressed with the Topo Chico he tried, calling it too gassy! Fabio has become a total brand -- opening new restaurants, book tour, online magazine, blog, and a video channel. And he's looking for bloggers to do guest posts for his magazine -- stay tuned, yours truly may just show up in one in the coming months! 

 -- Cooking Planit is website that helps home cooks plan out their meals, and offers step-by-step chef-written recipes that are easy to follow. They have also been a supporter of the Austin Food Blogger Alliance (of which I am a member), and have taken some of the recipes from our cookbook and adapted them for their readers. My Black Bean and Quinoa Burger is included! (And you KNOW I am not a vegetarian, but this is a good, hearty burger!)

  -- Texas Monthly Magazine has released their list of Top 50 BBQ spots in the state; ATX's very own Franklin BBQ gets the top nod. I've been to 10 of the top 50, how 'bout you? What should I not miss?
 

Copper

Austin Cake Ball has recently converted their shop at the Domain (by Macy's and Zara) into Copper, a full-service restaurant and dessert lounge, open for lunch and dinner with a great cocktail listing to boot! I was recently invited to stop by and try their new menu, so I took my North Austin friend, Epicuriosities along with me. 

I had not been in the place when it was operating as Austin Cake Ball so I am not entirely sure what the decor was like, but I loved the feel of Cooper. Even on an overcast day, the huge front windows bathed the shop in natural light, and also highlighted the impressive glass counters with loads of cake balls to choose from. White, light blue, and of course, copper give it a modern and sophisticated color scheme.

As you head towards the back of the space, there's a divider wall which was entirely done in pennies, as was the floor of the restroom and the entire back splash of the bar, giving the decor a nice sparkle when the light hit the shiny pennies.

We began our lunch with the aforementioned cocktails, Epicuriosities having the Candy Girl (cotton candy vodka and bubbly) and myself the Cosmo-naut (acai liqueur, vodka, cointreau, blood orange and cranberry juices), along with the fried goat cheese balls, which were presented beautifully with an orchid. Perfectly fried, and with a teeny bit of local honey to contrast the creamy goatiness, they were lovely, especially with the drinks. From their website: "Our kitchen combines farm-to-table produce, house-made breads and artisan meats with an emphasis on simple, clean flavors with seasonal ingredients." Always a bonus to be at a restaurant that espouses this philosophy!

When studying the menu, I wanted to be sure we didn't order both the crab cake AND pork belly sliders or the pork belly sliders and the pork belly flatbread, but I should have paid more attention to not getting so many items with white bread! {Perhaps some multigrain menu options would be warranted.} From the left, we went with the crab cake sliders, the pork belly and goat cheese flatbread at the top, and the classic grilled cheese and tomato soup. The crab cake had nice flavor, though it was on a denser bun than what I would call a brioche bun. The flatbread (okay, pizza) and a real nice pop of color from the arugula, though being a pork lover, I of course, would have loved to have had more pork belly present! The grilled cheese fingers were a fun, grown-up twist on the kid favorite, with smoked cheddar, havarti, muenster, and fontina cheeses in the sandwich, and the soup being tomato and roasted red pepper bisque.

We asked our server to pick a couple cake balls for us, and she brought us, from the left: red velvet, tiramisu, salted caramel, and German chocolate -- great choices! The German chocolate was my favorite, as it combines coconut with chocolatey goodness! They use Callebaut chocolate, a Belgian line that is a favorite among pastry chefs for good reason. Copper also offers other desserts like a heavenly sounding peanut butter pie or the hot mess brownie; with their liquor selection or even a cappuccino, it would be the perfect spot for dessert or a break from a day of shopping. And that, is what I am sure the owners of Austin Cake Ball were banking on with their transition to Copper.

There was only one person working the front of the house; Ryan said she had only been there about ten days, but she was the consummate professional -- friendly, present yet unobtrusive. Copper is open daily for lunch and dinner, with happy hour everyday from 4 - 7 pm, including all day on Sundays, all night Tuesdays and reverse happy hour on Saturdays after 9 pm. I think the hot mess brownie and a glass of port have my name on them when I return!

Bits and Bites

What's going on in ATX

-- As I write this, the Austin Bakes for West citywide bakesale is concluding. Volunteer bakers, from professionals, to bloggers, to you name it, donated their time and baked goods; there were eight sites around town, and all the proceeds will go to AmeriCares. I made Grenada Nutmeg Cake and a whole bunch of biscuits! Our total tally is over $15,000  $18,000 -- thank you to all who helped and bought baked goods!


-- The upcoming Pachanga Festival (May 10 and 11 at Fiesta Gardens) will have a variety of local food trucks on site, including: Slab (who I just had for the first time this week at Trailer Food Tuesdays), La Fantabulous Taco, mmmpanadas, and Tapas Bravas, as well as special Latin-influenced tastings in the VIP area.

-- Argus Cidery celebrates the launch of their Idalou Brut with a crawfish bowl and tasting of their various ciders; May 11th, $50/person. They are also kicking off picnic lunch boxes that can be reserved in advance, and include one pour of cider. $20/lunch.

-- Mother's Day brunch at Sagra, $25/person, May 12th.

-- Jack Allen's Spanish Wine dinner has been moved to May 14th, $95/person.

-- Garza Gardens, operated by Garza High School Students (an alternative high school within AISD) will have an open house on June 1st from 10 am - 3 pm. The students learn horticulture, sustainability, and environmental issues and maintain the garden, which includes herbs that are sold to Farm to Table, a local sourcing company for area food businesses.

-- Faraday's Kitchen Store in Lakeway is having a huge inventory sale, as they will be moving to a new, bigger spot in the Galleria in Bee Cave at 620 and 71. The retail portion will stay about the same size, but the kitchen area will be three times larger, allowing for more classes, events and demos. 

-- El Alma has created a cocktail, the Park Preserver (Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka and muddled mint) in which the proceeds will benefit an "Improve Bouldin Creek Park" fund.

Openings
-- Third Base sports bar is opening a new location at 183 and Anderson Mill. 

-- Umami Pizzeria, in the old Romeo's on Barton Springs, will open May 31st.  

-- Patrizi's, a new Italian food trailer, is almost open on the east side, exact location TBA.

-- Al Fico, an Italian restaurant, is looking to open in June at 1700 E. 2nd.

-- Also recently opened, Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ trailer, is behind Star Bar at 600 W. 6th.

-- Tyson's Tacos at 4905 Airport; no web page that I can find, but here's link to their Yelp reviews.

-- Chen Z, the noodle house on Anderson Lane, has changed their name to Shabu. 

-- A new cider brewery, Austin East Ciders, is set to open this summer at 979 Springdale Road.


I volunteered last weekend at the Austin Food and Wine Festival; a few pictures from the weekend are on my Facebook page. (Have you "liked" it yet?) :)

Also had the privilege to attend a benefit for Chef John Besh's foundation, which provides culinary scholarships to New Orleans residents. The shrimp boil festivities were held on the Whole Foods rooftop, and it was a really great event, complete with music from the Urban Achievers Brass Band! Pictures from it are also on my Facebook page.

Pieous

A good foodie friend of mine lives in Dripping Springs, and has always lamented the lack of quality restaurants in her area. Well, things are a changin'. Pieous, a pizza spot, has opened on Hwy. 290 just before the Nutty Brown Cafe if you're coming from Austin. And while it's not actually in Dripping, it's close enough that my friend has now been several times, and invited me to go with her last Sunday.

It's a cute red building and a big dirt lot in front with plenty of parking. When you walk inside, it's a nice open room with a mix of communal seating, counter seating, regular tables and even a patio.

You go to the back corner to study the menu and order. Now they've only been open about two months, but there were no paper/printed menus to hold in-hand and look at, as all the menu items are listed on the chalkboard. I think if I hadn't been there with friends who had been a number of times, I would have been a bit overwhelmed! I hope they will consider adding some printed menus because it got crowded up at the counter, and if you're a few people deep in line, you can't read the board. Now I swear I didn't notice this before on their Facebook page, but there is a link to their menu items.

Here's the pizza menu and your choice of toppings.

We ordered the Fat Queen, which has sopressata, pepperoni, and sausage, and as you can see, nice amount of toppings. The pizzas are probably about 12" (maybe a bit bigger?) in diameter. One pizza and a salad would probably be good for two people. (But we were three hungry people, and not afraid of leftovers.) The pizzas cook very quickly in their wood-fired oven. The outer crust is lightly crisp and nice an chewy. You can taste the yeastiness of the crust. I would have liked the bottom crust to have been a bit crisper, but this is still extremely good pizza.

And we had the Bacon Bleu, with bacon marmalade, gorgonzola and mozzarella cheeses, and arugula. As you can see, there was plenty of arugula, but not quite enough bacon marmalade. Being the bacon lover, I wanted more bacony goodness distributed more evenly across the crust. But when you did get a bite of the sweet and salty bacon jam, the lightly bitter arugula, and the pungency of the bleu cheese, you had a near-perfect mouthful of food.

Pieous occupies the old Cartwright's BBQ spot, and when they went out of business, they also left their smoker.  Pieous realized they couldn't just leave it there unattended, so they are smoking some beef and making pastrami. And not just any pastrami, really good, moist pastrami, that's almost like a brisket.  I've never really been a pastrami eater, but my friends insisted that we get the pastrami plate! I think I am now a pastrami convert! Very moist, tender pastrami, lightly pickled onions, a couple of mustards, and some sourdough bread. It's also generous portion of meat for under $11. 

The husband and wife owners also came around to check on their customers and to make sure everything was to your liking. They have three young children, so it's a very child-friendly place. So much so, that one whole section of their beautiful chalk art decorated interior is a corner for kids to draw on. I loved all the chalk art, but more importantly, it also tells a story about their food.

They also offer a variety of desserts. See the cookie under the middle dome? It completely filled a standard white paper plate! Tasted like it was made with butter too.

So take a little drive just west of town. Pieous has a different style of pizza than the "other" popular places in Austin; it's not cracker-crust thin, or uniformly crispy throughout, or huge slices that you fold in half to eat. These are special creations. And as you would expect with a small family-owned artisinal business, you can see and taste the pride that went into making your food. And yes, Pieous pizza does make you happy.

Parkside

Parkside was the first of Shawn Cirkiel's three restaurants to open (in 2008), and yet somehow, I am just now finding my way there though I have been to the other two (The Backspace and Olive + June). I met a friend for happy hour last Sunday evening; she, a fellow foodie who has been on numerous occasions. I will still need to get back for a full-on meal, but happy hour was certainly a good start.

I started with a cocktail , the Germain Twist -- Cava, St. Germain, and a little splash of cranberry juice, with a twist of lemon. As I like my bubblies and whites on the sweeter side, this was perfect for me, and I think I need to purchase some St. Germain to recreate this at home.

As you can see below, Parkside offers happy hour daily from 5 - 6:30 pm, and there are plenty of food options that average out to $5 - 6/plate. We picked four different items to share, and told our waiter to just have the kitchen space their arrivals a bit.

The first out was the calamari, dusted with paprika and served with aioli. They were good, but honestly could have been fried just a touch longer to make them more golden and a bit crisper.

The second dish was absolutely the star of the evening -- blonde pate, with strawberry relish and toast points. While the menu didn't say (and more about menu descriptions in a moment), surely this was made from chicken livers...with a whole bunch of butter, cream, and probably some other cholesterol-boosting agents. I know that pates are not for everyone; I have only been a convert in the recent years. This was so creamy and smooth, and devoid of any real liver flavor, that you forgot you were eating liver. I know you can't really see them, but the strawberries were so finely diced and they contained just enough acid to cut the fattiness and richness of the pate to round out the dish. The bread was extremely light, possibly yesterday's brioche that's been very thinly sliced and lightly toasted. The pate would make a lovely sandwich spread, like for a grilled pork bahn mi. I am still swooning over the pate!

This next one is pork rillettes with potato croquettes and strawberry compote. Strawberries again? Well, they are in season in Central Texas, and they were nice and fresh. My dining companion thought the pork wasn't the freshest; it didn't taste off to me, but it did not have a whole lot of flavor. Now the surrounding elements on the plate did -- the strawberries and what tasted like a cranberry compote on the bottom of the plate; the potato croquettes were ok, but apart from not being greasy, there wasn't too much else to them. Unfortunately next to the blonde pate, these really paled in flavor-profile comparison.

Our last appetizer were the crab fritters, that were served with a ravigote sauce, which was a new culinary term for me. In fancy French terms, it's a derivation from a veloute sauce (one of the French mother sauces, made from stock and a blond roux); ravigote adds herbs and acid, and in this example, in the form of lemon zest and juice. Really a lovely sauce. The crab were good, but largely made so by the pop from the sauce.

And then, on to dessert!

Here is the blackberry + hazelnuts which my companion ordered; I had a little bite which I liked, and overall she was happy with it.

And this the coffee doughnuts, which was recommended by our server Eric, over the chocolate three ways. The chicory coffee ice cream was incredible! Such a strong coffee flavor, it made me wonder if the caffeine would keep me awake that night (it didn't). The doughnuts were a little on the chewy side, like the dough got a bit overworked, but the surrounding crumble and tart cherries on the plate were great accompaniments.

My one real critique of the Parkside family of restaurants is the minimal amount of information put forward on the menu about each dish. I am the kind that wants as much menu information as possible so I don't have to ask the server a ton of questions. Looking at the dinner menu, I would want to know how a dish is prepared (fried, steamed, poached, braised, seared, etc.) and you don't always get that info from the menu. Apart from that (and being located on 6th Street), Parkside was a solid experience, and our service was great. While not every dish shined, you can taste the potential, and you see why Shawn Cirkiel is one of the top chefs in Austin.