Food news

7 things to know in Austin food right now: Popular east side restaurant sets sail for Hyde Park

Photo courtesy of Monger's Market + Kitchen

Editor's note: We get it. It can be difficult to keep up with the fast pace of Austin's restaurant and bar scene. We have you covered with our regular roundup of essential food news.

Openings and shuffles

Two popular Mexican-style food truck operations have found new homes at Arbor Food Park at 1108 East 12th St. in East Austin. First up is Cuantos Tacos, a Mexico City-style street taco operation from Le Cordon Bleu grad Luis “Beto” Robledo. Cuantos Tacos moved to the location after Robledo’s former landlord, Edward Banks of Fast Eddie’s Automotive Repair, was told to vacate the premises by the property’s owner (despite Banks being in the middle of a lease). At Arbor Food Park, Robledo plans to eventually move his operation into a larger truck, and introduce an expanded menu that will include al pastor tacos cooked on a traditional trompo.

Also moving onto the site is ceviche truck from Baja-style catering company operation Rosarito. CultureMap first reported back in February that the operation, which serves traditional lime-pickled shrimp ceviches as well as more exotic, sashimi-style fish specials sourced from Mexico, first set up shop at 1812 E. Sixth St., in the parking lot beside Whisler’s, but was forced to pivot in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rosarito’s owner, chef Carlos Acosta, tells CultureMap he hopes the truck will remain the cevicheria’s permanent home.

Mongers Market + Kitchen, the seafood restaurant that has docked on East Cesar Chavez since 2015, is setting sail for Hyde Park. The restaurant will take over the former Vino Vino space on Guadalupe Street, and says that while it "enjoyed a robust business at its East Cesar Chavez Street location ," it's looking forward to settling into its new neighborhood and welcoming more families. A release notes that Monger's reopening date will be announced soon.

“The Absolute Würst” is making its way to North Austin. Dog Haus, the California-based, craft-casual concept opened its first Texas location at Austin’s Kitchen United facility. In addition to nitrate-free sausages, dogs, and patties conceived by Würstmacher Adam Gertler, the new location will also offer menu items from three of The Absolute Brands' delivery-only concepts: Bad Mutha Clucka, Plant B, and Bad-Ass Breakfast Burritos. Created by Dog Haus’ founders, The Absolute Brands is a new restaurant group comprised of nine unique concepts. Located at 8023 Burnet Road, Dog Haus Kitchen is open every day from 11 am to 10 pm. Delivery and pickup orders can be placed online through kitchenunited.com and third party delivery apps.

A month after shuttering its San Antonio River-walk location, doughnut shop Gourdough’s filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last week. According to KVUE, the company’s ill-fated expansion into the Alamo City left Gourdough’s with "substantial debt,” which has only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chain’s bankruptcy lawyer, Kareem Hajjar, says Austinite’s need not worry about losing their comically indulgent donuts any time soon. "I am confident that by using the tools that exist in the Bankruptcy Code, Austinites will continue to enjoy Gourdough’s donuts, burgers, and cocktails for many years to come," Hajjar told KVUE. Gordough’s two remaining locations — a brick-and-mortar on South Lamar Boulevard and the original food truck on South First Street — are currently both open for to-go orders.

South Austin breakfast taco fixture El Primo will re-open at its South First location on July 1, a representative tells CultureMap. The food truck, beloved for its breakfast and street tacos, closed temporarily on May 30 for a then indefinite amount of time. Since then, El Primo owner Jose Luis Perez has worked to move his operation into a larger truck to keep up with increased demand. Perez and his team will begin serving customers from the new truck beginning Wednesday, July 1, and are planning to resume their regular hours going forward. After Wednesday, the truck will be open 8 am – 5 pm, Monday through Thursday; 8 am-8 pm on Friday; and 8 am – 4 pm on Saturday.

Other news and notes

Thanks to the recent allocation of city funds, as well as support from Austin Ed Fund, the Austin Independent School District is partnering with local restaurants to provide meals to students and caregivers. Meals are being prepared by local restaurant partners, including Henbit, Easy Tiger, L'Oca d'Oro, Colleen's Kitchen, and Contigo. "Before COVID-19, 67 percent of Austin ISD students relied on school meals," says Michelle Wallis, executive director of Austin Ed Fund via press release, "so we are especially grateful to the City of Austin for this support and honored to work with our partners to support our local economy.” Meals are provided five days per week along with a Friday pack that includes meals for the weekend. Caregiver meals are available to the adults accompanying children at meal sites or with documentation of the children they are picking meals up for. Food is available until it runs out. Find Austin ISD meal sites, times, and more information at austinisd.org/covid19/meals.

news-you-can-eat

Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

bars live music concerts comedy