Update: Slow your roll, people. Apparently Austinites were really jonesing for some bao, because Bao’d Up ran out of food today and had to turn guests away. They will wait until 5 p.m. to open Wesnesday while they tighten their processes
Bao’d Up, a fast-casual restaurant focused on Chinese steamed buns, opens today at 11 a.m. at 1911 Aldrich, Suite 1A in the Mueller development. The restaurant is operated by chef Ting Li, who also owns Xian Noodles.
Baos from Bao’d Up. (Credit: Facebook.com/atxbaodup)
The menu serves steamed buns; savory meat and veggie-filled buns; sweet fried bao, bubble tea and more. As part of its opening celebration, Bao’d Up is giving each customer who spends $10 or more a free bao.
Brandon and Zane Hunt, the Detroit natives responsible for Via 313 pizza, opened Nickel City, a bar at 1133 E. 11th St. in the old Longbranch Inn. The bar, which features a strong whiskey selection, cocktails, frozen riffs on classics and ample beer, features a food truck outside. Delray Cafe, named after a neighborhood in South Detroit, serves a menu of no-fuss bar fare like sliders, hot dogs and chicken wings. Delray Cafe opens at 5 p.m. daily and stays open late.
Update: Officials from the city of Austin have confirmed that a slew of food vendors will join the concession group at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
As a sign posted online this week hinted the other day, the vendors will include Peached Tortilla, Hat Creek Burger Company, Mandola’s Italian Kitchen, Flyrite Chicken and Tacodeli.
Joining that group are Hut’s Hamburgers, Mad Greens, Departure Lounge, Berry Austin Frozen Yogurt, and JuiceLand.
The changes will start with the renovation of the east food court, across from Gates 7-8 later in 2017. The Peached Tortilla, Mad Greens, Departure Lounge, Berry Austin Frozen Yogurt, and JuiceLand are some of the new concepts for the east food court.
Will air travelers be lining up for Tacodeli at ABIA? (Ralph Barrera AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
There’s a lot of change coming to the growing Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. We know there’s a Second Bar & Kitchen opening an outpost there, along with Italian cafe and market I Vini and a Tyler’s sports. But a post today on Instagram from Peached Tortilla owner Eric Silverstein hinted that there may be a lot more coming, as well.
The owner of the Southern-Asian fusion restaurant posted a photo with the logo of Delaware North, one of the airport’s concessionaires, with a “Coming Soon” section featuring the logos of Peached Tortilla, Jo’s coffee, Tacodeli, Flyrite chicken and others.
Not exactly. A representative for ABIA said that while Second, I Vini, Tyler’s and a new Salt Lick twice the size of the original airport location were all slated, he did not recognize some of the other names as future tenants and said that some of the names on the flyer might not end up in the airport.
“The airport did not put that sign up,” the rep said.
Adding to the intrigue, the airport’s official Twitter page Tweeted that Tacodeli would be at Gate 9 in the Barbara Jordan terminal. (Linked inside the Tweet below). Something doesn’t add up. When you have a concessionaire, city government and multiple independent owners all working together, it isn’t terribly unusual for the timing of an announcement like this to go a little sideways. Once all of the contracts are signed, the airport will put out an official release announcing the new vendors.
Paperboy is now open at Radio Coffee & Bar. (Contributed Richard Casteel)
One of Austin’s best food trailers now has two locations. The breakfast sandwich specialists at Paperboy recently opened at Radio Coffee & Beer (4204 Manchaca Road). The trailer serves gooey, savory sandwiches like bacon, pimento cheese and fried egg on brioche, and a goat patty melt on sourdough. The trailer was one of the food truck all-stars in the 2016 Austin360 Dining Guide. With both Paperboy and fellow all-star Veracruz All Natural now on property, Radio has one of the strongest food truck selections in town.
The Austin burger and taco scenes are each down one member after some recent shutters. Mighty Bird closed its location on Anderson Lane. It was the only remaining location for the local chain that opened in 2013. A cryptic Facebook post by One Taco, a taco trailer which also has a brick-and-mortar location, hints that it will take the place of Mighty Bird. Rooftop burger joint Silo on Seventh, which opened in 2014, also closed recently and deactivated its Facebook page.
The Fresca taco from The Mighty Bird. (Facebook.com/mightybird)
She may be known by many Austin diners as one of the city’s most exciting and playful pastry chefs, but former Geraldine’s and Swift’s Attic executive pastry chef Callie Speer started her career on the savory side of the kitchen.
With the opening of Holy Roller, the longtime chef is getting back in touch with her roots. Speer, who has also worked at Mars and Jeffrey’s, is opening her first restaurant, Holy Roller, which is an all-day brunch concept that promises food, drink and a little bit of attitude.
The Grilled Cheesus sandwich at Holy Roller. (Cultivate PR)
The restaurant located in downtown’s West End, at 509 Rio Grande St. in the former Wahoo’s Taco space, serves breakfast, such as pastries and coffee, beginning at 8 a.m. daily and a brunch-inspired dishes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with bar service until late on weekends. A special “Sunday School” brunch menu is served on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The unapologetically aggressive main menu includes stick-to-your-ribs handhelds like fried chicken and egg on a honey biscuit, and shaved ham, apple butter and thyme streusel on an apple bun; and the roster of larger dishes features tea-brined chicken, and a burger with a fried egg and hashbrowns.
Speer leads an all-female roster of top line talent that includes beverage director Jen Keyser, pastry chef Britt Castro, and general manager Sarah Bevil, each of whom Speer has worked with in the past. Keyser’s bar menu includes some colorful cocktails with subversive names, a bubble-heavy wine list, Bloody Mary pitchers and more. Drink selections also include a variety of non-alcoholic shrubs.
Chef Callie Speer (center) has opened her first restaurant, Holy Roller, downtown. (Credit: Robert Jacob Lerma)
Driving home the restaurant’s devil-may-care theme, the rock-and-roll space is colored with vintage furniture, velvet curtains, graffiti and neon signage, including the iconic Club de Ville crown.
“Together, we’re doing something we really like in the most creative way we knew how,” Speer said. “It was important to us that we had something for everybody—from families to partiers, and it was equally important to me to serve a menu of dishes that we really wanted to eat. It plays on the nostalgia with new takes on food you probably ate growing up, but with a little more.”
The founders of Eddie V’s and Hopdoddy and co-owners of Red Ash, Larry Foles and Guy Villavaso, are entering the world of Mexican cuisine. The longtime restaurateurs open ATX Cocina Monday at 110 San Antonio Street in the Northshore residence tower.
ATX Cocina, helmed by executive chef Kevin Taylor, looks to ride the trend of upscale modern Mexican restaurants that combine fresh ingredients with responsible sourcing and chef-driven creativity. The menu will feature masa made in house using non-GMO heirloom corn varietals from villages and farms in Oaxaca, Mexico.
(Credit: Bethany McCullough Ross)
The menu will include items like sopes with cochinita pibil, bean puree and habanero-onion salsa; chili-roasted chicken with white mole, braised cabbage and scallion; and shrimp al carbon with Valentina-brown butter, charred lemon and garlic-pequin crumb corn tortilla.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Taylor, whose parents owned a Mexican restaurant for decades, worked at the Inn at Little Washington and the Mansion on Turtle Creek. before serving as executive chef of modern Mexican restaurant El Vez in New York City.
“Everybody wants a cleaner way of eating—not so many processed foods or additives,” Taylor said. “We are going to be as clean and natural as possible. That’s the way we like to eat.”
The urban space, which is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows, was designed by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture and can be spotted from Cesar Chavez Street. The restaurant also features an outdoor dining space, a crudo bar, a wine counter and two bar spaces.
ATX Cocina will initially be open only for dinner and will expand to include lunch and brunch hours in the coming weeks.
