by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

 

Spent the week afore the Fourth in Austin for the USFA Summer Nationals. As usual, good food, good wine, and great friends were an integral part of the trip. I had solicited recs from WCWN & WLDG afore the trip, so had a wealth of restaurants to choose from. Sunday night (6/29/03); my fencing teammate, Jack Stafurik, and I met Paul Levy (Judge, NJ Supreme Court), another of our Veteran fencing colleagues who enjoys food & wine as much as Jack and I, at Zoot Restaurant. The manager and wine guy here is Gary Thompson, whom I had met on my previous trip to Austin for Summer Nationals several yrs ago. Zoot is a fairly new restaurant West of downtown owned by the same two guys who run Wink, another highly regarded restaurant. He also does the Wink wine list as well. Better yet, the Chef is Michael Hall, who also is the fencing coach at the Texas Fencing Academy. The cusine at Zoot would be described as, I guess, New American Bistro, with emphasis on fresh ingredients. The wine list is extensive, very reasonably priced, and incredibly well-selected; there were quite a few things on there I'd have loved to try. But, since the next day was a heavy- fencing day, moderation was the call this night. The wines: 

1. Kuentz-Bas GWT Eichberg Vnyd 1989: Med.dark gold color; rather fragrant spicy/complex slight cinammon light GWT/lychee nose; soft/smooth/elegant dry light lychee some spicy/nutmeg flavor; very long/smooth/elegant spicy/floral finish. This was from my archives and I was expecting a bit more power and intensity. It should be drunk soon afore it slips into senility, but a very well-aged/elegant/delicate mature Alsatian GWT.
2. Lin Court Santa Barbara County Lincourt Vnyd Pinot Noir 2001: Med. color; lovely fragrant/floral/Pinot/ violets slight dusty rather toasty/pencilly/oak nose; tart smooth/round light floral/violets/ Pinot rather toasty/smokey/Fr.oak flavor w/ light tannins; a very drinkable elegant example of SantaBarbara Pinot at a very attractive price. 

After a very heavy day on the strip (finished in the top 25% of Div II Men's Epee, the middle- level Epee competition; not bad w/ all the kids there and being the oldest one in that field); I met some Austin friends who used to be part of my Los Alamos wine group, Betsy & Barry. Barry gave up his physics career and went over to the dark side, becomming an attourney specializing in intellectual property cases. They had been dying to try, so we went to dinner at Zoot's sister restaurant, Wink. I was expecting the wine list to be nearly identical to Zoot's, but it was totally different; though still very well-selected and very reasonably priced. The food, as I expected, was exceptional. The wine was an Alsatian Tokay/PinotGris from a producer I was not familar with. Quite rich and maybe off-dry, it had a bracing acidity that made it quite good. The Pinot by the glass (forget the producer) was wonderful with the oven-roasted sweetbreads (I'm easy target when the menu has entrees from obscure nether regions of the animal. The dessert was a stunner: Chocolate Soup w/ MilkChocolate/Ginger Mousse. The Franz Haas Moscoto Rosa AltoAdige 2000 was the perfect match for this amazing dessert. Batting 2/2 thus far in Austin.

Tuesday was an off-day for me so did a bit of shopping at Central Market (bought a can of Tea Oil, something I'd never seen/heard of before) and mostly hanging out at the fencing venue to cheer on my teammates and visit w/ friends (if you think wine-geek talk can get a bit tedious at times..... you should spend some time w/ the fencing crowd!!). That night, Jack & I head up the street for dinner at La Traviata. The owner, Marion Gillcrist, is a long time friend from her days cheffing in SantaFe and her sis, Joan, owns my favorite Italian restaurant in SantaFe, Andiamo. The food is mostly rustic/peasant Italian fare and very similar to the Andiamo one. Needing to carb-up for the next day's fencing, I had the Spaghetti Carbonara. The presentation was most unusual. Served steaming hot in a dome-shaped mound, it had a raw egg yolk perched in a niche on top and the idea was to stir it into the pasta. Clever idea, I thought. The wine was a Lagrein from the AltoAdige from a producer I didn't know. Another great meal; now batting 3 for 3, with one night to go.

Wednesday (7/2/03) was my last competition, Veteran's Men's Epee. It didn't start until 4:00pm in the afternoon (guess they figure the old guys can't get it out of bed that early!!), so spend most of the day at the venue cheering on my teammates. For that night, Jack, Paul, & I had planned on dinner at another Italian restaurant, Vespaio after our Veteran's event. Alas, the event started an hour late and I had a very good day, medaling out for a Bronze w/ a 6'th place finish, so had to stay around for the awards presentation and didn't finish at the venue until after 10:00 pm. So a bunch of us grizzled Veterans headed up Fourth Street to Sullivan's, a steak house that was open until 11:00pm. Poor choice. My smoked pork chops were very good, but everything else was rather pedestrian. And a dumb and very over-priced wine list. The Chave St. Joseph Offerus '00, at $52 was the intelligent choice. And the Jewel Petie Sirah '01, at $31, was a reasonable 2'nd choice. So 3-for-4 (well.... I wasn't the one that chose Sullivans, though) in Austin this trip. Back to the real world bright & early the next morning.

For anyone headed to Austin; I cannot give enough praise to the quality of both the food and the wine at both Zoot and Wink. I wasn't expecting something this good and this reasonably priced in the Land of the Big Caddys and the Big Hair. Both highly recommended.

TomHill
 

The restaurant recommendation list I circulated to the fencers I know is below:

Austin Dining Recs

Below are some dining recs I solicited from some of my wine friends in Austin. La Traviata is the only one I can vouch for from personal experience. My food preferences lean toward Italian and contemporary/American/eclectic/innovative cusine. The wine is, of course, important. So Spanish/Mexican/TexMex/BarBQue cusine doesn't score a touch on me. WebSite: http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/deep_focus/cuisines_austinrestaurants.html
 

Zoot (509 Hearn St, 512/477-6535): American bistro/fresh/contemporary cusine. The Chef de Cuisine is Michael Hall, a local fencer and fencing instructor. Front man is Gary Thompson, a very knowledgeable wine friend, so the wine list should be terrific. Owned by same people who started Wink.

La Travita (314 Congress Ave, 512/479-8131): Seasonal/rustic/contemporary Italian cuisine. Owner/chef is Marion Gillcrist, a long time friend from her SantaFe days.

Wink (1014 N.Lamar, 512/482-8868): Calif/fresh/contemporary/international  cusine. Former chefs from Brio Vista (now defunct) went here.

• Jean-Luc's Bistro (705 Colorado St , 512/494-0033): French/bistro cuisine.
• Jeffrey's (1204 W. Lynn St; 512/477-5584): American/SouthWest/Continental/Eclectic cuisine.
• Hoovers (2002 Manor Rd; 512/479-5006): Southern/Texas-style Roadhouse cusine. Here the debate gets hotter. Some folks  recommend Threadgill's as the classic Austin experience, but the feeling is that they've gone downhill and Hoover's is much better.
• Threadgill's (6416 N. Lamar; 512/451-5450): A classic Austin/Texas experience; funky roadhouse cusine.
• Iron Works BBQ : As always, BBQ generates a lot of heated discussion/take-no-prisoners approach. This funky spot is right next to the convention centre. Dinner recommended here.
• House Park BBQ (900 W. 12'th St.; 512/472-9621): Recommended for lunch.
• Las Manitas Cafe (512/472-9357):  Mexican/Honduras cusine.
• Maudie's (2608 W. 7'th St; 512/832-0900): Tex-Mex cusine
• Driskill Grill (604 Brazos St; 512/474-5911): World-class/contemporary cusine. Regarded by some as Austin's hottest new restaurant. High-end.
• Madam Mam's: Thai cusine.
• Mirabelle (8127 Mesa Dr; 512/346-7900): New American/International cusine.
• East Side Cafe (2113 Manor; 512/476-5858): Ecclectic/international cusine.
• Mother's Cafe: Vegetarian cusine
• Central Market: Gourmet grocery store/carry-out. Gary Thompson is their wine-buyer and one of the best selections in town.
• Chez Zee (5406 Balcones; 512/454-2666): Casual/American/Eclectic
• Chez Nous (510 Neches; 473-2413): Informal/French cusine.
• Vespaio (1610 S. Congress; 512/441-6100): Regional Italian/pasta/pizza cusine. Wood-fired oven.