Early Texans ate whatever they could catch. Fried squirrel with plum jelly was once in vogue; brown was long the Lone Star State’s primary culinary color, as in burgers and barbecue. But daring fusion, small plates and leading wines?
Welcome to today’s star-spangled Texas menu, pioneered by superstar chefs blazing new culinary trails. And they are happy to share; groups line up for their at-home and in-restaurant cook-offs, demos and special events.
Fresh Approach
Why run one restaurant under one roof when you can run seven? That’s Dean Fearing’s philosophy at his eponymous restaurant in The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, and the Southwestern legend cuts loose with his new multiroom eatery. Fearing is as exuberant as his cuisine—he plays guitar in the all-chef band The Barbwires—and his purposeful departure from fine-dining’s “iron-clad” strictures really has him jazzed.
“What money cannot buy in a restaurant is personality, and what today’s savvy leisure and business travelers want is rapport and interaction,” he says. “I’m all about throwing out the old rules, and people are eating it up.”
His Barbwires bandmate Robert Del Grande agrees. Since 1980, diners have flocked to his famed Cafe Annie in Houston. Recently he opened The Grove, its second-floor Treehouse overlooking downtown’s verdant Discovery Green.
“The beauty today is that we are no longer imitators,” he says. “It’s home-based cooking, done our way.”
Memories of mothers and grandmothers in the kitchen play an important role. At Ranch 616 in Austin, Kevin Williamson channels Mom all the way. A caterer to the stars, Williamson modeled his event-capable restaurant after a Texas icehouse (a pub-like tradition since the 1920s), where fried oysters headline a well-spiced Gulf Coast menu.
Also fired up is Jeffrey Blank, chef-owner of Hudson’s on the Bend outside Austin.
“The freedom to be proactive with flavors really drove the evolution of Texas cuisine,” he says.
Case in point: his dazzling rattlesnake cakes.
A fifth-generation Texan, Stephan Pyles is largely credited with single-handedly changing the Texas cooking scene. At his namesake eatery in the Dallas Arts District—his 14th in 24 years—ceviches are the stars of his mouth-watering “new millennium” cuisine.
In Fort Worth, Tim Love’s Lonesome Dove and Love Shack are major draws, along with Jon Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine.
Does all this equal a clashing of titan egos? Quite the contrary, says Bruce Auden, chef-owner of the acclaimed Biga on the Banks in San Antonio.
“We are friends united in the spirit of advancing Texas cuisine,” he says.
Dishing out Diversity
From ethnic offerings to down-home originals, no palate goes unsatisfied in Texas.
In Arlington, Taste of Europe serves Russian food amid Soviet memorabilia. Texas is turning Japanese, too, with hot spots including Uchi’s, Zagat’s top-rated restaurant in Austin. From Czech to Vietnamese, Texas is all-international.
Reaching back generations, family-run restaurants are a Texas institution. In San Antonio, the Cortez family’s Mi Tierra (“my earth”) dates to the 1940s. The Lee family is behind the oversized success of the Big Texan in Amarillo, where the 72-ounce steak dinner is free if eaten in under an hour. Meanwhile, Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth, which was a modest 16-seat eatery in 1935, is now a 1,000-seat Tex-Mex temple.
Naming the state’s best barbecue is a surefire conversation starter. Texas Monthly just named its top 50, and the debate rages on. With its outdoor patio and event area, Stubbs, an Austin institution, is a stellar choice, mixing cold beer, live music and smokin’ meats.
Meanwhile, Dallas ladies who shop still dine at the Zodiac Restaurant in the original Nieman Marcus. Whole Foods’ flagship in Austin offers group cooking classes and rentable space. In Galveston, Clary’s Seafood still takes it easy after 30 years, and 1900 storm survivor Palms M&M is as deliciously alive as ever.
Best breakfast taco plus event space? The Guenther House in San Antonio. Best car wash plus James Beard-awarded food? El Paso’s landmark H&H Car Wash and Coffee Shop. The range is truly epic.
Vine of the Times
As Texas longhorns descend from 15th century Spanish cattle, Texas grapes are early Spanish transplants, first appearing around El Paso in the 17th century.
Today, Texas is the nation’s fifth-largest wine producer, its Hill Country region second only to Napa as America’s fastest-growing wine and culinary destination as voted by Orbitz.
While German immigrants began producing barrels in the 1860s, it was the University of Texas’ experimental planting of 1,000 acres in West Texas in the 1970s that birthed modern Texas winemaking.
“It was around 1979 that Pheasant Ridge in Lubbock really put Texas on the map, and it’s been rapid growth ever since,” says Dr. Richard Becker.
Becker and his wife first planted vines in 1992. Today, their 46-acre Becker Vineyards in Fredericksburg, featuring a reception hall, a bed-and-breakfast and a lavender field, typifies the Hill Country wine experience.
Also in Fredericksburg, the acclaimed Cabernet Grill serves Texas wines exclusively, cellaring 75 selections from around the state.
Many of the region’s 5 million annual visitors come specifically for its 22-winery Texas Wine Trail, but the state’s billion-dollar wine industry grows vines elsewhere, too.
In historic Grapevine, the eight-member Grapevine Wine Trail includes the event-ready Delaney and—hold onto your boarding pass—La Bodega, inside terminals A and D at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
In Bryan, the Mediterranean-style Messina Hof Winery & Resort—the 1977 product of two Texas A&M students of Sicilian and German heritage—counts port among its award-winning wines.
The Lubbock area is another prominent wine-producing region, with event-friendly wineries such as Llano Estacado, Pheasant Ridge and Cap Rock.
