Tagged: restaurants

Celebrity chefs will descend on the city this weekend for the second annual Austin Food and Wine Festival. People will shell out at least $250 for the opportunity to taste the food of famous cooks such as Marcus Samuelson, Jonathan Waxman and Graham Elliot. 

But if the ticket price is too high for your budget, you can still enjoy some of the featured food without having to buy a badge. That's because many of the chefs have restaurants right here in Austin. Austin American-Statesman restaurant critic Matthew Odam stopped by KUT to tell us about some of the local chefs at the Austin Food and Wine Fest. Listen to our conversation by clicking the player above. 

After 31 years in operation, east end Tex-Mex restaurant Nuevo Leon has closed. 

Owner Rachel Davila left a note on the door this weekend announcing the closure and thanking customers for their years of business. We called Davila and asked her about why she started the restaurant, the changes she’s seen in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, and what she plans for the future.

KUT News: Why are you closing your restaurant?

Rachel Davila: I am retiring and the only way I can retire is to close it and sell it.

Dozens of Austin restaurants are highlighting their best this week, offering deals on three-course prix fixe dinners. It’s all part of Austin Restaurant Week, a biannual event that raises awareness of Austin’s culinary scene and money for charities.

Restaurant Week is a bit of a misnomer, however: it’s actually made up of two half-weeks. The good eats kicked off yesterday, Sept. 23, take a break on the 26th, resume Sept. 30, and come to an end on Oct. 3.

Taylor Perkins is with Austin Restaurant Week. He says the festival is a testament to Austin’s burgeoning culinary standing. “The event has grown hand-in-hand with the Austin culinary scene,” he says. This installment marks Austin Restaurant Week's fourth year.

Where foodie influences were previously imported into Austin, Perkins says local chefs have evolved to create their own styles. “The scene in Austin has really come into its own,” he says. The majority of participating restaurants are found only in Austin, and Restaurant Week increasingly focuses on restaurants that source locally and offer a unique experience.

Spoiler alert: This season of “Top Chef: Texas” is living up to its name.

Only two contestants are left heading into next week’s finale, and (spoiler alert: we really mean it this time) Austinite Paul Qui is one of them. Qui earned a place in the finale and won a trip to Costa Rica last night with his dish of king crab with sunchoke chips, lobster broth and lemon snow.

Austin American-Statesmanfood writers Annie Broyles and Nicole Villalpando say that Uchiko  chef Qui “will either win “Top Chef Texas” or, in what would be the biggest upset in “Top Chef” history, come in second to Chicago chef Sarah Grueneberg.”

We already knew that former Texas Longhorns hero and current Tennesse Titans quarterback Vince Young had planned to open a steakhouse at 3rd and San Jacinto.   Now we know when. The Statesman reports: