Question number two from dinner last night: what Austin restaurants do you miss?
I’ll start:
- This isn’t really fair, as the restaurant still exists and there’s continuity. But I miss the original Gumbo’s/Yoli’s Jambalaya/Mama Roux. It may be more fair to say that I miss Yoli and Michael.
- There was a place on North Lamar, between Rundberg and Parmer, called Captain Tom’s (something or other) that did North Carolina style barbecue. I loved that place; I ate there at least once a week when they were open. Ross’ Old Austin Cafe is there now.
- There was another place on 6th Street that I didn’t eat at very often, but would go to with friends of mine; they had 2 for 1 chicken fried steak on Tuesday night, and my friend RoadRich would always get a homemade cherry Coke. (This was back before Coca-Cola bottled cherry Coke.) I think it was right at that 6th and Guadalupe corner, but I can’t recall the name. I know it was a sushi place for a while, and I think a French place as well…
- The Filling Station, when it was good. Mostly for Clyde’s Birthday Party.
- Lawrence suggested the original Night Hawk Steakhouse at 290 and I-35, where Texas Land and Cattle is now.
- There was an Italian buffet place called Valentino’s that went through two locations on Burnet. I’m not sure if I’d call it good, but it was reasonably priced for our budgets at the time.
- Lone Star Cafe, when it was good.
- The Alvin Ord’s chain of sandwich shops.
- I kind of miss the Thai Kitchen off of William Cannon, but I don’t go down that way much any more. And there is some continuity with the one on Guadalupe, so again, I’m not sure that counts.
- I sort of miss The Old Spaghetti Warehouse. But what I really mean by that is I miss the old Old Spaghetti Warehouse that I first went to as a little kid, where you could get spaghetti with cheese sauce or with a mushroom butter sauce or both combined, and they had really good bread and where I had my first expresso. The Old Spaghetti Warehouse in Austin went fairly far downhill over the years, plus parking was a b—ch, and I wasn’t that sorry to see it go. (And even the one in Houston doesn’t have the cheese sauce or mushrooms and butter any more.)
- There was a place in the strip center at the corner of Anderson and Lamar that I think was called Asian Restaurant. (Not to be confused with Asia Restaurant on Ben White.) They had really good spring rolls, several excellent squid dishes, and literally the best hot and sour soup I have ever had in my life. That stuff would heal the sick and raise the dead; I know because I often went there when I was sick for a restorative bowl of soup. I haven’t found a soup nearly as good in Austin in many years of looking.
- Tien Hong.
- The Pao’s Mandarin House that was downtown, in what I think was the old Lamar Savings headquarters. I’m happy the one in Lakeway is still there.
Edited to add 5/6: my mother reminded me of the old Magic Time Machine on Riverside (where Joe’s Crab Shack is now). I remember eating there on one of visits up here before I started going to UT, and I think I may have gone there once while I was in school. I know a lot of people have fond memories of it. My mother and I took a couple of nieces and nephews to the one in San Antonio a couple of years ago, and, well…nostalgia is a moron, and that’s all I have to say about that.
