An Austin restaurant that goes all-in on sustainable ingredient sourcing has caught the attention of USA Today. Dai Due was the only Austin restaurant on the publication's Restaurants of the Year list for 2025, and it was one of two restaurants in Texas; the other was Jimenez y Friends Barbecue y Taqueria in Lubbock.
Instead of penning new blurbs for each of the restaurants, USA Today sourced quotes by local reviews. For Dai Due, it used words by the popular critic Matthew Odam, as published in the Austin American-Statesman. He gave plenty of credit to the folks at the helm, owners Jesse Griffiths and Tamara Mayfield, and longtime executive chef Janie Ramirez.
"All of the proteins, produce, beverages and homemade accoutrements have roots in the Lone Star State, from the smoked porterhouse hog served with apple butter to the tallow-roasted mushrooms you can drape over crusty sourdough spread with whipped cherry lard," Odam wrote. "No restaurant says 'Texas' with the same confidence as Dai Due, which executive chef Janie Ramirez, a year-one employee, has steered for more than a half-dozen years on the course set by Griffiths and Mayfield."
Griffiths is the most public face for Dai Due, and he really puts his best, camouflaged foot forward, hunting and butchering wild game and teaching others how to respect the food system. In 2024 year he releasedThe Turkey Book: A Chef's Journal of Hunting and Cooking America's Bird, at once an "approachable" cookbook (or so it promises), a textbook, and a photography collection.
Dai Due also received special honors in 2024 from the Michelin Guide, which named it a Bib Gourmand (denoting high-quality food at an affordable cost) and issued it a Green Star for leadership in "sustainable gastronomy." Emmer and Rye, also in Austin, was the only other Green Star recipient at the inaugural Texas event.
In 2023, Dai Due won in the Best Burger category at CultureMap's Tastemaker Awards. Chef Griffiths also has an assortment of other accolades including a James Beard book award for The Hog Book: A Chef's Guide to Hunting, Butchering and Cooking Wild Pigs.
This is the second year USA Today has published its Restaurants of the Year list. Austin again had one representative for the inaugural year: the newly brick-and-mortar Mum Foods Smokehouse and Delicatessen. Like Dai Due, Mum Foods also got its start at farmers markets, although the brand has less of a public ethos — it seems to have been selected simply because of its great food.
Dai Due isn't at the farmers market anymore, but foodies who would like to learn more face-to-face with a team member can meet Chef Ramirez at the Food Guide Festival taking place April 25 at Boggy Creek Farm. She'll be grilling steaks with farm partners Stacy and Robert Nantaz of Nantz Land & Cattle.
The restaurant is located at 2406 Manor Rd. Operating hours for dinner are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 5-10 pm and Sundays from 5-9 pm; brunch is Fridays through Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm.