and Cynthia Wahl
be your guides
Join us on one of our series of tasting tours. Each is called a Feeding Frenzy, created for locals and visitors who want a behind-the-scenes look at the most popular restaurants, wine outfits, food producers and brewers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The typical Feeding Frenzy outing gives guests a chance a chance to eat one small course, with a special wine or cocktail pairing, usually at three different places. Participating restaurants will be linked by neighborhood or cuisine, and guests will get face-time with chefs, talking about what inspires them and how their creations come to life.
Tuesday, March 16, 6:30 p.m.
March Along Magnolia
We’ll rev up your spring break staycation plans with a delectable evening on the south side’s booming restaurant row. Enjoy a first-course of appetizers with a cocktail with Vance Martin and Martin Thompson at the new Cat City Grill, 1208 West Magnolia
Wander down to Ellerbe Fine Foods,
1501 West Magnolia, for a main course from owner-chef Molly McCook and wine pairings from co-owner Richard King
And wind up with a selection of desserts and appropriate wine from Vance Martin and Heather Hogan at Lili’s Bistro on Magnolia, 1310 West Magnolia
All three fabulous courses, including all food, alcohol, tax and tips, is $85, and $5 of your payment is a donation to the Tarrant Area Food Bank.
Road Trips
Photo by Ralph Lauer
New price! Sign up for March trip by March 15
Marfa and the Big Bend Region of West Texas
March 24-28 and May 12-16, $595 Let us show you how Marfa – one of the nation’s great art centers – has become a destination on the culinary map. In addition to breathtaking scenery and world-renowned art spaces, this Big Bend culture capital now provides sensational gastronomy discoveries.
Texas Toast Culinary Tours is letting you be the decider for our West Texas cuisine adventure. You decide how to get there and you decide where to sleep – and we’ll provide the yummies, the inside skinny and all the fun you can ingest, March 24-28 and May 12-16.
Day 1 (Wednesday)
Get to Marfa in time for supper, a barbecue event from Lambert’s, enjoyed at the new culinary center at El Cosmico, about a mile from the center of Marfa and next to the acclaimed Chinati Foundation.
Day 2 (Thursday)
Start the day with a West Texas chuckwagon breakfast, prepared at El Cosmico by chefs from the original Reata, found in nearby Alpine.
For lunch, we'll dine at Blue Javelina, one of Marfa's newer hit restaurants - and one with Spanish and Moroccan flavors.
Later in the afternoon, we'll head east of town to Woodward Ranch, a great rock-hunting ground of the West. We'll toast the sunset at Cathedral Mountain, the vineyards owned by Times Ten Cellars. There, we’ll pick up some wine-and-food pairing ideas and enjoy a candlelight dinner.
Day 3 (Friday)
Let's caravan to magnificent Big Bend National Park for a full-day tour with optional hiking. Beside the Rio Grande, Louis Lambert will present a fabulous picnic lunch; we can follow up with a walk through one of the legendary canyons.
Once we return to Marfa, it’s off to dinner at Maiya’s, one of Marfa’s landmark restaurants, with a style that mixes a little New York with San Francisco sensibilities.
Night owls can go hear live music and dance at Padre's Marfa.
Day 4 (Saturday)
Breakfast at the Austin Street Café, a hip American dining room inside a restored cottage, will start the day off right.
Next, we'll take a farmstand tour before our cooking class and lunch with chef Louis Lambert, owner of Jo’s and Lambert’s restaurants in Austin and Fort Worth. Class and lunch will be held at El Cosmico.
In the evening, we’ll return to El Cosmico for a cookout, campfire music session and a star party with local astronomers. You’ve never seen a night sky like the Big Bend’s.
PRICING $595 per person
Hill Country Barbecue Bus Tour
April 23-24, 2010
Join us as we roam through the great barbecue joints in and around the Capital City.
Get to Austin and we'll take care of the rest!
FRIDAY, APRIL 23
·We’ll board our motorcoach at noon, spending the afternoon whetting your whistle with a journey out to Shiner, Texas, for a tour of Spoetzl Brewery. You can count on a stop or two en route for a barbecue snack.
·Back in Austin on Friday evening, we’ll meet at Ruby’s BBQ on Guadalupe, the only place we’ve found smoking all-natural meats.
·Honky-tonking and live music are options, of course!
SATURDAY, APRIL 24
·Our adventure will take us to last year’s remarkable barbecue discovery by Texas Monthly, a place known only to folks around Lexington, Texas; and at least three more of the state’s most famous bastions of barbecue, found in the towns of Taylor, Lockhart and Luling.
·On Saturday night, we’ll roll down to Gruene for supper, followed by music and dancing at Gruene Hall. We’ll head back to Austin for a good night’s sleep.
You’re on your own for Sunday. We’ll provide a suggested itinerary for you that includes good brunch ideas in Austin, as well as a driving route you might consider for the day, taking you to Luckenbach to see where Willie & Waylon had all that fun; where the Fredericksburg-Stonewall wineries are; and where you can find good grub in the Fredericksburg-Johnson City area.
Trip cost: $195 per person, which includes transportation on Friday and Saturday; snacks, dinner and some beer on Friday; lunch, dinner and some beer on Saturday; cover charge at Gruene Hall; gratuities; and tour guides.
Not included are transportation to Austin, breakfast, lodging and extra alcohol.
For lodging, note that Texas Toast Culinary Tours is securing special rates at some Austin hotels. We'll update ASAP!
Itineraries coming up: San Antonio and Hill Country
By late 2010, Texas Tours will announce plans for tasting trips to New Orleans, Santa Fe and New York.
Texas Tours will also work with clients to customize tours for groups, as desired.
These may include:
· Half-day tours: Visit a cheese maker, artisan bakery, wine cellar, or specialty market for tour and tasting; or take a cooking class with noted chef; or enjoy a wine or food seminar with an expert; then top it off with lunch at a leading restaurant. 4 to 5 hours, morning or afternoon.
· Full-day tours: Combine several of the ideas found in the half-day tours and include lunch or dinner. 8 hours.
· Multi-day tours: Each day has a theme, with choices that might include ethnic cuisines; pairing wines and foods; local and regional foods; the Texas Trilogy: barbecue, Tex-Mex, and steaks; and celebrity chefs. As noted above, the itinerary can incorporate visits to see food/wine production, specialty markets, tastings, seminars, cooking demos or classes, and meals with appropriate wines or other beverages.
· And more: It’s easy to add in museum visits, shopping, spa treatments and live music as needed. Let us put together a tour just for you!
