Jack and I have been going to the Dai Due dinners (prounced die do-aay) for a few years now, and it’s something we really look forward to. I usually try to snag tickets once a year in the summertime for one of the seafood-themed dinners. (There are some obvious themes I can’t go to as a non-meat-eater — ie. “The Whole Hog” dinner). The husband and wife team, Jesse Griffiths and Tamara Mayfield, take “local” to a crazy-person level (the good kind of crazy). While they set the dinner themes ahead of time, individual menu items aren’t decided until the last minute due to…

On the far end of east Austin is Contigo, a farm-to-table restaurant with arguably the best outdoor setting in town. Maybe it’s the long drive in the opposite direction of civilization, or the layout of the large communal tables, but the sky just looks bigger here… especially on this particular night when some moody purple & grey storm clouds were just beginning to loom overhead. I love it here in the summertime because the menu is lighter and includes more veggie-friendly options. (In other seasons it can be a pretty meaty-pork-heavy place). But this time the highlights for me were:…

I’ll be back with a recipe tomorrow, but I wanted to share some snaps I took at Hillside Farmacy, a new restaurant I went to last week while Jack was out of town. Few things excite me more than a good restaurant design. I’d even go so far as to say that I think food tastes better while eaten in a cute space. I didn’t catch on while I was there, but the name is a play on words not just a funny way to spell “pharmacy”. The building, at the turn of the century was The Hillside Drug store…