by Virginia B.Wood
Skyline
Grill
801 S. Congress 443-3700
Sunday-Thursday, 11am-10:30pm
Friday and Saturday, 11am-11pm
Bar until 12am every night
This classy little spot sits on a hill overlooking Town Lake and downtown
Austin. Skyline Grill joins several local eateries (Zoot, the original Kerbey
Lane, the Paggi House, Brio, Hyde Park Bar & Grill) that have found success
by turning older homes into small, charming restaurant venues. Skyline
operators John Thorsen and John Woolsey (two of the former Los Tres
Bobos) did much of the work on their new joint themselves, so they are
justifiably proud of the positive response they’re getting to the arches, the
sponge-painted walls, and the custom-rusted metal ornamentation in their
smallish dining room. The main dining room and bar at Skyline Grill are very comfortable with black
tables, booths, and comfortable, dark-stained teachers’ chairs. Though there is
no formal waiting area, expectant diners can sit at the small, well-appointed
bar and sip top shelf martinis and margaritas while waiting for a table. The
bar is also open ’til midnight for those who need a new South Austin spot just
to hang. Thorsen and Woolsey plan to enclose the two-level deck just out the
restaurant’s back door to expand their year-round seating. Plans to extend more
outdoor decking on the long property behind the restaurant should become
reality before spring.
The eclectic Skyline menu features regional Texas dishes and makes frequent
use of a stove-top grill smoker that Woolsey invented specifically for the
restaurant. Several meats are rubbed with herbs or marinated and then smoked
over fruit woods (apple, pecan, cherry, peach) to add distinctive flavor. The
menu is an interesting mix of game meats, seafood and vegetarian dishes, and
salad and sandwich offerings. Side dishes such as cascabel garlic mashed
potatoes, smoke corn pudding, twice-stuffed sweet potatoes and smoke-grilled
vegetables serve as accompaniments.
On my first Skyline visit, the menu offered so many attractive choices that I
had a difficult time deciding which to order. I finally opted for the Venison
Chicken-Fried Steak ($7.95), curious to see how the J*ONE*S Ranch venison from
nearby Driftwood would fare in the traditional Texas preparation. I was not
disappointed. The venison was tender and succulent in a light, crackly crust,
napped with a tangy cream gravy. The cascabel garlic mashed potatoes were
golden and creamy (Yukon Golds, perhaps?) with the occasional zing of the
little red peppers, but I didn’t detect much garlic. The sweet corn flavor in
the smoked corn pudding was really good but I was hoping for a creamier
texture.
The most intriguing side dish at our table that evening was the twice-stuffed
sweet potato, so we ordered one out of curiosity. A whole baked sweet potato
arrived standing up on the plate with a crispy crown of brown sugar and nuts. I
was fascinated and couldn’t wait to find out how they had scooped out the
potato and re-stuffed it without damaging the skin, and still gotten it to
stand on end. Alas, the potato we had was not once or twice stuffed, it was
just an erect baked sweet potato with a sweet, crunchy topping.
Twice now I’ve had dining companions who only wanted a small meal and the
Skyline had plenty of options to satisfy them. One friend chose the Smoked
Onion and Garlic Soup au Gratin ($3.50) and a small House Salad ($2.25) and was
very pleased. The soup is cheesy and hearty, a very substantial small meal. The
crisp, fresh salad is a melange of young greens; radicchio, arugula, frisee and
lettuce augmented with exquisite little yellow tear-drop tomatoes which may
have come from the small garden out back. Another good light meal featured the
Smoke-Grilled Vegetable Sandwich ($4.75) with melted fontina cheese and avocado
aioli paired with the same small salad and a choice of one of the five homemade
salad dressings.
Two burgers are offered here: The Certified Angus Beef Burger ($4.95) with
your choice of American, Fontina, or Texas chevre cheeses and a South Texas
Venison Burger ($5.95). Either one should cure your craving. The venison shows
up again in the popular Game Ravioli ($5.50 as an appetizer, $8.50 as an
entr�e) with a choice of two sauces, gorgonzola cream sauce on the
appetizer, and a smoked tomato basil cream sauce on the entr�e. The
large pasta pillows are perfectly finished with creamy sauce and herbs but the
filling was a little on the dry side the evening I tried them.
After only a few visits, I’ve yet to find something on the dessert menu here
that really sends me, but the restaurant is young and things are still
evolving. There are many more items on the appetizer and entr�e menus
that have caught my eye such as the Apple Pecan Smoked Rabbit and Black Bean
Tostada ($6.50), the Shiner Bock Honey Roasted Chicken ($7.75), and the Cherry
Pecan Smoked Quail ($8.95). Near South Austin has long been in need of a
comfortable neighborhood restaurant with interesting food and it looks as
though Skyline Grill will fill that niche perfectly. n
This article appears in November 10 • 1995 and November 10 • 1995 (Cover).