Point d'intérêt
Austin American-Statesman
Recommandé par 6 habitants,
Conseils des habitants
Amber
February 13, 2014
The bats arrive at the bridge in mid-March and return to Mexico in early November. Late July through mid-August is the best time to see impressive flights.
Linda
January 27, 2020
The following is an excerpt from “Austin 360 Eats” which is a list of Austin’s top 50 put together by Rick Wagner, a photojournalist with the Austin American Statesman (our local newspaper). 1: Olamaie 1610 SAN ANTONIO ST. I had to go back one more time. Yes, I’d already been to Olamaie several times in the past year. But if I was going to name chef-owner Michael Fojtasek’s restaurant the best in the city for the third time in five years (no other restaurant has more than two top finishes in my eight years), I wanted to be certain. My instincts were right. What makes a restaurant the best in the city? It needs to have exceptional vision, strong narrative, flawless execution, inviting ambiance and considered service. And, of course, consistency. A great cocktail doesn't hurt, either. It needs to be the kind of place you recommend to friends if they have only one dinner in Austin. A place you want to spend your birthday, but also one you want to call up after a couple of drinks with friends to find out if a table might have opened up after the dinner rush. Fojtasek traveled the South before opening the restaurant named in honor of four generations of women in his family, a lineage that stretches back to Tennessee (hence the graphic at the top of the menu). He was drawing inspiration to pair with his proven talent in hopes of changing the way diners thought about stereotypically heavy, one-note Southern dishes. He does so by taking the Georgia staple peanut and making a savory spread with the texture of hummus that somehow tempers and amplifies compressed watermelon and cucumber; and he elevates onion dip to new heights to accompany velvety ham and crunchy but airy hush puppies. An oozing jumble of Jefferson red rice from Georgia suspends the Louisiana-inspired bobble of Tabasco-zinged Gulf shrimp, dollops of shishito aioli and pools of electrifying red wine vinegar in a dish that reaches across the South. #2: Pitchfork Pretty 2708 E. CESAR CHAVEZ ST. Smoked trout roe and grilled corn toast. Pitchfork Pretty defines its menu as “Hill Country cuisine.” And, with the slightly shifting cultural landscape of some Hill Country towns, that description makes more sense to me with each passing month. Artists and young entrepreneurs are bringing their artisanal take on rustic aesthetic to some of these areas, and that is what executive chef Max Snyder is doing with the food at his East Austin restaurant. The chef, whose résumé includes world-class Eleven Madison Park in New York and two of San Francisco’s finest restaurants, applies his thoughtful technique and artful plating to food often associated with comfort and country. The result is dishes that someone in Williamsburg or Wimberley would appreciate. Red shrimp laid across purple rice is glazed with banana pepper and piqued with cayenne; the smoky sweetness of grilled corn floats on grassy notes of cucumber and herbs from the restaurant’s garden. The pasta dishes, including an umami bomb of olives, almonds and aged Gouda, are always exceptional. And your country uncle doesn’t need to know that the stringy tangle resembling spaghetti, tossed with meaty maitake mushrooms and sweetened with coconut sabayon, is actually squash. Whether your tastes tend toward the Texas traditional (beef rib) or the modern and international (grilled harissa-spiced goat loin dotted with yogurt), Pitchfork Pretty makes you feel at home. #3: Foreign & Domestic 306 E. 53RD ST. Foreign & Domestic changed the way Austinites thought about neighborhood restaurants when it opened a decade ago. Seriousness about ingredients, skilled technique and a nose-to-tail ethos imbued the tight, energetic space. Chefs and partners Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley have reenergized the concept over the last two years and polished the hallmarks, putting their passion into gourmet comfort food. It’s Texas farm country meets French bistro. A place unafraid of butter and salt. An animated restaurant that gives you the sense that the two people running it want it to succeed, need it to succeed, and are going to show up nightly to make sure it does. It’s a spirited gathering place that reminds us of the joys of our shift to fine-casual culture a decade ago and serves as an example of what heights that concept can achieve. The kitchen gets out of the way and lets ingredients speak for themselves on a blueberry salad brightened by lemon jam and ricotta, and a goat cheese-slathered tartine serving as a bed of dewberry jewels. Plump Parisian gnocchi and meaty oyster mushrooms awash in koji butter and chargrilled pork studded with barley and complemented by peach mostarda represent the kitchen at its maximalist best, and rich, oily goat heart Bolognese mounded on tensile spaghetti continues in the nose-to-tail tradition at the restaurant’s core. Country comfort is completed by a slice of buttermilk pie supporting an orb of late-summer peach leaf ice cream. Now more than ever, Foreign & Domestic feels like home. #4: L’Oca d’Oro 1900 SIMOND AVE. TPink peppercorns give some pop to carbonara. The simplicity of L’Oca d’Oro’s soaring space in the Mueller development may lead guests to overlook the message, to not tune into the architectural incantation. But it’s all right there within the walls: gleaming Mediterranean white and brilliant blue, the wheat and brick red of Tuscany enlivened with greenery, the rows of tables evoking a modest trattoria. The calming space represents the Italian color palette, just as the kitchen sets the baselines of Italian cuisine: clean, seasonal, expressive, unfussed and flavorful. You have the beauty of summer cucumbers to play off the bitter salinity of the vegetable with a slightly tart yogurt brightened with fennel pollen. Bathe the sweet bursting sungold tomatoes with the milkiness of stracciatella cheese on hearty bread. Balance nuttiness and earthiness in a cashew-beet mixture you amplify with sumac powder and spread over seeded lavash. It all sounds so simple, but the fine-tuning makes it so right. The precision also appears in pastas handmade with local wheat, which still can be savored underneath the bold flavors of grilled shrimp slicked with ricotta whey-leek puree and pink peppercorn and fermented chile-spiked carbonara. The kitchen’s care for maximizing ingredients extends to a housemade amaro program, featuring one named after chef-owner Fiore Tedesco that blooms with chamomile and lavender. #5: Emmer & Rye 51 RAINEY ST., SUITE 110 Red ranger chicken with spaghetti squash. Wander, if you dare, from the north end of Rainey Street, through the myriad colorful bars packed with booze-fueled revelry and music. Completing the gantlet, you arrive at a respite of sophistication and (relative) calm. The various shades of brown and soothing white tiles throughout Emmer & Rye set a naturalistic canvas for some of the most colorful, thoughtful and artful dishes in town. A deceptively complex dish of Hill Country peaches dusted with ras el hanout, speckled with benne seed, piqued with slivered red onion and lacquered with wildflower-infused honey captures all three of those descriptors. As does a ring of compressed cucumber looking like a summertime Christmas wreath layered with the cool and heat of yogurt whey granita and serrano and ornamented with fried shiso leaves and Turk’s cap petals. Chef-owner Kevin Fink worked at Noma in Copenhagen, and that world-class restaurant’s passion and pragmatism for preservation may have influenced a gorgeous dish of red snapper enveloped in twirls of cucumber, the fish rubbed with the intense flavors of preserved green coriander kosho. Art and science help set Emmer & Rye apart, but you don’t need a trained eye or palate to appreciate the comfort of more rustic dishes like crunchy johnnycakes served with onion jam; pan-seared chicken with fermented and roasted spaghetti squash; or pert Sonoran agnolotti in brodo warmed by confit chicken and shiitake mushrooms. Take time to appreciate the clean elegance of a fig tart with peach leaf ice cream before stepping back, refreshed and awed, into bustling reality. #6: Comedor 501 COLORADO ST. Pulpo en su tinto. Worldly diners likely think of Mexico City (Pujol) and New York City (Cosme) when considering North America’s best cosmopolitan, modern Mexican restaurants. But Austin, with its strong culinary scene, growing tourism economy and close relationship to the ingredients and culture of Mexico, can and should compete in that genre. Architect Tom Kundig has created a sleek but stirring minimalist canvas on which chef-partner Philip Speer and executive chef Gabe Erales have painted a colorful and stunning statement about Mexican dining in Austin. The elegant scallop crudo in an expressive tepache (fermented pineapple) broth represents a glorious outside-the-box move for raw preparations, and the oozing and fragrant huitlacoche and Oaxacan cheese quesadilla in a perfect blue corn tortilla celebrates a trio of great Mexican ingredients. The kitchen nixtamalizes Mexican corn to create masa used in dishes like a surprisingly sumptuous tamale made with spaghetti and acorn squash, one of the best Mexican vegan dishes I’ve eaten in Austin. And the kitchen knows exactly how to balancing uue the blast of the grill with the timing required to assure a mole-sweetened double pork chop and octopus in black garlic mole remain perfectly tender..... To find the complete list please search the internet for “Austin 360 Eats” and I would suggest calling to be sure they’re still open. Austin is changing rapidly. I would also suggest making a reservation anywhere they take them. Enjoy!
The following is an excerpt from “Austin 360 Eats” which is a list of Austin’s top 50 put together by Rick Wagner, a photojournalist with the Austin American Statesman (our local newspaper). 1: Olamaie 1610 SAN ANTONIO ST. I had to go back one more time. Yes, I’d already been to Olamaie several tim…
Vicki
March 31, 2012
Largest urban bat colony in North America - stand on the Congress Ave. bridge or down below on the grassy slopes at dusk when the bats come out to feed - check the bat hotline for times
Alexa
March 11, 2014
See the bats flock in millions out from under the bridge!
Activités uniques à proximité
Emplacement
305 S Congress Ave
Austin, TX
Greater South River City