Food-O-File

While Austin can't really claim to be the birthplace of the breakfast taco, we're now nationally known for the breadth and depth of our soul-satisfying offerings. Whether it's at a tiny roadside taco shack, funky trailer, mom-and-pop brick-and-mortar taqueria, busy coffee shop, or well-loved local restaurant – this town knows good tacos! So the owners of one of our popular local taco icons, Roberto Espino­sa and Eric Wilkerson of Tacodeli, are challenging Austinites to create a new taco for their menu, just in time for their 13th anniversary. Post the recipe for your most mouth-watering, outrageous, Austin­ta­tious taco idea at www.facebook.com/tacodeli, or tweet recipes to them @tacodeli during the weekend of Nov. 29-Dec. 2. The winner gets a $100 Tacodeli gift card, and the signature recipe will be posted in our On the Range blog and prepared at all three Tacodeli locations for the entire month of January. Here's your opportunity for local taco immortality – go for it!

Now that the Christmas season is upon us, gingerbread villages are popping up in hotel lobbies all over Downtown. One of the most elaborate and detailed works of art has been created by Four Seasons Executive Pastry Chef Javier Franco and his talented crew. The very Austin-centric village is in the lobby, and you can bid on each of the individual houses, with proceeds to benefit Shivers Cancer Center. The hotel is hosting open houses from 5-6pm, Mon.-Wed., Dec. 3-5, with appearances by Santa Claus, sparkling wine, hot apple cider, and cookies.

Adam Weisberg, the driving force behind the homegrown Zen Japanese Food Fast chain, has reimagined his SoCo outlet and rebooted it this week as Lucky Robot Japan­ese Kitchen (1303 S. Congress). The unique new spot offers an inviting array of Tokyo-inspired dishes, a staff clad in trendy, Harajuku-style outfits, and handy digital-ordering iPads for customer convenience. Look for our reaction to the media opening on our blog.

My Chronicle colleagues were disappointed when the handy little gourmet-to-go shop on the northbound I-35 access road not far from the office closed a couple of years ago, so we're happy to announce that GoGo Gourmet is back in the retail business in the former Fricano's Deli outlet north of campus (104-C E. 31st). They're offering food to go and lots of catering options.

The spiffy little brick-and-mortar outlet of Austin Daily Press (1900 E. MLK) is the newest tenant at the emerging culinary destination on the corner of MLK and Chicon, just behind the Wet Whistle. They're making very interesting sandwiches, with house-made and from-scratch ingredients, Tuesday through Sunday.

Wink alums Dirk Miller (sommelier) and Matthew Taylor (chef) have created Austin's newest supper club/pop-up restaurant concept, glass2plate. We missed their first public event, a midnight brunch at Aviary over Thanksgiving weekend, but we'll be keeping an eye out for their future offerings at www.glass2plate.com.

Looking forward to the Communities in Schools Food for Thought event at the COTA track on Thursday – can't wait to finally see the facilities.