Central Texas restaurateur Bud Royer figured that having pies from Royers Round Top Cafe (www.royersroundtopcafe.com) featured on the Food Network was likely to provide a good boost for his mail-order pie business. He even overhauled his Web site in anticipation of a surge in business. However, Royer had no way of knowing what would ultimately come of the cafe’s Labor Day weekend TV exposure. Whole Foods Market‘s Southwest region Vice-President Seth Sutzman happened to see the episode of Jamie and Bobby Deen‘s Road Tasted program that included a segment on Royers Cafe. Sutzman and his wife immediately hopped in the car and set off for tiny Round Top to try the pies for themselves. The upshot of the Road Tasted appearance and Sutzman’s road trip is that Royer’s pies will be sold at Whole Foods Markets in Austin beginning this month. Preparing enough pies for the cafe, the mail-order business, and Whole Foods will be quite an undertaking. In order to make it happen, Royer has entered into a partnership with Austin’s Meals on Wheels & More (www.mealsonwheelsandmore.org) and American YouthWorks (www.americanyouthworks.org) that he’s calling the Austin Pie Empowerment Project. Here’s how it will work: The MOW&M kitchen in East Austin is empty in the afternoons, and CEO Dan Pruett will make it available to Royer for baking pies. Royer has arranged with AYW founder Richard Halpin to hire youngsters from the charter school to staff the pie kitchen. Royer will donate a percentage of profit for every pie sold in the stores and the mail-order operation to MOW&M and AYW. Pie lovers get delicious desserts for the holidays and the opportunity to support agencies that provide vital services to our community in the bargain. What a sweet deal for all concerned!… Kate Caswell has recently taken over management of the commercial kitchen at 917 W. 12th formerly known as Gina’s Kitchen. Caswell is putting her UT degree in child development and years of food service experience to work in a business called Cookabilities (444-2665, www.cook abilities.com), which offers cooking classes and cooking birthday parties especially designed for kids from ages 4 to 16. The convenient downtown kitchen will house Caswell’s new project and continue to provide rental space to chefs wishing to teach cooking classes as well as caterers or culinary entrepreneurs who need kitchen space on an hourly basis… November should be a busy month for restaurant openings Downtown. The Dallas invasion of the Second Street District continues with the much-advertised opening of III Forks Steakhouse (Lavaca & Cesar Chavez, 474-1776) which features USDA Prime steaks and seafood for dinner six nights a week. Look for Will Packwood‘s Cibo (918 Congress, 478-3663) to begin serving coffee and pastries in the mornings and Venetian specialties for lunch and dinner just any day now. Bess Bistro on Pecan (500 W. Sixth, 477-2377), located a few steps below street level in the 1920s-era Stratford Arms building, should be open by midmonth with chefs Breton Childs and Chris Howard on the range. Still no definite opening dates on the Woodland (1716 S. Congress) or Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue & Chophouse (West Second & Guadalupe), but we’ll keep you posted.
This article appears in November 3 • 2006.