Food on TV

Austin Eavesdropper's Tolly Moseley represents Texas in new YouTube series,Hungry In...

Name: Austin Eavesdropper's Tolly Moseley represents Texas in new YouTube series,Hungry In...
Uploaded: 2012-09-22T19:35:00Z
Description: Food on TV

Austin hasn't always been known as a foodie destination. But thanks to the televised efforts of some phenomenal chefs winning top national prizes, we're gaining quite a bit of momentum in that department.

Adding embers to that flame, auburn-haired blogger and all-around gal about town Tolly Moseley (aka Austin Eavesdropper), is now one of four hosts of the new food lovers' web series Hungry In..., which premiered Friday on YouTube's new Hungry Channel, which collects some of the best clips about cooking and food you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

In the series, Moseley reps our city proudly, exploring Austin's many neighborhoods and their secret tastebud treasures, while fellow hosts from New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco do the same for their cities. While the other three may have the advantage in size, we've got the added Texas charm of our very own Eavesdropper who knows this city inside and out.

We talked with Moseley about her experiences shooting Hungry In... over the past few months, her culinary TV idols and what we have to look forward to in the first tantalizing season.

CultureMap: First of all, congrats on the series! This is another happy case of local gal making it big. Are you still going to keep the name "Austin Eavesdropper" when you're a national celebrity?

Tolly Moseley: Thank you! "National celebrity" might be pushing it! But I'm very proud of the team I'm working with, so hopefully it will get lots of views and support. Anyway, I think I'll keep the name Austin Eavesdropper. I honestly don't know what else I'd call myself.

CM: This is such an amazing opportunity to showcase the city and to demonstrate your talents and strengths. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got selected to be a part of this show? Was it a submission process or a case of just knowing the right people at the right time?

TM: At the beginning of this year, my friends and I started making a webisode series for kicks called AETV. At around the same time, I also started doing contract work with Citysearch, mostly writing local reviews. They hired my crew and I to make a video for SXSW where I interviewed a naked Matthew McConaughey puppet.

Citysearch's headquarters are in L.A., and they are across the street from Electus, a television studio. Electus had just gotten a grant from YouTube to start a food channel, and Citysearch showed them my video, which they liked. So Citysearch pitched them a show focused on local eating, Electus greenlit it, and together, Citysearch and The Hungry Channel launched the show with four markets and four hosts, with me being the Austin host.

CM: You've been filming your episodes here in Austin since July. Is your filming crew the same people you worked with on AETV or are they folks that YouTube assigned you?

TM: As far as my Austin crew, it's a lot of the guys who did AETV with me. My good friend, director Carlos Funes, as well as Chad Leathers and Christian Remde, both on cameras and direction. When Carlos went to NYC to film a movie this summer, I reached out to Christian to step in. I've been a fan of his work (namely his short food films) for a long time, and knew he had lots of food relationships in town. He, Chad, and Carlos are the reasons our food looks so porn-tastic.

CM: Which Austin neighborhoods are you visiting throughout the season, and what is the best meal you've eaten so far on the show?

TM: For the first season, the neighborhoods will already be very familiar to the food-loving Austinite: South Lamar, Hyde Park, etc. In seasons to come though, I would really like to visit hidden, not-so-popular neighborhoods. There's a tiny Mexican bakery near my house, for example, that's not hip and trendy in the slightest, but damn, their bunuelos are fucking great.

The best meal I've eaten so far, though? Tough question! I had a tea party with Sophie Parrott of Marvelous Vintage Tea Party, where we sipped Earl Grey out of a very famous monarch's tea set. That was pretty exciting. Kyle, the pastry chef at Barley Swine, made me some whiskey donuts, too. I'm not sure I can pick just one meal.

CM: Will there be any surprises or upsets from you on this season of Hungry In...?

TM: No upsets... We peddle happiness, of course! But we do make a cocktail in one episode that involves duck fat, which is kind of surprising...

CM: Which neighborhoods do you still want to go film for the series?

TM: Austin's East Side — both the gentrified stuff and the been-there-for-years, down-the-street-from-a-pinata-shop stuff. Victory Grill. Green & White Grocer. Hoover's Kitchen. Asian restaurants in North Austin. I feel like I wouldn't be doing my Texas duty if we didn't have a BBQ episode. I'm a San Antonio girl so at some point we need to do a Taco Wars episode.

We would love, LOVE for people to recommend their favorite, lesser-known culinary pockets to cover as well. If we get to do more seasons, I'd like to have a balance of "culinary chic" places (East Side Show Room, Swift's Attic, etc.) and hole-in-the-wall taco stands and burger joints. I'd like to show off to the rest of the world that Austin is "weird" in part because we have some rich ethnic pockets that don't always get shown off in the national media.

CM: You're working with Bruce Seidel, formerly of the FOOD Network, on this project. He's worked with some of the biggest names in the cooking show industry. Who are your food television idols and inspirations?

TM: I've always liked food hosts that were "on foot" so to speak, like Anthony Bourdain (I know! Everyone says him, but it's true!) and Andrew Zimmern that give you a historical sense of place and people as they eat. For that matter, Josh Ozersky, my co-host in New York, is also a role model. He's a Notre Dame-trained historian, and brings that sensibility to his food-writing. I'm much more comfortable in that realm: telling people about a place and the people who animate it, then talking about flavor composition or plate presentation. I've been freelance writing about Austin for five years, so I've been lucky to get an ad-hoc food education along the way.

Also, Alex Guarnaschelli (a real-life celebrity chef) and — though these two women don't have shows — Kim Severson and Ruth Reichl. All three are extraordinary food writers. I've read all of Ruth's books, and I wrote a fan letter to Kim for her book Spoon Fed. All three have a way of talking about food in an artful way that involves memory and relationships, and I aspire to write that way too.

CM: Are you a good cook at home, or are you the expert at picking restaurants to go out to?

TM: I'm not a good cook. Definitely the pick-out-a-restaurant type of person. I'm a city expert!

CM: Between blogging, writing and now an online TV show, what is next for Tolly Moseley?

TM: Yoga certification! I love all the media work I do and consider myself very, VERY lucky to have gotten this latest opportunity. But too much computer/media time can make you crazy, and yoga is my salve. I've wanted to get certified for a long time and share it with people.

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You can watch Moseley and the whole Hungry In... crew by subscribing to the Hungry Channel on YouTube. New episodes release every Friday morning, on The Hungry In... page, where you can also search for the restaurants Tolly describes on Citysearch.

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Bill's Oyster team to debut new Southwestern bar and grill in Austin

Teddy's Texas Red Chili with Bone Marrow

Photo courtesy of Teddy's

Teddy's will bring Southwestern flavors to Tarrytown, like this Texas Red Chili with Bone marrow.

From the team who brought us Bill's Oyster comes a new restaurant called Teddy's Restaurant & Bar. This Southwestern-inspired bar and grill is set to open in east Tarrytown in November. Both its design and menu will celebrate the Southwest; inside, this 80-seat restaurant will be a mix of dark woods and copper, and outside will be an enclosed, temperature-controlled patio for year-round use.

Dishes will blend the unique flavors of Texas and Mexico, with a heavy dash of the Southwest. Some menu items that already have mouths watering include filet mignon with chile relleno, Parker House rolls with cinnamon ancho butter, and blue crab tostadas.Of course, there will also be a full bar for regular happy hours, serving up craft cocktails, martinis, a curated wine list, and frozen drinks.

"The inspiration for doing a Southwestern menu came from my love of Texas and its melting pot of cultures and cuisines," says Teddy's owner Daniel Berg. "When I first moved to Houston from New York City in 2017, I was naive to all that Texas' food scene had to offer beyond Tex-Mex or BBQ. My first real exposure to Southwestern cuisine was in Houston where I worked alongside James Beard award-winning Chef Robert Del Grande, who is considered one of the godfathers of Southwestern cooking."

Berg is referring to a project between Del Grande and Berg's brother Ben Berg, who worked together to spruce up and reopen Houston's Annie Cafe & Bar. Daniel Berg worked with Del Grande on establishing the new menu, exposing the relative Texas newcomer to a much deeper pool of knowledge about the region's cuisine. He says Teddy's will focus on Mexican, German, and Czech traditions' influences on Texas cooking.

A crab tostada and Lone Starr Martini at Teddy's.Photo courtesy of Teddy's

Operating partner Dylan Salisbury adds he's "excited" for the opening, because "while Austin has an abundance of incredible Mexican cuisine, the bold and unique flavors of Southwestern food are somewhat underrepresented."

"I believe this concept will not only bring something fresh and exciting to the city but also challenge our team to do the food justice," he says.

The entire team behind this Southwestern style restaurant are veritable A-listers in the restaurant world. Before teaming up here in Austin, both Berg and Salisbury ran a slew of successful restaurants. Berg (a talented chef, himself) started out in New York, working under James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Carmellini. He opened several restaurants with Carmellini, and eventually opened his own restaurants in both New York and Houston before coming to Austin.

Salisbury has helped to open over 20 restaurants over the years, from Texas to New Orleans, including Austin's beloved Tiki Tatsu-Ya.

In 2023, Daniel Berg and Dylan Salisbury teamed up to create Bill's Oyster on Third Street; CultureMap has included it in multiple lists since then, including the best seafood snacks in town and the fan-voted Best New Restaurants category of the 2024 Tastemaker Awards, which also had to make it past a panel of past winners.

Aside from the delicious seafood (especially the raw bar), Bill's Oyster includes a beautifully designed interior. Austinites can only imagine that these two will deliver once again on that front.

"I worked with local architecture and design firm Steinbomer," says Berg. "My task for them was to create a small bar [and] restaurant that guests would dream of wandering into in the Hill Country. Think 'Fredericksburg': nothing pretentious but warm dark woods, patinaed brass, and maybe even some longhorns. ... It’s the kind of place you can bring your kids early and not worry about them running around, but also perfect for date night and casual enough to sit at the brass inlay bar and watch a game."

Let's not forget the man behind the menu. Teddy's executive chef is Rene Garza, formerly of local heavyweights Uptown Sports Club, Este, and Suerte. Garza started his cooking career early, working in various hotels and restaurants in the San Antonio area. In 2015, he moved to Austin and landed a job at Uchiko; since then, he has helped open James Beard Award-nominated Suerte and worked his way up to chef de cuisine.

In 2021, he helped open Suerte's sister restaurant, Este, and in 2023, he opened New Orleans-inspired restaurant and bar Uptown Sports Club. At Teddy's, his dishes will "celebrate the unique flavors of Texas, blending the bold and rich influences of Mexican cuisine with a modern Southwestern twist," according to a press release.

Teddy's is located at 1601 W. 38th St., Suite 1. It will be open daily for dinner only, to start, with breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunches on the way. More information is available at teddysaustin.com.

openings seafood dinner