First Look: 1417, Bouldin's Neighborhood Bistro

By all appearances, 1417 has successfully managed to open their new restaurant during a pandemic. The upscale (but still casual) French bistro, 1417 took over the space vacated by Thai sweetheart Sway (the Westlake location is still open) at 1417 South First Street, in the heart of the Bouldin Creek neighborhood.  When they first opened over the summer, they were only serving on their outdoor patio, and just in the past month have added indoor seating. We had an early dinner reservation, and while the inside was empty when we arrived, when we left, the patio was filled and the inside was bustling.

Service was great from the moment we walked in. Staff was friendly and welcoming, water glasses were continually attended to, and dishes came out in an appropriately timed manner. 

Gorgeous interior!

The Jane Doe + Cucumber Gimlet cocktails.
 They put some attention into details like the glassware and serving pieces.

Duck confit crepe, which had a nice range of textures from the tender meat to the crisp crepe to crunchy hazelnuts to the mostarda.

Cheese board with firm goat's milk, blue, and soft ripened, which are a good mix of styles, accompanied by pears, berries, apricot compote, candied walnuts and sourdough crackers.

Eggplant with "chorizo" from farro, roasted squash and fava beans. 

Mussels in chile oil broth with a nice hearty focaccia, perfect for dipping. Hard to pick, but I think this was my favorite.

Chocolate mint candy bar with peppermint butter cream inside, and mint sorbet. 

All in all, a great new addition to my Bouldin neighborhood! 1417 is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What I've Been Eating, Part Three

AMAZING chocolate croissant from Vivian's Boulangerie!

Welcome to another edition of what South Austin Foodie has been eating recently! I continue to get carryout a couple times a week, and I try to get things where I can at least get two meals out of my order. Some home cooking, but overall it's been too hot! Here are the main highlights, please keep tabs on my Instagram, especially Stories for a more comprehensive run down of my meals!

Hey Say is a homestyle Vietnamese spot on East Oltorf; I think they're serving a few more general Asian dishes than before, but definitely look for their house specials! These are twice fried wings with a fish sauce that were really good and very different from other wings (in a good way!).

Thai Taste's spicy larb!

Molly inspects some of my first Vivian's Boulangerie croissant order.

From my second Vivian's order, beet and goat cheese kolache, brie and caramelized shallot tiger paw, cardamom snickerdoodle and salted chocolate chip cookies, and almond croissant. They've now expanded their order pickups/deliveries to FOUR days a week! (Very dangerous.) Seriously, some of the best stuff I've had. 

Steamies frozen pork char siu, pork dumplings, and beef bao. Storefront at Airport and Lamar, I will definitely be back!

Here are the Steamies dumplings, which were very good. I think the bulgogi beef bao was my favorite as it had a TON of flavor and the beef was moist. And very pleasantly surprised with the puff pastry texture and filling of the char siu triangle. 

Winebelly's chicken liver mousse is always a favorite.

My friend Curd Culture lives in Houston, but worked with local cheese shop Antonelli's and taught a cheese class via Zoom. A friend and I had the chicken liver mousse and then split this cheese board, a bottle of bubbly,  and sat socially distanced for the class. Great way to spend and evening!

Stunning chirashi bot bowl a friend got from Lucky Robot

We also split these pork belly buns  from Lucky Robot, which were crammed with stuff including pickled cauliflower which gave them a nice crunch. 

Also up there for Best Thing I Have Eaten Recently, this Vietnamese French dip sandwich from the 20Pho7 food truck at Live Oak and South First. The bread was perfect, the pho broth flavorful, the beef super tender and rare! Filled with bean sprouts, scallions, and a spicy mayo. I cannot wait to go back!

Support your local businesses and let's make sure they stay in business! What fantastic things have you been eating?

More: What I've Been Eating

Greetings from South Austin! I've been doing my best to try to support South Austin restaurants, with a few exceptions. Here's a look at what I've been making and getting for take out in the past two months. Caution: may make you hungry! 😂

Homemade: pasta in light cream sauce with asparagus, bacon, pine nuts and parm.

Homemade: coconut cream tarte

Bouldin Creek Cafe veggie burger

Homemade: chili (with beans!) and skillet cornbread

Vespaio canneloni, arancini, beet salad. These were fabulous and I got about three meals out of this.

A dear friend sent me this Bokksu box of Japanese snacks! So much fun!

Homemade: air fryer churros! Easy and yummy!
 (Though not as good as the nearby Churro food trailer!)

Habana pollo salteado, empanada, tres leches

La Patisserie morning bun, croissant, almond macaroon

La Patisserie chocolate hazelnut cake

Homemade: pasta with corn pesto

Bao'd Up BBQ chicken bao

Slab BBQ pork ribs

Tarka's lamb biryani and chicken korma. I can't not get the korma! 

Homemade: raw beet salad, with fennel, red onion and haloumi

Beet issues 😀

Soup Peddler: grilled cheese + salad

Sugar Mama's carrot cupcake and bourbon pecan bar

El Dorado beef enchiladas with calabazas (squash). This was a fabulous evening, being socially distant with friends in north central Austin. Food and friends were excellent! 

A friend and I both ordered carry out from Fat Dragon, coordinated our pick up times, and sat in the parking lot with our cars dovetailed together so we could eat and talk.  Delicious lamb cilantro dumplings and below, dry fried green beans.

Coffee bourbon browned butter blondies. See my previous post!

Artipasta: bolognese + lemon cream sauces for another evening of social distance with a friend.

Thai Fresh pad thai, tom yum soup, veggies

Elizabeth Street Cafe banh cuon and pesty cat.

Oh my. This Queen Beak (fried chicken biscuit) from Bird Bird Biscuit is one of the finer things I have eaten lately! This is the naked version, as I got my chipotle aioli and hot honey on the side, and as I was eating (and photographing) this from my car, the pics with the sauces on them aren't super. This was messy. But worth every bite.

Dolce Neve gelato

Homemade: pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese balls)

Loro: bavette, corn fritters, won ton chips + dips. The bavette is quite good, but somehow I can't get these lightly seasoned won ton chips with peanut sambal out of my mind.

I've heard the buzz about La Tunita 512, and had to go check it out. The consume with birria is delicious! Should have gotten the torta special to dip in the consume -- next time! 

Hungry? Yeah, me too. Time for my next meal! And I should add (and had mentioned in my May post), I've been doing intermittent fasting, so eating all these lovelies, and I am down 20 pounds total! 

What's on your menu?