Brunch at Olivia

** Editor's note: the restaurant group that owns Olivia decided to close it in the Fall of 2016. They repurposed it as Lucy's On The Fly, a fried chicken carry out spot. **

I just returned from Sunday brunch at Olivia, one of the first places I wrote about on this here blog. I am a brunch lover, and don't often get to eat it, so this was a real treat! Arriving a little before noon with no reservation didn't pose any problems. The restaurant was probably at two-thirds capacity, and we got seated right away. I must say, it's a building that's very architecturally interesting, with high ceilings, modern lines, and in the daytime, nice light pouring in. Dining sections are divided a bit by.... well, built in wall dividers, that held vases with tropicals. We were seated in pretty much the exact spot where I sat before, which is the bench across from the kitchen. Unfortunately, my back was to the kitchen, where you could tell they were keeping busy.

We both started with bellinis, and sipped on them while checking out the brunch menu. Always a sucker for sweet and salty, I ordered the brioche French toast with a side of sausage. The waitress asked me what kind of syrup would I like, the vanilla or lemon ginger, so I asked her what her preference was, and she said "I'll bring you both, choices are fun!". Perfect! My friend ordered 2 eggs, poached medium, bacon, and asked to substitute the fries with the smoked gouda grits, which was no problem. My plate was three thick pieces of bread, egg soaked, and grilled off, with some slices of pear on top. The FT was nice, maybe not the tenderest, eggiest brioche that I've ever had, but quite tasty; unfortunately the pears were very underripe. The syrups were a nice twist from a typical maple syrup; the vanilla infused was particularly good, the lemon ginger had nice flavor, but was a bit overly sweet, even for me. The housemade sausage, however, was delicious -- a medium grind pork sausage with whole fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, and I think some sage and/or thyme. The grits were a little coarse, but had really good flavor from the smoked gouda, and the house-cured bacon was crisp, with I think a light smoky flavor. My friend was thrilled her poached eggs were cooked to a perfect medium; we did have to ask for salt & pepper though, and a small piece of bread would have been nice on the plate to sop up the yolk.

Service was friendly all around, and attentive but not obtrusive from our main waitress. When we got up to leave, the line chefs looked up and like all said "Bye, thanks!" Kinda nice. I am really glad to see that in a poorer economy, a newer place like Olivia appears to be doing well. As we left, we were admiring the plants in their landscaping around the patio area, and noticed a garden towards the back. We walked over, and saw banana peppers, mesclun, basil, thyme, oregano, tomatoes, and possibly green beans (no tag on them, but they have built a trellis). There's no fence around it, so so hopefully the critters stay out! I should add that Olivia's is dedicated to buying locally as much as possible, and they list their local farms and purveyors on their menu, which is always nice to see.

Habanero

There's been this little Mexican place not far from me that I've heard really good things about for a couple of years, and somehow, just never managed to get there. Went for dinner last night with a couple of girlfriends, and there's a consensus that we've discovered a new neighborhood gem.

Habanero is one block east of the Oltorf and S. 1st intersection in a older house. At a little past 7:30 on Friday night, they had a few diners, but it wasn't full. Our waitress was very friendly, and we spoke with her in a combo of English and Spanish throughout the evening. After ordering cervezas, and munching on the chips and fresh-made salsa that arrived with the beers, we settled on an appetizer of "Nacho Supreme", which was a huge plate of tortilla chips with seasoned ground beef and covered in good white cheese. Not sure which cheese it was, but it melted super well, had nice mellow flavor, and wasn't a greasy pool. Their tortilla chips are really nice also, a nice thickness, and enought corn flavor to them. Don't know if they make them there or not.

I ordered the gorditas, which according to their menu is one of their specialities. Described by them as "a Mexican hamburger," our waitress suggested it with the beef fajita. It's a large plate! The corn cake part was really good -- crispy on the outer part, and slightly softer in the middle. The beef fajita meat had a nice grilled flavor, and the meat was fairly tender. It came with refried beans, rice, guacamole, lettuce & tomatoes.

My friends split the beef fajita platter for two; they each got their own plate of charro beans, guacamole, and tortillas (one ordered flour, the other corn, and without even asking who ordered what, our waitress placed the right tortillas in front of the right person). While I didn't taste their meat because I assume it was the same as in my gordita, I did try the charro beans (pintos) which were fantastic. A light bit of smokiness, and good pork flavor. When I go back, I would substitute the charros for the refrieds.

We were too stuffed for dessert, but they have sopaipillas on the menu, which I would bet are great. Overall, it was a great evening -- all the food was fresh and tasty, and the service friendly and very efficient. I am excited to have a casual place that's nearby and not a trendy spot like some of the others around here!

Delinquent!

Yes, as I have been delinquent about writing lately, here are two tasty photos of things I have eaten in the past few weeks.

The lovely fluffy biscuit and gravy, with the fried eggs in the back, courtesy of the Frisco Nighthawk up on Burnet. Those were darn good fluffy biscuits! Would love to go back for more, just wish it wasn't so far north! Things of amusement: we ordered 8 biscuits to go, and didn't get charged for them, their coffee was good diner coffee (and I don't drink coffee! but she brought me coffee by mistake instead of tea, and I didn't feel like buggin' her about it), saw a woman with a "100% Bitch" tattoo. Oh yeah...

The taco is from Izzoz, a new trailer over on S. 1st, close to home! It's the "Slowrider" -- braised machaca beef, cotija cheese, caramelized onions & cilantro. And for $3, it was delicious! Izzoz sits in the same lot at Holy Cacao, a "cake ball" purveyor... think cookie dough on a stick with icing!

The Knife Sharpest

No, you can't eat there. But I am THRILLED beyond belief to have a new location of the Knife Sharpest very close to my house! It has just ophbklened up in an old house at 1906 S. 1st Street, next to La Mexicana Bakery, and across the street from Sugar Mama's. No more having to drive all the way up to Burnet Road!

I walked over this morning to drop off 7 knives in definite need of a honed edge. The guy working there said he's had a lot of restaurant business so far, but it's been slow getting the word out to the non-restaurant world -- so spread the word! It's $3.50 a knife, and it's CASH or CHECK only. I know at the Burnet Road location, I've taken my serrated bread knife, and I think that's cost a touch more. Looks like both locations are equipped to sharpen just about anything that needs it, so get your knives & garden tools in line!

The Knife Sharpest 1906 S. 1st St. (about 3 blocks north of Oltorf), Austin, TX 78704. 592-0587, knifesharpest@yahoo.com (no website listed on their flier) M - F, 10a - 6p, Sat 10a - 4p

So I dropped my knives off and went over to La Mexicana. If you've never been in there, it's a sight to behold. Two HUGE counters of Mexican pastries, panaderia, cookies, etc. And they make pretty darn good breakfast tacos. I actually opted for a package of their house-made flour tortillas (surprisingly, no lard) and queso fresco from their refrigerated case (they have stuff like cold drinks, eggs, and some other dry grocery items... not to mention calling cards, insurance, etc for those with family in Mexico), and made my own black bean tacos at home. Not as tasty as their refried beans & chorizo, but my arteries will thank me too!

Brunch at Fino

As if yesterday wasn't a good enough day for food, today just elevated things to a new place altogether. Last night at Artz, a couple of friends asked if I wanted to join them today for brunch at Fino. Let me think about that for a minute, uh YEAH! For one, I LOVE brunch, and hardly ever get to go out for it because I usually work on weekends. And second, these friends are the mother and aunt of the chef at Fino, and I knew this would be an eating affair to remember. None of us were disappointed. Just fatter and happier than from when we arrived.

Fino has occupied the space of the former Granite Cafe for almost 3 years; it's owned by Lisa & Emmett Fox, both exceptional chefs in their own right. The focus is various influences of Mediterranean food, with much of the menu small plates designed for sharing. It's the sister restaurant to Asti, their Italian eatery in Hyde Park. Fino has never been open on Sundays, until now. Today's brunch was invite only, evidently a final test run before really being open to the general public. The Foxes were gracious hosts today, coming to chat with the friends and family of their staff members, as Executive Chef Jason Donoho (who they plucked from Asti about a year ago, and the son/nephew of my friends) ran the kitchen.

We began with cocktails on the lovely patio. I had sangria, and everyone else bloody marys, oh and one vodka; everybody was quite happy with their choices. For starters, we had the manchego biscuits with quice jam, and what could probably be called a baba ganoush, with pita. The biscuits were good, and had melted manchego on top (as opposed to inside them, as far as I could tell), but weren't quite as light and flaky as they could be (yes, I am particular about my biscuits!). The quince jam however, was out of this world. Chef Jason told us later that all it is is the fruit and a bit of sugar. It was creamy, almost like a fruit butter. The baba ganoush had a really nice charred/grilled eggplant flavor, and a lovely soft house-made pita bread.

Moving inside to the chef's table, we had the pork pinchitos, little skewers of very tender, tasty grilled pork, done with hot smoked paprika, I believe. Next was the merguez lamb sliders. They come two to a plate, and are served on almost a brioche style roll with caramelized onions. Delicious! The plate also comes with french fries and a house-made ketchup, which really is so much more tasty than anything from a bottle, even if the bottle is organic. There were 8 items on the Brunch menu, including the sliders; they were already out of the chicken sausage, so that left 6 dishes and 7 of us, so we ordered one of each. One person also wanted the gazpacho; our fabulous server Tim said he'd also put in a order of the honeydew, jamon serrano & arugula for us. He really took very good care of us, checking back on drinks, making suggestions for the number of plates to order (like he suggested 2 orders of each the pinchitos and the sliders so we could all share), AND he's been at Fino for less than 2 weeks! Chef Jason also sent out some bread with delicious whipped butter and strawberry lavender jam. And the food kept coming...

The main brunch courses were: eggs benedict w/jamon serrano & truffled hollandaise; scrambled eggs with house-cured salmon; wagyu steak with a fried egg; pan perdido (French toast) with vanilla mascarpone, orange blossom syrup & chopped marcona almonds; crab & avocado bocadillo (sandwich)w/lemon aioli; & asparagus omelette with truffle oil & goat cheese. Along with some additional sides of sweet corn grits, applewood smoked bacon, house-made chorizo sausage, & potato hash with paprika. Chef Jason has really lifted things to a whole new level at Fino. He tries to find as much locally sourced foods as possible, such as the eggs (Alexander Farms) & greens (Bella Verde Farms) and told us for next week, he will be curing a side of pork to make his own bacon, and making his own tabasco-style sauce, all certainly worth coming back for.


The seven of us pretty much ooohed & aaahed, and moaned & groaned with glee & giddyness through the entire meal. Everything was refined and delicious, but a couple items really stood out: the sweet corn grits, the French toast, the omelette, and probably the Benedict were exceptional. (I think the Benedict was the one thing I didn't try as I have an aversion to poached eggs.) The grits were like nothing I have ever had. Chef Jason said they were a combo of Anson Mills polenta (a South Carolina mill specializing in heirloom grains) pureed with fresh corn with butter, cream, and honey, I believe. French toast does me in every time, and for this dish, French bread was soaked overnight in eggs, milk & vanilla. Then grilled, and served with this fat dollop of vanilla mascarpone.... and of course I ate mine with bacon. Out of everything we sampled today (and we had almost the entire menu), I think the only thing that I really didn't just love was the house-made chorizo sausage; it was a fresh (as in not dried) sausage in a casing. To me, it didn't have the depth of seasoning that I expect in a chorizo, whether fresh or a typical Spanish-style dried.

I haven't even really talked about the other cocktails. Sangria and Bloody Mary's got us going. Along the way were a Cava Mimosa, a Corpse Reviver, and a couple Spanish Black Coffees, all fabulous concoctions, surely made by Fino's famous mixologist Bill Norris. (Check their website for cocktail descriptions!). And then there was dessert. Melt in your mouth, warm cake donuts with cinnamon sugar, and also served with the heavenly vanilla mascarpone.

This has really been one of the best all-around complete meals I have had in a long time. It was a treat to have the Chef's attention, not to mention his food. For 7 food-loving people, we were all happy to share all the dishes, dip our fingers into the sauces, and pass cocktails so we could all imbibe a bit of something special. And everything WAS special.

As we were reclining on the patio after the meal, we noticed the sign etched into their door: no meanies allowed! Says it all, don't you think?