News You Can Eat

Friendsgiving with Aaron Franklin and Meanwhile's first bottled brew top Austin food news

Aaron Franklin has curated a long and well-respected list of chefs for a blowout Friendsgiving feast.

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

It's never long before chef Nic Yanes (Juniper) or Travis Tober (Nickel City) start up a new project. This time, they're joining forces to bring a "New York-style neighborhood tavern" called Murray’s Tavern. It's taking the East Austin place (2316 Webberville Rd.) of Gourmands Neighborhood Pub, which closed in December of 2022; The new tavern is expected to open in December of 2023. The cocktails take center stage at Murray's — named after Tober's grandmother, who taught him at least one of the drinks on the menu — but there will also be some Italian or Italian-adjacent dishes like pancetta with corn chowder and chicken francese. The 50 foot bar is one of the longest in town, according to a release.

ICYMI: An innovative new restaurant space is opening on November 15, but this isn't just about one new restaurant. Playground ATX will guide a rotating list of new restaurant concepts, one at a time, through the early stages of opening so that they can hopefully later flourish on their own. First up is a new effort by the owners of the once popular, now-closed Fil 'n Viet food truck.

Other news and notes

One of Austin's other favorite breweries, Lazarus Brewing Co., is celebrating the first anniversary of its Airport Boulevard location with a pirate-themed party on November 11. Aside from that always being a fun idea, the theme ties in with the return of Lazarus' award-winning rice lager, "Black Pearl," and the installation of a new pirate ship playscape in the yard. There will be merch, food specials, and activities for kids from 2-4 pm. Then Cake cover band Icing Covers Cake takes the stage from 7-8:30 pm.

Prolific cookbook writer and New York Times columnist Melissa Clark is paying Austin a visit on November 13 to talk about leftovers in anticipation of the upcoming holiday excess. She'll give two demos at noon and 1 pm at Franklin Barbecue — which is famous for never ending the day with leftovers — to teach guests how to make "fluffy rolls." They'll also take home sandwiches made with Franklin's smoked turkey. RSVP at nytimes.com.

If you've been drinking Meanwhile Brewing Co.'s offerings out of a humble can, get ready for a shiny new experience. The brewery is launching its first-ever bottled option: a very fancy bourbon barrel-aged Mexican hot chocolate stout called "Left-Handed Hummingbird." The 12.5 percent ABV concoction certainly won't be a light sipper, but it's getting the brewery into the holiday spirit along with tons of other seasonal releases: six beers, six cocktails, two spritzes, three revamped classics, and...a pasta dish? Those will all come out on November 15; the "Left-Handed Hummingbird" comes out on November 22.

There's no shortage of Austinites who wish to be Pitmaster Aaron Franklin's friend — and they're all invited to his "Franklin and Friends Friendsgiving" on November 16 (if they have $195 to spare). This fundraiser for the Texas Food & Wine Alliance will bring together Michael Fojtasek (Olamaie and Maie Day), Fiore Tedesco (L'Oca d'Oro), Sarah McIntosh (Épicerie), Jakub Czyszczon (Fairmont Austin), Rebecca Masson (Fluff Bake Bar in Houston), Jessica Maher (Lenoir), and Robert Bjorn Taylor (Uptown Sports Club) along with Franklin to prepare a holiday feast complete with cocktails and take-home treats. Guests can play lawn games, get boot fittings, and participate in a wine auction. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.

The holidays have some people realizing they're not so prepared to be a great host, and Lenoir is ready to step in. The neighborhood restaurant is bringing back its Camp Lenoir series, teaching home chefs how to cook and choose tasty pairings just in time for the holiday season. The first event, led by Erika Wong on November 16, will walk guests through their options for "Thanksgiving wines." There are four classes scheduled after that on December 3 and 17, and January 14 and 28. Reserve ($55) a spot on Resy.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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