Bitter End Credit: Photo By John Anderson

Saba Blue Water Cafe

208-D W. Fourth, 478-7222

Monday-Friday, 4pm-2am; Saturday, 5pm-2am

www.sabacafe.com

At this stylish Warehouse District hotspot named for a Caribbean island, nibble (or fill up) on a variety of interesting small plates of pan-island-style food, all reasonably priced (most dishes are $7). During Happy Hour, five plates are half-price; the best bargain is the enormous platter of crispy coriander calamari. Other winners are masa-crusted fried oysters served on yucca chips, traditional mu shu pork, and spicy shrimp-and-pork potstickers. — MM Pack

This article appears in March 15 • 2002.

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MM Pack is a food writer/historian and private chef who divides her time between Austin and San Francisco. A regular contributor to The Austin Chronicle and Edible Austin, she’s been published in Gastronomica, The San Francisco Chronicle, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink in America, Nation’s Restaurant News, Scribner's Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, The Dictionary of Culinary Biography, and Southern Foodways Alliance’s Cornbread Nation 1.

Mick Vann is a retired Austin chef who is a food writer and restaurant critic, cookbook author, restaurant consultant, and recipe developer. He moonlights as a University of Texas horticulturist with a propensity for ethnic eats and international food, particularly of the Asian persuasion, but he also knows his way around a plate of soul food or barbecue.

Rachel Feit is an archaeologist by trade who worked her way through college in kitchens in Chicago and Austin before discovering that dishing up words was more satisfying that dishing up meals. She has been writing about food and restaurants for The Austin Chronicle for more than a decade, but still loves to cook.

Wes Marshall is the author of What's a Wine Lover To Do? (Artisan) and The Wine Roads of Texas (Maverick), as well as the Executive Producer of the PBS television series of the same name. Wes has written for The Austin Chronicle since 1999, covering wine, cocktails, food, and travel.