Food-o-File
Texas, New York
By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., April 24, 2015
Just as everyone from Food & Wine magazine to Jimmy Kimmel is focusing on Austin food, the word from New York City is that Tex-Mex restaurants are all the rage there this spring. Based on all the blog and print coverage, it appears there are actual Texans involved, which means there could be authentic tastes of home in the Big Apple. Turns out the Bob Armstrong Dip from Matt's El Rancho is a revelation to New Yorkers at a place in Manhattan called Javelina. We're told that owner and Dallas native Matt Post and his executive chef, Richard Caruso, held menu tastings for New York Texpats while the restaurant was in development, and hired Austin's Joel Mozersky to design the interiors. UT grad and 24 Diner alum Christopher Skillern is general manager and beverage director at Javelina, and he tells us he's keeping it real by hiring as many Texans as possible. Skillern has Shiner Bock on tap, Topo Chico, and Texas-distilled spirits at the bar, and he's busy turning New Yorkers on to a version of Curra's avocado margarita and that black bean delight known as Mag Mud from the Magnolia Cafes.
San Antonio chef Jesse Perez of Arcade Midtown Kitchen at the Pearl Brewery is the creative force behind the food at Oxido, the prototype of a potential fast-casual chain that's packing them in down in the Flatiron District, aiming to take a big bite out of Chipotle's burrito. Homesick Texan blogger and cookbook author Lisa Fain designed and oversees the menu at El Original, a Tex-Mex spot in Hell's Kitchen from ex-Ft. Worthian Michael Ginsberg, former Austin music venue owner Paul Oveisi, and Morgan Robinson, formerly of El Real in Houston. The menu there offers soft, crispy, and puffy tacos, plus enchiladas, combination plates, bowls of red, and sizzling fajitas, with flan, sopapillas, tres leches cake, and pralines for dessert.
Fresh off his win on Bravo's Best New Restaurant, former Austin chef Gabe Thompson hosted a pop-up Tex-Mex brunch at his L'Apicio, the East Village Italian eatery already known for his liberal use of Texas chiles and spices. His menu included migas, fajitas, and chicken-fried steak with chorizo gravy and pepper jack biscuits. Can't help but wonder if he served the Frito pie that Tom Colicchio and the East Coast judges on BNR didn't recognize as a prime example of authentic Tex-Mex regional cuisine when Morgan's Brooklyn Barbecue served it during an earlier round?
