Foodtopia

Austin's massive new public marketplace reveals first round of restaurants

Saint Elmo Public Market rendering South Austin 2015

St. Elmo market has spilled the details on its first three food vendors.

Rendering courtesy of Andersson-Wise Architects

St. Elmo Public Market, an ambitious development similar to Seattle's Pike Place or New York City’s Chelsea Market, announced on April 13 that construction has begun and three tenants have signed on.

First announced in 2015, St. Elmo will include a boutique hotel, office space, 385 apartment units, and a monster 40,000-square-foot public market. The indoor-outdoor space will house a variety of restaurants, a butcher, fishmonger, bakeries, florists, and a brewery among its vendors.

The project was conceptualized by Andersson-Wise Architects and will be built on the former site of a school bus factory. Partner Arthur Andersson looked to preserve the character of the midcentury warehouse in the design, saying in a release that “the beautiful steel structure and clerestory monitor windows of the original 1950 warehouse have been carefully renovated, providing dramatic natural light and vintage materiality to this new market space."

The first vendors come from some of the biggest names in Austin food. First up is Mignette, from Olamaie chef and owner Michael Fojtasek. Following the recent shift in Austin to more casual all-day restaurants, the eatery will offer an accessible menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner — available for dining in-house or from a takeout counter.

Salt & Time will expand its operation to include a new concept that celebrates local producers. In addition to a butcher shop with the restaurant’s acclaimed cured meats, the location will sell fresh produce grown by area farms, dry goods, meal kits, and a selection of frozen goods.

Lastly, Texas Hill Country Olive Company will bring its award-winning olive oils to the market. Owners John Gambini and daughter Cara Gambini run a destination olive orchid and tasting room in Dripping Springs, but the Austin shop will be the first proper retail outlet for the brand.

Throughout 2018, the development will continue to announce more vendors, including a brewpub, chocolate company, seafood shop, coffee shop, and a few fast casual concepts expected in the next 60 days. The space, located off South Congress Avenue between Industrial Boulevard and St. Elmo Road, is set to debut in spring 2019.

news-you-can-eat

Whoops

Michelin goofs on a few restaurants honored in first Texas guide

Kau Ba/Facebook

Houston's Kau Ba has been removed from the Michelin Guide.

Texans' reactions to the first Michelin Guide in the state have ranged from glowing to unimpressed, but a few notable mix-ups are more concrete than differences in taste. The November 11 ceremony honored more than 100 restaurants across the state, but at least two were in error. In Dallas the guide confused two restaurants with each other, and in Houston one of them had closed.

Starting in Dallas: The Guide's release announcing the list of restaurants who'd won awards included The Charles, an award-winning Italian restaurant in Dallas' Design District, as one of 57 restaurants that earned a "Recommended" rating.

The Charles is a surely deserving restaurant that opened in 2018, the first concept from acclaimed food & beverage group Duro Hospitality, which has since gone on to open other restaurants such as El Carlos Elegante, Sister, and Cafe Duro.

But the Guide got the wrong Charles: The real recipient was Mister Charles, a sibling Duro Hospitality restaurant that opened at 3219 Knox St. in early 2024.

The Charles specializes in Italian and Texas-inspired dishes.

Mister Charles features French and Italian-influenced dishes.

It wasn't just an incorrect name; it listed the accompanying (incorrect) address.

A spokesperson for Michelin Guide verified that Mister Charles was the winner and said that the listing of The Charles was a mistake.

“This was an internal error caused by our geolocation process. The problem will be corrected in the most expeditious manner,” the spokesperson said. The Guide website has since updated the list and replaced The Charles with Mister Charles.

Having a difference of opinion about a critic's choices is one thing — but having an error of this magnitude is something else entirely.

And blaming "geolocation" as the source of the error is a curious excuse. Geolocation refers to the ability to track the whereabouts of an electronic device using GPS, cell phone towers, WiFi access points or a combination of these.

The Houston mix-up was also disappointing, but only involved one restaurant: In a press release issued Thursday, November 14, the Guide announced that it had removed Montrose Vietnamese restaurant Kau Ba from the list of Bib Gourmand recipients.

The reason: "Upon further investigation, our team has discovered the restaurant has been permanently closed since our Inspection team's visits occurred," the statement reads.

As has been widely noted in local media, Kau Ba closed earlier this month. The restaurant’s Instagram account now belongs to Alora, which is described as “a fresh Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion concept inspired by travels to Saigon.” It is expected to open soon.

Open since 2018, Kau Ba served an innovative take on Vietnamese fare created by Nikki Tran. The restaurant built on the notoriety Tran had achieved after being featured in two Netflix series: Somebody Feed Phil and Ugly Delicious. It earned considerable acclaim, including a spot in the Houston Chronicle’s top 100 restaurants as recently as 2023 and a nomination for Best Neighborhood Restaurant in the 2021 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

The restaurant went through a number of iterations during its tenure. For three-and-a-half years, Tran partnered with Aya Sushi owners Minette Corpuz and Bruce Kish to oversee operations, but they parted ways in February 2023.

In an email sent to Houston Public Media, Tran expressed regret over Michelin's decision.

“But we understand and respect Michelin’s decision to remove Kau Ba from its selection,” Tran said to HPM. “Exercising an abundance of caution from a legal position, I am not able currently to share further details of our situation but I do hope to follow up soon with more information.”

“Until then, on behalf of the entire Kau Ba team, we want to thank the entire culinary community for the recognition and support,” Tran added. “Kau Ba is proud of the dishes we created and look forward to sharing very soon what’s next.”

Thankfully in Austin, things seem to be going okay. The capital city swept the competition with seven stars (one more than Houston now that the change has been made), and two green stars for sustainability — in fact, the only green stars in the state.

Austin also had four of the first-ever barbecue restaurants to be awarded stars. Houston also had one.

Austin's winning restaurants were Barley Swine, Craft Omakase, Hestia, Olamaie, InterStellar BBQ, John Bates, La Barbecue, Alison Clem, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue.

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