NEWS YOU CAN EAT

5 things to know in Austin food right now: Classy neighborhood bistro sways into Bouldin Creek area

1417 is now welcoming hungry Austinites for patio dining.

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

A new concept is finally moving into the desirable restaurant space previously occupied by tapas-style Asian eatery Sway. Opened in the spot at 1417 S. First St. on Wednesday, June 30: a classy new neighborhood restaurant conveniently named 1417. While the newly opened restaurant will eventually feature both indoor and outdoor seating, 1417’s back patio is currently the only operational dining space for the restaurant. The new eatery will feature an array of breakfast and lunch options, including house-made pastries and blue crab lettuce cups, as well as more substantial dinner fare, like duck confit crepes and roasted marrow bones. Additionally, 1417 will offer a full bar and cocktail program, as well as an extensive coffee program courtesy of Austin-based Try Hard Coffee. 1417 is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 am-3 pm for breakfast and lunch, and 4-9 pm for dinner. Though no concrete date has been set, the eatery’s inside dining area is currently expected to open sometime this fall.

A novel new pizza concept is taking Austin cuisine where it’s never been before: into the lucrative world of live video streaming. Show Me Pizza, the tongue-in-cheek pizza restaurant from NYC hospitality vets Benjamin Demarchelier and Dimitri Voutsinas will allow local foodies to order pizzas like the Cashville Hot Chicken with white barbecue sauce and the Rancho Blanco pie with bacon, ricotta, havarti, and queso blanco. Pies are available to order online and in person at the restaurant’s spacious South First Street indoor/outdoor dining spot. Guests can watch their pizzas cook in real time — from the prepping of the dough to the bubbling of the cheese in the oven — via livestream on Twitch TV. “We were captivated with the idea of seeing food cooking and acknowledged the world tuned in to more and more shows about the culinary arts,” co-owner and operator Demarchelier says. “The fact that you can now see pizza cooking whenever we are open anywhere in the world is a really awesome outcome.” Show Me Pizza is located at 2809 S. First St. and is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon-10 pm.

Other news and notes

The latest taco of the month special from local Mexican-inspired chain Torchy’s Tacos is transporting local taste buds to the busy streets of Bangkok. Named after the famous Thai taxis, the Tuk Tuk taco is returning to the Torchy’s menu for the first time since 2017. Selling for $6.50 per taco, the Tuk Tuk comes with marinated and grilled Thai fajita beef and is loaded with an array of flavorful toppings, including cooked cabbage slaw, crushed peanuts, and pickled cucumber and carrots. Taco fans can pair the Tuk Tuk, which will be available on the menu through July 31, with Torchy’s featured cocktail of the month, the cherry limeade, made with Tito’s Handmade Vodka. Portions of the proceeds from taco of the month sales go to Torchy’s charitable partners, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Phoenix House.   

If Thai-inspired tacos aren’t enough to feed your taco cravings, check out Buda’s best birria de res operation, which is bringing dunkable, Instagrammable red beef and cheese tacos to the Capital City. Opening just south of Austin in December 2020, Tejas Birria features a menu of traditional Mexican beef stew in a variety of tasty forms, including grilled cheese, ramen cups, quesadillas, and, of course, the incredibly popular beef and cheese taco served with a side of beef consommé for dipping. Chef Alex Hernandez’s temporary Austin-based Tejas Birria pop-up will operate out of commissary kitchen Wingman Kitchens at Springdale General and will feature dining space both indoors and out for customers, who can order either in person or online. Tejas Birria’s pop-up takes place every Tuesday through August 31, and runs from noon-8 pm each day. Tejas Birria’s Buda truck will continue to observe its usual hours.

Just when you thought Austin had it all, the city welcomes its first combination duckpin bowling alley, bar, bistro, arcade, and mechanical bull venue. Introducing the appropriately named Bull & Bowl, a new West Sixth Street hot spot that’s set to roll with a grand opening party Friday, July 9, with Austinites invited to Bull & Bowl to drink, dine, game, and show off their best rodeo skills at the venue’s inaugural mechanical bull tournament. Brave buckaroos will compete to win prizes like a $500 Tecovas gift card, a bowling party for 10 guests, and a dinner for two at Bull & Bowl. In addition to the tournament, the grand opening party will feature a live set from DJ Eric Generic, who will also emcee the tournament, and complimentary games like karaoke, shuffleboard, duckpin bowling, and billiards. Participants should sign up to compete in the mechanical bull tournament via Resy before Thursday, July 8 at 4 pm. Following the opening celebration, Bull & Bowl, which is located at 501 W. Sixth St., will be open Tuesday and Wednesday from 5 pm-midnight, Thursday from 5 pm-2 am, Friday from 4 pm-2 am, Saturday from 11 am-2 am, and Sunday from 11 am-midnight.

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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."

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