news you can eat

A famous barbecue upgrade and a pug party make for friendly Austin food news

Great Pug Meet-Up at Central Machine Works

Pugs will descend on Central Machine Works for a meet-up on March 2.

Photo by Jane Yun

When things in Austin are always new, new, new, it takes a strong brand to keep excitement up between the announcement and opening day. Some of the events on this list are happening right away, but some of this week's openings were a very long time coming. Still, they're drawing crowds that have been on board since day one.

Openings and closings

Famous barbecue truck LeRoy and Lewis has opened its highly anticipated brick-and-mortar restaurant at 5621 Emerald Forest Dr. in South Austin. The team shared some onboarding slides for new customers — or old customers intent on having a perfect experience — on Instagram. It includes that there will be a wait, but it's all part of the plan; visitors in a hurry can skip the line for ready-to-eat meals and grab-and-go drinks; and the staff is working hard while adjusting to a new space. Hours are Wednesdays to Sundays from 11 am to 9 pm.

Only about two months after the initial announcement, Wine for the People has opened its new Fredericksburg tasting room (113 E. Park St.) in partnership with the famous Hill Country winery William Chris Wine Company. It's hosting some events as it gets service warmed up, including a women in wine talk on International Women's Day, March 8, and a release party for the 10th anniversary edition of Dandy Rosé. The latter is in two location-specific parts: one in Fredericksburg on March 9 and one in Austin on March 10. Wine for the People is open in Fredericksburg from 11 am to 5 pm Sundays through Thursdays, and 11 am to 6 pm Fridays and Saturdays.

Nashville chicken staple Hattie B's Hot Chicken has opened its South Lamar spot (2529 S. Lamar Blvd.), which sparked many questions for Austinites used to driving past the former Maria’s Taco Xpress. Lines were out the door for this chain, which invited press and encouraged passersby to stop in for a free taste. This staff is full of energy, in part thanks to eardrum-blasting afrobeats and other tunes by a DJ outside. Although it's a chain, it's already shaping up to be a popular neighborhood hang. Hattie B's is famous for its sandwiches, but consider spicing things up with the generously portioned chicken and waffles, served with a lot of honey butter.

ICYMI: Fancy Hill Country tasting rooms — as lovely as they are — can start to bleed together. Such is not the case for Senza Maeso, which pairs its unique gooseberry spirit with a similarly eclectic, retrofuturistic bar in San Marcos, open now. CultureMap is showing some love to older spots, too. We've shared a list of the ten best neighborhood restaurants in town according to our Tastemaker Awards judges.

Other news and notes

Nonprofit youth farming project Urban Roots is hosting a hands-on, family-friendly event to get more kids involved ahead of the popular giving event Amplify Austin Day. Activities at the March 2 event will include tastings led by high school interns, a farm scavenger hunt, a professional pickling station, and sustainable arts and crafts. Visitors can also sign up for later volunteer dates and to the "Adopt-a-Crop" program, which sends weekly growing updates to those who'd like to leave the green-thumb activities to someone else. Register via GivePulse.

Austinites will have a chance to be surrounded by sweet, flat faces at the second annual Great Pug Meet-Up at Central Machine Works on March 2. Beverage news first: Tito's Handmade Vodka is sponsoring two specialty cocktails that will benefit the Pug Rescue of Austin with a portion of proceeds. Those are the Salty Dog ($10) with Tito's and fresh grapefruit, and the Pug Life ($12) with Tito's, strawberry and passionfruit cordial, jasmine, and satsuma sparkling water (presumably by Rambler). Other highlights include pet-friendly vendors, an agility course, a pet-and-owner photo booth ($35) and a group photo at 2:45 pm. More details at zilkerbark.com.

Popular Southern restaurant Olamaie is partnering with L'Encantada Armagnac, a grape brandy maker, for a dinner with very limited space. On March 6, only 12 people will get to try the five-course meal and three spirits, including one from 1987. Rising star chef Amanda Turner is in charge of the food menu, but the selections remain a mystery — her eats usually take inspiration from the African diaspora in the American South. Reservations ($250) are now open on OpenTable.

pets animals beer breweries dinner brunch barbecue openings wine wineries cocktails

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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