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!

Bits and Bites

Coming up....

-- Pay it Forward with Daniel Curtis will be held at the AT&T Conference Center, August 21, 6 - 10 pm. Daniel was the assistant food and beverage director at The Carillon restaurant (located at the AT&T) when he was left quadriplegic after a diving accident. A fundraiser for him last year raised $65,000 to help with medical expenses, and now, he wants to pay it forward to help others. This year, a number of the area's top chefs will prepare dishes to be paired with cocktails from local beverage crafters. Tickets begin at $100, and can be purchased through the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation. 

 

-- J Blacks Feel Good Kitchen and Lounge celebrates their 5th anniversary on August 23rd with some complimentary bubbles, nibbles, and gift bags, while they last! 

 

-- Con Olio Olive Oil will be hosting Extra Virginity author Tom Mueller at both their stores on Saturday, August 25th for a talk and book signing. That evening, Fonda San Miguel will host him for a special pairing dinner for $85 person, reservations can be made here. From their PR info, the evening "will showcase Fonda's exquisite plates, and how fresh extra virgin olive oils make the difference in each entree." Liquid gold, indeed!

 

-- August 28 at 24 Diner, there will be a five course beer pairing dinner held with Oskar Blues Brewery libations from Colorado. The menu looks divine! $65/person, please call to make reservations.

And finally:

-- Sugar Mama's Bakery is looking for experienced counter help as well as bakers! Open interviews on Tuesday, August 21 from 9 - 11am; see their Facebook post!

Satellite Bistro

It's only been in the past month or so that I have heard of Satellite Bistro and Bar in Circle C, and then I heard of it a few times by different people in succession. So my curiosity was

piqued, and I was even more surprised to discover it's been open since around 2006.

While in suburbia, Satellite was designed by noted local architect Michael Hsu, and it's very much his aesthetic. Stone work, modern lines, big windows, reminds me of Olivia (which yes, he also designed). We were seated on the patio, which has nice big ceiling fans and just enough landscaping to help you forget you're in a strip mall. However the volume on the speakers was really loud, and the music was reminiscent of your iPod on "shuffle"... when we sat down, it was the Gregorian Monks and that chanting song from the 1990s, and throughout our time there, it ranged from country to contemporary. Not exactly congruous. All the while, a 1950s chanteuse performed live inside.

It's an eclectic menu to say the least, with dishes representing the flavors of Italy and the Mediterranean, Tex Mex, pan-Asian, and seafood.... From their website, I learned the owners are a pair of Greek brothers, hence the Med and seafood influences, I would guess. It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to, especially because I wasn't starving, having come from another event. It probably didn't help that our college-aged (?) waitress came by twice for orders, though all of us were sitting there pouring over the menu both times. She was nice, and was trying to do her job, but our table of food people made eyes at each other when she mispronounced the day's risotto special (it came out like "reyz-ottow" instead of "rih-soh-toe") and none of us could understand the method of how the daily specials vegetables were cooked. Yeah, we're kinda food snobs.

We started off with the calamari, which had a nice thick crust on them, but a few rings were a touch greasy; the marinara with it was bland, but the red pepper remoulade had a nice punch. 

The eater who ordered this Mediterranean Shrimp Linguine ate too many calamari and could only eat half her main dish!

This is the Champagne Gorgonzola Salad with shrimp, which well-liked by the eater.

And the Gourmet Bistro Burger with a delicious smoked tomato jam; I tried the jam, but not the burger, and the jam was great. The yuca chips were decent, though you have to be a fan of the starchy tuber to appreciate them.  Didn't hear any complaints about the burger.

And for me, crab cakes. Oh but wait. Where were they? It was another waiter/runner who brought the food to the table, not our initial waitress. He said "they're coming," and disappeared. I urged my table mates to start eating....and waited. So a couple minutes later, our waitress comes by and apologizes, by saying the crab cakes were being made again, because they were "too dark." Okay...

So they did arrive a few minutes later, a lovely golden brown color. And while they were very crispy, coated with Panko breadcrumbs, and I think deep fried given their evenness of color, they really didn't have much flavor to them. Yes, it's mostly crab inside, not filler, but bland. Salt? Pepper? Garlic? Chives? Something, please!! The dish's saving grace, apart from the presentation? The jalapeno aioli.

We considered dessert, but when a dessert and corresponding drinks menu doesn't contain any prices, I am concerned! So we passed. Overall, the food was fine, though certainly not exceptional. And this correlates (unfortunately) with what I had heard from others about Satellite -- it's a mixed bag. Glad I had great company to make the meal more enjoyable!