The first thing you notice in this south Austin Cajun café is that someone there must really love live music and Louisiana. Every square inch of the Evangeline Café is decorated with autographed playbills, flags, masks, posters and sports jerseys. The predominant colors being the purple, green and gold of Mardi Gras. The next thing you notice is that the food is just darned good. Louisiana native and Café owner Curtis Clark was always getting asked where he thought the best Cajun food was … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – Milano Café
To me, food tastes better on vacation. It could be because it is a vacation; lack of stress, better restaurant options when not pressed for time, or often just unusually good regional specialties. But, I am always astonished at how the humblest places in Italy seemed to have better food than many pricier places in the States. Often the same simple ingredients here just don’t seem to come together the same way. Recently, some friends took me to Milano café and I got a big surprise; a small, … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – Nuremburg Brauhaus
In a small strip center near the edge of Pflugerville is a small German restaurant that does something unusual. The chef makes nearly everything from scratch; the soups, the sausages, the schnitzels, fried potatoes, potato dumplings and even the desserts are made fresh by Chef Sonya Vogt, a native of Nuremburg. The menu is pretty straight forward; pork and potato heaven (plus beer). While there is a “Nurem-burger” on the menu, the highlights for me are the traditional (Viennese) Wiener … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – Cool River Café
For many years I worked in north Austin and the Cool River Café on Parmer Lane was always a popular choice for lunch with a Sales Rep or Client. The restaurant and bar complex looks a bit like a Colorado ski lodge inside and out; tall ceilings, oil paintings, wood paneling and a large stone fireplace in the restaurant. For a change, I recently had dinner at Cool River and was pleased on several fronts. On a cold night, the restaurant was warm and comfortable, the food and wine were great, … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – Holiday Champagne
As Christmas and New Year celebrations are upon us, I decided to do some research into Champagne. Though I really like the stuff, there are dozens and dozens of French Champagnes to choose from in anything from a reasonable thirty dollars to hundreds of dollars for the non-vintage brands alone. Styles vary from crisp light wines to complex yeasty “serious Champagne”. (I prefer the former.) And then there is the issue of sugar; though Champagne has been the drink of celebration for … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – Aquarelle
Over the years, central Austin has had many restaurants situated in vintage houses; Green Pastures, Paggi House, Basil’s, East Side Café, Mars, and Starlight to name a few. Some are still going strong and others are just wonderful old memories. I’ve always loved these kinds of restaurants. They are usually Chef owned, comfortable and romantic. For the last 10 years, Aquarelle on Rio Grande Street, just north of 6th has been serving classic gourmet French food in a beautiful restaurant that was … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – F&D Foreign and Domestic Food and Drink
Story has it that the Chefs from Lyon France considered themselves better than the rest because in their estimation, anyone could make great food from the greatest of ingredients while they could make even a pig’s ear taste great. Because of some of his uncommon menu items, and his training under some very great Chefs including Alain Ducasse, I asked F&D Chef Ned Elliott if that was in any way related to the way he approached his menu. To my very pleasant surprise the Lyonnais bias … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – North by Northwest
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had about six meals at North by Northwest. I’ve had a couple of brunches, a couple of dinners, one lunch and some drinks and appetizers. This frequency wasn’t due to a lack of creativity; but mainly because the folks here tend to do something a bit uncommon; they manage to do many things well. I’d be the first to admit many of my favorite restaurants in town excel at a narrow range of dishes. The dishes they do well, I love, and I can be a very devoted; … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu – Chianti Classico
Years ago before I had made any real effort to know much about wine, I identified a Chianti in a blind wine tasting game simply because I thought it was awful. There was no pondering the aroma, no washing the wine over the tongue to catch the flavors. I just said “gosh I hate this…..I think it’s Chianti”. It had a particular roughness that was easy to remember. The problem was that even just 20 years ago, the general quality of Chianti was not very good. Over the previous decades, primarily … [Read more...]
The Souvenir Menu: “The Athenian Bar & Grill”
Once upon a time I thought I hated Greek food, I don’t like eggplant, so Massouka was out, growing up in Texas, I was not really used to the taste of lamb, dolmades were just, well different, and the desserts were too sweet. A Greek friend of mine thought this was outrageous. How could I claim to be a foodie, food fanatic, gourmet, cultured glutton, etc. if I did not like Greek food?! He made it a priority to change my mind. I was invited to a wonderful meal where he made every dish from … [Read more...]
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