Stop and smell the rosés

Austin Food + Wine Festival pops the cork on big return for fall 2021

Cheers to the festival's return!

Austin Food + Wine Festival/Instagram

Let’s all raise a toast to the fruitful return of one of Texas' most enticing culinary events. After its pandemic-forced cancellation in 2020, the Austin Food + Wine Festival returns this fall for a weekend packed with food, wine, and spirits offerings from some of the area’s most noted chefs and brands.

The 10th annual Austin Food + Wine Festival will take place at Auditorium Shores and the newly refurbished Republic Square Park in downtown Austin November 5-7.

Tickets for the festival went sale September 1 at www.austinfoodandwinefestival.com/tickets.

This year’s festival will feature all the favorite elements foodies crave, from food competitions and cooking demos to interactive fire pit presentations, live music performances, book signings, and yeah, a whole heck of a lot of samples from local chefs and restaurants, and wine, beer, and, cocktail tastings.

While additional programming announcements will be made as the event nears, here’s currently what’s on tap for the festival:

On Friday, November 5, the fest kicks off with Grillin’ and Chillin’, chef Tim Love’s hands-on grilling dinner party at Auditorium Shores. The interactive and informative party will include grilling, drinks, and dinner beneath the Austin skyline. Grillin’ and Chillin’ attendees will share a charcoal grill with a partner and prepare their own dinner as Love guides them through the menu while offering tips for how to become a grilling expert. (Note: The Grillin’ and Chillin’ event is exclusively included with All-In tickets.)

On Saturday, November 6 and Sunday, November 7, the festival pops into high gear with cooking demonstrations, book signings, and an interactive area where chefs and pitmasters will cook over fire pits and offer samples to attendees. Current chefs planning to share their live-fire cooking expertise at the fire pits showcase include:

John Bates, InterStellar BBQ
Sonya Coté, Hillside Farmacy and Store House Market + Eatery
Lance Kirkpatrick, Stiles Switch BBQ
Tom Micklethwait and Ren Garcia, Micklethwait Craft Meats
Marco Oglesby, The Switch

Attendees can also get to sampling signature dishes from some of the Austin area’s favorite restaurants and chefs, including:

Christopher Andrews, TLC
Jeff Balfour, Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery
Daniel Brooks, Licha’s Cantina
Jeff Brown, Old Thousand
Jo Chan, Eberly
Krystal Craig and Ian Thurwachter, Intero
Nick Ervan, Wax Myrtle
Jacob Euler, Le Vacher
Reed Faitak, Austin Daily Press
James Flowers, 1417
Rachelle Fox, Wicky’s Walkup
John Gocong, Salty Cargo
Mark Grimes, Creekhouse
Wade Guice, Juliet Italian Kitchen
Victor Ibarra, Andiamo
CJ Jacobson, Aba
Andrea Juarez, Walton’s Fancy & Staple
Andy Knudson, Tillie’s
Geronimo Lopez, Botika
Jason McVearry, Poke-Poke
Margarita and Nestor Mendez, Pueblo Viejo
Josh Neises, Lonesome Dove Austin
Daniel Olivella, Barlata Tapas Bar
Matthew Perez, The Beer Plant
Chris Rios, The Vegan Nom
Ryan Samson, Vespaio and Enoteca
Jam Sanitchat, Thai Fresh
Carmen Valera, Tamale House East
Ling Wu, Lin Asian Bar + Dim Sum

Chefs and authors who will share their expertise during cooking demos and convos include Dawn Burrell (Late August, Houston), Helene Henderson (Malibu Farm), Fermín Núñez (Suerte), Yoshi Okai (Otoko), and Jam Sanitchat (Thai Fresh).

Many festival foodies will delight in the return of Saturday evening’s signature tasting event, Rock Your Taco at Republic Square Park. Chefs will square off against one another to create the ultimate taco, as deemed by a people’s choice award.

Rock Your Taco competitors include Tatsu Aikawa (Ramen Tatsu-Ya); Nicola Blaque (Mi Roti, The Jerk Shack, San Antonio); Dawn Burrell; Tyson Cole (Uchi); Diego Galicia and Rico Torres (Mixtli, San Antonio); Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley (Foreign & Domestic), Helene Henderson; LeAnn Mueller (la Barbecue); Ryan Pera (Eight Row Flint, Houston); Jam Sanitchat; and Charles Schlienger (Sway).

“The Austin Food + Wine Festival has always been such an incredibly fun and delicious experience,” says Uchi chef and owner Tyson Cole. “We are thrilled to be back and ready to Rock Your Taco again!”

Two ticket options are available to attend this year’s Austin Food + Wine Festival:

All-In tickets ($625), which include Saturday and Sunday festival access; access to interactive cooking demos and book signings; beer, wine, and cocktail tasting sessions; wood-fired culinary creations from the fire pits; samples from Austin chefs and restaurants; Friday night’s Grillin’ and Chillin’ with Tim Love; and Saturday night’s Rock Your Taco competition.
Weekender tickets ($250), which include Saturday and Sunday festival access; access to interactive cooking demos and book signings; beer, wine, and cocktail tastings.

Festival-goers must be at least 21 years old to attend. Detailed health info and entry policies will be released closer to the event date.

The event is presented by Food & Wine Magazine and Austin-based C3 Presents, and benefits the nonprofit Austin Food & Wine Alliance, which works to foster innovation in the local food and wine community through grants, educational programming, and a variety of events. Austin Food + Wine Festival has contributed more than $1.1 million to the alliance in support of these efforts.

Teppanyaki News

Japanese restaurant chain with sizzling hot plates to debut in Frisco

Pepper Lunch

Pepper Lunch is coming to Frisco.

A distinctive Asian restaurant concept with sizzling hot plates is coming to the Dallas area: Called Pepper Lunch, it's an international chain from Japan that does a fast-casual version of teppanyaki, and it's opening in Frisco at 9180 Warren Pkwy. #150, in a busy shopping center anchored by 99 Ranch, in the former Gen Korean BBQ space.

Frisco will be the very first Pepper Lunch in Texas. According to co-owner Phil Guo, it'll open in mid-March.

Pepper Lunch was founded in Tokyo in 1994 by chef Kunio Ichinose and features teppanyaki, a Japanese cooking style where chefs cook on a hot griddle (teppan) in front of diners, creating an interactive and entertaining meal.

But Pepper Lunch takes it a step further with do-it-yourself teppanyaki, with meals served on 500-degree Fahrenheit hot plates, which are patented to stay hot for more than 20 minutes — allowing diners to cook their own food at the table.

All that sizzle has made Pepper Lunch an internet sensation. Cooking your own food at your table is a trend, and Pepper Lunch also has price and convenience on its side: Most of its menu items come in under $20 and can be complete in 20 minutes, making it a desirable option for workers and others with a limited lunch hour.

The signature dish is their Pepper Rice, which comes in about a dozen options, including the best-selling Beef Pepper Rice, featuring sliced beef, white rice, corn, and spring onion, with freshly-cracked black pepper, which is also a signature. ("We crack it fresh every morning," Guo says.)

Salmon terifyaki at Pepper Lunch Frisco.Pepper Lunch

Other varieties of Pepper Rice include Salmon Pepper Rice, Chicken Pepper Rice, Shrimp Pepper Rice, and Tofu & Veggie Pepper Rice.

You can get your meat, rice, and veggies in a teriyaki option or with curry sauce. They also have pastas with cream sauce and your choice of protein. Sides include American classics such as fries, onion rings, or sweet potato wedges, and they offer Kirin beer.

Dallas is part of Pepper Lunch's broader expansion across the U.S. They currently have more than 500 locations across 17 countries.

Guo is a veteran restaurateur who, along with partner Ken Cheng, operates three locations of Jinya Ramen Bar, a completely different kind of dining experience.

"Jinya is a full-service restaurant with a nice bar and intimate atmosphere, and the food is more complex," he says. "Pepper Lunch is fast-casual, more family-oriented, with a faster pace. If you need to, you can be in and out in 20 minutes. But there's heat nothing like it when they bring your plate to your table, and you get to cook rice or steak right in front of your face — it sizzles and pops."

He loves to recall the first time he encountered Pepper Lunch, decades ago, on a family trip to Hong Kong.

"We waited in line for two hours, and I will always remember sitting down and experiencing that sizzling smell," he says.

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