Davila first moved to Austin from Edinburg, Texas after graduating high school. “I came up here in 2000 because both of my brothers lived here and I started playing in bands up here,” Davila tells the Chronicle. “I did SXSW for about five years and when I was 30 doing a corporate gig in sales, I was like, ‘Dude, I’m done with this.’ The music game is tough. Playing original music in Austin is super hard to do, as many people know. Barbecuing, food, and cooking in the kitchen was more of my speed as my secondary art, so I just went full throttle with it and started a food truck called Wunder Pig in 2014.”
Davila eventually came to the conclusion that he wanted to combine his love of music, nightlife, and barbecue into a bar that serves barbecue (or perhaps, a barbecue restaurant that also serves cocktails). “I knew that barbecue was always gonna be the catalyst to get me where I want to be. Alcohol sales were also important to me just to create that element of pairing cocktails and knowing which flavor profiles go well with certain meats. It’s one and the same as far being a craftsperson, whether it’s with alcohol or with barbecue, so I wanted to have an elevated approach in that area as well.”
Davila also realized that he wanted to incorporate his Mexican heritage into the concept as well. “A lot of the stuff in South Texas is in small towns. The Valley is a hodgepodge of small cities, with McAllen probably being the biggest there. Right now, they don’t have the clout or the media spotlight that we do [in Austin]. That’s why it’s super important for me to carry on those traditions. I wanted to bring that to the table and show people a little bit about what we used to have [in South Texas] as kids. Sundays we would have barbacoa tacos, we would go to the tortilleria and my dad would come back with these badass Mexican donuts and barbacoa, some lengua and pico de gallo. I’ve lived here [in Austin] longer than when I was there. So it was super important with this concept to have that representation of where I was from, because I feel like they don’t have that spotlight and they need some recognition.”
When we stopped by Black Gold to talk to Davila, we had their New Norteno brisket taco with some mac & cheese along with their vaquero beans. The brisket taco was a hefty piece of work; many jaded Austinites will see a $9 brisket taco on a menu and roll their eyes, expecting a smattering of meat in what would essentially be a taquito. But this taco was genuinely a hearty meal in and of itself.
The sides were also excellent, a far cry from the paltry quality and effort that many barbecue joints, even the legendary ones, put into their side dishes. That’s intentional, Davila explains.
“Because Austin has become a very big foodie town, comparable to Chicago, D.C., New York, San Francisco, or L.A, we’re in that running now where you do have to pay attention to even the quality of the sides and what you’re doing with the ingredients. A lot of people here are very critical so you always have to be on your A-game because this is the big leagues. Also, as a consumer, I want to have everything as good as the meat. You have to pay just as much attention to the sides and cocktails.”
“This isn’t a white tablecloth restaurant,” he continues. “I don’t want people to be intimidated and say, ‘Oh, they just have these super high dollar things.’ It’s a place with fine dining elements, but it’s Austin. You can come in here with flip flops, you don’t have to wear a blazer or anything like that. I wanted to have that approach where everybody and anybody is welcome here. When you go inside, you can go with your homies and have some drinks at the bar. If you want to go to the showroom corner and have a little date night with your special someone or whatever, we have that too. If you want to watch sports in the back, we’re gonna have football games and Austin FC, those types of things. Being a musician for many years, I want to have a stage out there and have some bands out there as well.”
With his twin smokers, dubbed Stevie Ray and Jimmie, pumping out dishes like the smoked and seared duck with poblano cream sauce along with choriqueso elk burgers and Big Red ice cream, Davila has brought to a formerly sleepy intersection in Crestview his dream of melding his South Texas heritage with his Central Texas way of life. “The flavors of Mexican food are a lot of people’s favorites,” he says. “Even if it’s a subconscious thing, it’s something that we want to bring to the table more to Austin and present it our way with an elevated culinary approach.”
This article appears in November 29 • 2024.
