Austin Taco Truck Asador Is Expanding Onto East Sixth

Austin taco truck Asador is opening its fourth location in East Austin sometime this month. It’ll be parked at the Grackle bar at 1700 East Sixth Street starting sometime next week. The menu will include what’s become staple dishes for the truck, like its brisket, grilled chicken, and carnitas; as well as a larger vegetarian array including mushroom mole, cauliflower chorizo, and vega queso.

Tracking Austin-area restaurant events

Sibling spots Better Half and Hold Out Brewing are hosting their second food- and beer-filled event this weekend. Best Fest will feature lots of collaborations, including franks from Better Half/Interstellar BBQ/Smokey Denmark, and something very sweet from pastry chefs Lindsay O’Rourke and Kendall Melton. Plus there will be music, The event is also benefitting the Central Texas Food Bank and Austin Pride. People are asked to donate 10 food cans, a toy, or $10 to enter a raffle.

Dripping Springs restaurant Tillie’s is throwing a chili cook-off this weekend. Home cooks and chefs will compete to see who makes the best chili, plus there will be a s’mores station, a market, an ornament-making class, cocktails with Nine Banded Whiskey, and more. General admission tickets are $60 for adults and $35 for people under the age of 21. It takes place on Sunday, December 4 from 3 to 6 p.m. The event benefits nonprofit Helping Hands.

Chef shuffle

The University of Texas at Austin campus event space AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center added a new executive pastry chef to its team: Daniel Benavidez. He’ll be working under executive chef Jason Cunningham on pastries for the entire space, including its hotel the Carillon. Before this, he worked at the Moody Gardens Hotel in Galveston, and Omni Austin Hotel, and was the executive pastry chef for the entire university space. His new dishes include carrot cake with a coconut caramel sauce and candied carrots, a warm apple cranberry crispy, and a chocolate mousse cake made with Shiner.