NEWS YOU CAN EAT

5 things to know in Austin food right now: Trendy east side diner reopens to the world

Get your queso Benedict and universally loved French toast here!

Courtesy of East Austin Hotel

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.

Reopenings

Trendsetting Austinites and in-the-know visitors in search of an internationally inspired dining destination on the east side now have a familiar spot to return to. East Austin Hotel’s global diner, Sixth and Waller, which closed last winter when Austin entered Stage 5 COVID-19 risk and later allowed only hotel guests to trickle in for breakfast service, has finally reopened to the public. And since it’s been a long time coming, Sixth and Waller is marking the occasion with a new chef and a revamped menu. New executive chef James Wilson hails from North Carolina, studied at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin, and previously brought his culinary chops to the Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol, ATX Fit Chef, and the University of Texas Southwestern. He’s been working to retool the Sixth and Waller menu to include some new items and slightly tweak diners’ favorites. (Don’t worry, the divine queso Benedict is still available!) Sixth and Waller is now open for brunch daily 9 am-3 pm, and dinner service is expected to resume later this year. Visit the website for menus and more info.

Other news and notes

If ever there were a reason to raise a glass in honor of a local culinary legend, now is the time. Jeffrey Weinberger, the founder of legendary Austin neighborhood restaurant Jeffrey’s, died September 22 at the age of 74. After opening his first eatery in Dallas, the ahead-of-his-time restaurateur opened his culinary gem Jeffrey’s in 1975 in Austin’s Clarksville neighborhood. Jeffrey’s excelled at approachable fine dining, particularly at a time when Austin’s restaurant scene was hardly the food mecca it is today, and pretty much any longtime Austinite can recount their many life occasions that panned out and were celebrated at Jeffreys. While Jeffrey’s wasn’t the last restaurant concept Weinberger would launch, it is likely the one for which he will be predominantly remembered. The restaurant was purchased in 2012 by local restaurant-management company McGuire Moorman Hospitality, which still maintains the eatery.

Turnstile, the coffee, cocktails, and craft-brew hub (a very Austin-y combo), has expanded with a new drive-thru and a full kitchen. Turnstile scooped up the property adjacent to its original location, at 10025 Burnet Rd., giving the business some room to grow. The craft kitchen specializes in chicken, salads, and gourmet burgers, including its signature burger, aptly named The Turnstile, with a Texas grass-fed patty topped with onion jam, bacon, Amish blue cheese, arugula, and hops mayo. The kitchen is currently open for dinner 4-9 pm Tuesday through Saturday for dine-in and pickup service. Breakfast and lunch service will be added soon. Coffee and tea drinks are available all day in the shop and 7:30 am-3:00 pm from the drive-thru. While you’re there, check out Turnstile’s curated menu of craft brews, as well as its draft, signature, and classic cocktail offerings. Visit Turnstile’s website for more info.

Things are bubbling up at the Texas Farmers’ Market at Mueller this October as the organization ushers in the eighth annual Austin Fermentation Festival, a free educational event celebrating all things fermented — from miso and pickled veggies to kimchi and sourdough. From 7-8:30 pm every Monday in October, the Texas Farmers’ Market will host expert-led online workshops featuring some talented Austin food stars (Jam Sanitchat of Thai Fresh, Sheena Moore of Sheena’s Pickles, David Norman of Easy Tiger). Additionally, there will be a silent auction open to the public and running all month long, with proceeds benefiting the Texas Farmers’ Market and TFM’s Ag Producer Support Fund, which supports farmers, ranchers and all producer vendors during times of crisis. While the fest is free and open to all, fermentation fans need to sign up for a ticket for each Zoom workshop. Attendees can also make a $10 suggested donation per person. Check out the speaker schedule and sign up for free tickets here.

One of Texas’ favorite beer brands has brewed up a new reason to celebrate with an icy cold one. The family-owned crafters of iconic Texas beer Shiner Bock have released a new beer honoring its historic 112 years in business. Shiner 1909 is a small-batch lager brewed with heritage ingredients and celebrating the enduring heritage and legacy of the Spoetzl Brewery, where every drop of Shiner beer continues to be brewed and bottled. Shiner 1909, a nod to the brewery’s founding year, is crafted using water from the same artesian well the Shiner founders discovered more than a century ago. A light-bodied lager with a rich malt flavor, Shiner 1909 is now available in stores Texas-wide in six-packs and 12-packs. Visit the Shiner website for more info.

farmer-diaries coffee cocktails breweries breakfast openings

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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