Eatr Austin

UCHIKO

Last night I had the pleasure of trying Tyson Cole’s latest effort, Uchiko. The place was bustling and had a very diverse crowd. If Eastside Showroom feels like Brooklyn, Uchiko feels like Manhattan. Its a lot noisier than Uchi, but the food is just as good. They are still fine tuning the service and right now everything is 50% off except for drinks. We started with a light sushi dish consisting of cobia, mint, jalapeno, & cured cucumber. It had quite a bite yet was incredibly refreshing. We then had rabbit, pea, pear, mustard seed, and quail egg, which was slightly over salted and definitely over-egged, but delicious nonetheless. Our second meat course was a roasted pork belly and apple kimchee with applesauce (they called it something else). I really enjoyed the crispness of the apple juxtaposed with the melt-in-your-mouth pork belly. Our next vittles was fried eggplant with a spicy chile sauce, which was deep fried perfection. Our last course was sashimi, which reminded me why I pay the price to go Uchi over anything else. Their fish is simply the best. Will be 4 out of 4 once they get their service down.

Shout out to my buddy Bryan Perrault who joined me.

Burgers Invade Austin: to See & to Eat

I guess you can say we’ve been into burgers lately…visiting these first two paintings by a musician/ painter in a gallery on SOCO and then making it our job to try out the latest from Your Mom’s Burger Bar on East Cesar Chavez between Chalmers and Chicon (warning: do not follow google maps, as it has the location wrong).

While the paintings always please, the restaurant leaves a lot to be desired (in order of most to least severe pleas):

1. The atmosphere: get rid of the flies! It’s impossible to eat at the dive right now with them swarming everywhere, so make sure to take home or order delivery.

2. The sides: be transparent about what’s fresh and what’s frozen. The menu calls out that the fries are not frozen, implying that nothing else would be. This is misleading since the fried zuchini is in fact store-bought and frozen.

3. More on the fries: cut way down on the over-salting.

4. The sauces: make these fresh or find a vendor with better quality condiments; the current varieties taste artificial.

However…the John D. Rockefeller burger we had (pictured above) was delish and the order-taker was definitely spirited.

He says: Juan in a Million is still the king of this East Austin block

She says: There’s a rare chance I’ll want this burger delivered instead of pizza the few times a year we order in.

Fredericksburg, TX

This weekend we voyaged to Fredericksburg to avoid the annual ROT Biker Rally that comes to Austin. We anticipated walking around a charming Main St. and eating traditional German fare in a biergarten while watching the World Cup. What we got was truly a surprise. The highlight happened to be our pit stop before reaching our destination: the Benini Sculpture Ranch. Think one part safari (SUV recommended), one part Italy (very hilly, but use your imagination for Italian Cypress trees) and one part folk/ outsider art from various artists. Also make sure to check out the indoor gallery that showcases Benini’s painting. He’s a Milanese artist working in acrylic that concentrates on roses, geometric shapes and dimension.

And to the food and more in Fredericksburg proper…

Go to:

Rather Sweet for lunch and dessert with local ladies who are in the know

Chocolat for truffles filled with liquors- we can personally recommend the German chocolate cake concotion

Fredericksburg Gourmet Coffee and Tea (next to Chocolat) for specialty beans and to see where locals choose to pass the afternoon on their laptops

Nimitz Museum for Pacific War history in a world-class facility

Avoid:

Falling prey to shopping and eating in all other East Main St. tourist trap establishments!

Maker’s Mark Blogger’s Lunch at Frank

How could I pass this up? While drinking one of my favorite bourbons at my favorite Austin lunch spot, the CEO of Maker’s Mark, Bill Samuels, gave us an advance preview of his newest, and ONLY Maker’s spin-off, Maker’s Mark 46.

Prior to taking the helm of the family business 30 years ago, Bill went to law school and got his masters in physics. After a misadventure in rocket science resulting in him blowing up his bosses office, Bill returned to Kentucky and has done everything not to “f*ck up his old man’s invention”, as he so eloquently put it.

Now, I will quote one of my favorite movies - the Goonies - “Their time! Up there! Down here, it’s our time. It’s our time down here.” Bill has held up his end of the bargain and has built Maker’s Mark into a billion dollar business, but he wanted to improve on the family recipe and make something to put on his tombstone.

After brainstorming with the master distiller, he has successfully taken the alcohol notes out of the original recipe through an advance in wood treating technology, and the result is spectacular. The new Maker’s 46 is the most drinkable whiskey I have ever tasted, and it will be available in stores late this summer. An interesting fact: the whole process was done in a vacuum - no business or marketing folks were able to muck it up. Bravo Bill.