News you can eat

7 things to know in Austin food right now: Classic local cafe shutters original location

The cafe's other two locations remain open.

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 and closings

The original Counter Cafe has shut off the griddle and lowered the bright-yellow patio umbrellas. After nearly 15 years at 626 N. Lamar Blvd., owner Debbie Davis has closed the restaurant. The news isn't that surprising, however. In a 2018 interview with CultureMap, Davis revealed the building was for sale. Counter Cafe fans can still get breakfast all day at the eatery's other two locations — 603 W. 29th St. and 914 E. Sixth St. — both of which are still open. "It’s the end of an era," says Davis, "and what a show it was. Happily the show goes on."

Island Thyme Grill, the fast-casual restaurant from brothers Michael and Patrick Butigain, highlights flavors from multiple countries throughout the Caribbean. Items from the campus-area concept, which recently opened at 2915 Guadalupe St., are now available for online ordering, delivery, and curbside pickup. Dishes begin with a base of either a rice bowl, salad bowl, or wrap topped with proteins like jerk chicken, curry ground beef, or plantains. Customers can then choose from a variety of toppings and sauces such as island pico, hearts of palm, and blood orange vinaigrette. Island Thyme is open Monday through Saturday, 11 am - 8 pm; and Sunday, 11 am - 7 am.

Popular Asian comfort food chain Bao’d Up is expanding its in-house menu of boba tea drinks with a new virtual brand. Dubbed Bubble House, the new concept launched November 9 within Bao’d Up’s existing Mueller, Sunset Valley, and Burnet Road locations. Available now for takeout and delivery are a variety of new drink choices including a pumpkin spice milk tea; a toasty lassi with mango Thai tea; and build-your-own milk or fruit tea options featuring flavor add-ons like peach, lychee, and lavender. Bubble House’s menu items can be purchased using the same online ordering system as Bao’d Up at any of its three locations.

Other news and notes

The University of Texas at Austin alumni association, Texas Exes, is teaming up with a local nonprofit to bring holiday cheer to families in need this Thanksgiving. Now through Friday, November 13, the university’s Young Alumni Committee will be collecting submissions for inventive holiday recipes benefiting Caritas of Austin. Both organizations are requesting recipes utilizing ingredients that are inexpensive, easily accessible, and have a stable shelf life (such as ramen noodles, pasta, canned vegetables, rice, pinto beans, black beans, and bread). “Most of our clients have a limited income and many utilize our pantry to get free food items for their families," explains Caritas in a statement. "We'd like to pass along creative recipes they can use to feed their family in style.” Interested parties can share their creative recipes name, ingredients, and step-by-step prep instructions via a Google form here.

Upscale cocktail lounge The Roosevelt Room and its attached event space, The Eleanor,are bringing back their annual Christmas-themed pop-up bar, Miracle on 5th Street, with a socially distanced twist. Originally conceived in 2014 by Greg Boehm, owner of New York City cocktail staltwart Mace, the holiday-focused pop-up concept has since expanded to 90 different locations worldwide. This year’s socially distanced Miracle on 5th Street runs November 20 - December 27, and features a full festive cocktail menu courtesy of Joann Spiegel, director of operations for craft bar tool company Cocktail Kingdom. Spiegel’s menu introduces a number of new boozy concoctions, including the Jolly Koala with gin, vermouth, and a pine-cardamom-sage cordial, and the On Dasher, a concoction of bourbon, mezcal, sweet vermouth, spiced hibiscus, burlesque bitters, and lemon. And, for the first time Miracle cocktails can be ordered online for pickup. Grab your drinks at the “ski lodge” (located near the Roosevelt Room’s entrance) starting at 4 pm every day. A portion of all to-go cocktail sales will benefit the Safe Alliance and Austin Pets Alive! Because dine-in seating will be socially-distanced, walk-ins are welcome but reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made online here.

Local nonprofit Urban Roots announced the second installment of its “Let’s Get Cooking” video series/virtual fundraiser. Purchase event meal kits and create dishes at home alongside star Austin chefs. The three scheduled video events will take place beginning November 11 with Tiffany Derry of Roots Chicken Shak. On November 18, join executive chef Alma Alcocer of El Alma followed by Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher of Lenoir & Vixen’s Wedding on November 25. Each kit runs $65 each and is available now to order online in limited quantities.

James Beard Award-winning restaurant group Hai Hospitality announced November 9 that an affiliate of private equity firm KSL Capital Partners has made a substantial investment in the company, which will enable Hai to accelerate the growth and expansion of their restaurant brands. The decorated hospitality group is perhaps best known for their elevated Japanese concept Uchi, which opened in Austin in 2003 and earned founding chef and partner Tyson Cole recognition as one of Food & Wine's Best Chefs in 2005. Today, the brand includes Uchiko, Loro, and Uchi locations in Houston, Dallas, and Denver.

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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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