An Austin Bakery Honors Moo Deng the Adorable Baby Hippo With a Cookie

QUACK’S HAS A MOO DENG COOKIE. The Austin bakery baked up a sugar cookie in the shape of the beloved baby pygmy hippo who lives in a Thailand zoo and has rightly so won the hearts of everyone. The cookie is only available for a “limited time,” per its Instagram, which was posted on September 25. A staffer for the bakery just told Eater there are three cookies left at its Mueller location and eight at the South Menchaca Road one, at the time of the publishing of this article. So. Get them ASAP.

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Austin bakery shutter

East Austin bakery Wolf & Wheat closed down in mid-August so that Scratch Restaurants pastry chef Margarita Kallas-Lee and her team could focus on fulfilling baked goods for the rest of the company’s restaurants — Pasta|Bar ATX, NADC Burger, and Sushi by Scratch.

Texas Instagram bakeries are still going strong

Former Eater Austin associate editor and now-freelancer Erin Russell wrote about the wonderful home bakers selling their fantastic baked goods through Instagram for Texas Monthly. This includes Austin baker Stacy Kiley of the Interrupted Baker, who makes these wonderful pan-Asian-ish baked goods.

New downtown Austin hotel restaurant and bar

The replacement restaurants for San Antonio chef Steve McHugh’s first Austin places within the downtown hotel the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue Austin are opening this month. There’s the Tradition, the street-level restaurant serving an all-day American and New American menu Breakfast includes brisket omelets; lunch with sandwiches such as smash burgers and seared tuna; and dinner with steak frites, rotisserie chicken, and short ribs braised in Lone Star beer. This replaced Luminaire. And the Heydey Social Club, the eighth-floor bar with drinks and European-ish snacks, such as whipped herbed ricotta and honey with warm bread. This replaced La Bis. Friday, September 27.

Leading the restaurants is new executive chef Iain Reddick, who was most previously the executive sous chef of the nearby downtown Austin hotel the Driskill before he joined the Hyatt Centric in April.

Both open on Friday, September 27. The Tradition’s hours are from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Heyday’s hours are from 3 to 11 p.m. Sunday and Monday, 3 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Friday, and 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday.

Jane Yun

American publications love Barbs B Q

The national accolades for Lockhart barbecue restaurant Barbs B Q continue. This time, the smoked meats joint led by pitmaster Chuck Charnichart, was the only Central Texan place on the New York Times’ 2024 restaurant list of what the writers deem as the best dining spots now, a mixture of not-quite-new and new destinations.

The best Texas taco is in Austin, per Yelp

Online review platform Yelp picked out the single best taco restaurant in every state of 2024 and Texas’s was Austin truck Cuantos Tacos.

New Texas meats show

Austin meat personality (it’s a thing) Jess Pryles is now hosting a new television show, Hardcore Carnivore on the Outdoor Channel, which premiered in September. The episodes explore all sorts of meat procedures and uses, from ranching to hunting to butchering to cooking, including dove hunting in South Texas, cattle raising, and a barbacoa festival in Fort Worth.

Tracking Austin food truck news

The Dawson neighborhood location of beer garden and cafe Cosmiic Coffee off South Congress has some new food trucks on-site. There’s Wow Poke as of late August and chicken/burger truck Biggie’s Yardbird (run by another Austin alfresco bar Armadillo Den) as of early September, and then pan-Asian truck East Side King also in late September, which left East Austin bar High Noon in mid-November.

Staff shuffles

Mylk Collective

San Antonio’s Hotel Emma added a new executive chef earlier this week: Geronimo Lopez, who had previously run San Antonio Peruvian restaurant Botika, which closed in August. He replaced previous executive chef Ned Elliott, who Austin knows as the founder of New American restaurant Foreign & Domestic (now owned and run by Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley since 2017. Elliott had also been the culinary director of Proper Hospitality in 2022.

Downtown Austin high-end cocktail bar Prélude added a new team member this month. Its new lead bartender is Terrance Robson, who previously worked at Austin's downtown speakeasy Here Nor There. As part of his role, the bar has a new cocktail menu of simple yet high-quality drinks. There’s the Strawberry and Cream made with clarified milk, cognac, brandy, rum, Barolo wine, and strawberries; and the Corn and Rice made with tequila, cornflakes, toasted rice, chocolate, Earl Grey tea, and soda. The bar also extended its evening hours to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Wednesday and 1 a.m. Thursday through Sunday, and is now allowed seating on its second and third floors.

Texas County Judge accused of racism by Austin restaurateur

New Texas publication The Barbed Wire reported on a Texas county judge who allegedly left a racist comment on a social media post about an Austin restaurateur. Austin Latina restaurateur Gabriela Bucio — behind Austin restaurants and bars like Gabriela’s and Taquero Mucho — was featured in an article by KXAN, which was posted on its Facebook page. Nueces County Judge Jack Pulcher allegedly left a racist comment, comparing Bucio to the television series Ozark, which is about a family laundering money for a drug cartel. Bucio noticed the comment and replied back, per Barbed, writing “Racism has no place in our society, especially not from those entrusted with upholding justice. Your comment is deeply inappropriate and unprofessional.” The comment was deleted, but Bucio shared a screencap on her Instagram. Pulcher’s court manager Laura Salinas said his wife Celina wrote the comment, calling her a “jokester.” The publication reports that she is going to file something about it with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Tracking Austin food and drink events

Very awesome Asian cocktail pop-up Daijoubu is hosting a weekend-long shindig, which will be one of its last in Austin for a bit because one of its co-founders, Caer Maiko of Drink.Well is leaving the city soon. Maiko (who is leaving Drink.Well and moving to Los Angeles) and co-founder Sharon Yeung (who now works out of Seattle) are taking over downtown bar Small Victory for a two-day cocktail event full of familiar drinks from previous events. It takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29 from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. each day for walk-in services only. The two started Daijoubu back in 2019.

Austin Coffee Festival is taking place this weekend, full of exhibitors and roasters (including a bunch of familiar Austin names like Sightseer, Greater Good, Creature, etc.) offering coffee, tea, chai samples, and more. There’s also a latte art competition hosted by Austin Coffee Collective. It runs from Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29 at the Palmer Events Center. General admission tickets are $29 for half-day sessions each day; all-day VIP tickets are $58.

East Austin vegan/gluten-free ice cream shop Gati is celebrating its fourth anniversary with a market and new menu this weekend. Dishes include the pumpkin affogato served with a pumpkin pie ice cream and the apple cinnamon latte. Its older sibling restaurant Thai Fresh will also serve food from its food truck. It takes place on Sunday, September 29 from 3 to 7 p.m.

East Austin cocktail bar Daydreamer is celebrating its first anniversary with a food and drink-filled party. On-site pizzeria truck Allday Pizza will serve pizza and cake, there will be a DJ set by Vegan Leather, the bar will sling oysters and attempt a Champagne fountain, and much more. It runs all day on Sunday, September 29 with Allday’s service starting at 2 p.m. and oysters at 4 p.m.

The Clarksville location of seafood restaurant Garbo’s is hosting a lobster boil this weekend with the seafood boil pop-up Let’s Geaux Boil. The meal comes with a whole lobster, corn, potatoes, shrimp, and clams. Tickets are $125 for adults and $50 for children 12 years old and younger, with advanced tickets available online. It takes place on Sunday, September 29 from 3 to 8 p.m.

East Austin wine bar Apt 115 is hosting a guest chef for a Sunday dinner this weekend. French restaurant Justine’s executive chef Manuel Rocha will be making a seven-course meal for three seatings (one of which is already sold out) with available wine pairings for purchase. Tickets are $100 with seatings at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sunday, September 29.

Austin sake brewery Texas Sake Co. is hosting what it is describing as an Octoberfest month but for its boozy fermented rice beverage. Saketoberfest runs from Saturday, September 28 through Saturday, October 5 with food, drinks, events, bottles, and more. There are ticketed events on Saturday, September 28, and Saturday, October 5 with free RSVPs or $25 tickets with a four-sake flight and raffle entry.