Little Brother's Coffee, Koko x Tea Haus, Zymmo x House Wine, and More to Nourish the Soul

Here’s your Food News Buffet for the second week of October, culled from numerous PR releases, official posts, words on the digital street, and even the occasional (verified) IRL eavesdroppings.

Bubbles and Bulldozers, baby, Bubbles and Bulldozers!

We told you that Maria’s Taco Xpress was sold to an investment company, and that the ongoing coronavirus situation put a permanent kibosh on Kyoten Sushiko, but did you know that Matthew Bolick of Holdout Brewing and those local Wright Brothers (Grady and Matt) have opened a new shop on South Congress? It's called Little Brother. Yeah – it's not a copy of their Rainey Street joint: This new venue pushes damn good coffee. Ah, small mercies everywhere.

And it is that Halloweenish time of year again, pandemic or not, and so the flavor of pumpkin spice once more rears its overhyped head above the endless foodie susurrus. Thing is, that stuff actually tastes really good, doesn’t it? And we’d expect the fine doughmongers of Bakery Lorraine to release batch after batch of pumpkin spice macarons – which they are doing, yum – but we’re surprised and tickled to learn that Austin’s own Bao’d Up is greeting the season with … Pumpkin Pie Bao? Indeed: Soft, warm, pumpkin-spicy, just right for dessert – and loaded with pecans, too.

Also note that Jane Ko, the founder of Austin-based food and lifestyle blog A Taste of Koko, has teamed up with Airport Boulevard’s 101 by Tea Haus to host a pop-up featuring menu items inspired by Taiwanese night markets – starting Thu., Oct. 8, and running daily 11:30am-8pm. There’ll be special flavors of boba milk tea, a variety of tasty snacks, and a selection of bubble waffles, too. Say, will this limited-time treat also feature Instagrammable moments on the store front? Oh, c’mon, you know it will.

And new Lakeway restaurant The Gramercy opens, grandly, this Friday at 4pm, bringing a touch of wood-and-leather class to the Oaks at Lakeway center … and you’ll need to move that clicking-finger like lightning to snag a spot at the Pease Park Conservancy’s upcoming Bubbles and Bulldozers fête … and the folks behind the new chef-forward app Zymmo and that oenophilic crew at House Wine have joined forces to present a virtual dinner collaboration on Thu., Oct. 22, at 7pm, boasting a meal from chef Chase Gintner (formerly of Odd Duck, currently with Nomadic Dining ATX) with pairings by sommelier Blake Ethridge, and those two will informatively Zoom you through the meal as you indulge … and, luckily, the Wine & Food Foundation of Texas’ Nourish the Soul livestream-enhanced extravaganza of cuisine will run for two nights (albeit with a different lineup each night) on Oct. 22-23 … and, hewing more closely to the present moment (be here now, as Ram Dass told us), we’re bound by the code of journos-who-tell-you-about-the-best-stuff to remind everyone that the culinary savants of Bufalina are running a daily deli out of the abovementioned Wright Bros’ Brew & Brew.

So, then – bon appétit, y’all, and watch out for those ’ronas.