From Small Plates to Fast Food

With three new restaurants opening on December 12th 2013, last week was a huge one for Austin\’s culinary scene.

The opening of Bryce Gilmore\’s Odd Duck was flawless. Service was timely and the dishes were creative and delicious. Like its sister restaurant Barley Swine, Odd Duck\’s menu is made up of farm to table shareable small plates. The Odd Duck however has a more casual and open feel and additional seating. They will soon add lunch service and will take reservations on OpenTable.

Odd Duck\’s Open Kitchen

Carrots roasted in hay, goat feta, pistachio crumb

Turnip salad with sunchoke and smoked fish

Goat rolled in pasta, mole sauce and pickled butternut squash

Spiced redfish, fried and refried pinto beans and radish

Sticky toffee pudding, pickled apples, St. Maure, sesame with goat cheese

Las Vegas\’ Due Forni also opened December 12th in the former location of Louis 106. Due Forni\’s specialty is pizza. Their open kitchen houses two (read due) brick ovens baking both the chewy Neapolitan and the thin crispy Roman style pizzas. Their Neapolitan crust takes 90 seconds to bake and the Roman style bakes in 3 minutes. I did find the pizza prices steep (my Due Forni 12 inch Roman style was $16.95) however they do use high quality ingredients and lunch service was quick. The Due Forni has house made sausage, Krause\’s bacon, piquillo peppers, san marzano tomatoes and bufala mozzarella.

Due Forni Signature Pizza with Roman style crust

Austin\’s In N Out cult following rejoiced on December 12th after the opening of Austin\’s first In N Out location. I visited this weekend and it took me 35 minutes to make my way through the winding line of cars to place my order through the drive through. Do not come here on a near empty tank of gas!

Burger and cheeseburger both animal style and fries

In N Out Burger animal style