Chef/restaurateur Ruben Rodriguez informed me last weekend that he and his family plan to close Evitas Botanitas (6400 S. First, 441-2424, www.evitasbotanitas.com) after dinner on Dec. 19. As readers of this column and longtime fans of the restaurant know, Ruben has been battling a brain tumor, and the restaurant has been for sale for more than a year. Though it looked as though he’d found a buyer this fall, that deal has fallen through. Rodriguez has been busy outfitting a catering trailer and plans to continue his popular catering operation, preparing food for weddings, parties, and festivals (look for them at the upcoming Zilker Tree Holiday Festival). During our conversation, both Ruben and Juanita expressed their appreciation for the support of loyal customers during their 21 years in business. They extend an invitation to all their friends to drop in to the restaurant during the next two weeks for some award-winning salsas and family hospitality… A multicity book tour brings bestselling author (Julie & Julia) and former Austinite Julie Powell back to town to sign copies of her new book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession (Little, Brown; $24.99), at BookPeople (603 N. Lamar) this Sunday, Dec. 6, at 5pm. Fans of Powell’s first book and this summer’s charming romantic comedy based on it will be in for a shock where the new work is concerned. “Cleaving” is one of a very few words in the English language with two opposite meanings, and both work as metaphors in Powell’s story, as she learns to butcher meat as an apprentice in a family-owned butcher shop in the Catskills in New York while cleaving to a marriage seriously threatened by self-inflicted cuts. The twinkling lights, idealized movie version of the Powells’ marriage is not a feature of this memoir – in fact, the bruised (and bruising) descriptions of Julie’s obsessive adulterous relationship with a former college lover are guaranteed to make you squirm. Though Powell’s ferocious self-revelation will make some readers uncomfortable, for me the book was saved by her depiction of the testosterone-infused camaraderie at Fleisher’s market and her emergence as a mature woman who discovered how things fit together by taking them apart. In a phone interview from her new cottage in the Catskills, Powell talked about how her experience working in the butcher shop made her a real meat snob. “Now if I don’t get meat from Fleisher’s or the Greenmarket so I know where and how it was raised, I just won’t eat it,” she says. Her arrival during Austin’s annual Eat Local Week couldn’t be better timed… So many invitations this week, what with the Face-Lift Unveiling Party at the Cedar Door (201 Brazos, 473-3712, www.cedardooraustin.com), the media party at the new Red’s Porch (3508 S. Lamar, 440-7337, www.redsporch.com), and the soft opening of the much-anticipated 24 Diner (Sixth & Lamar, www.24diner.com), all before the Eat Local Week whirlwind starts… The patriarch of one of Austin’s legendary merchant families has died. Austin natives Theodore Jabour and his identical twin brother, Arthur, became namesakes of and inspiration for the large local Twin Liquors chain that grew out of their family’s Downtown package stores and taverns. After a life defined by excellent customer and community service, Theodore Jabour passed away last week at the age of 88. We extend our sincere condolences to his entire extended family.
This article appears in December 4 • 2009.