Foodie frenzy

Living La Dolce Vita: Austin’s best restaurants, wineries & mixologists toconverge at Laguna Gloria for annual food celebration

2011 La Dolce Vita
Photo by Michael Graupmann
2011 La Dolce Vita
Photo by Michael Graupmann
2011 La Dolce Vita
Photo by Michael Graupmann

This Thursday, Laguna Gloria will transform into a lakeside Italian resort for the 23rd annual La Dolce Vita Food and Wine Festival to benefit AMOA-Arthouse educational programming. Over 50 of Austin’s top restaurants and local wineries will be providing al fresco refreshment against the stunning backdrop of Laguna Gloria’s Driscoll Villa set on the shores of Lake Austin.

Exhibiting restaurants include East Side Show Room, Eleven Plates, Trace, Foreign & Domestic, Parkside, Swift’s Attic and many more. Featured wineries include Llano Estacado Winery, Fall Creek Vineyards and Pedernales Cellars.

Mixologists from Houston’s Anvil Bar & Refuge will be shaking cocktails alongside local mixmasters from Contigo, drink.well. and Midnight Cowboy. Austin restaurateur extraordinaire Larry McGuire (Perla’s, Lamberts, Fresa’s) will be this year’s Honorary Chef for the evening. McGuire will be serving guests teasers from the highly anticipated Clark’s Oyster Bar, which just cracked open on West Sixth Street.

Frederik Osterberg, co-founder of Pedernales Cellars, is thrilled to be participating in the event for the fourth year in a row. “We do a bunch of events... and this is just a great one to expose our products to the public and really connect with people and meet with a bunch of our friends from the restaurant side as well,” he says.

“We are also exhibition sponsors for AMOA-Arthouse, so the fact that this benefits educational programs is something that’s close to our hearts.” Pedernales will be showcasing several award-winning wines, including the family reserve, a blend meant to showcase the best crops of the year, and the flagship tempranillo, which Osterberg says pairs nicely with roast pork and barbecue. But, he adds, “It’s also a very nice wine just to drink by itself and pair with friends.”

New to the festival this year is Ned Elliot, co-owner of Foreign and Domestic. For the past two years, he and his wife Jodi had to decline the invite to participate because of catering for Austin City Limits and the Austin Film Festival. Now, with a staff large and strong enough to do all three events in the same short time period, they are happy to add La Dolce Vita to their fall events.

“We have a young daughter,” says Elliot, “and for us arts education and being able to go out and enjoy the arts in public galleries and museums is really important. It has to do with a really well rounded education and adds so much to a city.”

Guests can look forward to sampling Foreign and Domestic’s signature sweets, as they will most likely serve pumpkin pie macarons and bacon root beer floats.

While the VIP tickets with access to the cocktail lounge are all sold out, limited $125 general admission tickets are still available here. For the full listing of participating restaurants, visit the La Dolce Vita website.

The 23rd annual La Dolce Vita takes place Thursday, Oct. 11 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Laguna Gloria. With its impressive list of culinary high rollers, it's no wonder La Dolce Vita is one of Austin’s longest running food and wine festivals.

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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.