The Alcoholian

Posted by johngl

As I’ve certainly said before, one of the greatest things about doing this whole blogging thing is that every once in a while I get invited to soft-launch extravaganzas like the one held at Uchiko, Chef Tyson Cole‘s latest offering to Austin’s ever-popular restaurant scene.

The invitation was signed by Chef Cole himself, I swear it!

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Posted by johngl

Still a little woozy from a five-and-a-half hour eating and drinking extravaganza from which I returned about 12 hours ago, I have to say I had a pretty good time last night. Perhaps it was the alcohol.  Perhaps it was the company. Perhaps it was the excitement of getting an invite for free food at a soft-opening (a pre-opening dress rehearsal kind of thing) for El Arbol, Austin’s newest “mid-century classic Argentinean restaurant”. I’m betting it was a combination of the above.

The architecture of the place is simply fascinating. The multi-level, bright-white and red-accented patios are built around (and intertwined with) a magnificent live oak that spreads seemingly forever in all directions. There is lots of outdoor seating, which was good, because this Friday night soft-opening event was packed. We arrived on time for the stated 8pm seating and were told there would be a 45 minute wait unless we wanted to be seated out on the patio. Thankfully, they had a lot of space heaters cranked to ward off the chill of a damp winter evening.

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Posted by johngl

A long-time friend called me last weekend while the most glorious spousal unit and I were down in San Marcos, TX — home of more outlet stores than one city should have — doing some rainy-day birthday shopping. It was about two in the p.m. and I had just emerged from Johnny Rockets and was standing  in front of the Pottery Barn, dodging large water droplets running in rivulets off the side of the building. It was a very gray day. Pulling my automatic (wireless communication device) from my shoulder holster, I looked up and glanced across the mist-laden expanse of rubber and steel watching other brain-dead shoppers run through the crying sky as though they might melt if the tears hit them.  It was a ballet of sorts, thoroughly ungraceful. Chuckling out loud, I suddenly noticed the heels of my feet were burning intensely; we’d been wandering around for nearly three and a half hours. Noticing the caller id, I answered: “Hello sir!”

As it turned out, we were being invited to dinner. We were to meet up at a new Brasserie in a not so new location: East Austin.

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Posted by johngl

Last Sunday (June 21) while dining at Fino, a small group of us decided that we’d hit Garrido’s this weekend.  What we didn’t know at the time was that the restaurant located at 360 Nueces was going to get a large favorable write-up in the Austin American Stateman three days later. I thought that getting into the place at 1pm Sunday (June 28) would be next to impossible.

Lucky for us, we met up at the bar and after a few minutes, were led to our table.

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Posted by johngl

It’s not often that you see these words emblazoned across the menu at a fine restaurant:

Welcome! Tonight will be our only practice service before we open on Monday.  We request that each person order at least 3 courses, including dessert and that each table avoid duplicating orders when possible.  Thank you.

But that is exactly how we were greeted at the Friends & Family Dinner offered Saturday evening at the new location of Zoot.  With our party of eight, we were certainly going to put them through their paces.

These were just some of the appetizers! (Hover over each pane for a description and click for a larger view. Come on! Do it! You know you want to!)

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