Desert Door Goes Wild, Les Dames Get Board, Dry Creek’s End Is Nigh, and What’s All This About a Pickled Severed Human Toe?

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, it’s your Food News Buffet for the first week in October, Year Two of This Lousy Plague …

Austin Restaurant Weeks returns! We mentioned this last week, but we're telling you again: That tasty and philanthropic time of year, in which participating Austin-area restaurants, bars, and breweries offer prix-fixe menus, specialty menu items, and drink specials with a portion of sales going to the Central Texas Food Bank? It’s back – from Oct. 1-10. Find the list of eateries right here …

Delicious dining in the Wild, with Desert Door Sotol at Wimberley's Spoke Hollow Ranch …

What could possibly match all that excitement? Perhaps this: Desert Door Sotol is hosting its first Wild event series of three custom-curated meals and experiences in the wilderness at Spoke Hollow Ranch in Wimberley on Oct. 15-16. Yes, that’s a three-course meal – either a brunch or dinner selection – prepared by three distinguished Austin chefs (Julien Hawkins of Hestia, Amanda Turner of The Fiery Talon, and Contigo’s Ty Burton), and the dishes will be paired with signature Desert Door cocktails, all in a breathtaking landscape under the big Texas sky. We’ll be telling you more about this online and in later issues, but – srsly – you might wanna book some tickets while you still can …

Hey, you love a good dog? Enjoy some good coffee, too: Grounds & Hounds Coffee Co. is partnering with local animal rescue Austin Pets Alive! for their Rescue Roast initiative. From Oct. 1-31, 100% of all Rescue Roast profits will go to fund APA!’s Dog Behavior Program …

There’s all manner of ACL dining options right now – go figure, right? – but this column’s shouting out that Carpenter Hotel and its timely Biergarten (Oct 1-3 & Oct 8-10 from 4pm - 2 am) with its plethora of pretzels, brats, beer, wine, and coffee …

The Austin chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international culinary leadership organization of women, has named its 2021-2022 board and added 31 new members representing the fields of food, fine beverage, and hospitality. The new board includes Stacy Franklin of Franklin Barbecue as president, Kim Hanks of Whim Hospitality as first vice president, Lorena Legarreta of Dish’n Dames as second vice president, Foreign & Domestic’s Sarah Heard as treasurer, and Nancy Marr of Central Market as secretary. But, yes, there’s even more …

Wuxtry! Turnstile – that locally owned joint that offers coffee and such in the mornings, then turns into a craft beer and cocktail lounge in the evenings – has acquired the building adjacent to their venue at 10025 Burnet. Now they can sling coffee and espresso drinks at their drive-through and have a full kitchen to service both buildings. Service with what, though? For instance: Their Turnstile burger is a 100% Texas grass-fed patty topped with onion jam, bacon, Amish bleu cheese, arugula, and hops mayo – accompanied by garlic fries, molasses ketchup, and malt vinegar aioli. Mmmmm, we’ll meet you there …

A compendium of the tastiest, the most rare, the downright weirdest – from your foodie friends at Atlas Obscura …

Oh! You know what’ll be presented (virtually) at 2021’s Texas Book Festival – on Oct. 30? This: Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide by Dylan Thuras and Cecily Wong of Atlas Obscura fame. [Note: Wong will be the presenter.] You probably won’t be interested at all – if you already know about such things as beer made from the fog of the Chilean Atacama Desert, or the rarest pasta in the world, or “the Sourtoe, an alcoholic beverage of your choice with a pickled severed human toe floating inside, available every night at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Canada, since 1973” …

There will be a sadness right after Oct. 30, though. That’s because, on Oct. 31, the beloved Dry Creek Cafe & Boat Dock on Mount Bonnell Road, will be closing after 68 years of thirst-quenching, music-fueled business. Note: It’s not a COVID thing; it’s just that the building’s been sold, see, and the new owners won’t be keeping the bar open …

And you know about the labor shortages in the Food & Beverage industry, right? Locally and nationally? Yeah, that’s why so many hospitality groups are holding job fairs lately. And why, for instance, Tso Chinese Delivery has ceased operating on Sundays until further notice.

Harsh times, n’est-ce pas?

Still, citizen: Eat as well as you can, tip like it’s going out of style, and watch out for those conniving pathogens.