Bryce Gilmore’s Barley Swine
Photo Courtesy of Richard Casteel
With restaurants opening each month, and new chefs at the helm of them, Austin’s food scene is flourishing more than ever. If you’re planning a visit to the growing culinary city, or just trying to keep up with the hot dining scene stewing in the Texas capital, here are four Austin-based chefs who should definitely be on your radar.
Chef Gilmore, Photo Courtesy of Barley Swine
Bryce Gilmore
It’s hard to believe it was only 2009 when Bryce Gilmore opened his first venture, Odd Duck Farm to Trailer, a mobile kitchen dedicated to crafting a menu around the region’s seasonal produce. A year later, he debuted Barley Swine, a more meat-centric gastropub.
In 2013, Gilmore partnered with colleagues he’d met while working at Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star The Little Nell in Aspen, and together they opened Odd Duck as a brick-and-mortar concept. That year, Gilmore was nominated as a semifinalist for a James Beard Rising Star Chef award. (He’s been a finalist for the organization’s Best Chef: Southwest honor for the past four years.)
At the start of 2016, Gilmore and his team reopened a bigger location of Barley Swine with an added cocktail program run by Robert Stevens (who previously worked at Tennessee’s Four-Star Blackberry Farm).
Chefs Fojtasek and Nonas, Photo Courtesy of Robert J Lerma
Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas
After meeting while working for Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook at Son of a Gun in L.A., Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas decided to join forces as co-chefs in their own restaurant venture, Olamaie, bringing together their collective experiences at incredible restaurants like Five-Stars The French Laundry and Per Se, Four-Star Abacus and Osteria di Passignano in Tuscany.
Since Olamaie opened in August 2014, the refined Southern restaurant and its chefs have received a seemingly endless series of accolades, including a James Beard semifinalist nomination for Best New Restaurant last year and the title of 2015 Best Restaurant in Austin by the Austin-American Statesman.
Chef Fink, Photo Courtesy of Hayden Spears
Last year, Nonas was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year award; this year, he was a finalist for the same recognition. All honors aside, we’re just glad these two chose Austin to call home; the city’s culinary scene has certainly reaped the benefits.
Kevin Fink
After gaining experience at acclaimed eateries like The French Laundry and Noma, Kevin Fink began fine-tuning his first restaurant. Emmer & Rye opened on Rainey Street this fall, turning heads for its inventive dishes made exclusively from local produce and protein, a dedicated flour milling program and a larder filled with shelves of next-level fermentation experiments.
Patio garden boxes provide space to grow some herbs and vegetables in house, while a unique dim sum-inspired program affords Fink the opportunity to serve limited amounts of special plates at dinner. Emmer & Rye has already earned glowing reviews from the likes of The Austin Chronicle and Austin-American Statesman. We’re salivating at the thoughts of what else is to come from Fink and his talented team.
