Popular Hill Country winery to open tasting room in biggest city yet

Bishop Arts News

dallas.culturemap.com

A winery from Central Texas' wine country is opening an outlet in Dallas. Baron's Creek Vineyards, dubbed one of the most Instagrammable wineries in Fredericksburg, will open a new tasting room and wine lounge in the Bishop Arts District.

The winery, which posted a help-wanted note on the door to the space at 418 N. Bishop Ave., was founded in Fredericksburg, and has three other locations in Georgetown, Granbury, and McKinney. This will be the fifth.

According to Meghan Delgado, who manages the Fredericksburg location, the vineyard aims to open Bishop Arts in mid-October.

A family-owned venture from a trio of businessmen brothers, Baron's Creek opened its first location in Fredericksburg in 2015.

Baron's Creek Vineyards make wines from Texas grapes — the unofficial litmus test for authenticity — but also use grapes from other districts in the U.S. and Spain, from vineyards owned by their winemaker Russell Smith, formerly of Becker Vineyards.

Baron's Creek is a big tourist attraction not only for their wine-tasting options, but also for their on-site villas where visitors can stay overnight. Two Italian-styled villas with six rooms each accommodate up to 24 guests. The vineyard rents out the property, which has a cool outdoor courtyard defined by an almost Alice-in-Wonderland checkerboard pattern of stone platforms, for weddings, corporate retreats, and other special events.

Its satellite locations, including Georgetown Square, Granbury, and McKinney, which opened in 2022, serve as lounge/tasting rooms with flights, tastings, and tapas.

Delgado says that Bishop Arts will be most similar to the McKinney location. "It'll have two separate bar areas, and will definitely be serving food including charcuterie," she says.

Other menu items include a trio of pizzas that include pepperoni and artichoke & goat cheese. The tasting rooms offer mixed flights of five white and red wines or a flight of five red wines for $21/person, as well as wine by the glass.

Vinovium.wine

Hill Country festival uncorks weekend of music and Texas wine

OUR JAM

It’s an inescapable part of Central Texas’ fall. As soon as the “ber” months roll out, the social calendar quickly fills with festivals devoted to everything from books to indie films. It’s a lot to process — especially considering the ever-growing crowds at the season’s juggernauts.

Luckily, one autumn event is giving locals a little breathing room. Held on the bucolic Hill Country grounds of Vinovium winery, Texas Wine Jam returns to Johnson City on November 4-5. The music and wine-filled weekend allows guests to stretch out while supporting two local nonprofits.

More than 22 wineries will participate (that's 7 more than last year), including Farmhouse Vineyards, Lewis Wines, Lost Draw Cellars, Ron Yates, and Westcave Cellars. In addition to offering samples, the participants will be offering exclusive deals to attendees. Each bottle purchased comes with a raffle ticket for mixed wine cases and other prizes.

The jam will be handled via live sets by Classic Rewind, The Anthony Garcia Band, Josh Klaus, and Bubba Coltrane and the Train Wrecks. The music will cover a wide array of crowd-pleasing genres, from Spanish guitar-tinged Americana to raucous, horn-filled rock.

While bopping to the tunes, guests can also listen in on a winemaker panel or check out a cooking demo. And, of course, no festival is complete without street food — this year delivered by Rex’s Creole Kitchen, Rex’s Smokehouse, Oro Bianco, River Whey Creamery, and more.

Proceeds benefit the Texas Wine Community Scholarship program and the SIMS Foundation, an Austin organization providing mental health and recovery services for music industry professionals and their dependents.

General admission tickets are available online now, ranging from a $45 single-day pass to a $75 two-day pass. The $55-$95 VIP tickets include early entrance, five additional raffle tickets, and a branded wine bottle koozie. The festival takes place noon-5 pm each day, and alternate dates on November 11-12 have been set aside in case of inclement weather.

Photo courtesy of Goldy’s and Cookie Rich

6 things to know in Austin food: Cookie Rich moves into Tarrytown with a new sister restaurant

News You Can Eat

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

Chef Lorin Peters has struck gold at least twice, cooking at three Michelin star restaurant The French Laundry and founding the very popular Austin cookie companyCookie Rich. She may be doing it again with Goldy’s, offering casual but high-quality plates like sandwiches, salads, sides, and house-made pastries starting on July 24. It’s taking over the former home of Fleet Coffee at 2401 Winsted Ln., as the coffee shop heads to East Austin (open July 21 at 2806 Manor Rd.). Amid all the shuffling around, Cookie Rich is moving, too: Since Goldy’s shares a space with Littlefield’s Tacos + Coffee, the cookie company is relocating into the same building to join the party.

If we learned anything from the butter board trend that blazed through social media like a greasy comet, it's that everyone wants to be a charcuterie queen. But let's leave it to the professionals: A new storefront open now in Lakeway (2127 Lohmans Crossing Rd. #304) brings the Graze Craze chain to Austin, ensuring that this city of foodies has access to a Grazologist™, "a highly trained charcuterie concierge." (Two more appear on the website's map, but no openings are scheduled yet.) And we're not talking about cheese and cracker plates — these boards are stacked high with meats, cheeses, fruit, veggies, bread, dips, and even cake. This low-effort, high-reward dream for hosts offers menu items for vegetarian and keto diets, as well as gigantic catering spreads.

Other news and notes

Garrison Brothers Distillery is proud of its Texas heritage, calling itself the "first legal Texas Whiskey Distillery," and sometimes this turns into big financial support for nature reserves. The distillery recently shared two donations from special-edition bourbons named after Texas places: $30,000 to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, and $78,000 to date for Balmorhea State Park in West Texas. More information about both products and their goals is available at garrisonbros.com.

Frugal travelers may have noticed how many of the world's vineyards are seeking help in exchange for accommodations. Before you jet off to France, try something similar at Camp Lucy: The wine resort in Dripping Springs is equipping early-morning visitors on July 21 with harvesting clippers and trading a chef-prepared breakfast, a bottle of wine, and some education along the way for their work. RSVP on Eventbrite. Breakfast starts at 5:45 am.

It's hard to offer anything as fancy as Uchi's omakase as a host at home, but for a few days you can do even better. The restaurant is offering a to-go caviar omakase from July 21-23, allowing guests to discover their own pairings with Uchi classics and caviar on the side. Menu items include shishitos with trout roe, karaage with hackleback, Wagyu strip steak with kaluga, a candy bar, and an optional bottle of champagne at less than half its in-store price. Order at sevenrooms.com.

Dosa Shack, the South Indian street food truck, has officially been around for a year. It's celebrating the anniversary with a whole festival dubbed Dosapalooza, from July 24-30. Highlights include free Mehendi Nights (henna tattoos, July 26-27), free samosas (28-29), and free sweets (29-30). There will also be weeklong food specials, like the Royal Doffle with edible gold, crushed pistachio, rose caramel, and gulab jamun (like donut holes). Check Instagram for more information about schedules and offerings during Dosapalooza.

Photo by Guillermo Rosas

Austinites gather to toast the city's top culinary leaders at the 2023 Tastemaker Awards

Toast the Tastemakers

On May 11, Austin foodies crossed 13 restaurants, bars, and desserts off their must-try lists — or enjoyed old favorites all in one room at our 2023 Tastemaker Awards. More than 700 visitors milled about Fair Market with cocktails and Topo Chico in hand, visiting booths and tasting creative Austin food.

A VIP hour welcomed some guests early for a toast to the nominees and our nonprofit beneficiary, the Southern Smoke Foundation, which shares funds for emergency relief and mental health resources with food industry workers. Lodgewell provided cocktails and insulated goodie bags with treats like Parch, LMNT, Siete, and SkinnyPop at its VIP lounge, where it gave away a 1-night stay in the famous Bloomhouse.

More sponsors provided specialty drinks and garnishes: Flor de Caña Rum brought sustainably crafted rum in its bar and lounge, with 70 percent cacao dark chocolate to pair with the more than 25-year-aged spirit. Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey brought several bottles of the Tennessee spirit to try neat, and Twang manned a booth for adding seasonings to the rim of favorite cocktails.

This year, even though the warehouse was busy right away, the tone was casual, and our vendors kept plates coming, so there was a free flow from booth to booth. Two vendors, Watertrade and Chapulín Cantina both brought chapulines — fried grasshoppers — for a salad and a taco, respectively. Lots of vendors brought handheld items for ease of snacking: Luminaire brought fried empanadas that could nearly fill a person up on their own, and Wunderkeks brought cookies to-go, so that visitors could keep the party going at home.

If there had been a theme of the day, it would have been sliders. A "Burger Throwdown" thanks to Goodstock by Nolan Ryan pitted three restaurants against each other in a friendly outdoor grilling competition. JewBoy Burgers and Honeymoon Spirit brought delicious contenders that couldn't be more different, but Lebowski's Grill charmed visitors with two different sandwiches and ultimately won the most of their votes. Although it wasn't part of the competition, BBQ Ramen Tatsu-ya brought its own smoked brisket slider, emphasizing the versatility of these little party snacks.

The irreplaceable Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League emceed again, reading out nominees to pointed cheers from the crowd — a win for vendors even if the award went home with someone else — and finally revealing the winners. (Although there was not a fashion contest, we feel confident saying Chef Harvard Aninye's family and friends blew all of us away in their spangly threads.) See the full list of winners here.

All the smiling faces and (very) full stomachs made this Tastemaker Awards ceremony a night to remember; Try to remember these superstar restaurants, bars, chefs, and more next time you have some free time to try something local.

Photo by Guillermo Rosas

The 2023 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards introduced Austinites to the city's top food and drinks on May 11.

Photo courtesy of Becker Vineyards

Wake up and smell the lavender at a Hill Country vineyard's decades-old festival

Lavender? I hardly know her

There's a lot of talk about flowers springing up with the seasonal blooms around Texas, but visitors are generally discouraged from picking and eating them. Fans of floral flavors can look forward to the Lavender Festival at Becker Vineyards in Fredericksburg, which will serve wine pairings with the unmistakeable aroma on April 15 and 16.

This festival is 24 years running, and still hasn't run out of ideas for the timeless flavor. Over two days, visitors can explore the vineyard, shop for goods like soap and lotion from artisan vendors, enjoy live music, and most importantly, taste the lavender. It's more than a shortbread cookie, too.

Becker's executive chef Michael Lockhart and winemaker Jonathan Leahy invite guests to "Lavender Luncheons" ($125) in the Lavender Haus Reception Hall, a "replica of a barn at the Lyndon B. Johnson Settlement." There's no menu so far, but it will be a meal inspired by the 500 lavender plants in the vineyard. There will also be four "wine and lavender bite pairing sessions" ($60) on Saturday. Less formally, or for those who would rather see the lavender than taste it, there will be three local food vendors on both days: Mac’n Wag’n, Conchita’s, and Garbo’s Seafood.

The history of the festival stretches back almost as long as the vineyard has been producing lavender. The first plants were sown in June of 1998 — that's just one year longer. Although the family struggled to find a healthy variety for the area and lost huge swathes of the three-acre crop, they kept pushing on. Eventually, they discovered that the Stoechas (Spanish) varietal does best in the region.

If readers have struggled with growing lavender (an extremely likely circumstance), they may find that gardening tips at the festival help this year or next year's blooms. Lavender, unlike the many wildflowers that make the Hill Country famous, does not naturally grow in the region, and instead prefers its native conditions in the Mediterranean. It's starting to make sense that in Texas it thrives in the vineyard, no?

The Lavender Festival at Becker Vineyards is located at 464 Becker Farms Rd., Fredericksburg, Texas. Tickets ($15 general admission, plus add-ons for tastings) are available at beckervineyards.com. The festival is open on April 15 and 16 from 10 am to 5 pm.

Photo courtesy of Becker Vineyards

Becker Vineyards invites Texans to see the fields and try lavender foods and wine pairings.

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Google soars to No. 3 in prestigious list of Forbes' best employers in Texas, plus more top stories

Hot Headlines

Editor’s note: It’s that time again — time to check in with our top stories. From employers to non-hierarchical art, here are five articles that captured our collective attention over the past seven days.

1. Google soars to No. 3 in prestigious list of Forbes' best employers in Texas. Austin continues to hosts the best of the best employers in Texas, as Google and Apple move into coveted spots on Forbes' list.

2. Country icon Willie Nelson returns to traditional 'hillbilly' inspiration in new album. Nelson's new LP, Bluegrass, is his first album-length tribute to the traditional country genre.

3. Austin art collectives bring work made by 1,000 local hands to Burning Man. 500 Austinites helped dye and tie scraps of fabric in a flowing mosaic that became an unmissable part of the Playa.

4. More closed home sales in Austin show growing homebuyer confidence. The latest data showed the first increase in closed home sales year-over-year since February 2022.

5. Famous Austin furniture store Louis Shanks shutters last remaining locations. The furniture retailer first opened in 1945, and had been operated by the Shanks family for four generations.

Here are all 22 Austin acts to add to your 2023 ACL Fest playlist

homegrown sounds

We're almost there. Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL Fest) is poised to take over Zilker Park across two weekends – October 6-8 and October 13-15 – and while Austinites surely have a running list of all the bigger touring acts that they want to see, they may not be aware of the many great locals on the lineup.

So, here’s a rundown of the 22 Austin-based artists that will be playing during either weekend. Take a look, make some notes, and go show some support! Don't forget to hydrate and get a snack between sets, too!

Asleep At The Wheel (W1)
Kick off weekend one of ACL with a fest tradition: a set from country legends Asleep At TheWheel, who have performed at just about every ACL since the festival’s inception in 2002. They’ll play on Friday, October 6, at 12:55 pm on the Honda Stage.

Die Spitz (W1)
With a raucous live show and their well-received 2023 EP, Teeth, Die Spitz have been one of the most buzzed-about bands out of Austin this year. You can catch the upstart rockers on Saturday, October 7, at 11:45 am on the Tito’s Stage.

Arya (W1)
Pop and R&B fans will find a lot to like when it comes to Arya, an up-and-coming songstress who now calls Austin home after having grown up in Serbia. Her set will take place on Saturday, October 7, at 11:45 am on the T-Mobile Stage.

Shooks (W1)
Fronted by Marlon Sexton (the son of guitarist Charlie Sexton), Shooks will be taking the stage at ACL for the second time since 2021. The band’s versatile indie rock sound can be experienced on Saturday, October 7, at 12:45 pm on the Tito’s Stage.

Calder Allen (W1&2)
Since last year’s release of his debut album, The Game, singer-songwriter Calder Allen has been on a steady ascent through the ranks of local acts. You can see him at both weekends of the fest – for each one he’ll play on Saturday (October 7 & 14) at 2:45 pm on the Tito’s Stage.

Ben Kweller (W1&2)
Celebrated indie rocker Ben Kweller has spent a good bit of the summer on the road with Ed Sheeran, and that will roll into appearances at both weekends of ACL. Look for him on each Saturday (October 7 & 14) at 3 pm on the Miller Lite Stage.

Ellis Bullard (W1)
Get a “true-blue honky tonk” experience via Ellis Bullard, who will be making his ACL debut justas he’s gearing up to release a new album, Honky Tonk Ain’t Noise Pollution!. You can see himon Sunday, October 8, at noon on the Barton Springs Stage.

Wesley Bray And The Disciples of Christ (W1)
Take a break from the noise of ACL and enjoy a spiritual moment with Stubb’s Gospel Brunch regulars Wesley Bray And The Disciples of Christ. They can be experienced on – of course – Sunday, October 8, at noon on the Tito’s stage.

Jane Leo (W1)
Centered around Jane Ellen Bryant and Daniel Leopold (of Leopold And His Fiction), Jane Leo are responsible for some of the catchiest alt-pop tunes you’ll find in Austin these days. Their ACL set is on Sunday, October 8, at 1 pm, on the Tito’s Stage.

Grace Sorensen (W1)
R&B/neo-soul artist Grace Sorenson has previously been a part of ACL as support for other acts, but she’ll make her full debut at the festival during Weekend One. Her performance will happen on Sunday, October 8, at 1:30 pm on the BMI Stage.

Jimmie Vaughan (W2)
Weekend two of ACL will get underway with a performance from guitar afficionado Jimmie Vaughn. Don’t miss his blues-filled performance on Friday, October 13, at 12:55 pm on the Honda Stage.

Font (W2)
Just after wrapping a supporting run with the popular Japanese band CHAI, Font will play their first ever ACL Fest. The post-punk act puts on a dynamic show and shouldn’t be missed on Friday, October 13, at 12:55 pm on the American Express Stage.

Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective (W2)
If the Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective isn’t on your radar, they should be, as they will be putting out some of the smoothest sounds you’ll find at the fest this year. Catch the urban contemporary jazz ensemble’s set on Friday, October 13, at 1:15 pm on the Tito’s Stage.

We Don’t Ride Llamas (W2)
From a love of the game Rock Band as kids to playing ACL, it’s been a heck of a ride so far for the four siblings behind We Don’t Ride Llamas. If you like bands that offer a little bit of everything sound-wise, then don’t miss their set on Friday, October 13, at 1:40 pm on the Miller Lite Stage.

Nemegata (W2)
Nemegata will be heading into ACL hot on the heels of their sophomore album, Voces, which the band describes as a “transcendent Afro-Indigenous Colombian odyssey.” You can see them on Saturday, October 14, at noon on the Barton Springs Stage.

Rattlesnake Milk (W2)
Country, punk, rock — Rattlesnake Milk is every bit of that and very much worthy of a slot on your “bands to see” list. Their set will go down on Saturday, October 14, at 1:15 pm on the BMI Stage.

Blakchyl (W2)
Just a week before she takes the stage at ACL, hip hop vet Blakchyl will release an anticipated album titled Better Than I Imagined. Hear tracks from it and more on Saturday, October 14, at11:45 am on the Tito’s Stage.

The Moriah Sisters (W2)
If you miss out on Wesley Bray And The Disciples of Christ during weekend one of ACL, you can still get your gospel fix in the next go-round with The Moriah Sisters. Their performance will take place on Sunday, October 15, at noon on the Tito’s Stage.

Kathryn Legendre (W2)
With “Cigarettes,” her brand new single in tow, “singer-songwriter, honky-tonker, and Hill Country gem” Kathryn Legendre will make her ACL debut. You can see her sure-to-be-charming set on Sunday, October 15, at noon on the Baron Springs Stage.

Sisi(W2)
After years in Torino Black, Sisi has begun rolling out solo tunes, including a recent one titled “Lyin’ Cheat.” You can check out the singer-songwriter on Sunday, October 15, at 1 pm on the Tito’s Stage.

Quin NFN(W2)
The oft-buzzed-about rapper Quin NFN will swing into ACL Fest more than ready to show why he’s racked up of millions of streams and a dedicated following. Be sure to catch the spectacle on Sunday, October 15, at 2 pm on the Tito’s Stage.

Caramelo Haze (W2)
Beto Martínez & John Speice (Grupo Fantasma), Alex Chavez (Dos Santos), and Victor "El Guámbito" Cruz (Nemegata) are the minds behind the “electro neo-sōl odyssey” known as Carmelo Haze. They’ll be playing on Sunday, October 15, at 2 pm on the Tito’s Stage.

Austin 'Top Chef' winner emerges after controversy to open upscale Mexican restaurant

New Restaurants

Austin and the village of Bacalar in Southeastern Mexico share a similar ethos — that life revolves around the lake. Overlooking Town Lake, the new upscale Mexican restaurant Bacalar brings the tastes of one famous lake to another, with chef Gabe Erales at the helm.

The restaurant has opened at 44 East Ave. #100, after years of preparation and following controversy surrounding the chef's departure from his last role, at Comedor. A walk-up taco window called Tómalo Taquería is planned for the fall.

Food & Drink
Bacalar is all about duality, from the two lakes that inspired and accompany the food to an especially close collaboration between the chef and real estate and design firm Urbanspace on the interiors.

The menu features globally influenced dishes from the Yucatan region, including Castacan Tacos with pork belly; Squash & Chaya Tamal; and a chef's daily steak cut.

The menu balances on the concept of "comida milpera," or food system interdependence between farmers, suppliers, and chefs, according to the restaurant.

Erales explains, "'La milpa' is a twofold, parallel concept — the 'milpa' being essentially a pre-Hispanic farming system, where you planted complementary vegetables and fruit next to each other, and the byproduct of one is the input of another. [It] allowed people throughout Mexico to have a very flourished farming system with not a lot of water or rich soil. But in parallel to that, it was also thought of as a socio-cultural relationship system."

The restaurant hopes to embody that spirit on the menu, which places special emphasis on food and drink pairings. (Surely executive pastry chef Natalie Gazaui also has something up her sleeve, although the desserts were not explained in detail.)

Bar manager Dragan Milivojevic says he designed the cocktail menu to "follow the kitchen," and Erales points out that some hard-to-find flavors from the Yucatán Peninsula go great in drinks — for instance, cooking pastes called "recados." One of Milivojevic's special flavors comes in the form of a house-made Orgeat syrup derived from mamey sapote, a tropical fruit that many say tastes like sweet potato or pumpkin.

One specific restaurant-bar pairing complements fried octopus aguachile with a corn-infused agave spirit martini. In this pairing, the martini stands in for the more common choice of a corn chip. This also creates another outlet for corn use, as Bacalar purchases surplus grains not grown commercially, in order to support the communities keeping those heirloom varieties alive.

Bacalar also plans to offer weekly pairings of different mezcals with dishes from the kitchen. Milivojevic hopes that the bar will one day have the biggest mezcal program in Texas, and will introduce new people to the spirit.

Design
Bacalar's interior design also aims for a careful balance that is neither too rustic nor too modern.

The team at Urbansapce — which manages famous buildings like The Independent, Seaholm Residences, and Brazos Lofts — points out the importance of the ground-floor location for the restaurant, and aligns itself with a longterm push to make downtown a residential destination as well as a business hub.

Urbanspace principal and interior designer for Bacalar, Merrill Alley, who introduced CEO Kevin Burns to Erales for the collaboration, says the team hopes the restaurant will be an amenity for people living in the residential spaces above at 44 East Ave (both the building's name and address).

Context
Bacalar has been a long time coming for the chef-owner. Erales, who won Top Chef in July 2021, saw his celebration cut short by a very public break with Comedor. His official statement from July of 2021 summarized the situation as follows:

"I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Top Chef; however, I must continue to acknowledge my mistakes including the termination from my former job. To clarify, unbeknownst to my wife, I had a consensual relationship with a co-worker and later reduced her work hours, which in combination was a poor judgment call and led to my termination after I filmed Top Chef. ... My personal growth will be a perpetual apology in seeking forgiveness."

A statement by chef Philip Speer, who still helms Comdedor, echoes the story with the addition that the termination came from “repeated violations of our policies and for behavior in conflict with our values.”

Erales had announced his plans for Bacalar after departing Comedor, but before his Top Chef win, which brought major attention to past events.

He declined to comment further for CultureMap.

Bacalar is now open 5-10 pm Sunday-Wednesday, 5-11 pm Thursday-Saturday, and weekend brunch is coming soon, according to the website.

View All Listings