News and notes from the San Antonio food scene
Last week, chicken-fried steak lovers and passersby took solace in Earl Abel’s old-time neon sign, which read, “Everything is alright.” Earl’s reopened at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 21, with a full menu and plans to stay open until it moves to the old Hometown Buffet on Old Austin Highway. Yet, we can’t help but ponder the new location. Do people go to Earl Abel’s for the food or are they drawn by the curvy architecture of the 1933 building? Can they duplicate a charming lack of atmosphere?
On March 23, Chef David Bull comes to the Twig Bookstore, 5005 Broadway, to read from The Driskill Hotel: Stories of Austin’s Legendary Hotel/A Cookbook for Special Occasions, a coffee-table book self-published by the hotel. Bull co-wrote the book with Turk Pipkin, an Austin author and actor, who writes about the history of the Driskill, which opened in 1886 and was for many years at the center of Austin politics and society.
Bull wrote the cookbook portion, focusing on local ingredients and recipes that can be created using basic kitchen utensils, including a Texas chop salad with smoked bacon and blue cheese and cinnamon-coffee-cake French toast with fig jam. Info: driskillhotel.com.
The Historical Society of Leon Valley is hosting a Bar B Q and Wild West Show 4-7 p.m. Saturday, March 25, to raise funds for the 26-acre Leon Valley Huebner Onion Natural Area. Entertainment includes a cowboy poet and members of local Cowboy Action Shooting Clubs reenacting gunfights with pistols, rifles, and shotguns used from 1850-1899. According to Don Hathorne, a.k.a. Dusty Lone Star, cowboy action director for the Texas Rifle Association, cowboy action shooting is the largest growing family sport in the country, with more than 70,000 people participating. “We use blanks, of course,” said Hathorne. “We like to embellish a little on the history of the Old West.”
In keeping with the theme, vittles will be provided by the Hickory Hut of Helotes, including barbecued sausage and beef served with beans and potato salad. Tickets are $10. Info: 523-1206.
On a more serious note: H-E-B has issued a recall of its entire H-E-B Baby Food and Mom’s Organic Choice product lines due to customers finding pieces of glass inside jars of peas, carrots, and applesauce.
