Food & Wine Recognizes Austin, Duck Camp Brings the Free Crawfish, Texas French Bread Loafs You So Much, Lick Ice Cream Delights with New Flavors, and More

Here’s some of what's happening in Austin's culinary scene – as wrangled from numerous PR releases, words on the digital street, and even the occasional (verified) IRL eavesdroppings.

Yes, citizen, it’s your “Food News Buffet” for the first week of May.

For those excited by such things, please note that Austin was recently ranked No. 10 on Food & Wine’s best cities in the United States for food. Cool, right? But, even better? Our food truck scene in particular? Third in the nation, after Portland and Los Angeles, says that estimable publication …

Speaking of rankings, two of Still Austin Whiskey Co.’s flagship spirits – their cask strength bourbon whiskey and their straight rye whiskey – were awarded double gold medals (the highest honor) by the world's best whiskey connoisseurs at the internationally recognized San Francisco World Sprits Competition last week. Mmhmm, we’ve tasted many a Still Austin expression at their distillery in The Yard (440 E. St. Elmo) and all over this whiskey-sodden city, and we are totes unsurprised by this news – but damned glad to share it …

Duck Camp, that acclaimed producer of hunting and fishing apparel and other goods for the great outdoors, is hosting a free crawfish boil at their Austin showroom (1301 E. Cesar Chavez), featuring the Houston-based group Goode Company cooking up a heaping helping of munchable mudbugs for one and all – accompanied by beverages from Lone Star Beer and Liquid Death. That’s on Sat., May 6, 2-6pm …

Mini cupcakes, anyone? Tiff’s Treats, the locally founded warm cookie delivery service, has teamed up with Baked by Melissa, and they’ve release a limited-edition collection of cookie-inspired mini cupcakes available in-store or for delivery from all 88 Tiff’s Treats locations. Perfect, tiny cupcakes, brought to you in classic Tiff’s style? Yes! Just in time for, oooh, it is Mother’s Day weekend right after this weekend, isn’t it?

Did we say “Mother’s Day” up there? Well, it’s a good thing, then, that we already have a decent (and growing!) batch of Mother’s Day dining recos lined up for your perusal right here …

Let’s see – what else, what else? On Fri., May 5, Kerbey Lane Cafe celebrates 43 years of serving great food to our community – and will feature their exclusive Birthday Pancake (buttermilk cinnamon swirl pancake topped with sprinkles, whipped cream, and vanilla drizzle) throughout the month. Also, that celebratin’ Kerb is honoring Teacher Appreciation Week (May 8-12) with 20% discounts for our local educators … and Texas French Bread has hooked up with the subscription savants at Table 22, which means you can get steady deliveries of fresh bready goodness (and houseblend coffee and more) with the maximum of ease and convenience … and Lick Honest Ice Creams, which we can never get enough of, have revealed their new array of seasonal flavors – strawberry margarita, cilantro lime, peach leaf graham crunch, lemonade pound cake, spicy coconut peanut & strawberry swirl (vegan), and banana pudding (vegan) – to make the coming days of OMG IT’S HOT AF a little more tolerable … and here's a little random shout-out to our buddy RM Beedit … and the American Botanical Council invites you to enjoy all the fun of Herbday at their Manor Road outpost this Saturday … and Rod Machen tells us how Hopdoddy’s Masa y Mas is bringing even more tacos to South Lamar … and A. Richmond covers the sweet, hot fiyah of Mr. Pimento’s Jamaican food … and the Texas Food & Wine Assocation’s rained-out Live Fire! event has turned into an ongoing supper club … and this city’s finest chefs are ready to kick some delicious ass in the American Lamb Jam competition … and – yeah, our everchanging urban hub sure is hella b-u-s-y lately, n’est-ce pas?

WUXTRY! The popular Wanderlust Wine Co. will be opening its third location – this one, at 1601 Barton Springs Rd. – sometime this summer, and they’ll be joined there by the culinary worthies of Tacos TJ and Vision Coffee to form a triumvirate of local yum. Ay! There’s always so much good food and drink along that restaurant row leading to Zilker Park and those Springs, isn’t there?

WUXTRY! Uchi, Austin’s world-renowned temple of sushi, will honor its 20 years of business this month by presenting a 12-course omakase dinner of longtime favorites on Sat.-Sun., May 20-21 …

Now eat as well as you can, tip like it’s going out of style, and, hey – be gentle with yourself as the future comes rushing in.