Pumpkin Full o' News
Congratulations to
Alamo Drafthouse chef
John Bullington and his wife,
Molly, on the birth of their son
Jack Harlan Bullington (8 lbs., 4 oz.; 211Ú2 inches) on Oct. 4. Blond-haired, blue-eyed Jack arrived just in time to rearrange his dad's busy event schedule for the rest of the month!... First-time restaurateur
Leone Becker has bought out partner
Debbie Mylius,
and the former
D&L's Texas Music Cafe is now
Beck's on Congress (1321 S. Congress, 445-4441). We hear there are some new menu items to go along with the name change, but the concept of food and live music on the patio is pretty much the same... Driving through SoCo we happened to notice the brightly colored retro metal lawn chairs on the inviting patio at the new
Doc's Motorworks Bar & Grill (1123 S. Congress, 448-9181). It's a relief to see some solid, comfortable seating instead of the flimsy resin yard furniture popular on so many local patios... In response to customer demand, the
Clay Pit (1601 Guadalupe, 322-5131) is now serving lunch on Saturdays from noon until 3pm. On Saturdays, they offer an expanded lunch buffet, as well as a selection of appetizers and choices from both the lunch and dinner menus... Expansion is really in the air this fall. Three homegrown chains have added links to their popular local operations.
Pok-e-Jo's Smokehouse (East 41st and I-35, 302-1200) has added a sixth outlet that just happens to be very convenient to the
Chronicle's offices. The 10th
Texadelphia (3706 Guadalupe, 420-9901) is serving up their distinctive cheesesteaks in a snazzy new development at the corner of 38th and Guadalupe, very accessible to Hyde Park and the midcity medical complexes. We bet folks in far North Austin are salivating at the thought of having the second
Hoover's Cooking (13376 Research Blvd.) location in their neighborhood.
Hoover Alexander tells us he'd like to complete renovation of the former
Ray's Steakhouse in the Galleria Oaks Shopping Center and be open there by Thanksgiving.
More National Media Attention
Look for
Texas Culinary Academy (
www.tca.edu) pastry chef instructors
Aimee Olson and
Bronwen Weber on the Food Network during October in both the Cup Cake and Spooky Cake Challenges... Austin's beloved
Soup Peddler David Ansel and his new book,
The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups (Ten Speed Press, $16.95), are the subject of an article in the November issue of
Food & Wine, while sausages from
Southside Market in Elgin are touted as a worthwhile choice in this month's
Gourmet. And two of our regular
Chronicle contributors are hitting wider markets this month, as well.
Wes Marshall is spreading the word about
Tito's Handmade Vodka in the
San Francisco Chronicle, and
Claudia Alarcón has edited a companion cookbook to be sold at the annual
Blue Star Arts and Eats tasting event in San Antonio on Oct. 20.
Monster Dining
If you and your sweet baboo share a mutual devotion to Halloween celebrations, there's still time to book dinner and a movie reservations for the deliciously scary
Monster Feasts at the
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (409 Colorado, 476-1320) this month. Fellow mad scientists (chefs) have designed a Franken Feast menu to complement
Boris Karloff's classic performance as Dr. Frankenstein, and you can sink your teeth into Dracula's Romanian Feast as
Bela Lugosi bares Count Dracula's fangs. Make reservations online at
www.originalalamo.com;
Frankenstein, 7pm, Sunday, Oct. 23;
Dracula, 7pm Sunday, Oct. 30.
Update: Earlier this month, it was reported that a fundraiser for the resurrected Dot's Place would take place on Friday, Oct. 21. The date has been changed to today, Thursday, Oct. 20, 10am at the restaurant (13805 Orchid Ln.).