AAPI Family Style Passports Debut, Soupleaf Opens, Sprinkles x Nguyen Coffee Supply Is Almost Too Good To Be True, National Pretzel Day Is Knot Happening, There’s Sotol and Bourbon and Cider, It’s Pasta Paisanos FTW, and More …

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 (totally verified) IRL eavesdroppings.

Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes, anyone?

Yes, citizen, it’s your “Food News Buffet” for the final week of April.

And this month isn’t finished with us yet, no – howdy there, 4/20! – but here comes May and a wonderful opportunity for dining, so we’ll shout a quick heads-up about how May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and you can purchase a Family Style Passport (sponsored by the Austin Asian American Community Health Initiative), a book of vouchers for specific items at 30 of Austin’s most delicious AAPI-owned restaurants …

Before that, it is still April, and the long-awaited Soupleaf Hot Pot (6929 Airport), a family-owned, all-you-can-eat hotpot smorgasbord, will be opening on Monday, April 24 …

And we note that Sprinkles bakery (3120 Palm Way, in Domain NORTHSIDE) has teamed up with Nguyen Coffee Supply to debut their first Vietnamese Coffee Cupcake – a decadent coffee cake, covered with frosting infused with Nguyen Coffee Supply's robust Loyalty blend, and filled with a creamy condensed-milk buttercream. [Note: See image at the top of this page.] Does that sound yum? We can corroborate: It’s about the best damn cupcake we’ve ever tasted, and they’ll be available for your delectation through May 14 …

And Wednesday, April 26, is National Pretzel Day – so of course your friendly doughpunchers at Easy Tiger will be offering their iconic giant pretzels for just $1, starting at noon at all locations, while supplies last …

The pretzels noted above may go best with beer, but we’ve got some stronger booze news for you, anyway: Desert Door Texas Sotol’s second Explorer Series release of the year, Lady of Spain, is now available! This limited edition is a relaunch of Desert Door's previous sherry cask sotol variation and is returning for a limited time only; you want to sample the exquisite stuff, stop by the distillery in Driftwood to try handcrafted cocktails featuring Lady of Spain – and know that you can buy full bottles, too, while supplies last. And Milam & Greene Whiskey out in Blanco is preparing to unveil Bobcat single barrel bourbon, the second release in their Wildlife Collection, a cask-strength whiskey that will be available exclusively on their website and in their distillery tasting room beginning at 3pm on Wednesday, April 26. And, look: Those Garrison Brothers, purveyors of the world’s finest bourbon, will be releasing their newest expression on Saturday, May 6, at their distillery out in Hye: Lady Bird, a straight bourbon infused with Texas wildflower honey and finished in a cognac cask. Bonus: The 114-proof bottles, which feature a Prairie Purple hand-dipped wax seal, will benefit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center – with $5 from the sale of each contributing to the preservation of native wildflowers and plants across North America. Tangentially, in a less potent and more apple-forward fashion, there’s a new Austin Eastciders x Pink Boots collaboration almost ready for quaffing: Lucy Glo Hopped Cider will be released at noon on Saturday, April 22, at the Austin Eastciders Collaboratory (979 Springdale) …

Tare's chef Michael Carranza is cooking up something highly edible with Calibrate

Let’s see – what else, what else? Well, there’s the Tare x Calibrate omakase on Thursday, of course … And the agaveheads in the crowd must already be aware of this weekend’s TequilaX festival happening Downtown, right? And then there’s chef Kyle Barker’s Hill Country dinner out at Vista Brewing on Wednesday … and Food editor Melanie Haupt reports on how Kimchi Rók and the Clifton Career Development School bring young chefs to the table … and A. Richmond tells us of a great way to simultaneously 1) walk a dog and 2) sip refreshing cocktails …

WUXTRY! Tuesday, May 2, will bring the latest iteration of the excellent Pasta Paisanos series at L'Oca d'Oro (1900 Simond). This ongoing culinary feat has already raised $35,000 for the Lilith Fund, and May’s dinner features a collaboration between L'Oca d'Oro’s Fiore Tedesco and Comedor’s chef Philip Speer, the two maestros presenting dishes that deliciously meld their acclaimed cooking styles.

Now eat as well as you can, tip like it’s going out of style, and keep on fighting the good fight.