News You Can Eat

Highly anticipated bakery and queso contest up the ante in Austin food news

Amanda Rockman's new bakery is opening Friday, October 11.

Photo by Chad Wadsworth

As Austinites fight through the ACL Fest crowds — both at Zilker Park and surprisingly far away — snacks help keep up morale. Thankfully, there are plenty to go around with a star chef's new bakery opening, a queso competition, and a pickleball tournament watch party. See you on the other side!

Openings and closings

Bakeries don't tend to be as highly anticipated as restaurants in Austin, but pastry chef Amanda Rockman has broken the baking mold. Her first solo bakery with her name on it is opening October 11 at 2400 E. Cesar Chavez St., Suite 200. This is an ambitious effort. Rockman Coffee + Bakeshop will operate in five "pillars," according to a press release: caffeine, gluten, sugar, butter, and booze. Most notable are the chocolate chip cookies with halva; bagels and creative cream cheese; and churro croissants. Learn more about what's available at the counter here. In Rockman's first week, it'll be open Friday through Monday (October 11-14), closing on Tuesday for any needed tweaks. It'll be back for daily service Wednesday, October 16, from 7 am to 7 pm. Weekend hours will be 8 am to 7 pm. Customers can also order for pickup on online after two weeks of business, with catering coming "soon."

Could sit in this airy shop all day.Photo by Chad Wadsworth

A worldly duo of chef brothers, Haru and Gohei Kishi, are bringing their experience to the Austin Proper Hotel. Proper Sandos promises "a delicious merging of Japanese tradition and Parisian elegance," according to its website. These picturesque Japanese-style sandwiches will feature tamago (Japanese omelette), crispy chicken, pork katsu, A5 Wagyu, and potentially more, and guests will get to enjoy them to-go. It'll be a temporary residency throughout the month of October, located on the first floor of the hotel at 600 W. 2nd St. Hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, from 11 am to 8 pm.

As promised more than a year ago, Honest Mary's is finally ready to move into its new Mueller location. Specializing in "healthy grain bowls," this fast-casual restaurant at 2021 Aldrich St. will open October 27 with a very grand opening event from noon to 2 pm (timed to line up with the nearby farmers market). There will be free bowls for everyone, prizes for the first 200 people (like gift cards of up to $500), live music, free face painting for kids, balloons, and free tote bags. Honest Mary's will be open daily from 11 am to 9 pm.

Other news and notes

Austinites will strong opinions about the perfect queso recipe will have lots to think about at Quesoff, an annual competition at the The Mohawk. Contestants — both professional chefs and home cooks — will compete in four categories: Meaty, Spicy, Veggie and Wild Card. There will also be a Best in Show award for the overall best dish. The event taking place October 13 will benefit the Central Texas Food Bank. Tickets ($20) are available on Eventbrite.

The emerging sport of pickleball has nearly taken over Austin, and now there's a major league and even watch parties at local restaurants. One such party will be held at cool sports bar Victory Lap, where guests will watch the Texas Ranchers (Austin) play against the Dallas Flash in a tournament on October 15. The party will run from 6-8:30 pm, with free ranch waters for the first 100 guests and games like PaddleSmash and PaddlePong. Plus, pickleball lovers with a strong constitution can compete in a pickle eating contest sponsored by Suckerpunch, with a $500 prize. Register for the free event at sweatpals.com.

Eberly Atrium Eberly's Atrium will host a creative dinner with visual artists.Eberly/Instagram

Contemporary American restaurant Eberly is taking advantage of its beautiful space again to host Artists in the Atrium on October 15 and 16. The event will show off visual art by Texas artists B Shawn Cox (who works in a sort of pin-up style featuring cowboy and cowgirl portraits) and Cruz Ortiz (who works in an updated cubist style), which was made for the occasion. Executive chef Sarah Seghi will interpret the works through food in a menu for those nights only. This artsy dinner takes place from 6-10 pm each night. Tickets ($132.25 after fees, plus $79.75 for beverage pairings) are available at ticketleap.com.

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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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