Paris Restaurant Le Chateaubriand Chef Is Cooking a Natural Wine Dinner With Nixta Taqueria

Natural wine festival Wild World is taking place in the Hill Country again this month. The event features wild-fermented wineries and breweries from around the world. It takes place at Jester King Brewery on Saturday, May 14 from 1 to 6 p.m., and then on Sunday, May 15 from noon to 6:30 p.m. It’s $95 for access to both days. Tickets for shuttles from the Carpenter Hotel to the brewery are available for $12.50 each way. The first festival took place in 2019.

And ahead of the event, lauded Basque chef Iñaki Aizpitarte of Paris restaurant Le Chateaubriand is cooking a kick-off dinner with Nixta Taqueria’s Edgar Rico on Friday, May 13. The prix fixe menu will be paired with optional wines from participating wineries. It’s $75 and runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at the East Austin restaurant.

Austin chef shuffle

Important Allandale Mexican restaurant Fonda San Miguel hired two new chefs after co-founder and chef Miguel Ravago, who opened the restaurant with Tom Gilliland in 1975, died in 2017 of lung cancer. Blanca Zesati will be in charge of sourcing ingredients with an eye toward creating foods that are diet-inclusive. She had previously worked at the Miraval Resort & Spa in Austin as the executive sous chef. Carlos Monroy, who is from Mexico City, studied at the culinary school Colegio Superior de Gastronomia and worked at the catering company Servido as the executive chef.

Austin restaurant award winners

CultureMap Tastemakers Award winners were announced last week. These include food truck Cuantos Tacos as the restaurant of the year, Nixta’s Edgar Rico as chef of the year, Tiki Tatsu-ya as the bar of the year, Olamaie’s Amanda Turner as rising chef of the year, and numerous others.

Austin-area coming attractions

Austin Chinese delivery restaurant Tso is opening a fourth location in Round Rock in the fall of 2022. It’ll be found at 2000 North May Streets, Suite 108.

Steakhouse chain Perry’s Restaurants is opening a second Austin location of Carve American Grille in the Allandale neighborhood later this year. The restaurant will be found in the Grove development on West 45th Street and Bull Creek Road.

Austin-based chain Pluckers is expanding with three new restaurants in Texas in 2023. The first will open in San Antonio’s Brooks neighborhood in the first quarter of next year, then Houston’s Meyerland neighborhood, and then Austin’s Southpark Meadows area in the third quarter.

Texas supermarket H-E-B is opening a Georgetown location to open in the spring of 2023, complete with its barbecue restaurant True Texas BBQ. It’ll be found at 1010 West University Avenue.

Another Texas wine dinner

Stonewall, Texas winery Kuhlman Cellars is hosting a five-course spring wine dinner on Saturday, May 14. Tickets are $180 for wine club members and $180 otherwise. It begins at 6:30 p.m. with a reception and dinner at 7:30 p.m.