Bits and Bites -- Food News

-- Austin Restaurant Week runs April 7-10 and 14-17, with this year's proceeds benefiting Meals on Wheels; check out their website for the listing of participating restaurants. Lots of options for prix fixe lunches and dinners!

-- Monday, April 8, Easy Tiger is hosting an 8-course tasting dinner with the brewmaster from Avery Brewing, $100/person.

-- Songkran, the Thai New Year celebration is coming up.
    -- Sway is offering a special menu from April 15 - 21, including duck laksa, Singapore clams, and larp moo, with wild boar, coconut cream, and cashews. Plus, they are now offering valet parking in the evenings.
    -- The Buddhist temple out in Del Valle, Wat Buddhananachat, hosts a big Songkran festival each year (April 20 this year), with TONS of Thai streets foods available. I always love going, even though I don't know what half the foods are!

-- April 25 is the Austin Food and Wine Alliance's annual Live Fire event at the Salt Lick Pavilion. An impressive listing of area chefs are participating in this year's event! Check out their website for tickets ($75) and to see the who's who.

-- Tuesday nights are all you can eat mussels at Sagra, including $4 sangria specials. 

-- Johnny Carino's are supporting autism awareness throughout the month of April. From their press release: "Guests who post to Instagram with the hashtag #carinosblue will join the Johnny Carino’s campaign; the restaurant is hoping to receive 30,000 hashtags to match the $30,000 being donated by Johnny Carino’s."

-- If you're itching to get into the food trailer business, come up with a business plan and prepare your best dish on May 4th at the Historic Scoot Inn, for your chance to win a six month contract operating the Zorro food truck, the latest entity from ATX Brands owner Doug Guller. If you want more details, email me and I'll send you the press release.


Openings....
-- Benji's Cantina at 716 W. 6th Street at West Avenue

-- Umami Mia Pizzeria (in the old Romeo's on Barton Springs) is shooting for a May opening. The eatery will seat close to 200 total, and in addition to pizza, will feature sandwiches and salads, all of which highlight the umami taste sensation -- savory, rich, and mouthwatering!

-- Also in late May, Daniel Olivella's new Barlata Tapas will open at 1500 S. Lamar.
 
-- The Brew Exchange has over 100 beers on tap, and their prices are constantly fluctuating depending on demand; their motto "buy low and drink up". They are also offering beer cocktails, which seem to have fixed prices.

Bits and Bites -- Food News

Events
-- Trailer Food Tuesdays at the Long Center resumes on March 26th; the list of tasty truck at this month's event can be found here.

-- Sagra will have an Easter Buffet for $25/person on March 31st.

-- Texas Veg Fest will be April 6th at Fiesta Gardens. 

-- Edible Austin is sponsoring a Children's Picnic and Real Food Fair, on April 7th at the French Legation. 

-- Austin Restaurant Week returns April 7 - 10 and 14 - 17. Check out their pages for what spots will be participating. 

-- The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards will be April 11th at the Driskill Hotel, $50/person, which benefits the Austin Food and Wine Alliance. 

-- On April 14th, the Sustainable Food Center's Chef Series Spring Bounty dinner will be held at La Condesa, $125/person, benefiting the SFC. The multi-course dinner will feature chefs from Congress, La Condesa, Lenoir, Olive + June, Salt + Time, Smoke + Chicken Scratch, and Sway.

-- And the iconic food trailer park on South Congress Avenue has gotten a brief reprieve, and the trailers are there through May, though I hear some are already moving out. Hey Cupcake has migrated about a block north, next to Homeslice. 

Openings
-- Smashburger, part of a California burger chain, has opened in Southpark Meadows.

-- Arro, the latest project (this one being French-inspired) from 24 Diner and Easy Tiger's Drew Cullen and his pastry chef wife Mary Catherine, will open in the former Haddington's (601 W. 6th) later this year. (Yes, Haddington's closed last weekend.)

-- Searsucker, from Top Chef and The Taste's Brian Mularkey, will open in the former Maria Maria (415 Colorado) later this spring.

 

The Backspace

Last week was the conclusion of Austin Restaurant Week, where a number of area restaurants offer a three-course prix fixe menu, no more than $37 for a dinner. It allows patrons to perhaps try some places that they haven't been before or that are generally priced above their budgets. Restaurants in turn donate a portion of the proceeds to a designated non-profit, which was Meals on Wheels.

A friend and I went to The Backspace on San Jacinto between 5th and 6th; I believe the name comes from the fact that it is located behind sister restaurant Parkside, whose entrance is on 6th. It's a long, skinny spot, dominated by the bar that runs almost the entire length of the restaurant; I'd say the whole place seats about 40 people tops. I liked the decor -- the old (not sure if it was genuine or faux) tin ceiling, the stained glass, and the "modern farmhouse" look of the bar stools. The women's restroom was plastered in wine and water bottle labels!

The value of The Backspace's ARW menu was quite good. They priced it at $54 for two people, which included  shared dished of an appetizer, a pizza, a dessert, AND a bottle of wine (the bottle we had normally retails there for $30).  We started with the oven-roasted green beans with pancetta, guanciale, a bit of chile flakes, Parmesan and some little crispy fried onions on top. For me, the beans were cooked perfectly (I think overcooked green beans are the scourge of the earth!), and the flavors of everything together was really good, though I don't think I could distinguish pancetta from guanciale in this case.

For our pizza, we picked the squash blossom, with ricotta, mozzarella, pesto, and scarto (apparently, a homemade sausage, I had to ask, as I was unfamiliar) that was crumbled on top. It was delicious! It's a yeasty crust, and thick around the edges, but still manages to be thinner in the center; I wouldn't call it crisp in the middle part, but it wasn't soggy either. Fresh cheeses. Great flavors. Now I am realizing now as I study the picture and the menu description that "squash" was not on the ingredient listing, and I am wondering if they were low on squash blossoms, as there weren't many of them on the pizza, so maybe they compensated with squash. Doesn't really matter, we ate the entire thing!

The choices for dessert were a hazelnut chocolate budino (pudding) or a ricotta cheesecake; nothing wrong with cheesecake, but I am a sucker for hazelnut anything, and fortunately my friend was more than willing to try the budino. Again, not disappointed. The toffee on top was like crack, and the pudding was silky smooth.

I am only disappointed that I have not been to the Backspace sooner, as the regular menu sounds yummy too. I also wish it weren't downtown, just because parking is more of a pain as is the whole 6th Street scene. But for early dinners, this is perfect, and I look forward to a return trip. Our waitress was friendly and knowledgeable, which always helps too. Cin cin!

Bits and Bites

Real quickly....

-- Austin Restaurant Week is underway!

-- Banger's Oktoberfest is underway, September 22 - October 7 -- so 16 days of German beers, games, and drinking traditions! Lederhosen encouraged. 

-- The Austin Cellar Classic will be October 5 and 6, benefiting the Austin Food and Wine Alliance. The dinner on the 5th is a five course wine pairing dinner ($125) with food from Max's Wine Dive; the grand tasting on the 6th features about 80 different wines ($45).

-- Hops and Grain will celebrate their first anniversary on October 7, with special access to beers, food, the tap room, commemorative glasses and more for $35/person.

-- Snap Kitchen opened their fifth location, at 6317 Bee Caves, just past 360 next to the Grove. Still no south locations though!

Austin Restaurant Week

Well duh. I posted it on Twitter, but neglected to do so here.

Austin Restaurant Week starts on Sunday!

This taken straight from their website:
The Spring 2010 installment of Austin Restaurant Week will run from February 28th - March 3rd and March 7th - 10th, and is hosted by Rare Media. The event will allow participants to dine at the finest establishments throughout the city for fixed prices, ranging from $10 - $15 for lunch and $25 - $35 for dinner. Peruse this site to find the stellar list of restaurants, and start making your plans for Austin Restaurant Week today!

Eat local!