food-o-file

Austin Java Co.

1206 Parkway (Lamar & Enfield), 476-1829

Monday-Thursday 7am-11pm; Friday 7am-12am;

Saturday 9 am-12am; Sunday 9am-10pm

The economic boom now sweeping Austin feels like a bust in the chops to many of us. Rents escalate, wages for the underemployed stagnate, and new restaurants increasingly gear their menus to lure the techies whose disposable cash drives the boom. Boy billionaire Michael Dell can drop in for a bite at Coyote Cafe
on a whim, but who will regale us proles with interesting food at budget prices? The answer may lie in the groundswell of coffee houses that suddenly dot the Austin map. One in particular, the Austin Java Co., emerges from the teeming hordes of espresso peddlers by serving an array of affordable, homemade meals and snacks.

Traditional morning items like breakfast tacos (two, with potato, egg, and cheese, $2.95) and migas ($4.25, with beans or potatoes) are well-executed, ample, and cheap. The breakfast menu also offers omelettes ($4.95, with potatoes), French toast ($2.95), and "One Big Pancake" ($2.50).

The lunch and dinner menu starts with appetizers that could pass as light meals. The mushrooms in the wild-mushroom quesadillas ($4.95) don't seem wild, but the dish succeeds anyway - mainly because of the large mound of corn and black bean salsa that garnishes the plate. Even better is the rich, sumptuous dip of spinach, artichokes, and melted cheese ($4.95). The cafe also serves sandwiches ($4.95-$5.95, with a side vegetable) and pasta dishes
($4.95-$7.25).

These prices may seem a bit steep, but the portions leave plenty to split with a friend or eat for lunch the next day. My favorite of all was the grilled beef sandwich, tender slices of thinly sliced beef complemented beautifully with roasted garlic, roasted red pepper, field greens, and crisp-crusted focaccia.

A proper Austin Java Co. meal culminates properly with one of its decadent and formidably sized desserts ($2.95-$3.50). The chocolate cake, crème brulée, key lime pie, and lemon shortbread all work well, but the centerpiece is the chocolate espresso brownie, draped luxuriously in a velvety, bittersweet coffee cream sauce.

This dessert, taken with an espresso shot ($1.00), inspires quiet lingering and relaxed contemplation - just the sort of moment many of us need as we slog on in this time of high rent and dim prospects for the technologically disinclined.

- Tom Philpott