A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I got an e-mail from the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz (320 E. Sixth) announcing that turkey and dressing with all the trimmings (plus leftovers to take home) would be an off-menu special during movies on Thanksgiving Day. I didn’t get the e-mail in time to get the info in my column for that week, and it turns out that was just as well. “We really underestimated how many people would go for that special,” Executive Chef Trish Eichelberger explained ruefully. “We sold out everything we had prepared during the first show that day!” Plans are in the works to repeat the offer on Christmas Day with many more servings ready for hungry holiday orphans who show up at the movies. Eichelberger says she’s loving the challenges presented by the newest Alamo outlet, such as feeding as many as 1,200 people per day on weekends out of a very efficient (translation: small) kitchen. She’s really looking forward to the eventual opening of the VIP lounges, where ticket upgrades will get folks comfy couch seating, plus access to special menu and wine-list options. No word yet on when those will be available… I spoke with Tina Maldonado at the original Hill-Bert’s Burgers (3303 N. Lamar, 452-2317) about why her family had opened another location in the same neighborhood within the past few months. She explained that earlier this year it looked as though Hill-Bert’s might be displaced from the prime strip of Lamar Boulevard real estate by a condo development, but the deal had fallen through. “We decided to take over the old Taco Bell at 1503 West 35th, just in case we had to move, so now we’re right here close together,” Maldonado told us last week. The original Hill-Bert’s has been on Lamar since 1973… If your family doesn’t have its own tamalada tradition during the holidays, don’t despair. Santa Rita Tex-Mex Cantina (1206 W. 38th, 419-7482) is preparing both chicken tomatillo and adobo pork tamales according to the treasured family recipes of chef Julio Dominguez. Just give them 24 hours’ notice, and they’ll pack up 1-pound packages of frozen tamales with a pint of sauce for $14 from Dec. 11 to 24… If you’re looking for culinary inspiration before entering the Gingerbread House Competition this weekend at the Texas Culinary Academy (www.tca.edu), be sure to stop by the lobbies of either the Hilton Austin Downtown (500 E. Fourth) or the Four Seasons (98 San Jacinto), and check out the elaborate gingerbread villages on display. At the Hilton, the presentation includes houses, castles, and snow-capped mountains with a miniature train running through the town, and it was created by kids from the Austin Children’s Shelter under the guidance of Hilton chefs. The 12 different buildings in the Four Seasons village were created by a team of eight pastry chefs and sold to sponsors, raising more than $5,000 for the Seton Shivers Cancer Center.
This article appears in December 7 • 2007.