Eat Your Vegetables

6 surprising Austin restaurants to find exciting summer salads

When it's this hot outside, your usual lunchtime sandwich can weigh you down. So lighten up with a cool and creative salad instead. A satisfying salad can be surprisingly difficult to find; in many lunch spots, the salad offerings are little more than wilted lettuce and mealy tomatoes tossed with boring dressing.

But we found six reliable Austin restaurants with crisp and delicious salad options for lunchtime or anytime.

24 Diner
Though known for comfort food, 24 Diner offers several salad options made with locally sourced produce whenever possible. If you want a more substantial meal, order the pork belly salad with potatoes and green beans. Craving a more classic option? Choose the mixed green salad; the subtle sweetness of the pistachios and dried cranberries pairs beautifully with bitter radicchio. Or just order a side salad and save room for one of 24 Diner's famous milkshakes.

Cenote
This coffee shop has earned a reputation for fine food as well as great coffee. In the afternoon, you'll find customers with laptops working through lunch. Besides hefty sandwiches, Cenote offers a hearty selection of reasonably priced salads. The mango fields salad is a mound of greens topped with ripe mango, seasonal fruit and sliced avocado dressed in a zingy cilantro-lime vinaigrette. Or try the Caprese made with tomatoes from Johnsons Backyard Garden.

FoodHeads
This charming cafe housed in a craftsman bungalow near UT is famous for its sandwiches, but the salad selection also deserves praise. Order a classic house salad topped with chicken, or try the popular tuna Nicoise. Our favorite, however, is the steak and arugula topped with avocado and blue cheese crumbles and served with a piece of garlicky cheese toast.

Fresa’s Chicken al Carbon
This drive-thru rotisserie chicken joint is a dream come true for anyone trying to eat healthy on the go. Besides whole chicken dinners, Fresa's offers sandwiches and salads for individuals. The Jerez salad — marinated chickpeas, greens, queso fresco in a sherry vinaigrette — is full of tangy flavors. Salads come in two sizes; for an extra $4 get that famous moist and smoky shredded chicken on top.

Snack Bar
Avoiding the tourists on South Congress in the sweltering heat can be exhausting. So find respite at Snack Bar. You can top any of the restaurant's salads with chicken or tofu, but the outstanding avocado quinoa salad is flavorful enough on its own. The bitter arugula complements a slice of sweet grilled pineapple, while the chilled red quinoa and cotija cheese adds a layer of texture. If you want protein, try it with grilled shrimp.

Tam Deli & Cafe
For a more novel choice that doesn't even incorporate leafy green vegetables, try Tam Deli's Vietnamese green papaya salad. Noodle-like shreds of papaya are tossed in nuoc cham — the lime, fish sauce and chile dressing that is a staple of Vietnamese cuisine. In this instance, the crunchy, unripe papaya acts more like cooling vegetable than sweet fruit. The salad is topped with a generous helping of the restaurant's house-made dried beef, flavored with star anise.

Try the avocado quinoa salad at Snack Bar with grilled shrimp too.

Quinoa and avocado salad at Snack Bar in Austin

Photo by Cory Ryan

Try the avocado quinoa salad at Snack Bar with grilled shrimp too.

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Back to the Plow

Homey Austin jam and bake shop closing and returning to farmers market

Confituras/Instagram

Confituras Little Kitchen is closing its brick-and-mortar store, but feeling optimistic about the future.

A famers market find is returning to its natural environment after six years in a brick-and-mortar location. Confituras Little Kitchen, which specializes in locally sourced preserves, is closing its jam and biscuit shop after service on Sunday, December 22. However, it will continue selling goods at the Barton Creek Farmers Market and via retailers.

Confituras announced the change in a newsletter to its customers in December. The letter called the news "bittersweet."

"Although the brick and mortar will no longer be, the good news is that this will be a fresh new start for us – we are bursting with energy and creativity at the thought of being back out in the community where it all started for confituras," it said.

The kitchen is closing because the lease is up, and the team has decided to "give up the chase." The newsletter emphasized the ups-and-downs of business over the past several years — ones that were chaotic for just about any business, let alone a small, fairly niche food operation.

"So much has happened since we decided to open a brick + mortar – a wonderful kickstarter fundraiser, THE PANDEMIC, the AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC, and an ever growing city," the letter says. "We tried so very hard but never really got our footing. We know we are not alone, many small business are in the same boat. We renewed our lease during the pandemic because we were hopeful we could make it work - the changing times had other ideas."

Finally, it shared how customers could keep enjoying Confituras creations:

The Barton Creek Farmers Market is open at 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
A list on confituras.net compiles retailers including Royal Blue Grocery, Farmhouse Delivery, and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.
Jam share and Table22 subscription customers will have more instructions coming soon about picking up their goods in January at the same space, 2129 Goodrich Ave.
Customers may also reach out to inquire about continuing to order meals directly.

The kitchen also hosted frequent events and workshops, but the letter did not address this aspect of the business.

A shorter message shared on Instagram has inspired 63 comments so far, five days later. Customers eulogized the shop for its community feel and providing a sense of regularity during the height of the pandemic thanks to weekend pick-ups.