News you can eat

Ramen Tatsu-Ya dips into brand-new North Austin location in this round of food news

Ramen Tatsu-Ya is ready to once again bowl Austin over with a new concept on Burnet.

Editor's note: We get it. It can be difficult to keep up with the what’s what and who’s who of Austin food. But we have you covered with our regular roundup of the freshest Austin restaurant news.

Since news first broke in February, speculation has been rife about what Ramen Tatsu-Ya owners Takuya Matsumoto and Tatsu Aikawa plan to do with the space they leased at 7301 Burnet Rd. Now, a mixed beverage permit posted on April 30 may provide some clues. The name on the filing is Dip Dip Dip Tatsu-Ya, which could mean the team is focusing on a dunkable menu of dumplings and tsukemen ramen. Or maybe the team was just inspired by Freak Nasty's "Da Dip." Currently, the team is tight-lipped, only telling CultureMap that “the concept is still under development and there will be more news coming soon.

The Cavalier, the bar and restaurant that took over the former location of the Dog & Duck Pub in March, is launching a brand-new Saturday and Sunday brunch on May 12. Like the lunch and dinner menu, the brunch leans Southern with homespun dishes like deviled eggs and biscuits and gravy.

Turntable Eatery, a pizza joint from the owners of beloved dive bar Barfly’s, quietly opened in late April in the former home of House Pizzeria on Airport Drive. The eatery serves Neapolitan pies, sandwiches, salads, and Italian starters like meatballs and bruschetta.

Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden has teamed up with local musician and grill master Dan Dyer to launch Steak Out!, a guest chef series with live music on Tuesdays in May. Tickets are $35 for dinners featuring some of Texas’ top chefs like LeRoy & Lewis’ Evan LeRoy on May 8, Steve McHugh of San Antonio’s Cured on May 15, and Olamaie’s Michael Fojtasek on May 22.

There are still a handful of tickets available to the 11th annual Farm to Plate dinner benefiting the Sustainable Food Center. The May 9 event features bites from more than 30 of Austin’s best restaurants, including Boiler Nine, The Brewer’s Table, Uchi, Pitchfork Pretty, and Wu Chow. Drinks are courtesy of Independence Brewing Company, Kuhlman Cellars, Argus Cidery, Hops & Grain, Dripping Springs Distillery, and more.

Local cookie genius Hayley Evans is expanding her empire to a second shop at 1700 S. Lamar Blvd. The new, larger location of HayleyCakes and Cookies will serve a variety of sweet treats, including her signature Insta-famous decorated cookies in shapes like hot dogs, flamingo pool floaties, and llamas.

Another player is entering the local tequila market. Matt Davis (husband of jeweler Kendra Scott) has introduced Playa Real Tequila with an initial portfolio of three 100 percent blue agave, triple-distilled tequilas: silver, pineapple, and mandarin.

Altruistic Dripping Springs roaster Greater Goods Coffee has brewed up a new coffee shop at 2501 E. Fifth St. at the corner of Pedernales. In addition to serving up innovative coffee drinks like the bourbon latte with Treaty Oak barrel-aged syrup, the flagship offers tastings, demos, and classes.

Texas Beer Company, the ecologically minded Taylor brewery founded by former Austin politicos Ian Davis and J.D. Gins, scored a major cash infusion on May 1 courtesy of a successful crowdfunding campaign. The more than half a million dollars raised will be used to expand the brewery and canning facility to help TCB widen distribution.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, McGuire Moorman Hospitality has launched a new universal gift card, which can be used at any of their eight restaurants, including June’s All Day, Clark’s, Pool Burger, and Elizabeth Street Cafe.

Bike Austin is rolling out Bike to Work Day for another year on May 18 with fueling stations again offering bites and sips to riders who take part in the initiative. The stops this year include favorites like Austin Beerworks, Houndstooth Coffee, Bouldin Creek Cafe, Wheatsville Co-op, and Bennu. If you are in good enough shape to make it to the after-party at Cheer Up Charlies, you can also enter a raffle for gift cards from Magnolia Cafe, Jugo, Hank’s, and more.

The Switch, the Cajun barbecue concept from the team behind Stile’s Switch, has rounded out its culinary team in preparation for a late spring opening. Joining the operation are head chef Barclay Stratton (previously of Dan Barber’s Blue Hill in New York) and pitmasters Christopher McGee and Bill Dumas.

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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