Holy Roller Closes, the Brew Brotha Ferments, Launderette Loves You for Voting, and More

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

Celebrated pastry chef and restaurateur Callie Speer is closing Holy Roller, her Downtown outpost of culinary excellence and rock-and-roll exuberance, due to – well, c’mon, you know what it’s due to, Zoomface: These lousy ’ronas and our country’s fraught response to them. Speer and company, who’ve steered that Roller to local glory since 2017, will hold one last badass brunch this weekend and then we’ll just have to wait and see what wonderments the lady unleashes next …

By now you’ve heard that Mother’s Cafe is closing, too, leaving Hyde Park bereft of its landmark vegetarian loveliness. This sad news was recently foreshadowed, kind of, in Jessi Cape’s feature on the longtime eatery, in which co-owner John Silberberg had much wisdom and poignant news to relate …

We’re happier to note that Cicerone-certified go-getter Shannon Harris, aka The Brew Brotha, moves ever closer to bringing his Urban Jungle Brewing dreams to fruition, preparing to flood a new brand of hopsy quaffs into the local beerscape and beyond via the only Black-owned brewery in Austin …

Will Harris eventually locate his company in Southeast Austin, we wonder – in that corner formed by Ben White and I-35? Because the new Meanwhile Brewing Co. (at 3901 Promontory Point) just began their fierce industry in that burgeoning neighborhood, and the mighty Independence sudsmongers are right nearby, and isn’t there some saying about “brewery loves company” … ?

We already told you that Hopdoddy’s new location in Plaza Saltillo is now serving up their popular array of burgers and shakes and so on, and they’re collaborating with HAAM for live music weekends … but you should also know about these five new burger joints in Austin (one of them’s vegan, omg) if you care about such delicious things.

Launderette is offering a free beer for the next two Fridays (during lunch service), to any sterling citizen who’s got an “I Voted” sticker to show ’em. Perfect time to get yourself a fried chicken sammich or a Plancha burger and wash it down with some gratis brewski, n’est-ce pas?

And, speaking of, Launderette’s also part of the current Tuft & Needle deal. WHUT? Listen: that modern af (or: “digitally native”) mattress company, Tuft & Needle, is cleverly promoting itself by teaming with local restaurants to add free high-end pastries to whatever food orders you make at certain places on certain days. We’re catching this promotion mid-stride, but look: On Wednesday (Oct. 21), they’ll add a decadent chocolate chip cookie to your order from Easy Tiger; on Thursday (Oct. 22), they’re pumping up the desserty goodness at Mañana; and on Friday (Oct. 23), there’s Launderette again, being all extra-for-free with cookies during lunch and dinner to-go ordering. Word to the wise.

And if we’re just going on about good food right now, we’d damn sure better mention what Olamaie is doing with their biscuits and some of this town’s best pastry chefs through Nov. 22 … and give you a heads-up about Lenoir’s second event in their take-home Wine Dinner Series, featuring a four-course meal from chef Todd Duplechan that’s paired with three full bottles from William Chris Vineyards. And, the main course is braised goat, eggplant, and curry leaf? Oh my. Note: That’s coming up on Oct. 30, so you might wanna be quick with your reservation-clickin’ finger … and of course we've already raised a hearty Italian huzzah about what that L'Oca d'Oro is up to right now …

Also: Whether you’re skilled enough to do decent barbecue yourself or you’re grabbing some to-go from the likes of talented locals, the condiments now available from Brothel Sauce Company (run in conjunction with the Old Coupland Inn & Dance Hall by a woman named, of all things, Abbey Road) will take your meal’s success to Levelland. Or, no, wait – we mean, take it to the next level. Sorry, but the flavor of Brothel’s “Harlot” variety in particular – a blueberry-inflected sauce – is so mind-alteringly good that we can’t cliche properly. Figures that Miss Road’s Ribeye Jerky, too, is the real deal – savory chunks of dried and just-spicy-enough beef, as opposed to most of the weirdly textured shreds of whatever you find in typical convenience-store circumstances, tell you what. What it is, is a handy pouch of meaty yum.

(Regardless if it’s large or small, it’s still meaty yum.)

Now eat as well as you can, citizen, and watch out for those ’ronas!