News You Can Eat

10 things to know in Austin food: Italian deli and brunch haven says buon appetito on South Lamar

Uncle Nicky's is one of the only restaurants in Austin for a proper aperitivo, and soon there will be two.

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

Uncle Nicky's, the well-loved Italian deli and brunch spot in Hyde Park, is opening a second location on South Lamar, hopefully by this fall. The team announced that it would serve "the same great all-day menu featuring breakfast, antipasti, salad, homemade pasta, aperitivo hour, Dessert, and more!" Uncle Nicky's is unique in Austin for its especially casual approach to Italian food — it's more than a deli counter, but has none of the special-occasion formality the cuisine tends to need to find success in the South. The new location will be at 2121 S. Lamar Blvd., behind Loro.

Honestly, we at CultureMap believe good ingredients are whatever make you feel good, but we always like a well-balanced, fresh meal. Honest Mary's, a fast-casual chain that emphasizes "honestly good ingredients" in grain bowls and salads, is expanding into Cedar Park for its third location, open on July 22. A grand opening event from 11 am to 2:30 pm offers face-painting, a 20 percent discount on all bowls, and a donation to children's advocates CASA of Williamson County: 20 percent of all food sales. A fourth location will be appearing in the Mueller neighborhood sometime in the future.

Other news and notes

Speaking of Austin Italian food, neighborhood staple Andiamo Ristorante has been sold. The homey restaurant of two decades isn't as casual as a deli, but it does deliver more of a family-restaurant authenticity than many around town. This sale leaves it in the hands of Mike Smith, a longtime Austin restaurateur known for his work on Gumbo’s, Shoreline Grill, and Jeffrey’s. A release promises "a commitment to preserving the rich heritage of Andiamo while infusing fresh ideas and culinary innovation."

As if a four nights of free live music were not enough, Hot Summer Nights comes with a new beer by Central District Brewing. Sales of the Red River Kolsch will benefit the Red River Cultural District and homeless advocacy nonprofit Caritas of Austin. It joins the festivities alongside other food and drink specials at Hoboken Pie, Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, Vaquero Taquero, Wanderlust Wine, and more. The brewery is celebrating with a free launch party on July 21. Passes (free, with an optional donation) can be "purchased" at seetickets.us.

Texas Monthly is an important voice in Texas barbecue, and Austin gets to taste those benefits in a very real way at the magazine's annual BBQ Fest. Tickets have been released for the 14th iteration, which will happen from November 4-5 in Lockhart. The main event is a picnic featuring pitmasters from the hand-picked Top 50 BBQ Joints List, bolstered with live music and an artisan marketplace. A "BBQ World’s Fair" on Saturday is free and open to the public. Tickets benefitting Feeding Texas (starting at $100) are available at texasmonthly.com.

We may not be Paris, Texas, but Austin can still throw a heck of a Bastille Day celebration on July 14. Pardon our French. Stop by1417 for specials like French 75s and braised short rib with polenta, Friday through Sunday; visit Austin Rotisserie at the Far Out Lounge for niçoise baguettes and oysters on Friday, and the truck's regular menu through the weekend; or let loose at the artsy, edgy Justine's Brasserie, which will be throwing a rager on Friday with DJs, burlesque performances, and more.

Nothing says summer like a spritz, and Dovetail Pizza is celebrating the season. On July 20, Spritz Fest invites Austinites to stop by for an apericena-style meal (like aperitivo snacks, but more substantial), with a pizza buffet and a choice of two drinks including spritzes, Campari cocktails, and mocktails. The evening event from 8-10 pm benefits food and beverage industry nonprofit Southern Smoke Foundation. Tickets ($30) are available via Eventbrite.

A large part of the allure of sushi is its technical specificity — so great, it's developed its own lore as seen in documentaries and across austere sushi counters. Executive chef at Otoko Yoshi Okai will be demonstrating some of that technique up close and personal on July 23 at Watertrade when he breaks down a 180-pound Pacific bluefin tuna, allowing guests to try the sustainably-farmed fish as fresh as it gets off the boat. Tickets ($50, plus optional alcohol pairings) are available via Tock.

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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