As of Monday evening, I had a significant hankering for some crab nachos.
Having planned to eat dinner at the new Mexican seafood restaurant Sergio's on Austin Avenue, and knowing that Sergio's is a rebirth of Siete Mares, formerly located on Dutton, I planned for crab nachos. My brain made a promise to whatever part of me produces cravings that crab nachos were in my near future.
The new sushi/Korean food restaurant called Wako Roll opened for business today at Central Texas Marketplace.
So naturally, a WacoFork crew descended upon it. There were five of us and I like to think we gave the menu a pretty good test, ordering items ranging from your basic sushi to bulgogi and the hot pot dish called bibimbap.
For those who haven't noticed or experienced it first hand, Cafe Homestead's farm-to-table dinners have taken a place right at the top of our town's culinary treats.
Those who are in the know are, well, in the know. They will be excited to see that I have obtained a copy of the menu for the Cafe Homestead farm to table to be held March 17 at 6:30 p.m. The cost of the dinner will be $48 per person.
This is an early afternoon news brief as I have a few items to share before getting into production of a video blog highlighting last Thursday's Indian cooking class at Gourmet Gallery during which chef Priti Patel made chole masala, puri, vegetable biryani and mango lassi. Look for it later this afternoon.
Until then ...
The WacoFork wire got me all fired up about the possibility of BIG restaurant news today.
A couple of our resourceful citizens of WacoFork land found a craigslist ad asking for potential employees to staff a McCormick & Schmick's seafood restaurant. This would have been huge news as Waco lacks many heavy-hitter seafood restaurants outside of Red Lobster and Buzzard Billy's. There's plenty of places that serve great catfish, mind you, and perhaps the best bets for ocean-type seafood might just be one of the hibachi joints.
Making the rounds this week, I've learned that a pair of local restaurants are just about ready to open for business.
I've been asked multiple times when the Wako Roll in Central Texas Marketplace will go live. This morning, Hong Park said he will debut his new restaurant March 7. That's a week from tomorrow in case you don't have a calendar within an arm's reach.
Also opening its doors next week will be the new El Conquistador on N. 19th Street in the building formerly occupied by La Fiesta. I caught owner/manager Willie Gonzalez on Monday afternoon. He was busy at work getting everything ready at the new location in order to open on Monday.
The common thread here is that both new restaurants will be extensions of already-popular establishments in town. El Conquistador, obviously, is part of that family of restaurants while Wako Roll is a new restaurant brought to us by the people who own and operate Teriyaki Park.
One more bite: Since there aren't many things I enjoy more than the annual three-week indulgence of college basketball known as March Madness, I have to mention this: Baskin Robbins' flavor of the month is 3-Point Chocolate in celebration of the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament.
It's been a pretty newsy week already with updates on Wako Roll and BJ's Brewhouse.
There's a little more today. The photograph of the piece of blueberry pie that accompanies this blog came from Cafe Homestead. While I was there today, cafe manager Derek Varejcka told me the next farm-to-table dinner has been scheduled for March 17.
It seems like everyone I speak with regarding the new BJ's Brewhouse coming to the corner of Highways 6 and 84 near the Richland Mall can't wait for it to open.
Well, there's good news and bad news on that front.
Would you like to know when the new sushi and Korean food restaurant in Central Texas Marketplace is going to open? So would owner Hong Park.
I spoke with Park on Monday morning as he worked in his kitchen. He's waiting on inspectors to give him the green light to open for business, but he doesn't know when they're going to get around to him. He has finished the new restaurant right down to most of the final details and said he hopes to open by the end of the month, but he couldn't say for certain.
Exactly six weeks ago, I wrote in this blog about Mi Tequila opening a second location in the Austin Avenue space formerly occupied by Sebas Cocina.
Then on Tuesday I learned that the space will soon have yet another new tenant.
