by Virginia B. Wood
Austin weekends don’t get much busier than this one. Chabad House is sponsoring
the second annual Chanukah Bazaar at the Renaissance Stouffer Hotel. The
opening gala is at 7pm Saturday evening, November 16; tickets are $75. “The
entire meal will be glatt kosher,” says organizer Dawn Weiner.
Renaissance catering coordinator Linda Pool says that the hotel staff will
serve certified Kosher food prepared at Chabad House. Gala guests will also
have the first opportunity to shop at the Bazaar’s 70-100 vendor booths, and
enjoy the music of Peter Himmelman, headline entertainer for the evening. The
Bazaar — comprising vendor booths for gift shopping, children’s educational
activities, and live entertainment — will be open to the public, Sunday,
November 17, 10am-6pm; admission $3. Kosher food offerings will include latkes,
blintzes, pickles, corned beef, pastrami, kosher baked goods from the Randall’s
kosher bakery and kosher foods gift baskets from HEB. If you’re hungry for
baked goodies just like your bubbeh used to make, the local Hadassah
chapter will have a bake sale booth with delectables like rugulach and
challah. For more info, contact Dawn Weiner at 459-3453… Downtown this
weekend, the third annual Texas Brewer’s Festival will be serving up more than
50 different varieties of handcrafted beers from Texas micro-breweries and
Austin brewpubs at the corner of Fourth & Colorado. The festival runs
noon-10pm on Saturday, and 1-8pm on Sunday. Admission is free, but to sample
the beers, participants must show a valid ID and buy a festival mug for $3.
Winners of the Brew Ha-Ha Homebrewers Contest will be announced from the music
stage about 6pm on Saturday. Good food, good music and safe rides home will be
available all weekend See the pullout section in this issue for more
information… The Gateway Whole Foods has scheduled a Taste Adventure on
November 15-16 with chefs from Stelline, Jean Luc’s, Mars, Bitter End, Belgian
Restaurant, Copper Tank, Coyote Cafe, Canyon Cafe, Cafe Josie, Spiazzo’s,
Jean-Pierre’s and the Whole Foods Market Deli. Chefs will prepare signature
dishes with Whole Foods products and chat with shoppers. On November 19,
Gateway will present macrobiotic cooking expert Elizabeth Ortiz with her ideas
for a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner from 6-8pm… Chef/owner Rino Lanzalotti
of Bottega della Pasta reports that he has closed the retail end of his
business at 4201 S. Congress and is now strictly a wholesale operation. Look
for his handmade pastas, ravioli and gnocchi at local restaurants, Whole Foods
and Central Market… After more than 5 years, chef Charlie Mayes has left
Gilligan’s and will open his Cafe Josie in the old West End Cafe location
sometime soon… Jeffrey’s executive chef David Garrido was chosen as one of 4
finalists out of 200 chefs who entered the Maple Leaf Farms Duck Recipe
contest. He’s just returned from cooking for 30 national judges at Rockefeller
Center in NYC with a $1,000 prize for his recipe for Duck Nachos… Louie’s 106
chef Joe Buley will teach cooking classes at the restaurant on two Saturdays —
Nov. 16 and Dec. 14 — 11:30am-2pm. Call 476-2881 to register… A drive down
S. First reveals that there will soon be a Golden Buffet Chinese restaurant in
the former Spaghetti Warehouse location and that ForRay’s has also gone out of
business — their location is for rent.
This article appears in November 15 • 1996 and November 15 • 1996 (Cover).