Food-o-File
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood remembers Ninfa Laurenzo, the founder of the popular Ninfa's Tex-Mex chain, who passed away last week, and updates readers on the culinary news around Austin.
By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., June 29, 2001
In Memoriam
Legendary Mexican restaurateur Ninfa Laurenzo, founder of the Houston-based Ninfa's chain, passed away last week after a second battle with cancer. As a young widow with five children to feed, Ninfa began her long career in the restaurant business in a small cafe on Navigation Street in an unsavory area of Houston in 1973. Her restaurant became famous for her signature green table sauce, margarita cocktails, soft, tender, homemade tortillas, and a South Texas vaquero dish known as fajitas. Ninfa's restaurants were greatly responsible for the wide popularization of fajitas, a dish we now take for granted in all Tex-Mex restaurants. The Laurenzo restaurant empire eventually grew from the one small family restaurant to several suburban outlets around Houston and, finally, to a statewide chain that bore her name. The rapid expansion ultimately proved to be a bad business plan, and the company was forced into bankruptcy in the mid-Nineties. Most of the restaurants were purchased by the Austin-based Cafe Serrano's chain. Two of Laurenzo's sons, Tom and Gino Laurenzo, operated Ninfa's on 6th until about 18 months ago, when it, too, was sold to Serrano's. While the food in the restaurants that currently operate under her name bears little resemblance to Mrs. Laurenzo's original family recipes, she should always be remembered as a pioneer who made great culinary contributions to the Mexican restaurant industry in Texas.
Bocaditos
Partners Stewart Scruggs and Mark Paul celebrated the opening of their new fine dining restaurant venture, Wink (1014 N. Lamar, 482-8868) on June 11 and are receiving a warm welcome from downtown and West Austin neighborhood diners. The cozy 46-seat dinner house is located in the space originally occupied by Castle Hill Cafe behind Whole Earth Provision Company and offers plenty of parking, a rare commodity in the downtown restaurant market. The affordably priced menu changes almost daily, according to Scruggs, and is designed to promote the sampling of many dishes. "With a restaurant this small, it's almost like cooking for a dinner party every day," Scruggs said last week. "It's a dream come true for us." Gary Thompson has put together a wine list offering many wines by the glass, and the initial buzz on Wink is very favorable. On a related note, at the same time former Brio employees Scruggs and Paul debuted their new venture, Brio Vista owners Larry Foles and Guy Villavasco quietly closed that Northwest Austin restaurant and announced it will reopen in the fall as the second outlet of their popular downtown seafood house, Eddie V's Edgewater Grille (301 E. Fifth, 472-1860). Eddie V's should be a big hit in the Arboretum area as well In honor of their 10th anniversary this year, the award-winning Zoot American Bistro & Wine Bar (509 Hearn, 477-6535) has added a new feature to their lineup. Zoot is now serving a $28.50 prix fixe menu daily from 5:30-7pm. "Our thought was that people would like to turn off MoPac, drive three blocks west on Lake Austin Boulevard, and settle in for a terrific meal rather than fight the traffic," said Executive Chef John Maxwell. The early three-course dinner would also be a great pre-show choice for diners who plan to attend plays, concerts, or other performances Hungry South Austinites have a new food delivery option now that Texicalli Grille (534 E. Oltorf, 442-2799, 442-4258) delivers dinner. They'll fax you a copy of the menu or you can check it out at www.texicalli.com.