Lauded chef George Greiser cut loose from Gershwin's Bar & Grill last Friday to pursue an ambitious project in Austin dubbed Jake's. Plunked on the shores of Lake Austin in the former Lake View Lodge, Jake's combines casual American fare with a sushi bar and an upscale 70-seat dining room serving elegant entrees. "It's a huge job," says Greiser. "It's like a mini-hotel." Matre d' for the new venue is Tom Agnew of Dallas' famed Agnew's restaurant, whose last stint was in a restaurant just outside of Aspen, Colorado. Executive chef of Gershwins for the last four years after a four-year sojourn in New York, Greiser says Melrose Hotel sous chef Joey Montero will be joining him in Jake's kitchen. The restaurant is set to open September 28.
Hash seasonings
The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority says the launch of its dining trolley-car service, scheduled to begin in September, has been delayed until October because of the heat. The service will feature menus created by an area restaurant each month. But heat isn't the only thing that has tossed wrenches into this trolley grubbery. The recent shakiness of McKinney Avenue restaurants has also seized the mechanics of the program. Clive & Stuart's Island Seafood shut down shortly after it agreed to create the menu for the dining car's launch. According to a transit authority spokeswoman, Fish restaurant is tentatively scheduled to create the first dining-car menu next month...Suprabhath owner V. Krishnaswamy says that in my recent review of his Southern Indian vegetarian restaurant, the description of the dessert kheer is inaccurate. His rendition is not made with egg and cashew, but with milk, sugar, and cashew.
List watch
The 12th Annual GrapeFest, the largest wine festival in the Southwest, will hit Grapevine this weekend (September 11-13). Events include grape stomps; wine and food seminars; an International Wine Tasting featuring wines from France, Spain, Italy, Chile, Australia, Mexico, and South Africa; and the voter-driven, recently maligned (reportedly rigged) People's Choice Wine Tasting Classic, where festival-goers choose the best Texas wines. Watch out for wine-drinking voters living under headstones...The 1996 Chardonnay de Vieilles Vignes, from the well-known Burgundy producer Antonin Rodet, is a luscious drink with a rich cloud of pineapple aromas threaded with butterscotch and floral notes plus lots of clean citrus flavors deepened with an earthy leanness. Available by the glass at Chez Gerard.
--Mark Stuertz
E-mail Mark Stuertz at [email protected].
