Look at this place! Cute, huh? It’s called 24 Diner, and it’s fairly new and humming along quite happily next to Waterloo Records on Sixth and Lamar. I have been there twice (two times! (I’m trying to work an Arrested Development reference in whenever possible)) and I wanted to share it with you, dear reader.  It’s a bright and cheery little diner that, I promise, has something for everybody.  Read on!

These are Sparkies ($6.85): super-liquidy-cheese-filled jalapenos, wrapped in sausage, breaded and deep fried.  These sounded super terrific to me, lover of trashy sausage snacks.  In reality, we thought they were only ok.  The cheese was so thin that it simply ran out of its sausage sarcophagus the instant you bit into it.   For my money, you’re better off with the Swiss Chard and Artichoke Gratin as a starter.  This was pretty tasty, and the chard (along with much of the other produce on the menu) is sourced from farms around Austin.

Helen, as per her usual, ordered the Veggie Burger ($10.95).  The patty was made with beets (which lent their lovely hue!), mushrooms, lentils, rice, pumpkin seeds and golden flaxseeds and it came with lovely toppings.  Helen is quite the veggie burger connoisseur- she’s sampled them at almost every place in Austin that offers them.  Her verdict? She liked it quite a bit! She thought the beets were a fun and unusual twist. But Helen still contends that P. Terry’s makes Austin’s best veggie burger.

That ever-intrepid bacon advocate Molly Blake ordered the R.J. Club ($11.95) with a side of roasted broccoli (one of the special sides of the day).  This was a good, if fairly standard, version of this sandwich.  Crispy bacon, turkey, with a little country ham thrown in for good measure.  The roasted broccoli (a concept to which I have confessed my undying love) was nice, but would have benefited from a squeeze of lemon- it was a touch drab.

I ordered the Pulled Chicken Breast Sandwich with fries ($9.95).  Nice lunch fare! The sandwich was really rather lovely, due largely to the roasted tomato vinaigrette, and the fries were great.  I don’t know if anyone reading this remembers what the fries at Railroad BBQ in Manchaca, TX taste like, but these remind me of crunchier versions of those.  I think the similarity lies in the very potato-y taste they were able to preserve.  My only complaint about the sandwich was that it became a bit monotonous after awhile- I got tired of eating the same flavors after half of the sandwich and had no desire to press on.

Talk about ending on a high note! Huzzah! Well aside from that somber tone at the end, I’m really happy 24 Diner opened its doors.  It’s the kind of place where you can bring a diverse group of people anytime of the day or night, and everyone will be able to find something they like.  Also, if you’re there for breakfast (or feeling breakfast-y when you’re there- they serve it all day), they do it up right.  When I was there with Andy, he ordered a big breakfast plate and loved it.  Their waffles are really fun and boozy too (bourbon?).  Check it out!

I was a happy, happy girl as we headed down the road to odd duck.  First, because I will happily eat almost anything that comes out of a food truck.  Second, because this place sounded right up my alley (they spend the day traveling to area farms to get what’s fresh, and then open the trailer at five to serve a menu of local small plates).  And third, because I was excited to proudly proclaim that we’d take one of everything.  How often do you get to say that? And only spend $40 in so doing?

When we rolled up to the window, the bloom came off the rose a bit for me.  Dylan, one of the chefs, I guess, asked me what I wanted.  I proudly stated “we’ll take one of everything!” and he said “can you wait a minute?”.  I guess he hadn’t asked me what I wanted after all.  But I felt slightly pouty about that.  Anyway, moving on.  Dylan said it’d be ten minutes, so we found a small table (it was pretty crowded here at about seven o’clock) and spent some time ridiculing all the LA hipsters who are in town for SXSW.  I kid! Welcome to our fair city!

So, about ten minutes later (Dylan was true to his word) our plates started coming out.  Oh! Here’s a photo of the menu so you can see what we had:

First out: Texas Cheese Plate ($8):

This was fun! I forgot what all the cheeses were (see previous post re: attending a food blogging workshop).  But they tasted nice.  The bleu cheese was especially lovely (top right).  Those red things are honey carrots and man! they were really delicious.

Next up: Carrot Soup ($4), Goat Cheese Toast with Duck Egg ($5), and Pork Belly Slider ($6):

All three were terrific.  The pork belly slider was Andy’s favorite bite of the evening.  It is a very manly little sandwich- sweet and smoky from the wood-burning grill and topped with local sauerkraut.  The fatty part of the pork belly was melting-ly tender, and really delicious if you have no qualms about eating a mouthful of pork fat. We all adored the carrot soup.  Sweet, creamy, smoky from cumin- it was fresh and lively.  The goat cheese and duck egg was probably my second favorite dish.  Just beautiful- dipping that cheesy bread into the just-pierced duck egg yolk was a true delight.  This is the dish that convinced me these people know what they’re doing.  You could really get a “symphony of flavors” experience here: first, the tang of the goat cheese, the woodsy-ness of the mushrooms, the buttery richness of the egg yolk, and then a final swell of toasted pine nut that lingered on your tongue.  So, so nice.

Our last three dishes: Grilled Broccoli with Poached Chicken ($5), Grilled Quail ($5), and Lamb Stew with Grits ($6):

The grilled broccoli in the first dish was beautiful- that wood burning grill is a marvel! But we all agreed that this was the least successful dish. I think this was largely because it was served cold- cold poached chicken, cheese, and broccoli.  That was kind of odd.  The quail though- sweet lord! This was hands down my favorite.  Perfectly seasoned, beautifully crispy skin, tender meat.  Quail-y but not at all game-y.  Last up, the lamb stew.  I thought this was fantastic.  The grits were great too- they had a nutty, pecorino-y taste that was hard for me to identify, but really delicious.

All in all, very well played, odd duck! We’ll be back soon.

Ok, while I’m here, I’ll talk a bit about Gourdoughs too. After my bout of poutiness above, and what I have to say about Gourdoughs here, you might think I’m a, how do you say… cranky bitch?  I’m generally not though, so keep that in mind.  We went to Gourdoughs, a donut truck right next to odd duck, a few weeks ago when my mom was in town.  Gourdoughs has a really appealing menu- bacon donuts, donuts served with a chicken strip and honey butter icing- you get the gist.  Who wouldn’t want to ‘go to there’, as they say? Well, when we went there were like 5 guys in the trailer all totally wasted on Lone Star.  At first we thought- how cute! How fun and youthful! And then we waited 45 minutes for our three donuts, and we thought, this is not fun.  It’s annoying.  And where’s my donut?!  Also it was cold outside… The donuts themselves really are pretty good.  They’re enormous (see below), and you’re really better off splitting one with a friend or two unless you’re really hungry or a champion donut eater.  Today, we just ordered one donut- a peachy little number, and it came out pretty quickly:

It was really good.  For my money, I still think the donuts with savory elements (bacon, chicken strip) are a bit better- this one was really sweet- but they’re all pretty damn good.  Maybe the moral is to hit this place up earlier in the evening, before the donut-makers have their way with a case-and-a-half of lone star.

Ok, bye!

My mom’s in town! To celebrate her arrival, we went to lunch at Olivia.  As it happens, we were at Olivia’s first lunch ever (they’ll be open for lunch every Friday and Saturday from now on).  Man, I love this restaurant. We got there about noon, and were greeted warmly by pretty much the whole staff- there were only a few other customers at this point. 

To start, Helen got the Olivia Salad, and loved it.  When it arrived, she thought she might not like it because it’s just lettuce and vinaigrette (when Helen makes her own salads they are chock full of stuff, a la goat cheese/avocado/nuts/fruit/salmon/etc).  But the smoked tomato vinaigrette was quite the hit with her!  My mom and I each got the saffron-almond soup, and devoured it.  This was definitely my favorite dish of the afternoon.  Beautifully simple with just a hint of saffron, the soup came garnished with a perfect baguette crouton, avocado, and a drizzle of a great olive oil (a beautiful deep green against the vibrant orange soup).  I didn’t take any pictures because we were too engrossed at this point.


And here are the before and after shots of our main courses!

Helen got the simply named Spaghetti, which came with roasted cauliflower, spinach, and an almost carbonara-like sauce with pecorino.   It was fantastic (as you can no doubt tell for yourself by her ‘after’ shot).  The cauliflower made the whole dish feel rich and satisfying, but not at all heavy.  Helen said she felt pleasantly full after finishing it.

My mom got the Pan Roasted Sea Trout with sauteed farm greens.  Holy god, this was delicious. The trout was moist with a beautiful seared crust, the sauteed greens were over-the-top, but that sauce was really magical- bright, citrus-y, and perfectly seasoned.  When you ate these elements all in one bite, the result was spectacular. 

I got the Seared Tuna and Beautiful Salad and it was aptly named.  The greens and shaved apple and fennel were dressed in a sweet and lively lemon-y dressing, and the tuna, seared perfectly and sprinkled with sea salt, was just delightful with them.  So good!

The food was fantastic, the service was fantastic, and the total bill came to $67, which felt like a steal.  It’s a real testament to Olivia that each of us felt that our own dishes were the best of the meal.  Hooray!