Chef Phillip Frankland Lee, the Michelin-starred chef behind Pasta | Bar and Sushi by Scratch restaurants, teamed with professional skateboarder Neen Williams to open Not a Damn Chance Burger, at 1007 E. Sixth in the former Spartan Pizza location.
NADC began as a popup at Idle Hands on Rainey Street and then opened a location in Chicago before coming back home to Austin (Matt Wolski, who owns Idle Hands and several other places around town, is also involved in their East Sixth restaurant/bar).
The menu at NADC is simple: A burger with American cheese, secret sauce, “tamed jalapeños,” onions, and pickles. NADC emphasizes Texas Wagyu beef sourced from Gatesville – even the fries are cooked in Wagyu tallow.
The hip-yet-unpretentious burger joint seats 20 people and is located next to Pasta | Bar and Wolf and Wheat, a popular bakery owned by Margarita Kallas-Lee (Philip’s wife and a multiple Michelin-starred pastry chef).
Lee is glad to be located next door to his wife’s bakery and points out that his former location on Rainey Street precluded many Austinites from checking out his burgers. “I had so many friends who found out I was opening on East Sixth and told me, ‘Thank God! There was no way I was going to Rainey Street!’”
We stopped by during their opening and had the namesake NADC Burger as well as the mezcal Disco Flip cocktail. Both were great, and the fact that NADC will stay open until 3am on the weekends promises to be a boon for the area; additionally, this scumbag hipster writer guarantees that the PB&J special – a burger, a PBR, and a shot of Jameson for $20, available from 11pm to close – will most definitely be a popular deal.
NADC Burger is open from noon to midnight Monday through Thursday and Sundays, and noon to 3am Fridays and Saturdays.
This article appears in Gift Guide 2023.
