TRIBEZA July 2017 by TRIBEZA Austin Curated

A PLACE FOR THE IMAGINATION

Restaurant veterans discuss our evolving taste buds

THE SUSHI G A NG ST E R

We get to know the acclaimed chef at Otoko

N O. 191 | F O O D

The husband-wife team behind Justineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gives us their secret sauce

OUR MEXICAN FOOD LOV E AFFAIR

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CO N T E N T S | F E AT U R E S

JULY A PLACE FOR THE IMAGINATION The husband-wife team behind Justineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gives us their secret sauce

P. 40 OUR MEXICAN FOOD LOVE AFFAIR Restaurant veterans discuss our evolving taste buds

P. 46 THE SUSHI GANGSTER We get to know the acclaimed chef at Otoko

P. 54

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Chef Yoshi Okai at Otoko. Photograph by Andrew Reiner.

Photography by Alexandra Valenti

CÉLINE DRIES VAN NOTEN CHLOÉ LEMAIRE LOEWE ROSIE ASSOULIN MARNI SIES MARJAN THE ROW ISABEL MARANT MONIQUE PÉAN SAINT LAURENT CO BALENCIAGA PROTAGONIST NAK ARMSTRONG ZERO + MARIA CORNEJO PROENZA SCHOULER ULLA JOHNSON ACNE STUDIOS BROCK COLLECTION RAQUEL ALLEGRA KHAITE FERNANDO JORGE GOLDEN GOOSE TOME ALEXANDER WANG SIMON MILLER PLUS MANY MORE LAMAR • THE MENS SHOP • SOUTH CONGRESS BYGEORGEAUSTIN.COM

CO N T E N T S | DE PA RT M E N TS

Life + Style

Social Hour p. 16

Instagram Takeover

S T Y LE PRO FI LE p. 66 S T Y LE PICK p. 70

Community + Culture

We’re letting food blogger Alex Reichek take over our Instagram account this month. Reichek—whose blog, Chekmark Eats, is as visually enticing as it is informative—plans to take us to some of her long-time favorite restaurants and some of the places she’s been dying to try. Follow along!

TH I N K S PACE p. 74

COLUMN: KRISTIN ARMSTRONG p. 23 PROFILE p. 26

TRIBEZ A TALK p. 30

Food + Thought K AREN ’S PICK p. 78 COLUMN p. 80 DINING GUIDE p. 84

26 Arts + Happenings

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT CALENDARS p. 34 MUSIC PICK p. 35 ART PICK p. 36 EVENT PICK p. 38

78 @ TRIBEZ A

38 10 JULY 2017 |

A Look Behind !…! p. 88 tribeza.com

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EDITOR'S LETTER

HEN IT COMES TO FOOD, TEX AS SEEMS TO BE MOST CLOSELY

associated with BBQ. It makes sense that giant helpings of meat would be a serious point of pride in a state where everything has to be bigger. Yet, Mexican food and specifically our take on it, Tex-Mex, is perhaps an even more representative cuisine. After all, our official legislature-approved state dish isn’t a plate of brisket, sausage, and ribs; it’s chili con carne. And our official, yes, legislature-approved, state snack is tortilla chips and salsa, which is actually a Tex-Mex creation that has found its way onto the table at more traditional Mexican restaurants. (Fun fact, while doing this research, I discovered that the official state snack of Utah is Jell-O and the official vegetable of Oklahoma is a watermelon (!), which strike me as good reasons to be grateful that we live in Texas.) And let’s not forget that at a 1976 campaign stop at the Alamo, then President Gerald Ford, while running for his second term against challenger Jimmy Carter, nearly choked when biting into a tamale with its corn husk still in place, a cultural blunder that probably cost him the election. “The Great Tamale Incident,” as it came to be known, dominated the national news for days; Carter subsequently won the Texas electoral votes, and the presidency. I find BBQ fun to eat every now and then, but it’s not something I could consume on a regular basis. Tex-Mex, on the other hand, is something I can eat daily and, moreover, have a difficult time living without. During the six and a half years I spent in Iceland, some decent Tex-Mex was up there at the top of the list of things I missed most about home. By the time I landed in Austin on my annual or biannual visits, I would be craving tacos so badly that I’d have to make a detour to Pueblo Viejo on the way home from the airport. And if my favorite food truck was closed given my late arrival, I was devastated. My love for this cuisine is hardly unique. With a Mexican restaurant or food truck on seemingly every other corner, you might even think the market was oversaturated. But that’s not the case according to the veteran restaurant owners we gathered for a roundtable discussion on Mexican food in Austin. They tell us there used to be a time when Austinites were afraid to order mole (“What’s a mole?” customers would ask), but those days are gone; people are lapping up the brown sauce and getting excited about chapulines. Although I admittedly average about eight tacos per week, I’m grateful that Austin also has many other delicious options, and I’m happy to reassure you that our feature space this issue isn’t entirely devoted to tacos. We also dine with the inventive husband-wife team behind longtime favorite Justine’s Brasserie to learn more about their secret sauce, which is, spoiler alert, not just a tasty béchamel. And we chat with Yoshi Okai, the landscape-architect-turned-chef at Otoko who happens to have a smile and sense of humor to rival his sushi game. Dig in!

anna@tribeza.com

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On the COVER

Our cover image was photographed by Barbara FG for our feature on Justine’s Brasserie, a restaurant serving up a lot more than French comfort food. “It’s meant to embody the artistic freedom that drives the Justine’s vision,” Barbara says of her photo featuring Justine’s head waitress, Nicole Rossi, in the dining room. “It’s also in the spirit of being alive and keeping your eyes on the stars.” Turn to page 40 to read the story.

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SOCIAL HOUR On May 13, the American Heart Association welcomed over 700 guests for the 20th Annual Heart Ball of Austin. The black-tie gala broke their $1 million fundraising goal, bringing in $1.09 million for the American Heart Association’s research, education and outreach initiatives. Guests enjoyed live and silent auctions, special guest speakers and headliner entertainment by Wynonna & The Big Noise.

LIZA BETH JEWELRY & NEIMAN MARCUS TRUNK SHOW Liza Beth Jewelry and Neiman Marcus at the Domain provided the perfect Mother’s Day weekend shopping event featuring Liza Beth’s newest jewelry collection. Attendees sipped champagne and enjoyed sweet treats as they shopped and socialized. Designer Liza Beth Soklove donated a generous portion of the sales from the trunk show to the Seton Breast Care Center.

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20TH ANNUAL HEART BALL OF AUSTIN: 1. Carvel Gardner, Rana Daraby Gardner & Kayla Wernimont 2. Brandy & Jeremiah Bentley 3. Stacey and Brian Lehman 4. Catherine Bruni, Kevin Opgenorth & Catalina Berry 5. Melissa Ferguson, Bill Munday & Kent Ferguson LIZA BETH JEWELRY & NEIMAN MARCUS TRUNK SHOW: 6. Beth Sher, Allison Schwartz & Jennifer Greenblum 7. Chris Hendel, Liza Beth Soklove & Jennifer Carnes 8. Debra & Zamoria Reeves 9. Robin Sperling, Valerie Newberg, Margo Smith & Jamie Barshop 10. Jennifer Carnes, Lisa Youngblood & Kay McCarty

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P H OTO G R A P H S B Y E D S PA R K S & B A I L E Y TO K S OZ

20th ANNUAL HEART BALL OF AUSTIN

PARAMOUNT THEATRE ANNIVERSARY GALA

The Paramount Theatre celebrated its 2017 Anniversary Gala on May 13, raising $1.2 million and selling out for its eighth year in a row. The Studio 54 themed gala, deemed “Studio 713” in celebration of 40 years of disco, saw performances from Earth, Wind & Fire along with DJ Soul Sister, Bobby Patterson & the Disciples, D-Madness, and Jackie Venson.

EMANCIPET LUNCHEON

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y B E L L S A N D W H I S T L E S P H OTO G R A P H Y & B R YA N T H I L L

Emancipet’s 18th anniversary luncheon on May 15 raised a record-breaking $447,000 for pets and the people who love them, thanks in part to Emancipet board member Angela Dorsey and her husband, Jason Rhode. Their pledge matched donations up to $100,000. KXAN’s meteorologist and animal lover Jim Spencer served as master of ceremonies for the event.

PARAMOUNT THEATRE ANNIVERSARY GALA: 1. Jim Ritts & Lisa Jasper 2. Jackie Venson & Guests 3. Zach Ernst & Guest 4. Susan Trobaugh & Chrissy Hand 5. Patrick & Judy Cantilo EMANCIPET LUNCHEON: 6. Tara Fink & Tracy Holland 7. Jeff Nichols, Sara Scaglione, Mary Harris & Missy Nichols 8. Nia Bonds, Jendayi Bonds, Jill Beckwith & Amy Mills 9. Edward Flores & Jim Spencer tribeza.com

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SOCIAL HOUR

HOT LUCK FESTIVAL The Hot Luck Festival took place May 18 to 21 all over Austin, from Franklin Barbecue to Wild Onion Ranch. The true-to-Texas festival featured various events and chefs from across the country as well as great music including Robert Ellis, The Black Lips and more. Created by Aaron Franklin, James Moody and Mike Thelin, the firstyear fest was the ultimate celebration of fire, food, music and camaraderie.

LEADERSHIP AUSTIN’S BEST PARTY EVER On June 2, Leadership Austin celebrated community superheroes and honored three leaders: Cookie Ruiz, Ron Kessler, & Lydia Clay. Leadership Austin offers individuals an opportunity to learn more about regional issues and skills to address those issues by building new relationships with other business, nonprofit, and civic leaders.

HOT LUCK FESTIVAL: 1. James Moody & Friend 2. Audra Deaton & Morgan Stone 3. Jailyn Marcel & Leandra Kentish 4. Roy Moncada & Genevieve Sustaita LEADERSHIP AUSTIN’S BEST PARTY EVER: 5. Courtney Santana, Catalina Berry & John Howard III 6. Laura Struve & Tony Gilharry 7. Scott Brutocao, Amy Holloway, Amber Carden & Chris Engle 8. Natalie Brown & Kelly Keelan 9. Zoe Simien, Taylor Chasteu Simien, Andrew O’Brien & Ivan Drobyshev

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P H OTO G R A P H S B Y M I G U E L A N G E L & L E O N I D F U R M A N S K Y

ART BRA AUSTIN

The Breast Cancer Resource Center hosted its sixth annual fundraising gala, Art Bra Austin, on Saturday, June 3. This year, 61 pieces of wearable art were modeled and auctioned with all proceeds benefiting the BCRC, a nonprofit organization providing guidance, education, and assistance to thousands of local women whose lives have been disrupted by breast cancer.

TRIBEZA JUNE ISSUE RELEASE PARTY

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y L E O N I D F U R M A N S K Y & B R E E Z Y R I T T E R

On June 14, glasses were raised in celebration of the June Neighborhoods Issue. The issue release party took place at the stunning Four Hands Showroom and featured tunes spun by DJ ulovei, tasty treats from Mattieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Austin, Shady Grove and Kokonut Yogurt, as well as incredible sips provided by Ben Milam Whiskey, Hye Meadow Winery and On the Rocks Cocktails.

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ART BRA AUSTIN: 1. Lisa McVey & Kristin Hampsten 2. Jaylinn Davidson, Angelica Robinson, Cara Dellavedova & Jennifer Wallace 3. Michelle Snethkamp, Jennifer Parmer, Michelle Duoto & Robin Smith 4. Kara & McKenna Dellavedova TRIBEZA JUNE ISSUE RELEASE PARTY: 5. Teo, Josh & Claudia Baellow 6. Mandy Lorde, Brooke Churchill, Ashley Hamilton & Salma Manzur 7. Natalie Green, Kristen Bramblett & Neph Basedow 8. Johnny Maes & Allison McCollister 9. Irina Saunina & Dario Ohana tribeza.com

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COMMUNITY + CULTURE CULTURAL DISPATCHES FROM AUSTINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CREATIVE COMMUNITY

Hattie Lindsley, Meghan Brady, and their chicken, Bear, at Zaragosa Farm. PHOTOGRAPH BY WYNN MYERS

K R I S T I N ' S CO L U M N

PROFILE

T R I B E Z A TA L K

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Find Me at Tiny Boxwoods By Kristin Armstrong Illustration by Heather Sundquist

W Â

H E N S O M E T H I N G WO N -

derful happens for a close friend, the joy and excitement become your own through proximity of heart. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s palpa-

ble and contagious. I felt this way when my beloved friends opened their new restaurant, Tiny Boxwoods. The process took a mighty long time. Finding the land, renovating the surrounding properties in Kerbey Lane Village, creating community with the neighborhood, working with the city, making architectural plans, designing, building, landscaping, outfitting the kitchen, and finishing tribeza.com

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K R I S T I N ' S C O L U M N | C O M M U N I T Y + C U LT U R E

out the interior of the restaurant. I watched my entrepreneurial friends work endless hours in the pursuit of their vision. One afternoon I was lucky enough to get an advance tour, when it was still unfinished and dusty with construction. I could see the dream taking shape as my friend and interior designer Dawn Thompson described the finished product. Her husband Lance Thompson and his brother Gregg own a landscape design company and built the restaurant, which was designed by architect Ryan Street. When these folks put their skills together in a joint effort the result is undeniably incredible. I brought a bottle of champagne with me and I poured us each a glass. Sometimes we need a friend to remind us to celebrate in increments. I recently attended a soft opening dinner at Tiny Boxwoods. Walking into the finished restaurant was like stepping into an evening on vacation. Soft music, flowers and lighting created an atmosphere of escape on the outside terrace, where tables surround a grassy center. The white wood, tile roof, and climbing bougainvillea feel more like the South of France or Santa Barbara, California, than 35th Street in Central Austin. Inside, the natural light filters through the large windows and across the beams and spills out across an intimate dining space appointed in a soft palette of colors that remind me of being by the ocean. Just like Dawn herself, the atmosphere is casually elegant, inviting, and feels exactly right without trying too hard. We got to see the immaculate, fully appointed kitchen complete with a bakery for their famous cookies, in-house breads and pastries, and a wood fired pizza oven. Best of all, I got to feel the full effect of what they were trying to create. My friends and I respect each other as artists, in all our different mediums. I create art with words. Dawn creates interiors with form, color, texture, space, scale and light. Lance creates the art of environment using elements of nature—plants, flowers, trees, vines, grass, sun, water, and earth.

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I BROUGHT A BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE WITH ME AND I POURED US EACH A GLASS. SOMETIMES WE NEED A FRIEND TO REMIND US TO CELEBR ATE IN INCREMENTS.

Tiny Boxwoods already has two well-loved restaurants in Houston, and the new Austin addition meets every lofty standard. Baron Doke, head chef and co-owner, is one of the most passionate people I have ever met. He is also an artist and his medium is food. He effuses energy and love for what he does. He is the cornerstone of Tiny Boxwoods and he’s particular about every single element from the ingredients, to the presentation, to the atmosphere, to the professionalism and personality of the staff. He vets every single component and it shows with the ambiance of effortlessness created by the sustained effort he puts into each detail. I wanted to eat every appetizer and entrée that passed by my table. I vow to accomplish that, over time. A girl has to have goals. I had a cheese plate I now fantasize about, and I tasted a ribeye cheeseburger that was so good I almost wept. And the donuts for dessert? Dear God. It was food nirvana. I cannot wait to go back. And back again and again. Tiny Boxwoods is that kind of place—worthy of a special occasion, yet comfortable enough to be a regular gathering place. They have managed to somehow simultaneously create a spot where you want to grab breakfast with your kids before school, have lunch with your girlfriends, meet other couples for dinner, and pay the sitter extra to linger over a date night. If you are looking for me, I will be raising a glass to the success of good friends. At Tiny Boxwoods.

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Hattie Lindsley loves creating verdant, vivacious atmospheres for their gatherings.

Clint Grounds mixes his eye for design and passion for good fixins.

Meghan Brady has worked as a fermentation manager and is now getting into whiskey production.

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Three’s More Than Company AT Z AR AGOSA FARM IN E AST AUSTIN, FRIENDS SHARE AN ECO-FRIENDLY LIFEST YLE AND A PASSION FOR COOKING By M. M. Adjarian Photographs by Wynn Myers

LINT GROUNDS, HATTIE LINDSLEY

and Meghan Brady share a modest rental home in East Austin. Their living arrangement seems to recall the Jack Tripper-Chrissy Snow-Janet Wood ménage from the popular 1970s television show “Three’s Company.” But talk to the three late-twentysomethings about their communal cooking and urban gardening projects and you quickly realize that their story is anything but a retro remake. The members of the famous sitcom trio were roommates before they were friends. But Clint, Hattie, and Meghan were friends long before they were housemates. Hattie and Meghan met first as undergraduates at the University of Puget Sound in 2008. Clint met Hattie three years later at the Ralph Lauren store in Austin where they worked retail. He met Meghan two years after that and the three came together as a household — which they affectionately call Zaragosa Farm — in 2016. The longer version of their story is far less straightforward. Not long after he met Hattie, Clint traveled to New York over two summers to work brief ly at Ralph Lauren outlets in the Hamptons. A contact he made during the second trip east offered him a job doing operations

work for Bali-based shoe and handbag retailer, Lilla Lane. Hattie — and then Meghan — visited Clint in the Hamptons just before he left for Bali. Hattie then traveled south to Austin, where she took jobs as a marketer/event planner and painted in her off hours. Meghan, in the meantime, lived the life of a vagabond. She took jobs at national parks in Wyoming and Hawaii, worked on a small coffee farm on Maui and traveled to Bali to visit Clint, who in his off hours was pursuing his passion — or one of them, anyway — as a furniture designer. It was the more settled Hattie who ultimately lured both her globetrotting friends to Austin. “I knew we had to build a jungle to keep both of these Pacific Islanders happy,” she recalls, her quiet humor belying a more serious exterior. “Otherwise they would leave.” She began her jungle project by planting cacti. Vegetables and wildflowers — she considers herself a “prairie activist” and bee supporter — were next. Now, raised beds in the front yard grow a healthy tangle of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, turnips, collard greens and chard, punctuated by the occasional knot of wildflowers. A compost pile stands vigil in the east corner, near a bed of thriving herbs. A chicken coop, presided over by a hen named Bear dominate a backyard landscape tribeza.com

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P R O F I L E | C O M M U N I T Y + C U LT U R E

MEGH A N ENCOU R AGES GA R DEN ING A N D SWA PS SEEDS W IT H FR IEN DS W HILE H AT T IE H A S IM MER SED HER SELF IN T HE LOC A L SUSTA INA BILIT Y SCEN E . A N D CLIN T IS CU R R EN T LY WOR K ING ON A LIN E OF CLOT HING M A DE FROM R ECYCLED FA BR IC . comprised of carrots, mints, and baby indigo plants that Clint will eventually harvest to make his own natural dye. If a zealous overabundance of greenery was what drew all three friends to one location, a shared love of cooking has been what has nourished their ménage. Hattie comes from a line of West Texas grocery wholesalers who treat cooking and eating like major events. But she credits her food-loving father, who created a family heritage cookbook, for passing on his love for kitchen life to her. “My father learned how to cook by making breakfast,” she says. “When he started making more formal meals, my sister and I were so devastated he wasn’t making us breakfast anymore that we started making breakfast banana bread, waffles, and beignets.” Eyes tw inkling, Clint remembers that meal-making was the cornerstone of his relationship to Hattie. “When we first met, we cooked all the time,” he says. Meghan, away on a travel adventure in Utah, takes a more scientific interest in food. One project involved hand-crushing oyster shells and adding the nitrogen-rich result to the soil. A firm believer in the health properties of cabbage — or as Hattie says, “that a healthy gut equals healthy life” — she regularly hosts sauerkraut parties for friends. Speaking for her roving housemate, Hattie says “Meghan [who now has a job as a fermentation specialist at Austin Eastciders] can explain food in your diet from a chemical standpoint.

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She can spout facts that I think are hilarious. But they’re also good to know.” The colorful Mexican party flags hanging from the ceiling of their big, airy kitchen suggest that food is more than mere sustenance at Zaragosa Farm. It’s a source of continual joy that affirms and renews their relationship with every meal Clint, Hattie and Meghan make. But what makes their kitchen even more unique is how they routinely share it with friends on a more or less weekly basis. On Wednesday nights, they open their home to guests who help them cook — and eat — meals made with vegetables from their garden. There’s no real blueprint for Zaragosa Farm gatherings. “People come over and bring ingredients,” Clint explains. “Then we start putting it together.”

They especially love making meals that include handmade pasta dishes. “Italian is easiest because it doesn’t matter how many onions you use,” Hattie quips. The trio’s communal ethos aligns with their desire to live a more earth-based, eco-friendly lifestyle. Meghan encourages gardening and swaps seeds with friends while Hattie has immersed herself in the local sustainability scene. And Clint is currently working on a line of clothing made from recycled fabric. Like everything else in their lives, their vision for the future of their farm is evolving. For now, Zaragosa Farm is their shared passion and one that Clint, an entrepreneur, hopes will develop into a communally created lifestyle brand. Among his other projects is a website that will

They have a chicken named Bear, and she lays six eggs per week.

The trio loves to scavenge for lemon basil and seranos, which make for a great summer slaw.

promote their side projects: Hattie’s paintings, Clint’s furniture and clothing collections and Meghan’s recipes. For now, though, they are content to revel in and support each other’s creativity as well as the creativity of their many friends. Like so many other millennials, they are rewriting lifestyle rules. Their jobs do not define them or their paths; their interests do. Unlike Jack, Chrissy and Janet — themselves members and representatives of an older generation seeking more defined paths and lives — they aspire to a life where work and play merge into a seamless whole. “We only realize that Zaragosa Farm is evolving when people ask us what we’re doing,” Hattie says. “We’re cooking [I tell them].” “And having fun,” Clint adds, smiling. tribeza.com

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T R I B E Z A TA L K | C O M M U N I T Y + C U LT U R E

SWEETS on Command

TRIBEZ A

TALK

AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S BUZ ZING AROUND AUSTIN By Nicole Beckley

Made with Soul If you thought popcorn’s flavor appeal was strictly limited to salt and butter, think again. Chicken ‘n waffles, red velvet cake, sweet potato soufflé, and sour dill pickle all get captured in kernel form thanks to Soul Popped Gourmet Popcorn. Soul Popped, which was started by De J

Lozada, relies on natural ingredients to lend its flavorful combinations. As popcorn and movies go hand in hand, Soul Popped is on the menu at Alamo Drafthouse Mueller, and it’s available for online orders for athome movie nights.

“I grew up baking challah with my mother on Friday afternoons,” Aaron Seriff-Cullick says. This weekly baking ritual gave way to another when Seriff-Cullick got to high school and started a Friday afternoon “cake club” for fellow students. “When I was a kid, the most accessible recipes were always desserts,” Seriff-Cullick says. As an adult Seriff-Cullick turned this early passion into an on-demand baking business, launching Paper Route Bakery in June 2016. Co-founding with childhood friend Morry Mitrani, Seriff-Cullick turned to using organic and sustainably farmed ingredients. “This is going to sound cheesy, but this is really how it happened. Morry texted me one day and said, ‘I want to do something good for the world, do you want to help?’” That planted the seed for what would become Paper Route. “I have this lifetime of experience of bringing people pastries and seeing them smile, so that is probably the most happiness I can bring to people,” Seriff-Cullick says. PAPERROUTEBAKERY.ORG

SOULPOPPED.COM

FINE and DANDY From t-shirts and tote bags bearing the phrase “rosé all day” to the popularity of summertime “frozé” drinks, the pink-hued beverage seems to be having a moment. “It’s been having a long moment in my world,” says winemaker Rae Wilson, noting the rising demand for rosé in the U.S. “Austin is also the largest market for dry rosé in the entire state,” Wilson says. “That was kind of what made me think that Austin was ready for one of its own, a Texas one, that’s made with Austin in mind.” Working with grape producers in the Hill Country and the Texas high plains, Wilson bottles a traditional Provencal-style dry wine labelled Dandy Rosé. Now in its third vintage, it can be versatilely paired with a variety of dishes, Wilson notes. “Honestly, I live on tacos and almost any kind of taco can go with it.” WINEFORTHEPEOPLE.NET

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BREWS and ‘DOS Going beyond the customary glass of water while you’re at the barber, Birds Barbershop is doing its clientele one better—offering a complementary craft beer with a cut. Partnering with local Independence Brewing Co., Birds will make a can of Austin Amber, Power & Light Pale Ale, or Redbud Berliner Weisse available to over21 customers after noon each day. Drop in for a trim and enjoy Independence’s World Beer Cup 2016 Gold Award Winner Power & Light, with its Seaholm Power Plant-inspired can in a take-home koozie, on the house. BIRDSBARBERSHOP.COM

Incredible EDIBLES

Brunching, TEXAS-style What does it take to serve up a proper Texas brunch? A little bit of Whiskey Milk Punch never hurt. Terry Thompson-Anderson shares recipes for brunch drinks, including some with an alcoholic kick, as well as menus for celebratory special occasion brunches in her new cookbook “Breakfast in Texas: Recipes for Elegant Brunches, Down-Home Classics & Local Favorites.” Bottoms up! UTPRESS.UTEXAS.EDU/ BOOKS/THOMPSONANDERSON-WILSONBREAKFAST-IN-TEXAS

“I had never eaten bugs before,” Ashley Blom says. That was until she started work on her new book “How to Eat a Lobster: And Other Edible Enigmas Explained.” Here Blom explores not only how to ingest insects, but also the proper way to filet a whole fish, open a coconut, carve a chicken, and, perhaps most difficult, eat a pig’s head. “It’s something that’s so cultural, but also so uncommon,” Blom says. After winning a Twitter contest called “So You Want to Write a Cookbook” in 2013, Blom turned her attention from her Forking Up food blog to penning the text for the creatively illustrated how-to guide. Selected as Oprah Magazine’s “cookbook of the month” in May, “How to Eat a Lobster” lays out simple solutions and etiquette best-practices for complex culinary situations. QUIRKBOOKS.COM/BOOK/ HOW-EAT-LOBSTER

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Image: Artist Unknown, The demon Dhumraksha in a chariot leads his army to attack Hanuman, ca. 1705, opaque watercolor on paper, 8 31/32 x 13 11/32 in., The San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd Collection Image: Artist Unknown, The demon Dhumraksha in a chariot leads his army to attack Hanuman, ca. 1705, opaque watercolor on paper, 8 31/32 x 13 11/32 in., The San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd Collection

Paintings Paintings from from The The San San Diego Diego Museum Museum of of Art Art This exhibition is organized by The San Diego Museum of Art. This exhibition is organized by The San Diego Museum of Art. by an anonymous donor. Generous support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided Generous support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided by an anonymous donor.

July July 9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;October 9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;October 1, 1, 2017 2017

Blanton Museum of Art / The University of Texas at Austin / MLK at Congress / Austin, TX 78712 / 512.471.7324 / www.blantonmuseum.org Blanton Museum of Art / The University of Texas at Austin / MLK at Congress / Austin, TX 78712 / 512.471.7324 / www.blantonmuseum.org

@blantonmuseum @blantonmuseum

ARTS + HAPPENINGS WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO DO

Ai Weiwei’s “Forever Bicycles” at the Waller Delta. PHOTOGR APH BY DAVID BRENDAN HALL

A R T S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T C A L E N DA R

MUSIC PICK

ARTS PICK

E V Etribeza.com N T P I C K| JULY 382017

C A L E N DA R S | A RT S & E N T E RTA I N M E N T

Entertainment MUSIC SOUVENIRS July 1 Stubb’s BBQ BUSH July 2 Stubb’s BBQ VILLAGE PEOPLE July 2 Empire Control Room & Garage WILLIE NELSON’S 4TH OF JULY PICNIC July 4 Austin360 Amphitheater DIANA ROSS July 6 ACL Live at The Moody Theater THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: SYMPHONY OF THE GODDESSES July 7 The Long Center FESTIVAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA July 7 Bates Recital Hall PHANTOGRAM July 8 Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater HALO CIRCUS July 9 Sidewinder JOSHUA RADIN July 11 The Parish BLUES ON THE GREEN July 12 Zilker Park

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TEARS FOR FEARS July 12 ACL Live at The Moody Theater JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT July 14–16 ACL Live at The Moody Theater SOUND AND CINEMA July 19 & 26 The Long Center LOGIC July 20 Austin360 Amphitheater DAVE KOZ July 21 One World Theatre IRON & WINE BENEFIT CONCERT July 22 Paramount Theatre KILLER QUEEN July 22 ACL Live at The Moody Theater FLOAT FEST 2017 July 22 & 23 Cool River Ranch IDINA MENZEL July 29 Bass Concert Hall BABES FEST ‘17: MUSIC NIGHT July 29 Empire Control Room & Garage REO SPEEDWAGON & STYX July 31 HEB Center at Cedar Park

FILM SUMMER CLASSIC FILM SERIES July 1–31 Paramount Theatre

SUMMER FREE FAMILY FILM SERIES July 1 & 22 Bullock Texas State History Museum AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL ADVANCED SCREENING: SHOT CALLER July 11 Galaxy Highland 101X SUMMER CINEMA July 12 & 26 Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater ANIMATED SHORTS July 14 The North Door GREEN SCREEN FILM SERIES July 14 The Contemporary Austin AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL SPECIAL SCREENING: ROAD TO AUSTIN July 18 Marchesa Theatre THE DEFENDERS July 25 Alamo Drafthouse Mueller AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL SUMMER CAMP Through July 28 St. David’s Episcopal Church BABES FEST ‘17: FILM NIGHT July 28 Austin School of Film

THEATER THE MOORS July 6–August 5 Hyde Park Theatre THE RAGBAG SHOES July 8–15 Rollins Studio Theatre

THE DRESSER Through July 15 The Vortex THE NORMAL HEART Through July 16 The City Theatre TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL July 21 & 22 ZACH Theatre MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT July 21–August 12 Rollins Studio Theatre A SHOE STORY July 25–August 12 Rollins Studio Theatre MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET July 26–September 3 ZACH Theatre ACTIVATE: A SAFETY NET July 28 & 29 ZACH Theatre

COMEDY SURE THING: COMEDY SHOWCASE July 1 Austin Java Parkway COMEDY NIGHT July 4 Radio Coffee & Beer OFF SCRIPT: STAND UP COMEDY YOU CAN HECKLE July 6 The New Movement CHRIS FLEMING July 13 The North Door CHRIS D’ELIA July 14 Paramount Theatre

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE July 15 Paramount Theatre BABES FEST ‘17: COMEDY NIGHT July 27 The North Door TIM AND ERIC AWESOME TOUR July 29 Paramount Theatre #IMOMSOHARD July 29 ACL Live at The Moody Theater

CHILDREN THE RAGBAG SHOES July 8–15 Rollins Studio Theatre KIDS BAKING: SWEET ADVENTURES July 17–21 Sur la Table CAMP STORY WRANGLERS NORTH July 19–30 Davis Elementary School SUMMER FILM CAMP Through July 28 St. David’s Episcopal Church WOODLAND FAERIE TRAIL Through July 30 Zilker Botanical Garden

OTHER FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS & SYMPHONY July 4 Vic Mathias Shores

HILL COUNTRY GALLERIA INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION July 4 Hill Country Galleria HIGH NOON TALK: MILES AND MILES OF TEXAS July 5 Bullock Texas State History Museum NEIL GAIMAN July 6 The Long Center AUTHENTIC THAI AT HOME July 6 Sur la Table HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS July 7 HEB Center at Cedar Park RHYTHM ON STAGE July 11 The Long Center ROXANE GAY July 11 BookPeople TEXANISCHE NACHT July 15 Austin Saengerrunde Hall BODY MIND SPIRIT EXPO July 15 & 16 Palmer Events Center DAVID BLAINE LIVE July 18 ACL Live at The Moody Theater BIG MEGA WORKOUT July 24 The Long Center TRAILER FOOD TUESDAYS July 25 The Long Center THE WINE DOWN July 26 3TEN ACL Live

MUSIC PICK

ADAM TORRES & MOLLY BURCH By Derek Van Wagner

Antone’s Nightclub JULY 27

Adam Torres’s rise to popularity has been a slow burn. He released an album in 2006, earned a following in Athens, Ohio, refined his craft, landed on Fat Possum Records, and is now a featured artist on NPR. Torres has a vulnerability in his voice that is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, the songwriting is brimming with emotion, and his band’s acoustic arrangement—guitar, violin, bass, piano & percussion—deliver a soothing brand of folk music that may transport you to a back porch in Appalachia at dusk (not a reference to “Deliverance”). Molly Burch has had a different approach. Burch grew up in Los Angeles, studied jazz performance vocals in North Carolina, and found a home in Austin. She signed to Captured Tracks, and released a debut LP in 2016 that she has since toured with internationally. Many of Burch’s songs blend heartbroken narratives and fifties pop. They’re what you would want to hear on your way home from splitting with your high school sweetheart. Fortunately for us, her voice is so lovely and vibrant that any pain in her lyrics dissipates into the ether. Comparisons to Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, and Angel Olsen are apparent, but Burch’s vocal range and ballads set her apart from the rest. Mark my words, Molly Burch is one of Austin’s next big artists rising to stardom. Here are two artists who, after long journeys, have settled down in Austin and are poised for a meteoric rise. Show them some local love! tribeza.com

| JULY 2017

A R T S P I C K | A RT S & E N T E RTA I N M E N T

Arts

AI WEIWEI By Eli John

The Contemporary Austin at Laguna Gloria ONGOING

In this age of selfies, public art has proliferated in cities worldwide, but our habit of experiencing such installations through an iPhone lens often has us trivializing them simply as fun and consumable. Some artists working on a monumental scale prioritize playfulness and consumption, creating works that, although arresting, are about as profound as a Snap story. Not so for Chinese artist-cum-dissident Ai Weiwei, whose sculptures “Forever Bicycles” and “Iron Tree Trunk” are on display as part of The Contemporary Austin’s Museum Without Walls program. Ai Weiwei combines tenets of Dada and surrealism with symbols from Chinese history and mythology to create works intricately laden with meaning, critiquing the Chinese government even as he maintains an irreverent reverence for Chinese culture and tradition. In constructing “Forever Bicycles,” he fused more than 1,200 bicycle frames into a monumental archway. The title invokes the name of a Chinese bicycle manufacturer whose mass-produced cycles nevertheless remained prohibitively expensive for much of the Chinese populace. But the work is just as much a glimmering monument to self-fueled locomotion in an age of cars. For “Iron Tree Trunk,” he found inspiration from the villagers of a town in Jiangxi province who gather and sell tree trunks valued for their unique, gnarled shapes. Cast from the trunk of a large dead tree, the fifteen-foot sculpture mimics its arboreal counterpart. Although an artificial construction, the sculpture undergoes a natural process of decay, turning earthen orange over time. “Forever Bicycles” is on view at the Waller Delta, next to the Waller Creek Boathouse at 74 Trinity Street. “Iron Tree Trunk” is on view at the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria.

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LAURA LIT Through July 27 Women & Their Work BEN GODKIN July 28 Art.Work Austin POP ART OF DISNEY July 28–August 18 Art On 5th LANDSCAPES: TRANSFORMED/ TRANSFIGURED Through July 29 Flatbed Press and Gallery FAR OUT Through July 29 Art.Science.Gallery EN BOLA Through August 12 de stijl | PODIUM FOR ART MENTORING A MUSE: CHARLES UMLAUF & FARRAH FAWCETT Through August 20 Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum

P H OTO B Y DAV I D B R E N DA N H A L L

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AUSTIN MOSAIC GUILD July –August 3 Old Bakery & Emporium PHILIP DURST: REPO MAN Through July 8 Davis Gallery FLOWER POWER & THE MIGHTY VIGNETTES Through July 8 Art for the People Gallery MARY CASE July 8–July 29 Wally Workman Gallery EPIC TALES FROM ANCIENT INDIA July 9–October 1 Blanton Museum of Art YOUNG LATINO ARTISTS 22 July 14 Mexic-Arte Museum RADIANT July 15–August 19 Davis Gallery REBECCA ROTHFUS HARRELL: ATLAS Through July 22 CAMBIAart Gallery PRIDE & JOY: THE TEXAS BLUES OF STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN Through July 23 Bullock Texas State History Museum LITTLE WORLDS Through July 23 grayDUCK Gallery

E V E N T P I C K | A RT S & E N T E RTA I N M E N T

Art SPACES MUSEUMS THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN: LAGUNA GLORIA 3809 W. 35th St. (512) 458 8191 Driscoll Villa hours: Tu–W 12-4, Th-Su 10–4 Grounds hours: M–Sa 9–5, Su 10–5 thecontemporaryaustin.org THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN: JONES CENTER

EVENT PICK

FLOAT FEST By Parker Yamasaki

Cool River Ranch JULY 22–23

Some bands are just sonically engineered for summer. Bands with the humid psychedelia of MGMT, Passion Pit, and Cage the Elephant. Bands with the backyard barbeque feel of Weezer, the pulsing heat of electronic producer Zedd, or the coolbrain, hot-feet rap of Mac Miller. On July 22 and 23 you’ll be able to catch all them and more at the annual Float Fest. A 45-minute cruise down I-35 from Austin will plant you at Cool River Ranch in San Marcos where the festival, now in its fourth iteration, will be held. The festival brings together national names like those listed above with home-grown Texas talents, from the Houston-born rap of Mike Jones, Lil’ Flip, and King of Nothing to Austin’s poppy Wild Child and country-rock Sweet Spirit. With a tubing pass you can participate in the festival’s namesake activity: a float down the San Marcos River. Every day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. festival-goers are shuttled upstream for a 2.5- to 4-hour river crawl back to the Ranch. Once refreshed and re-fueled (yes, you can bring drinks along on the river) it’s time to dance away the rest of your sun-drenched day and propel into a chant of Weezer’s unavoidable anthem: “Yeah, it feels like summer to me.” Various ticket packages are on sale now, starting at $60 for a single day pass to $115 for a weekend with camping and tubing.

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700 Congress Ave. (512) 453 5312 Hours: W 12-11, Th-Sa 12-9, Su 12-5 thecontemporaryaustin.org BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART 200 E. MLK Jr. Blvd. (512) 471 7324 Hours: Tu– F 10–5, Sa 11–5, Su 1–5 blantonmuseum.org THE BULLOCK TEXAS STATE HISTORY MUSEUM 1800 Congress Ave. (512) 936 8746 Hours: M–Sa 9–5, Su 12–5 thestoryoftexas.com ELISABET NEY MUSEUM 304 E. 44th St. (512) 458 2255 Hours: W–Sa 10–5, Su 12–5 ci.austin.tx.us/elisabetney FRENCH LEGATION MUSEUM 802 San Marcos St. (512) 472 8180 Hours: Tu–Su 1–5 frenchlegationmuseum.org

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER MUSEUM 1165 Angelina St. (512) 974 4926 Hours: M–Th 10–9, F 10–5:30, Sa 10–4 ci.austin.tx.us/carver HARRY RANSOM CENTER 300 E. 21st St. (512) 471 8944 Hours: Tu–W 10–5, Th 10–7, F 10–5, Sa–Su 12–5 hrc.utexas.edu LBJ LIBRARY AND MUSEUM 2313 Red River St. (512) 721 0200 Hours: M–Su 9–5 lbjlibrary.org MEXIC–ARTE MUSEUM 419 Congress Ave. (512) 480 9373 Hours: M–Th 10–6, F–Sa 10–5, Su 12–5 mexic–artemuseum.org O. HENRY MUSEUM 409 E. 5th St. (512) 472 1903 Hours: W–Su 12–5 THINKERY AUSTIN 1830 Simond Ave Hours: T-Fri 10-5, Sa-Su 10-6 thinkeryaustin.org UMLAUF SCULPTURE GARDEN & MUSEUM 605 Robert E. Lee Rd. (512) 445 5582 Hours: T-Fri 10-4, Sa-Su 12-4 umlaufsculpture.org

A RT S & E N T E RTA I N M E N T | M U S E U M S & G A L L E R I E S

GALLERIES 78704 GALLERY 1400 South Congress (512) 708 4678 Hours: M–F 8-5 78704.gallery ADAMS GALLERIES OF AUSTIN 900 RR 620 S. Unit B110 (512) 243 7429 Hours: T–Sa 10–6 adamsgalleriesaustin.com ART AT THE DEN 317 W. 3rd St. (512) 222 3364 Hours: Tu-Sa 10-6, Su 12-5 artattheden.com ART ON 5TH 3005 S. Lamar Blvd. (512) 481 1111 Hours: M–Sa 10–6 arton5th.com ARTWORKS GALLERY 1214 W. 6th St. (512) 472 1550 Hours: M–Sa 10–5 artworksaustin.com AUSTIN GALLERIES 5804 Lookout Mountain Dr. (512) 495 9363 By Appt. Only austingalleries.com AUSTIN ART GARAGE 2200 S. Lamar Blvd., Ste. J (512) 351-5934 Hours: Tu–Sa 11–6, Su 12–5 austinartgarage.com AUSTIN ART SPACE GALLERY AND STUDIOS 7739 North Cross Dr., Ste. Q (512) 771 2868 Hours: F–Sa 11–6 austinartspace.com

BIG MEDIUM GALLERY AT BOLM 5305 Bolm Rd., #12 (512) 939 6665 Tu-Sa 12-6 bigmedium.org CAMIBAart 2832 E. MLK. Jr. Blvd. Ste. 111 (512) 937 5921 Hours: Tu–F 10–5, Sa 12-5 camibaart.com CAPITAL FINE ART 1214 W. 6th St. (512) 628 1214 Hours: M–Sa 10-5 capitalfineart.com CO-LAB PROJECTS: PROJECT SPACE 613 Allen St. (512) 300 8217 By event and appt only co-labprojects.org

FIRST ACCESS GALLERY 2324 S. Lamar Blvd (512) 428 4782 Hours: Tu-Sa 10-7, Su 12-5 firstaccess.co/gallery

LA PEÑA 227 Congress Ave., #300 (512) 477 6007 Hours: M–F 8-5, Sa 8-3 lapena–austin.org

ROI JAMES 3620 Bee Cave Rd., Ste. C (512) 970 3471 By appointment only roijames.com

FLATBED PRESS 2830 E. MLK Jr. Blvd. (512) 477 9328 Hours: M–F 10-5, Sa 10-3 flatbedpress.com

LINK & PIN 2235 E. 6th, Ste. 102 (512) 900 8952 Hours: Sa-Su, 11-4 linkpinart.com

FLUENT COLLABORATIVE 502 W. 33rd St. (512) 453 3199 By appointment only fluentcollab.org

LORA REYNOLDS GALLERY 360 Nueces St., #50 (512) 215 4965 Hours: W–Sa 11-6 lorareynolds.com

RUSSELL COLLECTION FINE ART 1137 W. 6th St. (512) 478 4440 Hours: Tu–Sa 10–6 russell–collection.com

GALLERY 702 702 San Antonio St. (737) 703 5632 Hours: Tu–Su 10-6 gallery702austin.com

DAVIS GALLERY 837 W. 12th St. (512) 477 4929 Hours: M–F 10–6, Sa 10–4 davisgalleryaustin.com

GALLERY BLACK LAGOON 4301-A Guadalupe St. (512) 371 8838 Hours: Sa 1-5 galleryblacklagoon.com

DIMENSION GALLERY SCULPTURE AND 3D ART 979 Springdale, Ste. 99 (512) 479 9941 dimensiongallery.org

GALLERY SHOAL CREEK 2832 MLK Jr. Blvd. #3 (512) 454 6671 Hours: Tu–F 10–5, Sa 12–5 galleryshoalcreek.com

DOUGHERTY ARTS CENTER 1110 Barton Springs Rd. (512) 974 4000 Hours: M-Th 10-9, F 10-5:30, Sa 10-2 austintexas.gov/department/ dougherty-arts-center

GRAYDUCK GALLERY 2213 E. Cesar Chavez Austin, TX 78702 (512) 826 5334 Hours: Th -Sa 11-6, Su 12-5 grayduckgallery.com

EAST SIDE GLASS STUDIO 3401 E. 4th St. (512) 815 2569 Hours: Tu-Sa By appt. only eastsideglassstudio.com FAREWELL BOOKS 913 E. Cesar Chavez St. (512) 473 2665 Hours: M-Sa 12–8, Su 12–7 farewellbookstore.com

JULIA C. BUTRIDGE GALLERY 1110 Barton Springs Rd. (512) 974 4025 Hours: M–Th 10–9, F 10–5:30, Sa 10–2 austintexas.gov/department/ doughertygallery

LOTUS GALLERY 1009 W. 6th St., #101 (512) 474 1700 Hours: M–Sa 10-6 lotusasianart.com MASS GALLERY 507 Calles St. (512) 535 4946 Hours: F 5-8, Sa-Su 12-5 massgallery.org MODERN ROCKS GALLERY 916 Springdale Rd. #103 (512) 524 1488 Hours: Tu - Sa, 11- 6 modernrocksgallery.com MONDO GALLERY 4115 Guadalupe St. Hours: Tu - Sa, 12- 6 mondotees.com OLD BAKERY & EMPORIUM 1006 Congress Ave. (512) 912 1613 Hours: T–Sa 9–4 austintexas.gov/obemporium PUMP PROJECT ART COMPLEX 702 Shady Ln. (512) 351 8571 pumpproject.org

SPACE 12 3121 E. 12th St. (512) 524 7128 T-F 10-5 space12.org STEPHEN L. CLARK GALLERY 1101 W. 6th St. (512) 477 0828 Hours: Tu–Sa 10–4 stephenlclarkgallery.com STUDIO 10 1011 West Lynn (512) 236 1333 Hours: Tu–Sa 11–5 studiotenarts.com VISUAL ARTS CENTER 2300 Trinity St. (512) 232 2348 Hours: Tu–F 10–5, Sa 12-5 utvac.org WALLY WORKMAN GALLERY 1202 W. 6th St. (512) 472 7428 Hours: Tu–Sa 10–5 wallyworkman.com WOMEN & THEIR WORK 1710 Lavaca St. (512) 477 1064 Hours: M–F 10–6, Sa 12–5 womenandtheirwork.org YARD DOG 1510 S. Congress Ave. (512) 912 1613 Hours: M–F 11–5, Sa 11–6, Su 12–5 yarddog.com

FREDERICKSBURG AGAVE GALLERY 208 E. San Antonio St. (830) 990 1727 Hours: M-Sa 10-5 agavegallery.com ARTISANS AT ROCKY HILL 234 W. Main St. (830) 990 8160 Hours: M-Sa 10-5:30, Su 11-3 artisansatrockyhill.com FREDERICKSBURG ART GALLERY 314 E. Main St. (830) 990 2707 Hours: M-Sa 10-5:30, Su 12-5 fbartgallery.com INSIGHT GALLERY 214 W. Main St. (830) 997 9920 Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5:30 insightgallery.com LARRY JACKSON ANTIQUES & ART GALLERY 209 S. Llano (830) 997 0073 Hours: M-F 9:30-5, Sa 10-5 larryjacksonantiques.com THE GALLERY AT VAUDEVILLE 230 E. Main St. (830) 992 3234 Hours: M 8-6, W-F 8-6, Sa 8-9, Su 8-5 vaudeville-living.com WHISTLE PIK 425 E. Main St. (830) 990 8151 Hours: M-Sa 10-5 whistlepik.com

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A PLACE FOR THE IMAGINATION THE TEAM BEHIND JUSTINE’S SHARE HOW THEY CREATED A HOMEBASE FROM FRENCH HOME COOKING BY BEN WRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS BY BARBARA FG

I ARRIVE AT JUSTINE’S BRASSERIE A BIT EARLY TO MY LATE-NIGHT

dinner with owners Justine Gilcrease and Pierre Pelegrin, so I settle in at the bar and take in the atmosphere. Behind the bar, above the rabble of liquor bottles, is a long mirror. One of the bar staﬀ is pouring a pint. As I catch her face in the mirror, I’m reminded of Edouard Manet’s famous painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.” In that scene, a tired, unimpressed waitress stares directly at the viewer while a mirror behind her betrays a drab, bourgeois scene. Justine’s is diﬀerent. Fancy yes, but not bourgeois. Cool, but not hipster. Ornate, but not pretentious. The food is savored rather than photographed. And the bartender is beaming: this is her domain and you are welcome in it. “A brasserie is a place of convergence,” says Pelegrin a"er he and Gilcrease take a seat at the bar. “Historically you would find it by a train station or something like that. It’s a mix of people who end up there.” And this mix of people might just be the secret to Justine’s. On any given night you’ll see regulars propping up at the bar, artists talking shop outside, older couples tribeza.com

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splitting a bottle a"er working their way through the menu, and younger diners sharing entrees while trying to make sense of one another. If you’re lucky, you might even spot the odd celeb—a Plant, Penn, Byrne or Gibbons. Everyone is talking, meeting, exchanging, converging. Justine’s menu has a lot to do with the mix. “We don’t want to price out the artists,” says Gilcrease, who ensures the space remains rooted in the spectacular events and artistic collaborations for which the space is now notorious. Pelegrin, her husband, nods. “If you want, you can have a couple of drinks and share a burger or a bolognaise, and that’s fine,” Pelegrin says. “We’re not the greatest business people, but this is a community place and sometimes you have to follow your heart, not your wallet.” With drinks in hand, it’s time to order food. A glance at the blackboard reveals some tempting specials: braised rabbit with onions and okra or duck breast with orange peel and carrot puree. Instead I opt for the Royale with cheese, a burgerous ode to a murderous Tarantino flick, recently voted one of America’s best burgers by Thrillist. I’m about to find out why when a selection of cheese along with bread and olive oil arrive at the table. Pelegrin lists the names of the cheeses as if they are old friends. I’m less in the know, but they are all distinct and tasty. The short, simple menu at Justine’s is largely born out of a tradition of home cooking at the Gilcrease-Pelegrin house. They make dinner from scratch every evening, o"en preparing dishes such as duck confit, pommes gratin, and sliced ribeye with peppercorn sauce. (As an aside, these concoctions end up in the packed lunches of their children, Jude and Roman, and have been the subject of raised eyebrows from teachers, as well as failed attempts at lunchtime trades.) “We focus on French soul food or comfort fare,” Pelegrin says. The more whimsical blackboard items are an ancillary point of pride. “Our specials change based on the season and everyone in the kitchen has a say,” Pelegrin explains, before going on to describe his herb garden out back and the good relations enjoyed with local farmers. “They will just show up with whatever is good that day—duck, rabbit, pig.” From there, the specials are improvised. “It’s a combination of what’s available and what’s beautiful,” Gilcrease says. “It always amazes me, the creativity of the kitchen staﬀ, every day.” The “jazz approach” to food is not surprising. Music grounds the soul of Justine’s. One side of the bar’s shelves are reserved for wine while the “THERE WASN’T other is for records. “We used to REALLY A CONCEPT. have more wine, but now we have WE THOUGHT, too many records,” quips Pelegrin, ‘SURELY WE CAN SELL who favors a short, sharp wine list ENOUGH BOOZE TO that mirrors the menu. Bartenders BUY ENOUGH FOOD double as DJs and there’s never a TO REOPEN playlist. “I like that you can pick THE NEXT DAY.’”

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The short and simple menu at Justine’s is based on the owners’ version of French home cooking.

Justineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sets up a tent each winter decorated with a new theme. Their last one was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch.

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something spontaneously, moving with the night,” Pelegrin says. “It can be Neil Young on a Sunday a"ernoon or James Brown on Saturday at midnight. We just hang out and play records.” Records are indeed spun, flipped, and swapped between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. every night except Tuesday. Brief John Aielli-esque moments of silence are adequately bridged by the general din of chatter in the restaurant. It’s a place where people linger and the extended kitchen hours attract a diﬀerent kind of crowd. “We serve until 1:30 a.m.,” Pelegrin says. “It’s a good hour for musicians. I always say that even if it’s slow, we don’t ever close early. It’s important to me that people have a place to go late.” An organic, quirky place, Justine’s came together slowly and by chance. Pelegrin moved to Austin in the early 1980s to help a friend set up a “continental” restaurant. The venture folded soon a"er and Pelegrin began working at Chez Nous, Austin’s founding father restaurant of French food. Pelegrin not only learned the restaurant business inside and out, but also picked up bass and did a little touring. A few years on, he met a raven-haired woman from California. She just happened to hail from a spot close to where his band was scheduled to play a tour date. “I jumped in the van, we went to LA and fell in love,” Gilcrease says. A"er bumping around a bit, the two moved to Paris and flirted with opening a place in Bordeaux. Pelegrin began lobbying for Austin instead. “I was adamant about not living in Texas – but fell I in love with Austin,” Gilcrease recalls. Years later, in 2006, the pair were driving through East Austin en route to the airport when they spotted a for-sale sign on an overgrown lot on far East 5th street. “We fell in love with the place,” Pelegrin says. A deal was struck and they parked a couple of vintage trailers on the site, making it home. “I would get nervous because there was nothing here, and it was dark and quiet,” Gilcrease says. But for Pelegrin, that was the point. “The sense of freedom was important to me,” he says. “A"er 5 p.m., it’s just us. We can be loud, and no one will complain.” The plan wasn’t so much to have a restaurant as a place where they could just be themselves – play records, eat great food, curate an artful attitude, and throw crazy parties – in a way that was financially sustainable. “I always thought, it’s not that far, people will come,” Pelegrin says. “There wasn’t really a concept. We thought, ‘Surely we can sell enough booze to buy enough food to reopen the next day.’ We just did what we liked to do and bon… voila. We were a hit right away…boom.” Indeed, as soon as they opened in 2009, a wave of Austinites rolled through the doors of their white wainscoted bungalow that sits behind a jasmine-lined fence. Pelegrin and Gilcrease were overwhelmed. Wine cases were commissioned as chairs. “We were so slammed that I had to call my friends and get them to help us,” Gilcrease recalls. One of those friends was Jardine Libaire, a celebrated author who, at the time, had run out of money. She began working behind the bar, organizing events and helping to curate

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various art installations on site. “She’s been a part of it this from the beginning,” Gilcrease says, “and she’s been a great voice for what we wanted to do, in a way we couldn’t be.” Within a year, the restaurant had settled into something of a rhythm, allowing Gilcrease to focus on the space’s potential for art collaborations. The point was to celebrate and nurture the nascent culture growing at the site, rather than to sell it. A gi"ed photographer, Gilcrease now keeps a steady stream of visual inspiration flowing through the restaurant’s social channels. “It’s renegade and weird and from the heart,” says Libaire, who has joined us. Her latest book, “White Fur,” was the subject of the restaurant’s “bananas party” in June. Despite all the jazz, ornament, and pageantry, Pelegrin is adamant that simplicity is at the heart of everything they do. “We’re not here to change the whole landscape of food,” he says. “It shouldn’t be pretentious. It’s not rocket

science. It’s just the good life.” I finish my Royale with cheese. We step out for a cigarette and keep the conversation going. Eventually, Pelegrin wanders off. “That’s what he does,” Libaire says. “He’s probably behind the bar. He’s the face and the charm.” A glance at my watch informs me it’s 1 a.m. I’ve been converging for over four hours. I bid bon nuit to Gilcrease, Libaire, and others who’ve joined us along the way. On my drive back home, I think more about Manet and how different the dynamic portrayed in his canvas is from the one that governs Justine’s. Again, I ponder the secret to Justine’s. Perhaps Manet himself stated the answer when he said, “It is not enough to know your cra" – you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more.” Imagination. That’s it. That’s what makes Justine’s different – from the bar scene at the Folies-Bergère and from many of its contemporaries in Austin’s burgeoning food scene.

O P P O S I T E : P H OTO G R A P H O F R E S TA U R A N T I N T E R I O R W I T H G R O U P O F P E O P L E B Y C R AW F O R D M O R G A N

“[The farmers] will just show up with whatever is good that day—duck, rabbit, pig.” From there, the specials are improvised. “It’s a combination of what’s available and what’s beautiful,” Gilcrease says.

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OUR

LOVE AFFAIR BY MP MUELLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIELLE CHLOE POTTS

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Pictured at Fonda San Miguel, left to right: Kris Swift of Grizzelda’s, Greg Koury of Manuel’s, Iliana de la Vega of El Naranjo, Roberto Espinosa of Tacodeli, and David Joseph of El Patio Not pictured, but included in the discussion: Tom Gilliland of Fonda San Miguel

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In Austin you can ask anyone on the street about the best Mexican food and get a myriad of competing answers, each colored by family traditions, personal tastes, and memories of Mexican meals enjoyed. Texans have a passionate, full-on love affair with Mexican food, and it’s not difficult to imagine why. Mexican food is simple, comforting joy on a plate. If food is love, then velvety tortillas, smothered enchiladas, breakfast tacos, and mole are our cherished, perennial valentines. Driving through the city today, Mexican restaurants seem to be as ubiquitous as man buns at Barton Springs on a Sunday. But there was a time when you could count them on one hand. To learn how the local Mexican food scene has expanded to accommodate our muy grande appetites over the years, we gathered seasoned Tex-Mex and regional Mexican cuisine restaurateurs for a roundtable discussion. These restaurant warriors have been going at their cra", collectively, for nearly 150 years. They have spent thousands of hours in every aspect of their business, digging deep to source just the right chiles, corn and authentic ingredients, and honing their dishes, creating dining experiences, and washing cups and cutlery in the wee hours of the morning. Here’s the lowdown from the official sponsors of our stomachs.

Matt’s El Rancho has been serving Tex-Mex to Austinites since 1952.

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EL PATIO

MATT'S EL RANCHO

MID-CENTURY TEX-MEX Forty years back, there weren’t nearly so many restaurants in Austin. Yes, there was the Chicken Shack, The Stallion, Night Hawk, County Line, and Holiday House on Airport—with its live alligator—but Mexican food, then as now, held pole position in the race for our collective appetite. When David Joseph and his family opened Tex-Mex restaurant El Patio on Guadalupe, Joseph says, there were four main destinations for Tex-Mex in Austin: El Matamoros, Matt’s El Rancho, La Tapatia, and his own restaurant. His family originally hails from Lebanon. Their first foray in the restaurant business served something they knew well—Lebanese food. When Austinites failed to bite, the Josephs embraced Tex-Mex—and Austinites hugged back. Like the other Tex-Mex places, El Patio had its devoted regulars with their

designated day of the week visits. “If we didn’t see people on their ‘day’, sometimes we would look them up in the phonebook, call them and ask, ‘Hey, are you okay?’” Joseph says. El Patio is now serving the great-great-grandchildren of their first customers. They are known for their traditional Tex-Mex cheese and beef enchiladas and homemade tortilla chips hand-cranked out of a press to cut the round shells. The masa is thicker with a distinctive texture and fried to a sublime crunch.

SAY HOLA! TO REGIONAL MEXICAN It wasn’t until 1975 that Austinites were able to move past Tex-Mex and experience Mexican dining for the first time. A"er opening a successful Mexican restaurant in Houston a few years prior, Tom Gilliland and the late Miguel tribeza.com

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Ravago opened Fonda San Miguel. The two met in Austin and quickly discovered a shared passion for Mexican food. While Gilliland doesn’t share a lineage with our neighbors to the south, he rolls his Rs like a native. It would be many years until he learned of his early ties to the country—he was conceived in Mexico City. Lost in Austin one day, Gilliland used a convenience store payphone to make a call. A “for lease” sign on a building across Hancock Drive caught his eye. In 1975, Gilliland and Ravago’s restaurant opened its doors for the first time. It’s not only the home of the $17 enchilada plate (worth every penny) today, Fonda San Miguel is still considered by many to be the godfather of Austin’s regional Mexican dining scene. The first year wasn’t easy. The restaurant and its food initially struggled to find an audience. “People would come in and say, ‘Oh, I thought this was a Mexican restaurant. Where’s the combination plate?’ Then they would walk out,” Gilliland recounts. In the early days, there were also challenges to sourcing food and spices, as the USDA and customs officials prevented beans being imported from Mexico. Gilliland eventually found a supplier in Greeley, Colorado. Getting the right chiles needed for each dish was difficult, too. The restaurateurs had to buy a mixed bag of hot, mild and pungent peppers from produce houses and then sort through to get the ones they needed. The new restaurant began to gain traction in its second year. “The people who helped us a lot were faculty at UT,” Gilliland explains. “They traveled a lot and said, ‘Oh, you have this, you have that… we can only get that in Mexico.’” It wasn’t until the owners made what a purist might term a concession to that Tex-Mex staple — chips and salsa — that they began making a profit. “We didn’t put chips and salsa on the tables because salsa ruins the taste buds—but as soon as we did, we were able to pay our bills.” Mexican food reflects the country’s layering of different cultures and history, incorporating Spanish, French, South American and Mayan culinary traditions. Gilliland believes that the perception of Mexican food here is changing for the better—although he contends that some chefs are mixing things up a little too much. “Even in Mexico, there is a movement to contemporize the fare, but chefs from the States are going to Mexico for a month, coming back, and stretching it. It’s not fusion food, it’s confusion food. We are a lot more purist.” He lauds other regional purists here in Austin like Marisela Godinez and her El Mesón restaurants; Las Palomas in Westlake, led by the founders’ daughter MariCarmen Corona Dale; and El Naranjo, run by Iliana de la Vega and her husband Ernesto. “What Iliana is doing at El Naranjo is the real deal,” Gilliland says. Iliana de la Vega, a native of Mexico, ran a successful restaurant in the Mexican state of Oaxaca for many years. Its food graced the cover of Bon Appétit magazine in 2003 with the caption: “The Soul of Mexico: bold flavors, romantic places, and rich traditions.” Political unrest in their region led de la Vega and her husband to Austin ten years ago. Starting with a food trailer in 2010 to get a grip on the Austin market, they quickly moved to a brick-and-mortar restaurant two years later on Rainey Street, downtown. De la Vega is a passionate chef and educator about Mexican food. “A lot of people come to my

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Pollo Pibil, a Yucatan specialty of achioteseasoned chicken baked in banana leaf.

FONDA SAN MIGUEL

restaurant and say, ‘This is not Mexican’, and I have to figure out how to tell them without being arrogant or pretentious that Tex-Mex is another type of Mexican food—just like Oaxacan or Yucatecan are. The food we eat is what we find near us.” The tomatoes and chiles that are at the heart of Tex-Mex dishes tend to take a back seat in other regional Mexican food. “A lot of people ask me, ‘Why don’t you have chips and salsa?’ Well, we don’t do that in Mexico,” she explains. “We eat bread.” De la Vega imports non-GMO heirloom Mexican corn for El Naranjo’s homemade tortillas and dishes. Then she undertakes the laborious task of cooking, drying, and grinding the kernels. She says the trouble is worth it. “The tortilla is the essence of our cuisines. The maiz from American corn just doesn’t smell like a real tortilla to me. There was always something missing.”

EL NARANJO

“A lot of people come to my restaurant and say, ‘This is not Mexican’, and I have to figure out how to tell them without being arrogant or pretentious that Tex-Mex is another type of Mexican food—just like Oaxacan or Yucatecan are,” de la Vega says.

People have noticed her purist attention to detail. The tortillas, along with her mid-meal bread service—crusty and so", made by her daughter, a pastry chef, and served with three condiments—are El Naranjo diner favorites. Another popular dish, their Mole Negro, almost didn’t make it to the menu. “It took me two years to decide to put it on the menu because it takes three days to make,” she explains. That is food as love. If Fonda is the godfather, Manuel’s could well be the consigliere. Greg Koury, his wife Jennifer McNevin, and Ahmad Modoni are the owners of this hotspot for regional classics. They began 30 years ago with a location on Congress Avenue, later adding one in the Arboretum. Koury gives kudos to his former employers, Fonda founders Gilliland and Ravago, for opening up a market for regional Mexican food. “They bulldozed those walls in Austin and educat-

MANUELÕS

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Grizzelda’s special Sunday all-night happy hour is popular with regulars and newcomers alike.

GRIZZELDAÕS

“ ”

FOOD IS LOVE. LOVE IS A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT TO EVERYBODY.

Tostadas de Atun, ahi tuna, chile aioli, crispy shallot, avocado.

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ed this public greatly. It opened the doors for so many others, like ourselves, to step out and do something.” A taste for this type of interior Mexican food started to grow, and Koury jokes that Texas Monthly’s long-time food critic had some fresh material. “Pat Sharpe finally had something to write about other than ‘The redfish at Matt’s this past Sunday was really something.’” Despite what aesthetic-heavy Instagram-worthy food culture may suggest, Koury believes that today’s young gastronomers are really in search of full-bodied flavors and creativity. “I’m looking for authenticity but a younger generation coming in is less curious about that and whether it looks cool on a plate. Each bite has to taste great.” Manuel’s continues to pack them in three decades later. Their seafood relleno, a stuﬀed poblano pepper topped with Dutch Gouda cheese sourced from cheesemakers in the Yucatan, is a fan favor-

between a tamale from Oaxaca versus one from Mexico City. However, our customers are surprised that we have a lot of fish on our menu. When you look at the ratio of coastline to landmass in Mexico, it’s extensive. There is a very heavy seafood tradition.” Like many Mexican restaurant patrons, Tacodeli’s are particular about their tacos, and what they dress them with. “When you talk about emotional attachment and a high level of passion, a lot of people have that for our Salsa Doña,” Espinosa says. “I once had people walk out of the restaurant because we were all out. Since then, we’ve never run out!” The condiment was named a"er the lady who first made it in his kitchen, Doña Bertha. Espinosa used to try to keep the recipe secret, but many have tried to replicate it under the same name and now that the salsa can be found in grocery stores, the ingredients are readily available.

TACODELI

“When you talk about emotional attachment and a high level of passion, a lot of people have that for our Salsa Doña,” Espinosa says. “I once had people walk out of the restaurant because we were all out. Since then, we’ve never run out!”

ite. Another popular item is Manuel’s Parrillada, a mixed grill of beef tenderloin, chicken, shrimp, and nopalitas (baby cactus paddles), served family-style. Things have certainly changed through the years. When Roberto Espinosa moved to Austin from Mexico City, the first Mexican restaurant he experienced was Taco Bell. “It was a bit of a culture shock,” Espinosa laughs. When he opened his first Tacodeli in 1999, it had been over 20 years since other Mexican restaurateurs had laid claim to breaking down those early barriers— but Espinosa found himself still staring at them, head-on. “When I first tried selling MO-lay—I couldn’t do it. Customers would ask, ‘What’s a mole?’” Espinosa has seen a shi" in taste buds the last ten years, but says there are still challenges in coaxing diners’ tastes south of the border. “Social media is banging barriers down le" and right. People are learning the diﬀerences

A DONDE VA? That there are now hundreds of eateries offering Mexican cuisine in Austin didn’t deter Kris Swi" and his partner Adam Jacoby from opening Grizzelda’s in East Austin in late 2016. The upscale restaurant is still finding its sweet spot, somewhere between traditional Tex-Mex and regional Mexican recipes, each fused with a range of different flavors and styles. Take their Tulum-influenced ceviche with pineapple cured corvina, cucumber, pickled coriander, onion, and chili oil, for example. Their dark mole is lauded as well— served over chicken brined in salt water for 48 hours for extra juiciness. “People love our tortillas, handmade every morning—both corn and flour,” Swi" says. “Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest things. We put a lot of time and research into finding what is authentic for what we do. It’s about finding that magical thing that is correct and is authentic to who we are and what we are serving in our restaurant. But authentic means different things to different people. Just like any other cooking tradition, there are differences within cities and between streets.” To make his point, Swi" quipped, “Just ask someone whose grandma makes the best mole…” Before he could finish, Espinosa exclaimed, “My grandmother!” Where is Mexican food going next? “It’s going wherever people at this table have the bravery to take it,” Swi" smiled. For starters, prime your taste buds for chapulines. Chapulines? That’s Spanish for grasshopper—a new delicacy that’s finding a wide audience north of the border. New varieties of mezcal, chiles, fruits and wild ingredients are being integrated into dishes that continue to evolve because of the creativity of the people in these kitchens. If there was a sliding scale with traditional Mexican food on one end, and fusion-based innovation on the other, there are Mexican restaurants all along the spectrum here in Austin. Fusing Korean BBQ and Mexican staples, restaurants like Chi´lantro are quickly finding new patrons. Their rice bowl is a mixture of rice, black beans, corn, kimchi, a fried egg, and salsa—a Tex-Mex wink to the Korean bibimbap. Whether it’s interior regional, Tex-Mex, or fusion, the food that feeds our bodies and souls is deeply personal. As Swi" sums it up nicely, “Food is love. Love is a little bit different to everybody.” tribeza.com

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THE

SUSHI We get to know the acclaimed chef behind OTOKO BY TOBIN LEVY PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW REINER

GANGSTER “FIND WHAT YOU LOVE AND LET IT KILL YOU.” TATTOOED ON YOSHI

Okai’s right forearm, the Charles Bukowski quote is as rebellious as Okai’s cooking style. His decadent cross-cultural creations at Otoko restaurant, where the forty-year-old is head chef, are why Food & Wine declared him one of the Best New Chefs 2017. Like Bukowski’s writings, Okai’s artful dishes (his presentations are museum-worthy) are quietly personal and boisterously transfixing. Okai’s presence is equally charismatic. He sports a dark mullet and favors punk band shirts and the color black. Okai is also an animated talker. Flashing a broad, puckish grin, he speaks with a Japanese accent and dynamic intonations. He is as grateful for the Food & Wine coverage as he is perplexed. “It’s just so not me,” he laughs. “Vice magazine would make much more sense.” Okai’s creations are wholly unique, reflective of a surplus of passion for punk rock, landscape architecture, floral design and an aversion to cooking shows and cookbooks. “I don’t watch TV [about cooking],” he says. “Because if you see someone cooking something it stays in your mind. Then you create a new dish and say oh, I came up with this idea but no, you saw that somewhere...” Long before the Food & Wine accolade, Okai’s ingenuity earned him veneration among his peers. Casey Wilcox, another one of Austin’s acclaimed chefs (Justine’s Brasserie, Uchi, Second Bar + Kitchen), lavishes praise. “Yoshi

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“I am thinking about small gardens, and bringing landscaping to my dish,” Okai explains.

is a fucking sushi gangster. Knows it all before you do,” Wilcox says. “He has all the care of a Kaiseki master, but does it on his terms. He knows the rules, respects them, but breaks them if he wants to. That’s what makes him diﬀerent. The Japanese aesthetic is to follow form, do the same, but he never will. Everything he’s gotten he’s earned. A warrior, one of us.” Some of the less than traditional ingredients Okai has incorporated into his dishes include grasshoppers, meal worms, and sal de gusano (agave worm salt o"en found on the rim of mescal glasses.) One of the fundamentals of Japanese food that Okai is committed to is the multi-tiered approach to cooking. “The diﬀerence in Japanese cuisine is it’s not just about taste. It is your eye, the taste—and think of the a"er taste. You taste the dish three times, so that is important.”

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Okai was born and raised in Kyoto, where, at his great uncle’s side, he started cooking at the age of six. However, throughout his youth cooking was not a priority. He was the lead in a punk band, worked at his parents’ landscape architecture company, their flower shop, and at a relative’s catering company. Eventually these iterations of Okai would coalesce into a signature cuisine. For example, today, when asked about his approach to presentation, he explains that when he is plating food “I am thinking about small gardens, and bringing landscaping to my dish.” A"er going to college for landscape architecture, in 1997, Okai moved to Los Angeles with the goal of improving his English conversational skills, a goal that was thwarted by the large Japanese population in Los Angeles. “I ended up hanging out with too many Japanese people,” Okai says, “and not

using any English. My sister had a friend who graduated from UT, and he was saying Austin had almost no Japanese people. And I knew of bands from Austin and I love music, so I said perfect.” Six months later, without ever having been to Texas, Okai moved to Austin. Of course, he had preconceptions of the Lone Star State. “I thought of rolling hay [tumbleweeds] and bars with swinging doors,” he says, pushing his way into an imaginary saloon. “My plan was to just stay here a year or two then move to Holland for landscape architecture school.” Okai has now lived in Austin for nearly a decade. He still, at times, searches for the English counterpart to a Japanese word. And though some of his phrasing does elicit inadvertent levity, Okai has grasped the most elusive aspect of a second language—the translation of humor.

Okai has integrated humor into all facets of his life, including his tattoos, which now decorate most of his body. There is a large wolf (“because I like wolves”) on one arm just below a death Tarot card. “All think this has a bad meaning, but it’s really good meaning,” he says. His favorite tattoo is in two parts. The first being the number 8 inked above the knuckle of his right hand’s middle finger. The second is the number 6 in the same place on the opposite hand. When asked to explain their significance Okai’s grin widens, he starts laughing, then flips the double bird, hands so close together that their pinkies are touching. “86! Get it?” he says, explaining the etymology. “It means finished. Done. Sold out. It’s kitchen talk.” It is a joke clearly meant for his peers not the customers. “It is so funny,” he continues. Okai’s laughter is contagious. “I’ve never had a chance to use it.” It is an upbeat lament and a surprising admission given Otoko’s popularity. Austin was clearly a game-changer. Upon arrival, Okai joined a garage band then moved on to punk. He got tattoos (he had only two when he moved to Austin). He also got married and acquired a pet—a black mini pig that Okai walked on a leash and that, sadly, he lost in the divorce. (The pig’s name was the Japanese word for “looks delicious.”) Then Okai, leery of 9-to5 oﬃce jobs, entered the restaurant world. Okai’s creations He now owns an assortment of elegant, custom made knives specially ordered from are wholly unique, Japan. His favorite took six months to make reflective of and was designed specifically for cutting a surplus of blowfish to allow for a cleaner cut and a passion for punk thinner slice of fish. The knife is beautiful, rock, landscape frame worthy. The glint of the blade is mesarchitecture, floral merizing. The tiny engraved blowfish on design, and an the handle is unbearably beautiful. Unlike aversion to most chefs, Okai sharpens his own knives, a much trickier undertaking than it would cooking shows and seem, but one that is integral to the art form. cookbooks. A properly sharpened knife is a balanced one, explains Okai, as he turns the knife upside down, setting the base on the counter, taking his hand away, leaving the knife to stand steady and upright on its own. It is as dumbfounding as a magic trick. To date, Okai doesn’t have a single work-related war wound, no lingering scars from the slip of a knife. (In truth, he seemed a little flustered by the inquiry.) Otoko’s popularity—the 12-seat restaurant is booked out months in advance—begs the question of whether Okai will be using his knives at an oﬀshoot or any time soon. All those hoping Otoko will soon turn his successes into an expansion or a new restaurant will be disappointed. “Lots of people think that way and most fail,” he says, “so right now I want to make sure this place continues to succeed.” He is happy in the now. It’s hard to imagine him any other way. tribeza.com

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The best way to while away Austinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s summer months is with good friends, good food and an outstanding beverage in your hand. From handcrafted whiskey, vodka, tequila, beer and Texas wines to the bars, restaurants and tasting rooms just waiting for you to enjoy them, our summer drinks guide has got you covered. Cheers to summer and bon appĂŠtit!

S P EC I A L A DV E RT I S I N G S EC T I O N

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Ron Yates Wines The Wine Proprietor: Ron Yates

Owner & President of Ron Yates Wines “I’ve been in the wine business in Texas for 10 years and my family’s farmed and ranched in Texas for eight generations. Our Spicewood Vineyards has won numerous awards and I’m happy to say that even though my new vineyard, Ron Yates Wines, has only been open a few months, our 2014 Texas High Plains Tempranillo has already won a Double Gold Medal at the prestigious San Francisco International Wine Competition. This Tempranillo is laced with lush cherries and earthy spice on the palate, accompanied by aromatics of red plums and blueberries. I love sharing our wines with people who don’t believe Texas can produce world-class wines – it’s wonderful to change their minds! Customers frequently remark on how balanced our wines are, and talk about the pride every member of our staff exudes when hosting guests on the property.”

The Chef: Bryan Gillenwater

Owner & Chef at Bryans on 290 “Starting as a Boy Scout, I’ve always loved cooking over an open fire. You could say that live fire cooking is my signature trademark ... my Johnson City restaurant really allows me to get back to my roots. We’ve been featured in Texas Monthly, Rock & Vine and Crush, as well as San Antonio newspapers.”

Chef Gillenwater’s Pairing: Wood Grilled Beef Loin with Buttermilk Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus and Tomato with Truffled Demi-glaze and Ron Yates Wines High Plains 2014 Tempranillo

RON YATES WINES 6676 HWY. 290 WEST HYE, TEXAS 78635 (512) 585-3972 RONYATESWINES.COM

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BRYANS ON 290 300 E. MAIN ST. JOHNSON CITY, TEXAS 78636 (830) 868-2424 BRYANSON290.COM

Bryan Gillenwater

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y L I N D S E Y L E E

“This particularly great Tempranillo pairs well with the smoky beef loin. From its big fruit noses to the mid-palate earthiness and mild tannin finish, this red wine from Ron Yates Wines really enhances the flavor in the beef.”

Ben Milam Whiskey

BEN MILAM WHISKEY 2218 U.S. HWY. 281 N. BLANCO, TEXAS 78606 (830) 833-3033 BENMILAMWHISKEY.COM SHADY GROVE 1624 BARTON SPRINGS RD. AUSTIN, TEXAS 78704 (512) 474-9991 THESHADYGROVE.COM

P H OTO G R A P H B Y L I N D S E Y L E E

The Whiskey Proprietor: Marsha Milam

Founder of Ben Milam Whiskey "I'm what you might call a serial entrepreneur; I love creating. I'm especially proud to have had a guiding hand in KGSR's Unplugged at the Grove, the Austin Film Festival and Chuy's Christmas Parade. My latest endeavor, Ben Milam Bourbon, just won Double Gold at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. With notes of caramelized sugar, cinnamon and oak, our bourbon is a smooth, easy-sipping whiskey best enjoyed neat.

When given time to breathe, the nose becomes almost like perfume â&#x20AC;&#x201C; beautiful! Personally, I enjoy it on the rocks but, on a hot day (and that's most days here in Austin), it does make a fine Mint Julep.

also worked in Kansas City and New York, but I really love cooking for Texans."

The Chef: John Beasly

"We rub the tri tip with an achiote paste and olive oil and then refrigerate it for two days, infusing the steak with flavor. The smooth notes and the hints of caramel and vanilla, wood and smoke in Ben Milam Bourbon really complement the steak's big, bold flavors. It's my perfect pairing for what people in Texas love to eat and drink."

Executive Chef at Shady Grove "I studied at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Before joining Shady Grove, I was Raw Bar Chef for McGuire Moorman Hospitality, running the raw bars at Clark's Oyster Bar and Perla's. Besides California, I've

Chef Beaslyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pairing: Grilled Tri Tip Steak with Ben Milam Bourbon

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Hops & Grain Brewing Founder & President of Hops & Grain Brewing “My days always involve bluegrass, bicycles, beer and an urge to enhance the human experience. Our beer is crafted by some of the finest folks in Central Texas in a way that makes the community and environment better. So you really can feel good about that drink in your hand. I mostly like to enjoy it outside, following a bike ride or trail run – it’s crisp, clean and refreshing and the first one pairs well with the one after it. Plus, the

design on the can is pretty cool, so it’s got that going for it, too.

The Chef: Aaron Franklin

Co-founder & Owner of Franklin Barbecue “My wife Stacy and I hosted big backyard barbecues for years before we opened our trailer in 2009, then our brick and mortar restaurant in 2011. We’ve been lucky enough to feed thousands and gain some fun recognition over the last seven years ... and make some cool beers with friends!”

Chef Franklin’s Pairing: Pot Roast & Mashed Potatoes with Hops & Grain River Beer

“This is the dish that really got me into food as a kid and cooking as an adult: it’s a nostalgic homage to everyone’s grandma. What goes best with Pot Roast & Mashed Potatoes is something clean and simple like River Beer; you can enjoy it with your meal without fatiguing the palate. The guys at Hops & Grain are some of my favorite brewers – they make truly excellent beer by being creative and reserved.”

HOPS & GRAIN BREWING 507 CALLES #101 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78702 (512) 914-2467 HOPSANDGRAIN.COM FRANKLIN BARBECUE 900 E. 11TH ST., AUSTIN, TEXAS 78702 (512) 653-1187 FRANKLINBBQ.COM

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The Brewer: Josh Hare

The Dogwood’s Texas Sunset

Spicewood Vineyards

THE DOGWOOD WEST SIXTH 715 W 6TH ST. (512) 531-9062 THEDOGWOODAUSTIN.COM

SPICEWOOD VINEYARDS 1419 BURNET COUNTY ROAD 409 SPICEWOOD, TEXAS 78669 (830) 693-5328 SPICEWOODVINEYARDS.COM

Kick back and relax on the patio with Dogwood’s Texas Sunset cocktail. Sip on a combination of Deep Eddy Ruby Red Vodka, Paula’s Texas Orange Liqueur, a splash of fresh lime juice and Champagne. As the hot summer day cools down, so will you while enjoying this sweet and mellow concoction.

THE DOGWOOD ROCK ROSE AT DOMAIN NORTHSIDE 11420 ROCK ROSE, SUITE 130 (512) 330-4554 THEDOGWOODDOMAIN.COM

Tequila 512

Deep Eddy Vodka’s Fresh Picked

TEQUILA512.COM

2 oz. Deep Eddy Lemon Vodka 1/2 oz. lime juice 1 oz. homemade strawberry puree Fresh mint Soda water to top with

In Austin, tequila isn’t saved for special occasions. It’s a standard go-to. Locally owned and operated, Tequila 512 is the perfect anytime tequila. It’s triple-distilled and made with 100% agave and volcanic spring water. Smooth enough to enjoy neat but bold enough to liven up any cocktail, Tequila 512 won Double Gold and Best in Show at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. P H OTO G R A P H S CO U R T E S Y O F T H E I R R E S P E C T I V E V E N D O R S

Wine is a celebration of life. Spicewood Vineyards takes that seriously, in the cultivation of its grapes, in the creation of its incredible Texas wine and in the enjoyment of shared experiences at the winery. Nestled in the Texas Hill Country amongst 32 acres of vines is the picturesque location. Come enjoy the delicious award winning wines, and relax your body and mind in this tranquil setting.

With Austin expecting the hottest summer on record, this drink is designed to keep you cool while enjoying the outdoors. The only places to get the Fresh Picked are at the Deep Eddy Tasting Room and your own home. Just build the ingredients in a glass and enjoy!

DEEP EDDY VODKA TASTING ROOM 2250 E. HWY 290 DRIPPING SPRINGS, TEXAS 78620 (512) 994-3534 DEEPEDDYVODKA.COM

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WWG

Wal ly Wor k m a n Ga l l e ry

Mary Case

1202 West 6th Street Austin, Texas 78703 wallyworkmangallery.com 512.472.7428 image: Blue Willow (detail), acrylic on panel, 60 x 72 inches

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ST YLE WEEK14 #

P R E S E N T E D BY

S E P TE M B E R 2 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2 8 , 2 0 17

SPONSORED BY ROBIN COLTON, TRU-SKIN DERMATOLOGY, NEIMAN MARCUS, BEN MILAM WHISKEY, AND DEEP EDDY VODKA

THE TRIBEZA FASHION SHOW 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY BREEZY RITTER

LIFE + STYLE HOW WE LIVE RIGHT NOW Greg Ryan, the perennially well-dressed general manager at Jeffreyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Josephine House. PHOTOGRAPH BY LEANN MUELLER

ST YLE PROFILE

ST YLE PICK

T H I N K S PAC E

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STYLE PROFILE | LIFE + STYLE

J. Crew Ludlow suit, Engineered Garments tie, vintage Yves Saint Laurent pocket square (a gift from wife Daisy Ryanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aunt and uncle), Omega wristwatch. Hair and Grooming: Barrett at Shed Barbershop.

Perfectly Suited

EQUAL PARTS ST YLE AND SUBSTANCE COMBINE TO MAKE GREG RYAN THE PERFECT FACE OF JEFFREY’S AND JOSEPHINE HOUSE By Anne Bruno Photographs by LeAnn Mueller

HERE’S A RECURRING FICTIONAL CHAR ACTER WE ALL

wish we knew, or could be, in real life: someone who, regardless of the circumstances or company, knows exactly what to say and do to make others feel at ease. Self-assured but modest in tone, such a person is cool and unflappable, even in the most chaotic of settings. And, in the best film or literary portrayals, this character possesses a full measure of sophisticated style that makes everything he wears and does appear effortless. In Austin, at one of the city’s most iconic restaurants, the nonfiction version of the character who makes everyone feel catered to – and most importantly, confident in their decision about where to spend their dining time and treasure – is Greg Ryan. An hour spent chatting with the affable general manager of Jeffrey’s and next-door sister restaurant Josephine House, and it’s easy to see how Ryan is perfectly suited (double entendre intended) to his job. At both restaurants, as with all McGuire Moorman Hospitality establishments, the standards are high, the pace is demanding, and an easy elegance is delivered with every dining experience.

On a weekday afternoon, before happy hour patrons arrive, Ryan and I visit at a table for two in a sunny corner at “Jo House,” an affectionate abbreviation used by regulars. Dressed in a gorgeous blue suit, spread collar white shirt, and perfectly knotted tie, Ryan appears completely unrushed and present. In answer to my question about his personal aesthetic, he laughs. “I can’t say I’ve ever spent time thinking about that,” Ryan answers. “What comes to mind is that l like to feel prepared every time I walk through the doors. That pretty much sums it up; how I dress definitely impacts how prepared I feel. Wearing a suit that fits me well makes me feel like I’m ready for anything that comes my way.” Ryan doesn’t consider himself a clotheshorse by any means and doesn’t particularly love to shop. But, to meet his personal criteria, he selects what he wears with care and thinks of the suits he’s worn to work every day for the past 12 years as a uniform. “I think the way you dress sets the tone and expectations for what you do and the way you do it,” he says. “Every interaction with my team and our guests matters to me.” Ryan’s closet currently holds about five great suits and 20 or so jackets, some of which used to have pants. “For some reason,” he says, “I’m much tribeza.com

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STYLE PROFILE | LIFE + STYLE

harder on the pants.” Over the years, he’s figured out what works for him in terms of fit. He also looks for overall value, in suits and shoes, especially. “When you wear a suit to work every day, you find out which fabrics and brands last over the long haul and that’s crucial. It may be more expensive but the extra cost proves worth it.” For suits, Ryan favors Freemans Sporting Club from ByGeorge and J. Crew’s Ludlow cut. Solids and subtle, clean patterns define his tastes. “When I worked in New York, I experimented with different kinds of ties, and patterned shirts and socks, but they didn’t really feel like me,” he says. “Classic looks, modern but not trendy, are more my thing.” Lacking any pretense, Ryan perfectly embodies a style-over-fashion ethos. Ryan knows his job well and recognizes that restaurants provide an emotional experience; his style of dress is completely consistent with his warm and respectful personality. With a resume that includes years at New York City’s Per Se and the famed Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel &

“WEARING A SUIT THAT FITS ME WELL MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I’M READY FOR ANYTHING THAT COMES MY WAY.” Bungalows, he cites as mentors some of the most respected managers and maître d’s in the hospitality industry. In talking about his time at California’s fabled Pink Palace, he speaks with reverence about working alongside Pepe De Anda, a 30-year veteran there. “Pepe is amazing in the way he handles the room,” he tells me with real enthusiasm. “He could sit down, at any given moment, with every guest and have a conversation about their kids, vacation or whatever was happening that day. His relationships are special...he made each guest feel comfortable because he’d developed trust and mutual respect. You really watch and learn from people like that. Guests came for the interaction with Pepe – it’s not just about dining but the whole experience.” Comparing him to De Anda might feel like a stretch to Ryan, but it doesn’t to his loyal regulars, proving that being at the top of his sartorial game is not the only reason he’s come to be known as the face of Jeffrey’s and Josephine House.

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“At least once a day, a guest comments on my beard. I’ve had one, off and on, for years. Last time, I grew it while on vacation ... you don’t even want to look at yourself in the mirror, much less subject people you know to the growing phase. My barber does a great job keeping it nicely trimmed.”

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STYLE PICK | LIFE + STYLE

Butter as Beverage HIPSTER HAUNT PICNIK BUILDS ON THE CULT SUCCESS OF ITS BUT TER COFFEE WITH THE L AUNCH OF A BOT TLED VERSION By Hannah M. Hepfer Photographs by Danielle Chloe Potts

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In addition to their original trailer on South Lamar, Picnik has a flagship restaurant on Burnet Road.

HAT CAN MAKE DISCERNING AUS-

tinites line up, and pay upwards of $10 for a coffee? A curious libation — sold at Picnik’s restaurant and trailer — that blends organic coffee, grass-fed butter, and MCT oil. The drink’s decadent mixture has garnered a devout following since it became available in 2013. Picnik owner Naomi Seifter attributes butter coffee’s appeal in part due to its creamy taste, but also to the drink’s functionality. Customers say the unique mix of ingredients satiates appetite, increases mental focus and stabilizes energy levels — without the typical caffeine crash. “It’s like a latte, energy drink and protein shake all in one,” Seifter says. She experienced similar benefits in 2012 after experimenting with the concept of butter coffee

in her kitchen. When she opened Picnik a year later, she was so convinced of its potential that she made it the centerpiece on her drink menu. Her instincts paid off — between the two locations, she now sells tens of thousands of coffees per month. “I was lucky to have an idea that hadn’t been explored in a retail setting,” she says. Butter coffee was a hard sell at first — even for open-minded Austinites privy to burgeoning food and beverage trends. Seifter spent the early days standing behind the counter persuading customers to “just try it” — and often gave it away for free in hopes of changing their minds. “People were so confused and wary of the idea,” she recalls. “They’d say, ‘That sounds disgusting’ or ‘Doesn’t it taste greasy?’” tribeza.com

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STYLE PICK | LIFE + STYLE

The bottled coffee comes in the three original flavors: cappuccino, mocha, and chai.

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“PEOPLE WERE SO CONFUSED AND WARY OF THE IDEA,” SEIFTER RECALLS. “THEY’D SAY, ‘THAT SOUNDS DISGUSTING’ OR ‘DOESN’T IT TASTE GREASY? ’”

But many skeptics ended up loving it and started buying butter coffee daily. Then, in 2014, the high-fat movement hit and there was a greater focus in the media on the value of fats like butter, egg yolks, coconut oil and avocado. Time magazine even featured butter on the cover with the text, “Eat butter.” “We were able to do less convincing at that point,” says Seifter. “People were ready for our product.” She soon started getting requests for the drink in other cities. Her first attempt at a travel-friendly version, a truffle-type product called a “Buttercup” that you could drop into coffee and blend, ceased production due to manufacturing issues and challenges to scaling. Seifter then tried to create bottled butter

coffee, but that stalled for three years in the midst of its own logistical hurdles. “It was a total labor of love with failure after failure,” she says. Eventually, the bottled version launched this spring and is now carried at both Picnik locations, Central Market, Snap Kitchen and online, with Whole Foods to come in August. The bottled flavors — cappuccino, mocha and chai — were the first on the menu and remain best sellers. So it seems Austinites are now on board. For Austin realtor Sarah Williams, who drinks butter coffee a couple of times a week, the sustained energy she feels eliminates her need for an afternoon nap. “It just keeps me laser focused,” she says. “It’s so funny what a drink can do.” tribeza.com

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T H I N K S PAC E | L I F E + S T Y L E

Essentials of Entertaining HOW DO YOU PULL OFF A GRE AT DINNER PART Y? WE ASKED SOME FOOD INDUSTRY INSIDERS FOR THEIR FAVORITE GO-TO ITEMS FOR SUCCESSFUL ENTERTAINING. Compiled by Nicole Beckley Photographs by Warren Chang Styled by Holly Cowart

Kris Swift

Creative Director, Jacoby’s Item: Vintage Depression-Era Hobnail pieces Obtained: Purchased at Jacoby’s Restaurant & Mercantile “Vintage Hobnail is my go-to because it has so much character. I really enjoy mixing heirloom pieces in with newer tablescapes when entertaining because it reminds me of my grandmother. I also love that this particular pattern is dishwasher safe even though it’s a bonafide antique.”

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June Rodil

Beverage Director, McGuire Moorman Hospitality Item: Mother of pearl caviar spoons Obtained: Gifted to us by my dear friend Rebecca Meeker along with a variety pack of different caviars “Caviar, in all its ranges, is one of my favorite things to serve because a) it’s delicious and b) it requires little cooking for a huge impact. It’s great with champagne —another favorite — and tends to be a communal food item that people huddle around and creates great conversation. The mother of pearl spoons as a serving utensils (allegedly) deter any offflavors to impart on the delicate caviar, but really I mostly love the way they look — they’re beautiful and elegant.”

Mia Li

Chef de Cuisine, Kuneho Item: Cambodian silver demitasse spoons Obtained: Picked up while traveling through Siem Reap, Cambodia “I always pull these spoons out when serving coffee while hosting dinner parties. It’s a conversation starter on travels through Southeast Asia. During my time through Cambodia I was extremely moved by the hospitality the Cambodians still carried through their culture as the country is still trying to rebuild from a terrible time in their history.”

Sarah McMackin

Owner, The Beer Plant Item: 9 oz. Otis glasses Obtained: Purchased at Crate & Barrel “Whether I’m serving Jester King bombers, wine, gin cocktails, or simply mineral water, these glasses are my staple hosting vehicles. They’re heavy bottomed with a streamlined design, and they just feel so good in your hands! Small enough for second and third pours, to keep libations flowing and the party going. Perfect for sitting around long after the meal.”

Ashley Cheng

Co-Owner, SPUN Ice Cream Item: Cheese platters Obtained: Purchased at Karacotta “I love simple, neutral white platters like these from Karacotta, which create a clean backdrop to let the food shine. With a quick stop at Antonelli’s Cheese Shop around the corner, it’s the perfect combination for last-minute entertaining. I love that these are all hand-thrown from a locally-made claybody called Longhorn White with a 1” lip around the edge to contain your snacks. Plus, I get to support another Austin woman-owned business!”

Item: “Vegetable Literacy” (cookbook) by Deborah Madison Obtained: Gifted to me by my former boss and dear friend Sara Baer-Sinnott at Oldways, a non-profit that advocates cultural food traditions for nutrition and public health “As a longtime vegan, my creative dinner party planning starts with a vegetable. One of my favorite parts of “Vegetable Literacy” is Deborah’s companion guides: for every member of the plant kingdom she writes about (vegetables, herbs, grains or beans), she includes a list of perfect ingredient companions to create something remarkable. Scored fairy tale eggplants at Central Market? Pair them with chard, tahini, chickpeas, parsley, or capers. Celery root bulbs on hand? Drizzle with walnut oil or homemade aioli, pair with hazelnuts, pear or sorrel. “Vegetable Literacy” is a crash course for cooking inspiration and education. If food talk is what you’re into, it’ll have everyone talking about a meal.”

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What prompted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to collect spirit photographs? View this story—and many more—at the Harry Ransom Center. CLOSING JULY 16! 21st and Guadalupe Streets www.hrc.utexas.edu FREE ADMISSION

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FOOD + THOUGHT A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON OUR LOCAL DINING SCENE

Behind the scenes at Bartlett’s. PHOTOGRAPH BY KNOXY KNOX

K AREN’S PICK

CO L U M N

DINING GUIDE

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K AREN'S PICK | FOOD + THOUGHT Don’t look for trendy pork belly, poke salad, or miniature tasting portions at Bartlett’s. Instead, you’ll find generous servings of proven American fare.

Bartlett’s FORGOING HYPE AND HIPNESS, AN AUSTIN STALWART DA Z ZLES WITH CONSISTENCY AND QUALIT Y By Karen O. Spezia Photographs by Knoxy Knox

OOKING FOR AUSTIN’S NEWEST, HOTTEST RESTAUR ANT?

Then stop reading. How about an Austin mainstay that’s been packing ‘em in for almost three decades? Read on. Bartlett’s is where I – and legions of other loyal customers – dine when they crave a consistently excellent dining experience. Although it’s not flashy or trendy and its chef isn’t a celebrity (although he comes with an impressive pedigree), Bartlett’s continues to draw crowds with its top-notch food, drinks, service, and ambiance. Opened in 1990 under the Houston’s moniker as part of the Hillstone Restaurant Group, it was rechristened Bartlett’s in 2010 after founder-owner Tim Bartlett. Besides the name, not much has changed over the years. And that’s a good thing. The menu still features outstanding American favorites; the bar still mixes perfect, classic cocktails; the service is still some of the best in town; and the décor remains understatedly upscale. Don’t look for trendy pork belly, poke salad, or miniature tasting portions at Bartlett’s. Instead, you’ll find generous servings of proven American fare.

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For starters, the gooey, creamy spinach and artichoke dip is legendary, arriving in a bubbling crock with a side of cool sour cream, zippy salsa, and crispy tortilla chips. Signature homemade soups change daily, including clam chowder, baked potato, arroz con pollo, firehouse chili, and New Orleans red bean. Enormous salads are always garden fresh, like the Caesar, grilled chicken, and Asian steak and noodle. For sandwiches, the cheeseburger is one of the city’s best and the French dip is piled high with shaved prime rib. Tender barbecue pork ribs and juicy roasted prime rib are popular items, as are the roasted chicken and the seasonal selections of grilled seafood. Side dishes at Bartlett’s stand on their own merit. For potato lovers, there are addictive shoestring fries, garlic mashed potatoes, and a killer baked potato with crusty, salted skin. There’s a rotating selection of delicious seasonal vegetables, plus creamy cole slaw and, surprisingly, on-trend quinoa. Save room for one of the decadent, ample desserts, especially the sweet-tart Key Lime Pie. The talented bartenders mix a fine cocktail and the award-winning wine list features a crowd-pleasing choice of domestic all-stars and

imported charmers. Located just north of downtown on Anderson Lane, Bartlett’s offers a variety of seating options. The large, oval bar is always buzzing, filled with drinkers and diners greeting old friends and making new ones. The multilevel dining room overlooks the open grill and features cozy booths and roomy tables. Its clubby interior is illuminated by flickering candles and subtle lighting. There’s also a small patio for al fresco cocktails and nibbles. Surprises are fun, but sometimes I just want a sure bet. So when I tire of chasing the next big thing, I head to Bartlett’s. I can always count on its consistently good food, drinks, service, and tasteful atmosphere. It’s where I go for lunch or a weeknight dinner, to catch up with friends, to entertain clients, or to celebrate an anniversary. Any time is Bartlett’s time. BARTLETT’S 2408 WEST ANDERSON LANE (512) 451-7333 | BARTLETTSAUSTIN.COM

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When I Dine Alone AMERICA’S FIRST FOOD WRITER TAUGHT HERSELF HOW TO ENJOY E ATING OUT ALONE. COULD I? By Brittani Sonnenberg Illustration by Heather Sunquist

People who see me on trains and in ships, or in restaurants, feel a kind of resentment since I taught myself to enjoy being alone. I refuse to be alone as if it were something weak and distasteful, like convalescence. I know what I want, and I usually get it… I order meals that are typically more masculine than feminine, if feminine means whipped cream and cherries. And for all these reasons, and probably a thousand others, like the way I wear my hair and what shade my lipstick is, make people look strangely at me, resentfully, with a kind of hurt bafflement, when I dine alone.

—M.F.K. Fisher, “The Gastronomical Me”

FTER READING FISHER’S BOLD LINES ABOVE, SOMETHING

in my heart—or maybe it was my stomach—stirred. Yes, I thought. That’s it. Fisher penned the passage in 1938, but she put a finger on something that I, and many friends (particularly women), have trouble with in 2017: dining out alone. Yet in Fisher’s smug self-description, I also had the tingling feeling of spying on a future, freer version of myself. One who shook off that “weak and distasteful” air of “convalescence” when approaching the host’s stand. One who sailed into any restaurant with saucy ease, who ordered with impudence and impunity, whose solitary, white-napkinned presence oozed appetite, not apology. I’m an introvert, so solo activities—walking, reading, traveling—come naturally. But dining alone is different. It feels like staging my solitude, training a spotlight on my single gal status. It suggests a lot of uncomfortable “L” words, the kind of thing Trump might tweet about me sitting alone in a café: lonely, lame, loser. But why? What is it about unaccompanied dining that feels so dangerous and ill-advised, like swimming alone in the ocean? Does the fact of one’s oddball eating silently destabilize something in a restaurant’s atmosphere: some neat promise of coupling and company? We all die alone. Does dining alone—or the sight of someone doing so—urge silent existential crises? Despite my dread of the act, after reading Fisher’s essay, I badly wanted to learn how to do it, the way she had apparently taught herself. I would begin my own eating-out-alone lessons. Bolstered by Fisher’s insouciance, I dialed

Uchi, and booked a table for one on Friday night at nine. At 8 p.m. that Friday eve, I began my preparations, heart thumping. I felt like I was on a first date… with myself. What should I wear? How should I act? What if it was a disaster? My survival, I decided, lay in emergency supplies. I proceeded to pack my purse like I was headed for a day at the beach, or a long airplane ride: iPhone, book (“Last House,” by Fisher), magazine (Bust). I showered and donned a new teal shift, silly floral silk knee socks, and a comforting white cashmere cardigan that feels like a long hug. Then I was striding into Uchi, trying to banish rapidly rising feelings of weakness. “I’m afraid the spot at the sushi bar is still occupied by a gentleman who got fairly chatty with another diner,” the hostess said, with a small frown. “But we can offer you a table, or you can wait on the bar seat.” “I’ll take the table,” I said, with a rush of relief, and followed a handsome millennial host to my designated spot. Seated across from no one but my own fears, I shot a quick glance around the room. To my left was a raucous foursome: two married couples in their late thirties, gossiping about real estate. In front of me, two women intimately leaned in on what looked like a fifth date. Then a shadow darkened my table. My waitress had arrived. I studied the menu with what I hoped was an expert manner. “I’m intrigued by the sake that’s described as ‘clean winter air,’” I said. “Ah yes, the otokoyama. That’s our driest,” she said. tribeza.com

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COLUMN | FOOD + THOUGHT

I hesitated. This was my cue to ask savvy sake questions, but I had none. tuated by a parting wave of ponzu. “Uh, great. I’ll have a glass of that,” I stammered. I felt like an underpreIn a few bites, the fish had disappeared, but as its siblings arrived, over pared high school student with a long-suffering SAT tutor. the next hour, I realized that these were my unexpected dining companI scoured the dinner menu after she left, determined to do better on the ions, my familiars, whom I greeted with delight, and whose time at the next part of the exam. Not that this was a test! I was here to have a great table was all too fleeting. The loud restaurant and my self-consciousness time! I smiled broadly so everyone who happened to glance my way would disappeared, shrinking my world to a briny oyster kiss, an indulgent know that I was having a blast. mouthful of king crab and butter, a brazen bite of steak, and the soothing, The waitress returned with the sake. “Any ideas on what you’d like to eat?” flirtatious tom kha broth. “Oh yes,” I bluffed. “And then maybe you can suggest some of your But in between dishes, I must admit, I also felt abandoned, rawly exposed, favorites?” a kid at a middle school dance waiting out another slow song, trying not to “Sure,” she said. look desperate for my next partner. I ordered one oyster, a piece of salmon belly sushi, and a piece of king Halfway through my meal, another waitress stopped by and asked me crab nigiri. She raised an eyebrow: I’d literally how the king crab was. ordered three bites of food. “Um,” I hedged. “Amazing,” I said, blushing, as grateful as “What else would you recommend?” a foreign exchange student approached by a BU T IN BET W EEN DISHES , She nudged me towards the wagyu beef popular kid in the cafeteria. By the time I had makimono, a seasonal fish dish with a tom tucked away the sakana mushi, it was 9:30, I MUST A DMIT, I A LSO kha broth, and a yellowtail starter with chili and I was growing exhausted by my efforts. It FELT A BA N DON ED, R AW LY and ponzu. would have been a perfectly respectable time to EX POSED, A K ID AT A Here’s the thing about dining alone at a go home. But no. I decided to do Fisher proud, MIDDLE SCHOOL DA NCE fancy restaurant: without anyone to talk to, and ordered the jizake crème caramel. After WA IT ING OU T A NOT HER it’s mostly a waiting game. And unless you’re that, I couldn’t stand another minute of affectSLOW SONG , T RY ING NOT a Buddhist monk, gazing meditatively into ing breezy nonchalance, so I opened my book the middle distance, staring straight ahead and read happily. TO LOOK DESPER AT E until your food has arrived is downright Fifteen minutes later, dessert still hadn’t FOR M Y N EX T PA RT N ER . awkward. I love people-watching, but it’s best come, and I’d finished two chapters, straining done with a human shield: i.e., a dining commy eyes in the dim mood lighting. It was time panion. Staring at people while sitting alone for the classic emergency time-out: the bathfeels like a zoo animal staring down zoo visitors. Doesn’t the zebra have room. In the stall, I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally! A space in Uchi where better things to do? I was supposed to be alone. I resisted the urge to rely on my phone and stared longingly at the boisterBack in the dining room, the crème caramel finally arrived, and proved ous sushi bar, where diners seemed to be having a boisterous time. I sipped scrumptious. I scooped up every last lick of sauce. my sake, silent. “Winter air” was a stretch, but it did taste clean, and spaThen I paid the bill, and walked out, having spent more on myself tonight cious, an empty sunlit room. I wondered how that vein of description would than any restaurant prior. My stomach hummed with satisfaction. Okay, so work on a wine list. Chardonnay: Cluttered broom closet. the whole night hadn’t been exactly relaxing. I hadn’t made a bunch of new A few minutes later, my first dish materialized: the “hama chili.” I befriends at the sushi bar, or gained the awe and respect of the wait staff for my latedly wiped my hands with the wet towel and started scrubbing my face game-changing ordering. Some moments, waiting on another dish to come, before remembering that I was not in a darkened airplane cabin. Then I hearing loud laughter around me, felt downright harrowing. leaned over the inaugural plate with my chopsticks. But I’d never lost my appetite. That, I decided, meant I was well on my way. And this is where the night suddenly grew dreamy. Without anyone to I walked through the warm, inky air to my car, feeling giddy. My next talk to, or to awkwardly split the appetizer with, the delicate, blushing-pink assignment would be a meal at a beautiful restaurant bar. Maybe Justine’s, slices of yellowtail were all mine, from the tuna’s first light touch on my next Thursday night? I would start with a French 75, along with the escartongue, to its soft give and unctuous swell, to its dart down my throat, puncgots, and then the French fries…

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BANGER’S SAUSAGE HOUSE & BEER GARDEN 79 Rainey St. | (512) 386 1656 Banger’s brings the German biergarten tradition to Rainey Street with an array of artisan sausages and more than 100 beers on tap. To get the full Banger’s experience, go for their weekend brunch and indulge in the Banger’s Benny, the beer garden’s take on eggs Benedict.

BARLEY SWINE 6555 Burnet Road ,Suite 400 | (512) 394 8150 James Beard Award-nominated chef Bryce Gilmore encourages sharing with small plates made from locally-sourced ingredients, served at communal tables. Try the parsley croissants with bone marrow or Gilmore’s unique take on fried chicken.

GUSTO ITALIAN KITCHEN 4800 Burnet Rd. | (512) 458 1100

34TH STREET CATERING

Upscale-casual Italian in the heart of the Rosedale

1005 W. 34th St. | (512) 323 2000 | 34thstreetcafe.com

neighborhood. Fresh pastas, hand-tossed pizzas,

One of the best and most creative full service

incredible desserts (don’t miss the salted caramel

catering companies in Austin. Acclaimed Chef

budino) and locally-sourced, seasonally inspired

Paul Petersen brings his culinary experience

chalkboard specials. Full bar with craft cocktails,

and high standards to catering company and

local beers on tap and boutique wines from around

to your event! Call them to save the date

the world.

and they'll start planning any occasion. We’re coming to the party.

BAR CHI SUSHI 206 Colorado St. | (512) 382 5557

24 DINER 600 N. Lamar Blvd. | (512) 472 5400

FONDA SAN MIGUEL

Chef Andrew Curren’s casual eatery promises delicious

2330 W. North Loop Blvd. | (512) 459 4121 | fondasanmiguel.com

plates 24/7 and a menu featuring nostalgic diner favor-

Veggie lovers will surely smile when tasting the calabacitas rellenas—baked zucchini filled with corn and white cheese, served with a Jitomate sauce. It’s just one of many vegetarian offerings, including salads, quesos, enchiladas, organic heirloom beans, and tamales made with swiss chard right out of our garden. And let’s not forget the Watermelon Margaritas…

ites. Order up the classics, including roasted chicken, burgers, all-day breakfast and decadent milkshakes.

ASTI TRATTORIA 408 E. 43rd St. | (512) 451 1218 The chic little Hyde Park trattoria offers essential Italian dishes along with a variety of wines to pair them with. Finish off your meal with the honey and goat cheese panna cotta.

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A great place to stop before or after a night on the town, this sushi and bar hotspot stays open until 2 a.m. on the weekends. Bar Chi’s happy hour menu features $2 sake bombs and a variety of sushi rolls under $10.

BRIBERY BAKERY 2013 Wells Branch Pkwy. #109 | (512) 531 9832 1900 Simond Ave. #300 | (512) 297 2720 Pastry Chef Jodi Elliott puts a fun spin on classic confections. The Mueller location is a Candy Land-esque space where diners can sip on cocktails, beer, wine and coffee.

V I S I T T R I B E Z A .CO M TO VIEW THE ENTIRE ONLINE DINING GUIDE

CENTRAL STANDARD

CHEZ NOUS

1603 S. Congress Ave. | (512) 942 0823

510 Neches St. | (512) 473 2413

Between their full dinner menu, impressive raw bar and craft

Now an iconic Austin staple, Chez Nous creates authentic

cocktail offerings, Central Standard at the South Congress

French cuisine just a few yards away from bustling 6th

Hotel is the perfect place to spend a night on the town.

Street. Genuine, simple and delectable, it is hard not to leave

CHINATOWN

this bistro feeling completely satisfied.

3407 Greystone Dr. (512) 343 9307

CLARK’S OYSTER BAR

107 W. 5th St. | (512) 343 9307

1200 W. 6th St. | (512) 297 2525

Some of the best traditional Chinese food in town. Fast

Small and always buzzing, Clark’s extensive caviar and oyster

service in the dining room and delivery is available.

menu, sharp aesthetics and excellent service make it a re-

This restaurant boasts an extensive and diverse dim sum

freshing indulgence on West Sixth Street. Chef Larry McGuire

menu for customers to munch on!

brings East Coast-inspired vibes to this seafood restaurant.

CONTIGO 2027 Anchor Ln. | (512) 614 2260

LAS PALOMAS

Chef Andrew Wiseheart serves ranch-to-table cuisine and an elegant take on bar fare at this east side gem. Take your

3201 Bee Caves Rd. #122 | (512) 327 9889 | laspalomasrestaurant.com

pick from the exquisite and bold cocktail menu and grab a

One of the hidden jewels in Westlake, this unique

spot on the expansive outdoor patio.

restaurant and bar offers authentic interior

COUNTER 3. FIVE. VII

Mexican cuisine in a sophisticated yet relaxed

315 Congress Ave, Ste. 100 | (512) 291 3327

setting. Enjoy family recipes made with fresh

Belly up to the counter at this 25-seat space for an intimate

ingredients. Don’t miss the margaritas!

dining experience that’s modern yet approachable. This unique eatery gives three, five and seven-course tasting menus in an immersive setting.

BULLFIGHT 4807 Airport Blvd. | (512) 474 2029 Chef Shawn Cirkiel transports diners to the south of Spain for classic tapas, including croquettes and jamon serrano. The white-brick patio invites you to sip on some sangria and enjoy the bites.

CRU FOOD & WINE BAR

2nd Street: 238 W 2nd St | 512.472.9463 Domain: 11410 Century Oaks | 512.339.9463 CRUaWINEbar.com

COUNTER CULTURE 2337 E. Cesar Chavez St. | (512) 524 1540 An East Austin haven for vegans and vegetarians, Counter Culture provides internationally inspired vegan options with organic and local food. Daily specials are shared through

CRU’s wildly popular Ahi Tartare is the perfect

their constantly updated Twitter feed.

compliment to any of over 300 selections, 80

DRINK.WELL.

premium wines by the glass or 15 wine f lights.

207 E. 53rd St. | (512) 614 6683

A state-of-the-art wine preservation system and

Located in the North Loop district, Michael and Jessica

temperature control ensure optimal taste and

Sanders bring craft cocktails and American pub fare to

appreciation. Toast to Summer at CRU.

drink.well. with a seasonally changing menu. Snacks to try include fried chickpeas and house-made Twinkies. tribeza.com

| JULY 2017

EAST SIDE KING

FOREIGN & DOMESTIC

HOME SLICE PIZZA

1816 E. 6th St. | (512) 407 8166

306 E. 53rd St. | (512) 459 101

1415 S. Congress Ave. | (512) 444 7437

2310 S. Lamar, Suite 101 | (512) 383 8382

Small, neighborhood restaurant in the North Loop area

For pizza cravings south of the river, head to Home Slice

Winner of the James Beard Award and Top Chef, Paul Qui

serving unique dishes. Chef Ned Elliott serves thoughtful,

Pizza. Open until 3 a.m. on weekends for your post bar-hop-

offers out-of-this-world pan-Asian food from across town

locally-sourced food with an international twist at reason-

ping convenience and stocked with classics like the

trailers with fellow chefs Moto Utsunomiya and Ek Timrek.

able prices. Go early on Tuesdays for dollar oysters.

Margherita as well as innovative pies like the White Clam,

Try their legendary fried Brussels Sprouts!

FREEDMEN’S

topped with chopped clams and Pecorino Romano.

EASY TIGER

2402 San Gabriel St. | (512) 220 0953

HOPFIELDS

709 E. 6th St. | (512) 614 4972

Housed in a historic Austin landmark, smoke imbues the

3110 Guadalupe St. | (512) 537 0467

From the ELM Restaurant Group, Easy Tiger lures in both

f lavors of everything at Freedmen’s — from the barbecue, to

A gastropub with French inclinations, offering a beautiful

drink and food enthusiasts with a delicious bakeshop up-

the desserts and even their cocktail offerings. Pitmaster

patio and unique cocktails. The beer, wine and cocktail

stairs and a casual beer garden downstairs. Sip on some local

and chef Evan LeRoy plates some of the city’s best barbecue

options are plentiful and the perfect pairing for the restau-

brew and grab a hot, fresh pretzel. Complete your snack with

on a charming outdoor patio.

rant’s famed steak frites and moules frites.

beer cheese and an array of dipping sauces.

GERALDINE’S

ITALIC

EL ALMA

605 Davis St. | (512) 476 4755

123 W. 6th St. | (512) 660 5390

1025 Barton Springs Rd. | (512) 609 8923

Located inside Rainey Street’s Hotel Van Zandt, Geraldine’s

Chef Andrew Curren of 24 Diner and Easy Tiger presents

This chef-driven, authentic Mexican restaurant with un-

creates a unique, fun experience by combining creative

simple, rustic Italian plates. Don’t miss the sweet delicacies

matched outdoor patio dining stands out as an Austin

cocktails, shareable plates and scenic views of Lady Bird

from Pastry Chef Mary Katherine Curren.

dining gem. The chic yet relaxed setting is perfect for enjoy-

Lake. Enjoy live bands every night of the week as you enjoy

ing delicious specialized drinks outside for their everyday

Executive Chef Stephen Bonin’s dishes and cocktails from

JEFFREY’S

3 p.m. – 5 p.m. happy hour!

bar manager Jen Keyser.

ELIZABETH STREET CAFÉ

GOODALL’S KITCHEN AND BAR

America,” this historic Clarksville favorite has maintained

1501 S. 1st St. | (512) 291 2881

1900 Rio Grande St. | (512) 495 1800

the execution, top-notch service and luxurious but welcoming

Chef Larry McGuire creates a charming French-Vietnamese

Housed in the beautiful Hotel Ella, Goodall’s provides mod-

atmosphere that makes Jeffrey’s an old Austin staple.

eatery with a colorful menu of pho, banh mis and sweet

ern spins on American classics. Dig into a fried mortadella

treats. Both the indoor seating and outdoor patio bring com-

egg sandwich and pair it a with cranberry thyme cocktail.

JOSEPHINE HOUSE

fort and vibrancy to this South Austin neighborhood favorite.

HILLSIDE FARMACY

Rustic, continental fare with an emphasis on fresh, local and

1209 E. 11th St. | (512) 628 0168

organic ingredients. Like its sister restaurant, Jeffrey’s,

EPICERIE

Hillside Farmacy is located in a beautifully restored

Josephine House is another one of Bon Appétit’s “10 Best

2307 Hancock Dr. | (512) 371 6840

1950s-style pharmacy with a lovely porch on the east side.

New Restaurants in America.” Find a shady spot on their patio

A café and grocery with both Louisiana and French

Oysters, cheese plates and nightly dinner specials are

and indulge in fresh baked pastries and a coffee.

sensibilities by Thomas Keller-trained Chef Sarah

whipped up by chef Sonya Cote.

LA BARBECUE

Don’t forget to end your meal with the housemade macarons.

McIntosh. Lovers of brunch are encouraged to stop in here for a bite on Sundays!

1204 W. Lynn St. | (512) 477 5584 Named one of Bon Appétit’s “10 Best New Restaurants in

1601 Waterston Ave. | (512) 477 5584

1906 E. Cesar Chavez St. | (512) 605 9696 Though it may not be as famous as that other Austin barbecue joint, La Barbecue is arguably just as delicious. This trailer, which is owned by the legendary Mueller family, whips up classic barbecue with free beer and live music.

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V I S I T T R I B E Z A .CO M TO VIEW THE ENTIRE ONLINE DINING GUIDE

L’ESTELLE HOUSE

REBEL PIZZA BAR

TRUE FOOD KITCHEN

88 1/2 Rainey St. | (512) 571 4588

7858 Shoal Creek Blvd. | (512) 457 5757

222 West Ave. | (512) 777 2430

This cute walk-up kitchen and patio fuses traditional French

Along with its unique street art interiors, Rebel Pizza Bar

Inspired by Dr. Andrew Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet, True

and Southern cuisine. Think late night Parisian-style burgers

delivers updated takes on bar classics including hot wings and

Food Kitchen combines decadent favorites with health-con-

with frites or rosemary biscuits and gravy for Sunday brunch.

waff le fries. But the pizza is the real star of this cozy restau-

scious eating, striking the perfect balance. The restaurant,

L’OCA D’ORO

rant, like the Get Up Stand Up pie that packs a powerhouse of

located in downtown’s chicest new entertainment district, offers

flavors that will leave you jostling for the last slice.

a full range of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

Located in the Mueller development, Chef Fiore Tedesco

SALTY SOW

UCHIKO

delivers contemporary Italian cuisine with a strong nod to

1917 Manor Rd. | (512) 391 2337

4200 N. Lamar Blvd. Ste. 140 | (512) 916 4808

the classics. Alongside delicious plates, guests will enjoy

Salty Sow serves up creative signature drinks, including

The sensational sister creation of Uchi, and former home

impressive cocktails, wine and a great craft beer selection.

a Blueberry-Lemon Thyme Smash. The food menu,

of Top Chef Paul Qui and renowned chefs Page Presley

MONGERS MARKET + KITCHEN

heavy with sophisticated gastropub fare, is perfect for late-

and Nicholas Yanes. Uchiko is an Austin icon that everyone

night noshing.

should visit at least once. Try the bacon tataki!

Chef Shane Stark brings a casual Texas Gulf Coast sensibility

SNOOZE

VINAIGRETTE

to East Austin by slinging fresh seafood in the kitchen and

3800 N. Lamar Blvd. | (512) 428 8444

2201 College Ave. | (512) 852 8791

at the counter.

This Denver original serves up brunch classics with a

This salad-centric restaurant off South Congress has one

NAU’S ENFIELD DRUG

creative twist seven days a week, with two locations on either

of the prettiest patios in town. Along with an inviting

end of Lamar. With friendly service in an updated

ambiance, the salads are fresh, creative, bold and most impor-

diner atmosphere, Snooze is sure to start your day off right.

tantly delicious, with nearly two dozen options to choose from.

fountain within an antiquated drug store gives guests an

SWIFT’S ATTIC

WINEBELLY

unmatched experience founded on tradition. The food is

315 Congress Ave. | (512) 482 8842

6705 Hwy 290 # 503 | (512) 584 808

simple and classic, rivaled only by the scrumptious shakes

Overlooking Congress Avenue, Swift’s Attic draws from

3016 Guadalupe St. Suite 100 | (512) 358 6193

and hand mixed old-fashioned sodas.

global inspirations and serves up inventive cocktails in a

Named as one of the top 20 wine bars in America by Wine

OLAMAIE

historic downtown building.

Enthusiast, Winebelly boasts an international wine list

1610 San Antonio St. | (512) 474 2796

TAKOBA

and Spanish-Mediterranean small plates. The bistro main-

Food+Wine Magazine’s best new chef Michael Fojtasek

1411 E. 7th St. | (512) 628 4466

creates a menu that will leave any Southerner drooling with

Takoba delivers bold, authentic f lavors with ingredients

WU CHOW

delight over the restaurant’s contemporary culinary concepts.

imported straight from Mexico. Head over to East 7th Street

500 W. 5th St. #168 | (512) 476 2469

The dessert menu offers a classic apple pie or a more trendy

for tortas, tacos, margaritas and micheladas.

From the curators of Swift’s Attic, Wu Chow is expanding

goat cheese caramel ice cream. Also, do yourself a favor and

THE PEACHED TORTILLA

Austin’s cuisine offerings with traditional Chinese dishes

1900 Simond Ave. | (737) 212 1876

2401 E. Cesar Chavez St. | (512) 215 8972

1115 West Lynn St. | (512) 476 1221 An Austin institution since 1951, this all-American soda

order the biscuits (they’re worth every delectable bite).

5520 Burnet Rd. #100 | (512) 330 4439

PIEOUS

This cheerful spot is sure to clear your weekly blues with

12005 U.S. 290 West | (512) 394 7041

friendly staff, fun food and a playful atmosphere. Affordably

Unequivocally some of the best pizza Austin has to offer,

priced, you’ll find culinary inf luences from around the

Pieous brings together the unlikely, yet perfect combination

world with a healthy dose of Asian and Southern options.

tains a local feel with it’s comfortable, laid back interiors.

sourced from local purveyors and farmers. Don’t miss their weekend dim sum menu.

of Neapolitan pizza and pastrami, with all dishes made from scratch. Decked out in prosciutto and arugula, the Rocket pizza is a crowd favorite and a must-try. tribeza.com

| JULY 2017

A L O O K B E H I N D 6…6

In 1992, comedian Robin Williams quipped about Vice President Dan Quayle, “He was one taco short of a combination plate.”

P H OTO G R A P H B Y DA N I E L L E C H LO E P OT T S

We all knew what he meant…

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S IMGENR PO SD UE M C LRETARRAAI NT.C E

Michel, seat system designed by Antonio Citterio. www.bebitalia.com B&B Italia Austin: 1009 West 6th Street, Suite 120 Austin, TX 78703 T. 512 617 7460 - bebaustin@internum.com