Cuban Sandwich Cafe

North of the Mueller development, tucked away in a slightly obscure location, sits Cuban Sandwich Cafe, which is both a cafe and bakery. I've known of this place for a good 6 to 9 months now, but rarely make it to the northeast part of town (it's on Briarcliff, off of Berkman). A Saturday afternoon was a good time to avoid traffic issues, and to meet up with a friend who doesn't live too far from there. You walk into the cafe and immediately see their pastry case. I was having hard time getting a shot of the case, but then I realized, the front window reflects perfectly in the glass!

Ordering at the counter, my friend picked ropa vieja, one of her favorite dishes. She was extremely pleased with it, saying it was one of the best she's had in Austin. The stewed beef was tender and flavorful, as was the rice and black beans, which had a buttery-ness to them. The  yuca didn't do a whole lot for me, but it never has. Too starchy.

I figured, if I am eating at a place called Cuban Sandwich Cafe, I ought to order a Cuban sandwich, and I can never pass up maduros (sauteed plantains). Hearty portion, nicely pressed, ham and lechon (stewed pork). Maybe a bit heavy on the yellow mustard, but overall, a tasty sandwich. I can't say that I am an expert on Cuban sandwiches by any stretch, but I enjoyed it. The maduros could have used a touch of salt (this coming from me, *shocking*!), but were tender, and had the nice caramelized bits around the edges.

After eating, I took a good look back at the pastry counter. I got one of the cinnamon sugar twists, that you see in the bottom of the case, and a coconut macaroon to its right. The twist had sort of an odd sweetness to me...almost as if it had a fruit filling in it, but it didn't. I couldn't really place it, almost like pineapple. Fairly good flaky texture, but the taste somehow wasn't my favorite. The macaroon was better, nice and coconutty, but a bit dense.

If you're thinking of heading up there, you might want to call to see if they are open. Their website, Facebook page, and this sign on the door all list different hours; it would certainly help if they were all consistent! I guess I'd go with the door sign, Mon - Sat, 8:30 am - 7pm, closed on Sunday.

There was a woman in there eating tamal cubano, and I guess I will have to go back to find out how they differ from Mexican (or even NEW Mexican) tamales!

Bits and Bites

Events... in addition to the weekend-long Austin Food and Wine Festival.....

-- Today, Chef Michelle Bernstein will be doing a cooking demo with Chefs Rene Ortiz and Laura Sawicki of La Condesa, at Macy's (in conjunction with Macy's Culinary Council and the Austin Food and Wine Festival) at Barton Creek Square Mall. 6 pm. Free. I'll be there!

-- Joel Ozersky, a James Beard award-winning food writer will be at Lucy's Fried Chicken on Friday, April 27th from 2 - 5pm, signing copies of his new book, Colonel Sanders and the American Dream.

-- "Great Spring Revival" wine tasting event at Max's Wine Dive, Saturday, April 28, 1 - 4pm, $25

-- Jack Allen's Kitchen and Peligroso Tequila are doing a 5-course pairing dinner, Tuesday, May 1st at 7 pm, $65/person.

-- Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby fall on the same day this year (can you figure out the date?). Several spots holding their unique "Cinco de Derby" events, including: Peche, eleven plates, Paggi House, Lucy's Fried Chicken, and Swift's Attic.

-- Sustainable Food Center's annual Farm to Plate fundraiser, featuring an amazing lineup of local talent will be May 10th at 6:30pm at Barr Mansion. Tickets $125, and moving fast!

-- Mother's Day (Sunday, May 13) brunches at Sagra, Paggi House

Openings

-- New trailer on South 1st, Phatso's, doing Philly cheese steaks. They're by Wasota and SoCo to Go, just south of the School for the Deaf.

-- Further down South 1st, Sugar Mama's Bakeshop is now open Tues - Sat at 9 am for delicious breakfast goodies, like cinnamon rolls and muffins..... *waistline expanding!*

-- Newish spot Olive and June has tweaked their hours, and now also offering a Sunday supper, serving family style. See their website for details.

-- Driving into Sunset Valley the other day, I spied two things: the recently closed Estancia Churrascuria is becoming Royal India, and the closed and torn down Red Robin is yet another chain, Longhorn Steakhouse. 

Bits and Bites

Newsy stuff this week:

-- One week until the Austin Food and Wine Festival events get started! There's even a handy app (iPhone and Android) that has the schedule, grounds map, talent (the CHEFS!), and Twitter feed all rolled into one.

-- Live Fire! a grilling extravaganza with sizzling local chefs takes place at the famed Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Thursday, April 26th. Tickets still available; foodie friends who have been before say it's a blast!

-- If you don't want to make the scenic drive to Driftwood, head to Macy's at Barton Creek Mall, at 6 pm on April 26th as well. Nationally acclaimed Chef/Restaurateur Michelle Bernstein, and La Condesa Chef Rene Ortiz and Pastry Chef Laura Sawicki join up for a cooking demonstration of Grilled Asparagus with Romesco and Ricotta Gnocchi with Favabean Pesto.   Michelle Bernstein is a member of Macy's Culinary Council, and will be signing copies of her new cookbook Cuisine a Latina: Fresh Tastes and a World of Flavors from Michy’s Miami Kitchen.

-- Chef Bryce Gilmore tells Eater Austin that his now-closed trailer, Odd Duck (the precursor to Barley Swine) will eventually make a comeback, in what he hopes is a 100-seat restaurant. Don't get excited yet, as he's still exploring all his options, no lease has been signed yet!

-- I am still mourning the closure of my beloved Artz Ribhouse, but Eater Austin reports today that former owner Art Blondin is taking over the kitchen at Jax Neighborhood Cafe, at 2828 Rio Grande.  Please let there be baby back ribs!

-- Trader Joe's will apparently be coming to Austin next year! They're going to open a spot at the soon-to-be renovated Seaholm Power plant, near Lamar and Cesar Chavez (and not far from Whole Foods). 

-- The South Lamar food trailer court, where my recently discovered delicious Bella Cucina lies (South Lamar at Panther, just south of Red's Porch) is getting a makeover and some new additions. Hopefully they'll all be open next week!

-- Olive and June is beginning a Sunday Night Supper Series, $35/person for five courses, starting April 22.

Bits and Bites

-- Fresas Chicken al Carbon opens Monday, and Swift's Attic has been holding soft openings (reservation only, I think) this week. 

-- Anderson Lane is getting revamped/revitalized with the recent addition of Chen's Noodle House (see my post here), and Tarka Indian and Hopdoddy Burgers any minute now.

-- This Sunday, April 15th, Sagra holds their Sunday Supper series, a 5-course prix fixe menu for $50/person. 

-- Crawfish Boil and Festival, Saturday, April 21st at Rough Hollow in Lakeway. Tickets $15 in advance, $20 at the door. More info on their website. 

-- Recently re-opened downtown restaurant Hickory Street has a revised menu that includes several "small bites" options; open seven days a week, and you get 10% off with the Go Local card!

-- Snap Kitchen, a prepared meal business with three locations, has many gluten-free and paleo diet options available, and jumping ahead a bit, May is Celiac Awareness Month!

-- The six-month old elevenplates restaurant in Davenport Village on 360 is announcing a new executive chef, Joe Anguiano, who comes most recently from Uchi, by way of Los Angeles, and working with Spanish Chef Jose Andres.

-- There's a new diet and fitness app/website, SlimKicker, that "turns your diet and weight loss goals into a winnable game."

Lucy's Fried Chicken

Consistency is everything in the restaurant world. A patron who has good food at an establishment expects it to be that way (if not better) upon their return. Yes, there are occasional glitches, but for quality establishments, they are generally few and far between. In the four+ months Lucy's Fried Chicken has been open, I have heard various impressions through the foodie grapevine that swing in both directions. I finally had the opportunity to try it for myself.

Lucy's is located at the southern end of the trendy SoCo strip, actually on College Avenue, which juts off Congress and hits Oltorf. It is the site of a defunct Mexican spot, that the folks from Olivia snatched up and renovated, with seating both in and outside. We sat inside, and I started off with a 512 Wit on tap, and we worked our way through a lot of food!

I am generally not a raw oyster person, but these were delicious! Topped with hot sauce and wasabi tobiko (fish roe), the oysters were in very gnarly shells, and just had that sweet ocean flavor. The oysters were absolutely one of the best things we had.

The Chicks and Chips, chicken salad with homemade cayenne pepper potato chips was a mixed bag. I loved the crispiness of the thick-sliced chips, very crunchy and dark, but the cayenne pepper flavor was lacking on many of the chips. In fact, I tasted cumin more than I tasted cayenne. The chicken salad didn't have a whole lot of flavor, and they are using the dark meat. It could be so much more! A little celery, garlic, spicy mayo of some sort, SALT... it has the potential.

The South Austin Wedge Salad was also very good. Nice blue cheese dressing, certainly not from a bottle. The nuts were a nice twist to it.

Then there was the chicken itself -- we got the basket, which came with five pieces (great deal for $9)! (They also have a bucket of chicken that they say serves 4, but the grapevine says it feeds more like 6!) The chicken was very good -- thick, crisp skin, juicy and moist on the inside. For sides, cornbread stuffing and Mexican Coke sweet potatoes; unfortunately, neither proved to be very appealing. The sweet potatoes are just that --  SWEET.  If you're a big connoisseur of sweet pots with marshmallows on top, then this may be your thing. I love sweet potatoes, and I love sweet stuff, but this was too sickly sweet for it to really work as a savory side dish. The cornbread dressing also suffers from sweetness, as they're using a sweet corn bread instead of a savory. Just think what a buttery jalapeno cornbread with real corn in it could do here!

A friend of mine has eaten here frequently, and has had leftover pie, so I had previously had bites of the s'mores and shoofly pies, which were both really good. I'm always a sucker for key lime pie, so we had that and the sweet tea pie. I have always said a crust makes a pie. I like to bake, and I like making pie crusts from scratch (ideally with butter and leaf lard), so I appreciate the effort that goes into them. In both these cases, the fillings were fantastic, and the crusts were close to awful. The lime pie is described as having a coriander-wafer crust. What I tasted was an undercooked pie shell with way too much shortening in it, and apart from the shortening, no other flavor. It is nice that it has a whipped cream topping as opposed to a meringue, and again, the lime flavor was incredible. (I ended up just eating the filling, not the crust.) The crust on the sweet tea pie suffered from being way too thick, and also under baked. There wasn't a whole lot of flakiness to it because of the density. My friend swears she's had the lime pie when the crust has been delicious. I trust her food opinion completely, so again, where's the consistency? Who's making the pies?

Lucy's has had it's fair share of local media attention, and some national attention as well. There doesn't appear to be any shortage of customers, and from our recent visit, it's locals, people of all ages, and even out of towners who are catching on to the hip vibes. The negative feedback I had heard from people the past few months included burnt chicken (this came from two separate people, and one was told "that's how it's supposed to be" when they questioned it), to poor side dishes, to the pie crust issue. The positive feedback has been the chicken's great, as are the deep fried deviled eggs, and steak night (Tuesdays) was delicious. But not one person who I have heard feedback from said "everything we ate was fantastic," and don't you want to hear that in the restaurant business?

So the question is, does Lucy's have any interest in really improving the quality and consistency of their food across the board when they're seemingly cruising along as it is?