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Podcast Episode Notes: This Is TASTE - Episode 286: Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel
Episode Overview In this episode, hosts Aliza Abarbanel and Matt Rodbard speak with Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel, chef and co-owner of Birdie’s, an acclaimed restaurant in Austin, Texas. Tracy shares her culinary journey from Chicago to New York, and ultimately to Austin, where she innovatively combines fine dining with a casual dining experience at Birdie's.
Key Themes and Topics
Tracy's Culinary Journey
- Early Influence: Tracy discusses her upbringing in Houston, Texas, where family meals focused on Italian-American food on Sundays and fast food during the week.
- Professional Training: She attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and started her professional career at Lula Cafe in Chicago, where she learned foundational skills in a high-pressure kitchen environment.
- Experience in New York: Tracy worked at several prestigious restaurants, including Del Posto, Blue Hill, and Gramercy Tavern, where she honed her culinary skills and met her partner, Arjav.
Birdie’s Restaurant
- Concept: Birdie’s features a unique “fine casual” dining model where guests order at the counter but receive high-quality food and service.
- Recognition: The restaurant was recently named Restaurant of the Year by Food & Wine, a significant achievement that highlights Tracy and Arjav's commitment to quality and innovation.
- Menu Highlights:
- Okra Dish: Charred okra with a mustard-dijon dressing, showcasing seasonal American food with Italian and French influences.
- Beef Tartare: Made with local ingredients, creating a dish that speaks to the Central Texas region.
- Warm Cookie on a Plate: A nostalgic dessert that embodies comfort and simplicity.
Austin’s Culinary Scene
- Matt's Trip to Austin: Following Tracy’s narrative, Matt shares his thoughts on Austin's vibrant food scene, including:
- Breakfast Tacos: Mentioned Joe's Bakery for their exceptional breakfast tacos.
- Barbecue: Highlights his visits to Franklin Barbecue, emphasizing the quality of their brisket.
- Food Trucks: Discusses local favorites like Distant Relatives and Cuantos Tacos, which contribute to Austin's dynamic food culture.
Community and Collaboration
- Supportive Environment: Tracy emphasizes the sense of community in Austin's restaurant scene, showcasing how chefs and restaurateurs support one another rather than compete.
- Seasonal Challenges: Discusses the seasonal nature of Austin's dining scene, with busy periods around cultural events like South by Southwest and Formula One.
Final Thoughts and Future Aspirations
- Culinary Philosophy: Tracy expresses a desire to continue evolving Birdie’s menu based on seasonal ingredients and local sourcing.
- Cookbook Aspirations: She shares her dream of writing a cookbook to document Birdie’s journey and the stories behind their dishes.
Key Takeaways
- Innovation in Dining: Birdie's model of counter-service fine dining is a fresh take on the restaurant experience, making high-quality food accessible in a casual environment.
- Connection to Community: The supportive nature of the Austin food scene fosters collaboration and creativity among chefs.
- Culinary Roots: Tracy's background and professional experiences have shaped her approach to food, emphasizing seasonality and locality.
Suggested Listening and Reading
- Food & Wine: Keep an eye on their upcoming publications for more on Birdie's recognition.
- Local Austin Food Guides: Explore the dynamic food scene in Austin through various culinary resources and guides.
Closing Remarks The episode ends with an invitation for listeners to explore Birdie's and the evolving culinary landscape of Austin, reinforcing the themes of community, innovation, and passion for food that permeate the conversation.
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Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:28This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. What's amazing about Blue Apron is like you could actually teach people how to cook. You could be teaching someone in Kansas how to make a stir fry who literally doesn't know anything about cooking. And I think giving people the tools to cook for themselves was a really special thing. This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbarg.
0:59Tracy Milchak-Ezekiel is a chef and co-owner of Birdie's, an Austin, Texas restaurant that is innovating and exciting, and by far one of my favorite meals of the year. On this episode, Tracy and I talk about her journey from cooking at Lula Cafe in Chicago to working the line at some of New York's most acclaimed places, Del Posto, Blue Hill, and Gramercy Tavern, the latter where she met her partner in life and business, Arzav. We talk about what excites Tracy about restaurants and dig into some of Birdie's most popular dishes. Also, stick around for my thoughts about a recent trip to Austin, Texas, some of the restaurants and trucks that got me most excited.
1:37It was really quite the trip. I hope you enjoy this conversation.
1:49tracy melchick ezekiel this is taste how are you doing i'm great how are you i'm i'm so happy to see you i i just saw you down in austin and i got to enjoy a meal at birdies and i uh and later on in this episode you'll hear eliza and i talking about my trip to austin um we talk at length about your restaurant, but we also talk about some of the other great restaurants in Austin. But hell, let's talk about New York. You're here. You worked here. We'll get into your story. I love it. You've worked at some really cool places. You've established yourself. But what's New York been like? What's this trip been like for you?
2:25It's kind of been a whirlwind. So I was here for between CIA and living in the city almost 13 years. So we now have a nine-month-old. So it feels a little different. You know, going down the street with a stroller versus, you know, being independent and single and, you know, jaywalking and just being a New Yorker. So, yeah, it's really great to be back. The same but also a little different. I mean, you were here for Food & Wine. At this time, they're going to announce it like any day, but you're Restaurant of the Year at Food & Wine. That's amazing. Congratulations. Thank you so much. What are you thinking about that?
3:04And we'll get into what Birdie's stands for and all the great innovation happening there. But what does this mean to you to be for Restaurant of the Year and arguably one of the best food mags in the world? Oh, wow. Thank you. I mean, it's such an honor. It was kind of overwhelming. It's still thinking in. I feel like we, with Arjav and I and our team, we work so hard every day. and it feels really awesome to be acknowledged for that. You know, we have a unique business model, kind of a fine casual model where we serve fine dining, food, and wine in a casual space with counter service. So just to be recognized for having an innovative business model while pushing for excellence with our food and wine and hospitality just feels really awesome.
3:53Yeah, it really is excellence. You know, you can always innovate with the concept, right? You can always have something cool, bells and whistles. But if you don't deliver with the food, you're not really going anywhere and you really do deliver. Food is delicious. It's creative. It's what you want to eat. It's at a price point that makes sense. You can have one dish or two. You can have a whole tasting menu if you want. And just tell me when you're here with your staff in New York, I mean, are you seeing anything like Birdies? I feel you've really entered a new phase for dining in America with Birdies.
4:26Thanks. No, I haven't really seen like a fine dining counter service model for dinner anywhere. We were really inspired by a couple of concepts in Los Angeles for daytime, like the squirrel and destroyer model, elevated food, but wait in line and grab a flag. But I've never seen that dinner. Yeah. Squirrel comes to mind totally. I think of squirrel, but that's more cafe all day and not fine dining. But we can get into the tartare. We will get the cookie on a plate, man. Later on this episode, I go really long on the cookie on a plate, which I think is fantastic. But so, Tracy, going back, you grew up in Houston before, you know, working in Chicago and New York and many other places.
5:08But I want to get back to Houston. Tell me about life growing up in Houston. What's the food like on your table at home? It was Italian-American on Sundays. And my mom worked a lot during the week. So to be honest, it was like fast food after soccer practice, you know, or kind of whatever. bagel bites out of the freezer, you know, and then Sunday was kind of our day to sit down as a family and like all be together, all cook. I was kind of always peeking over my mom's shoulder to take a snack and she was kicking me out of the kitchen for being annoying. But food was always what we were talking about.
5:38Like at breakfast, it was what are we eating for lunch? At lunch, it was what are we eating for dinner? You know, it's before it ruled my life. Officially, it ruled my life. Yeah. I mean, were you in the kitchen cooking with your mom? Was there any kind of, no, straight no. No, I wasn't. I never thought of myself as a chef, just as like an passionate eater. I grew up playing sports, like soccer was my big sport. I was like an athletic gal. I didn't really excel a lot in school, but I was like, sports, sports, and then what are we eating? Like that was all I cared about. And then later at the end of high school, I got really into music and in particular, like independent rock shows and rock shows.
6:18Oh my God. So Houston Rock, like what are we talking about? I mean, what are some of the bands that you're into? I love this. Well, this was like, okay, back in the day, first of all. So this is like, I graduated high school 2000. Yeah. So it was like a lot of local independent bands there that I don't know if you maybe heard of, but we loved, it was kind of like the generation of like the Strokes and then just really small local bands, like shows that were like between 50 and 100 people. But like you went to and the energy was just electric. And then you walked out like so excited and inspired to do whatever it was because you just felt alive.
6:55Oh, my gosh. I mean, you're a little bit younger than me by a couple of years. But I know the era when I moved to New York. And I think of like Deer Hunter as a southern band. I don't know if you know that band at all. Yeah. Band like that. Yes. Like at the drive-in was out of El Paso. There is this band called The Impossibles out of Austin, actually. But really high energy, fun, uplifting. Oh, my God. At the drive in, like talk about a band and especially that with the first album. What a what a defining sound of an era. Yeah. And like what they were, you know, talking about lyrically was really intense and politically and just really made you kind of think outside of like a typical like maybe a pop punk band or that kind of band.
7:41And like it really got you thinking deep about like what's happening on the border and just like really serious stuff. For sure. There was definitely like a political element to the band. What about Vega? Were you under Vega? No. Vega was like an electronic band from I think San Antonio as well. Anyways, we could talk about music for a long time, but we have a lot to get through. You end up in Chicago. Yeah. And like I might be jumping a few steps ahead, but like let's get there. You're at Lula Cafe and you're working the line. And, you know, we had Jason Hamill on recently on the show. The best.
8:09And we talked about you off mic. And talk about working at that restaurant and really important Chicago restaurant. What were you taking away from that? Well, I think what I went into it with was a shiny diploma from University of Houston, Hotel Restaurant Management, me thinking I knew something and quickly learning. I knew nothing. I didn't know how to hold a knife. I didn't know how to move in a kitchen. I didn't know how to organize a station. So I started at the bottom. You know, they really took a chance on me. I was a prep cook. I learned how to, you know, put a towel under my cutting board.
8:38I learned how to have a trash bain-marie on your station. I learned everything there, you know, the fundamentals. And then once I had become competent at being a prep cook, I then started on Garmager. And then Leah, who is his wife, partner, was also the co-chef in the kitchen every day at the time. She taught me how to make a salad, which is still something I take so seriously today and plating things as if they fell from heaven. which whether directly or indirectly might have been from Alice Waters. But just my whole philosophy and sensibility, I think, came from Jason and Leah. Yeah, and that restaurant, you know, thinking about seasonality, you know, 24 years ago when they started that restaurant.
9:16And, you know, Chicago is an interesting food city because there's so much fine dining there. It's like the epicenter of many between Trotter and Grant Ackett's. But there's lots of cool neighborhood restaurants, and Lula is one of those. What was your takeaway from the Chicago dining scene when you were working there? I think my favorite part was like the personality behind each restaurant and the vibe of each neighborhood. Because Houston's very spread out. It's a little different. But in Chicago, it's like, you know, if you've been there, you know, like you can like drive down a different block and you feel the energy of that neighborhood.
9:48Like I lived in the Ukrainian village and then you drove five minutes in Wicker Park and then that felt different than the Gold Coast. Is that what it's called? The Gold Coast. Yeah, Gold Coast. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, with like all the comedy parlors and stuff. So I just loved how everything had its own voice, both in restaurant, neighborhood, and otherwise. Did you ever make it to Schwa? I did. Yeah. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah. I loved it. What about hot dogs? Okay. Can we go way back? Yeah, let's go back. Okay. Before I applied to Lula, I wanted to work at hot dogs. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So I thought initially I wanted to open a hot dog restaurant in Houston.
10:25Yeah. And I wanted to learn how to like make my own sausages. And I had my ex-boyfriend, who was then a good friend once I moved to Chicago, live there. And him and I would go to hot dogs a lot, eat the duck fat fries, just freaked out about like all of their creative, cool hot dogs. So I show up with my resume and I'm like, all right, Doug. He's like the owner. I'm like, I want to work here. I want to cook here. And he like looks at me and he like turns around and looks at the kitchen. It's like two really strong dudes. And then he's like, you never cooked? I was like, well, no. And he's like, I mean, I guess you could be a busser.
10:57And I was kind of like, maybe not the right fit. Yeah. And then I ended up being like, wait a second, I'm obsessed with Lula. That's my actual favorite restaurant I love eating at. That's an amazing story. I mean, Hot Doug's was such a pioneering restaurant, also a counter service. How about that? Full circle. Full circle. And then with Doug manning the counter and being slow as hell and creating those lines like he was at a club, like he was the 40-40 club in Manhattan. I feel like between duck fat fries and having a long line, the guy knew how to market a restaurant. Oh, genius. I wonder what he's doing now.
11:30He's definitely like he's sold that shit out. And I hope there's a documentary about hot dog one day. Let's move to New York. You're taking reps at some of the country's finest restaurants. You're working at Del Posto. You're working at Blue Hill. You're working at Gramercy Tavern where you would later meet your future husband and business partner. Now, let's talk about each of those. I'd like to get a little sense. So Del Posto, what was that like working, you know, with Brooks, Headley, and Mark Ladner pre-Brooks, Headley, Mr. Superiority Burger? What's that like? It was intense. I had externed at Crew, which was very small boutique tasting menu restaurant.
12:11Chez Galante. Yeah. So it was, you know, there were like five or six cooks, you know, tasting menu only. The only words I said there were like we the whole time. So, you know, I had my head down. It was like kind of old school energy in that kitchen. I was the only female in the savory kitchen. And then everything had to be perfect. It was like kind of small batch kind of cooking. And then fast forward to post-graduation, I went to Del Posto. It was like 2008 recession was hitting. You can kind of like feel that energy. And it was huge. We were doing between 250 and 400 covers a night. It was pushing for excellence but in huge volume.
12:49And I was super slow. So the first six months I struggled to like get up my speed. Everything I was trying to make super perfect, but I just couldn't do it fast enough. So I quickly got my butt kicked and learned how to move quicker. It's also a huge kitchen if you've ever been in that kitchen. So like when you're downstairs grabbing your dry ingredients, grabbing your equipment, you better like have a tight list because to go downstairs and around the corner would take another like six minutes. So it forced me to be organized and really learn how to be a professional organized line cook. Yeah.
13:20I mean, that restaurant, Four Stars New York Times, like one of the few and certainly one of the only Italians. So really like pioneering restaurant. What's Brooks like in the pastry kitchen, separate kitchen? Are you guys hanging out? You know, again, we've got to give Brooks some love. This is taste. He's always getting mentioned on the show. I mean, he's obviously incredible. I was on Garmage. I cooked all the stations during the three years I was at Dol Posto. And for my days off, I was like, hey, Brooks, can I come hang out? and work in pastry. And so that's what I did. Some nights I was frying bamboloni.
13:55Some days I was helping with prep. And his approach was really interesting because it was just so unique and innovative. And coming from working at Crew, and Shea was like very disciplined and everything was just so to a T. And Brooks was just kind of this like punk rock, wild, hated recipes, hated using the gram scale. One day I was like plating something. And I was like, is this right? You know, and I was proud of this play. I was like, I know he's going to love this. And he was like, it's too perfect. And I was like, what do you mean? He was like, just make it more effed up. And he said the word.
14:30And I was like, okay. And I just didn't get it. And now it's funny when I teach cooks, I'm like, it's too perfect. And they look at me the same way. And I'm like, just make it more wild, you know? It's cool because I think you're letting creativity outshine like the Soignet attitude that you might have gotten from Shea and those other places. But it really does translate to diner when you have a little bit of that, you know, rough edge side, right? Totally. That's cool. And you end up at Blue Hill. Are you working in the village or are you working at Stone Barns? I was in the West Village. So tell me, what's that service like?
15:00Is Barber in the kitchen? I know he's got a certain energy, well-documented energy in those kitchens. What was that like? That was another intense kitchen, you know, in a very different way because it was so small. Yeah. And, you know, 3.30, 4 o 'clock, an hour before service some days, like we'd get a bunch of vegetables and have to like push to get them cut perfectly and ready to go. I learned a ton about seasonal cooking from that kitchen. I learned constant tasting, you know, constantly being in touch with the raw product and understanding, you know, what it needed, trying to balance flavors.
15:38And it's interesting because Dan worked for Boulay for a long time and so did Shea. and so I understood certain things immediately just because of kind of the belay teachings through them. Yeah. So there's just like a certain language, you know, every chef speaks and it's, um, it was cool to kind of connect those dots. Wow. Um, I'll tell you off mic my story about barber and service. I have a friend who used to work there. We'll talk off mic. Um, well, let's get into Gramercy Tavern because I think that clearly has inspired you a lot with what, the way you think about hospitality. You met your husband, Arjav, there, and he runs a wine program at Birdie's, and it seems that that was influential in your life.
16:16Gramercy Tavern was definitely a unique restaurant in terms of where I'd come from because everybody was just out of their way nice. You know, you walk in, you say hi to everybody, eye contact with everybody. And at first I was like, why is everyone being so nice to me? What's happening? But ultimately, I got to know Mike Anthony well, and he's definitely a mentor. You definitely felt that Danny Meyer hospitality through everything we did. I loved working with Mike, becoming a sous chef. I love the way he cooked fish and his whole approach to everything, which is just really, really thoughtful and intentional.
16:53Yeah. I mean, you said a lot there, but I think there's so much left to be like just observed in your restaurant because you take it away. And if you visit Birdie's, you're getting wonderful service, but you're getting food running from the kitchen, the open kitchen. So, Tracy, you end up at Untitled working there for a couple of years and you meet your husband there. What is that last stop in New York? What's that like? What are you learning there? I was really working on continuing to work on coming up with dishes. At Gramercy, I had a lot of dishes on the menu that were under the kind of the Mike Anthony umbrella.
17:28And then, so Suzanne Cupps was CDC, Mike was still executive chef, and sous chefs were involved with dish creation. So it was really fun to continue to work on my own style kind of under their umbrella and kind of hone that in, dial that in. So cool. So it's Crew, it's Del Posto, it's Gramercy Tavern, it's Untitled. That's a lot of restaurant work. So you end up pivoting and moving to Blue Apron. And I saw this in your LinkedIn. We didn't really talk about this when I caught up with you in person, but I can't let it pass because Blue Apron to me is super important to the way we think about food, the way we think about home cooking.
18:05But you worked there as a recipe developer for a couple of years. Talk about that a little bit. I'd like to get a sense of what Blue Apron was like, particularly in these kind of earlier days. Was this pre-IPO? Yes. Well, I was there cooking on stage at the Stock Exchange whenever we went public. Oh, my gosh. So you were there like during the IPO? It was like my, I want to say like fourth or fifth month. Yeah. Okay, so you weren't there like for like, let's cash in IPO. You were there for like, I'm going to work here during the IPO. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, I guess probably starting with why I took a break off restaurants.
18:35Yeah, let's get into that. I was feeling a little bit of the burnout. I didn't want to pick up a cookbook. I was just like, I love restaurants. I love food. This is my passion, but I just need a minute to reflect. You know, I needed to do some soul searching. I needed to take a deep breath. and I was connected to John Adler through Mike Anthony and John was the executive chef at Franny's for a long time. Really awesome guy and he was like hey you want to take a breather like let's cook together. Let's connect to people at home. This could be a really fun opportunity for you to work on a new skill and I ended up learning a ton about writing recipes.
19:13I learned about how to cook at home in a more efficient manner because you know when you're making a dish at Gramercy Tavern, you just make it nice. You don't think about how many pans you're using. You don't think about the logistics of like cooking it at home. Like at home, I hate doing dishes, right? So I think if you can figure out a smart way to make something tasty within a reasonable amount of time, then like that's just a totally different skill than making a four hour long dish at a fine dining restaurant. So Blue Apron, you're developing recipes. Is there like a recipe that you feel like wow is proud I got that like into like you know 40 ,000 homes or 400 ,000 oh my gosh I I honestly don't even know so many yeah so many um yeah some dishes like you kind of you propose and then the team kind of edits and test them together um there's not a particular one that sticks out I remember like stuffing a chicken breast from a blue apron menu and like being like this is actually a really smart technique I've never really done this before I thought this was a dated technique but actually it's quite delicious yeah I mean what's amazing about blue apron is like, you could actually teach people how to cook because people have, you know, you could be teaching someone in Kansas how to, I don't know, make a stir fry who literally doesn't know anything about cooking.
20:24And I think giving people the tools to cook for themselves was a really special thing. You know, I mean, you go from cooking for a couple hundred people a night to cooking with thousands of people across the country. So for me, that was really special is giving people the tools to cook for themselves. Yeah. And I think it's, they were one of the early to market ones too. So like give Blue Apron credit where it's due. So Tracy, you famously were in Brooklyn and you're like thinking about where you're going to settle and you flip a coin. You literally flip a coin and you end up in Austin. Yes. Texas, which, you know, many listeners may know as like a place to get barbecue, a place to like go to South by Southwest, maybe see a music festival in the fall.
21:04I mean, it's a wonderful place, but there's a lot of like these stereotypes. But you decided you opened there and become part of the community. I want to get a sense of what did you need to do to like introduce yourselves to this community with a lot of well-established restaurants? I mean, we just tried to be as respectful as possible. And our job was a server at a restaurant. I was, I worked in pastry at a restaurant and then I was a host at another one. So kind of as we were grinding, trying to get birdies open, trying to raise money, trying to find a location, we were at the same time meeting people in the industry and getting to know the community.
21:38And it's been pretty incredible because everyone in Austin has been so supportive, has our back, doesn't feel competitive at all. Everyone just asks like, what do you need? How can I help? Do you feel the crush during certain times of year there? Does it feel like it's a city that really has its peaks? Yeah, the seasons are a little different than New York. I mean, summer's kind of, I feel like, dead for both New York and Austin. But the busy season in Austin's around like late September to May. South by week around March is nuts. Formula One in October, insane. So those are kind of like the two big pops.
22:12Cool. Now I want to dive into some of the menu items at Birdie's because I really just want to get into a sense of how these dishes came about. And one of them is okra, which I was just blown away by the way you're dressing okra. It almost like a nissoir style. It felt very French. Talk about this dish. Sure. So Birdie's, seasonal American food with a lot of Italian and French influences. So this is kind of inspired by like kind of a mustardy French potato salad. That's it. Yeah. That's it. I knew it was something. I was like, that's it. Yeah. So it's literally just like whole grain mustard, shallots, chives, Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, lemon.
22:52And then as soon as the okra comes off out of the pan, super roasty, you toss it. So it just kind of like takes in all that flavor. Later on this episode, you hear me talk about your olives, how you're curing your olives and I went a little crazy. You'll get to. Oh, we don't technically cure. Oh, you don't. Oh, you marinate. Yeah. I think I'm in that general marinate. Got it. But you're like really thinking about olives beyond like a typical olive bowl. Talk about those. Okay. Yeah. I'm obsessed with olive oil, but olive everything. I love it. Yeah. Olive everything and I love that dish. And I feel like there's just little hints of like just like this is something that you really think through deeply.
23:32And the tartare as well is something that when I posted on Instagram, I had a couple editorial people reach out and be like, wow, I know that dish. I really miss that dish. And what makes it in your assessment so special, that tartare that you offer? I feel like what I love about our beef tartare is that it feels central Texas, you know, pecans from Texas. These smoked shiitakes, local. These Sonora wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill 30 minutes outside of town. Rosemary aioli. Rosemary grows like wildfire all over Texas. And then the Carta de Musica, which is just literally semolina flour and water and salt.
24:13It just feels of the place. And it looks kind of wild. And I feel like that dish, that's the only savory dish that stays on our menu. That's like one of the staples that you can never take off because your regulars are down. It's the only savory staple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How often do you switch up the menu? Every day, typically something changes. Something switches out. Yeah, we get that text or phone call from a farmer like, hey, sorry about that. This isn't happening today. So we're scrambling to make changes. I love it. Let's talk about the Sicilian cookie on a plate. I will you will in the future will hear me really talk say some things about it.
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24:51Now, I love the idea of doing a cookie plate. And I feel like it's such a beautiful thing to be served a cookie like on a nice plate. It just feels right to me. Thank you. Yeah, I like very direct desserts. I'm not kind of want someone I mean, I can appreciate like a beautifully plated, super technique driven dessert. Don't get me wrong. But for me, I love the classics. I love a cookie and we're always influenced a little bit by Italy and France. So, you know, it feels a little Sicilian and you get like some citrus and fennel notes in there. But it also feels just like a comforting cookie. Yeah.
25:26So comforting. And I could go on and on. We've gone into a lot of the dishes and I just have to say I just I was blown away by the meal. So I really wanted to to highlight a few with you. So thank you. What's exciting you in Austin outside of obviously your own your own your own business? but I'm sure you talk about the community. What are some other restaurants you're really into right now? Right now I'm really excited about Este. It's Chef Ramin's restaurant from Suerte, and he's a good friend and makes delicious Mexican coastal seafood. Fantastic tortillas. Also, Nixta, down the street from us, they're a very good friend.
26:01Sarah Nedger, and I would also say Bufalina. Yeah. Fantastic pizza, a couple pastas, and an awesome wine list. I didn't make it to Buflina, but that's a good pick. I've heard great things. It's awesome. Tracy, on This Is Taste, we asked guests about the discerning taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid-fire, fast and furious taste check. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. The best morning pastry with coffee? Chocolate croissant. I'm just letting that sit in because I think you're so right. Pond of chocolate's my number one, too. I agree with you. Especially when you get it fresh out of the oven.
26:34It's kind of melty. Oh, nothing better. The best dessert? The best dessert. Hot Fudge Ice Cream Sundae, ideally from Margie's in Chicago. Oh, my goodness. Margie's. Margie's has featured on The Bear. Was it? I believe so. I've only seen two episodes of The Bear. Yeah, it's season two. I think Sydney, the character Sydney, goes there and has a sundae after she's stood up by Carmi. She's sitting there having the sundae. Wow. Very juicy. Margie's is great. It's a good call. The best bread? Sourdough. Like, did you fall into a sourdough, like, during the pandemic? Were you baking a lot of sourdough?
27:14I wasn't, but our job, my husband and business partner, became obsessed and threw flour all over our kitchen. What makes a good sourdough? What makes it special, insides or outsides? Good. Quality flour and technique. The best music to have in your restaurant dining room, band or genre? This is very important to me because I make the playlists, Jenny Lewis early in the night whenever I was in college I was obsessed with this band Rilo Kylie which she was in and then later in the night I typically go for like a Pavement kind of vibe yeah Pavement just played Brooklyn I miss that show what a great band Rilo Kylie love her band more than her solo yeah I love that band yeah they were incredible we saw them a few times live in Houston and love them man great call there alright Your favorite New York City restaurant, classic edition.
28:09Luke Hawley. Is that classic enough? I think it is in the classic realm. Yes. I'll accept that answer. Okay, cool. I think that's good. It's good pie. Your favorite New York City restaurant, the new dog edition. I just checked out Claude three nights ago, and every dish was spot on. Yeah. Spot on. So I have not been there, but I feel like everyone's been there. It seems like a really popular place. I highly recommend it. Yeah. What comes to mind? They had this beef tartare that I guess they had just put on the menu, and it was like super fresh, vibrant red beef and this like Jimmy Nardello relish, and it was just so confidently plated.
28:47And I don't know. I took a bite and was obsessed. Your favorite chef to hang out with? Lena Ciardulo. She's now the chef of Union Square Cafe. We cook together at Grand Mercy Tavern. Oh, right. I've heard someone told me Union Square is like super on fire right now. It's like really, really good. She's a beast and a mom of two. Oh, I love that. Your favorite chef to learn from? That I've worked for? Yeah. Hmm. Probably Mike Anthony because he's just like the full package of a chef. Yeah, he's quite the mentor to many. Your favorite recent cookbook discovery? I love, I love, love this cookbook called My Calabria.
29:27And it's just very regional, specific, unique kind of recipes. you don't typically see these days. So I'm always searching for like the esoteric book that no one's ever seen. Yeah, that has a lot of like cool ideas going on. That's like grandma cooking from a certain small region that you've never heard of. Yeah, and they explain something that you maybe have experienced, but you're actually seeing it in recipe form. Yeah, or maybe I've never seen it because I've never been to this, you know, village in a tiny region in Italy, you know, like that kind of is what inspires me. Your favorite cookbook of all time?
29:59The New Professional Chef, the one that the CIA puts out. It's just like full of the fundamentals and it never gets old. So anytime I want to like reference something, I always learn something or I'm reminded of something that I value. I like that. Textbooks don't get enough credit. They're very important. Yeah. Do you have a dream cookbook you want to write or a cookbook you want to write? I do. Someday I would love the opportunity to write about birdies and talk about our story and our farmers that we use and the people who work with us and, you know, our kind of classic recipes. Well, it's classic in the two years you've been open.
30:38Well, no, but I think it's fair to say they're like your classics and they're the ones that stick around when they do and that you feel very personal. They're personal recipes. Yeah. I love that. A couple more. Your favorite vegetable? Eggplant. What way? I just love the versatility of it. I think you can do so much with it. I think it gets a bad rap because – Sometimes it's improperly cooked and not cooked with a ton of care. But whenever you have a thoughtfully cooked eggplant, it's just mind blowing. You know, I love how like, for example, in Texas, we get this green eggplant from this farm Boggy Creek.
31:12That's a mile from us. It's like almost soufflés when you cook it. It's creamy. There's no bitterness whatsoever. You can eat the skin. I just I just love how it's versatile. The skins are the one thing that kind of trips people up when you don't negotiate it. You got to get, if you get like some nice fairy tale, you know, you got to taste the variety. We do a lot of tasting and then cooking and then recooking to find what works. Which one works because they're not all the same. That's the one thing. Yeah. Definitely. I totally agree with that. That's why it's hard when you call for an eggplant in a recipe, right?
31:45Even if it's like Sicilian versus, you know, other varieties, it still is really, really hard sometimes. Exactly. I think if you list eggplant on a recipe, you have to be detailed. Yeah. Very detailed about the size and about the skin. Yeah, definitely. Last one, your favorite sandwich. Meatball sub. Classic. Are you going to do it on your menu? Meatball sub? No, I don't think so. It's just my favorite to eat. We don't really have sandwiches. Is there a restaurant in the works? Another one? Number two? Are you going to do it? We are dreaming about a restaurant, but there will always only be one birdies.
32:16It's just the corner spot, the everything, the seasonality of it requires a lot of hands-on time. I also have a nine-month-old at home. So there will only be one birdie. Love it. Tracy, thank you so much for joining This Is Taste. Thanks, Matt.
32:40Hey, Matt. How are you doing? I'm good, Eliza. What's going on? Not much. I want to ask you about Texas because I've never been and I feel like you were just there. Wait, you've never been to Texas? I know. It's embarrassing because I'm from California and I live in New York. So maybe I would have crossed that way at some point, but it just never happened for me. So you've never been to South by Southwest? No. Never had the lanyard around and like, oh, breakfast tacos are the best. Yeah. I'm not proud to say that I haven't been to Texas, but I'm kind of proud that I haven't been to South by. Yeah.
33:09No. And also, I mean, Texas to me, like what is it? What comes to mind when you think about Texas having never been there? Well, my family is kind of from there. My grandpa was born in El Paso, Texas, and I have some family that are out there. I just don't I'm not that connected with them. But I have a lot of friends that are proud Texans. I feel like especially people from Houston that I know they rep so hard. So I've definitely heard a lot about all of the different kinds of like immigrant cuisine that are in Houston, especially obviously like all the breakfast tacos in Austin. Boyhood by Richard Linklater.
33:41Yeah, right. I like Texas. Oh, my God. I thought boyhood was so good except for the boys acting. It's hard when you cast someone as a kid and then work with them for 12 years. You're kind of like banking. Kind of impossible tasks. But this is not a Linklater podcast. We're going to kick off three. We're going to do three like segments about my trip to Texas. And I went there with Travel Texas. They were really cool and kind of hooked me up with a car and, you know, were like, you know, fly, fly, fly, fly away and find your spots. And I had a great trip. I was there in September. It was hot. But also I wanted to put fresh eyes on three cities, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.
34:23So for this episode, we're going to talk about Austin, Texas. That's the first place we went. And to me, I've been there many, many times. I actually went there in college. I was on the crew team. You were? At the University of Wisconsin, yeah. Wow. And we trained down there for two weeks. I was on 6th Street, New Year's Eve, 1999, rang in the new year. didn't eat a lot of food drank a lot of drinks as you should probably but I wanted to go down there because there's a lot of chefs and establishment restaurants that we talk about a lot in food culture because Austin is so rich with great restaurants and many different backgrounds so I kind of wanted to go through some yeah I would love to hear about it I'm curious if you're going to take me from like breakfast taco to dinner taco, if you want to talk about like all kinds of different places you went to.
35:17Absolutely. Well, I have a bunch of notes. I'm just going to jump around because on the topic of breakfast tacos, you know, it's part of this like meme about Austin, you know, the breakfast taco. And honestly, Jose Rollat has written extensively about how Austin's ownership of the breakfast taco is kind of like, I don't know, maybe not as authentic to the reality of the situation. There's a lot more going on in Austin, but also there's a lot of breakfast tacos around the state. Right. But I did have some incredible breakfast tacos, and I went to Joe's Bakery in East Austin, and I had a guisado breakfast taco, and I also had a bacon and egg taco.
35:52But right at Joe's, and I think Rafael Brion is a good friend of mine. He's the editor of The Infatuation in Texas, so we were talking a little bit, emailing about Joe's, and the bacon is the crispiest bacon I've ever had. It's thick and it's wedged into this perfect flour tortilla. Joe's blew me away with this like simple dish made perfect with products. So egg, bacon, and then a perfect flour tortilla. And the tortilla is like pliable and flaky and all of those good things I would imagine. Absolutely. Flaky, it had maybe some lard in there. And really when they're fresh. And this will be a theme as we continue this Texas trip about how wheat-based tacos, flour tortillas are really special in Texas.
36:42Shall I move on? Yeah, I want to hear about what's next. Okay, so I want to start – let's actually go to the barbecue section of this program because I think Hill Country Barbecue, Texas, you know, is where beef rules. And, you know, there's places out in the Hill Country about an hour outside the city. I've been to Crites. I've been to Smitty's. I've been to Black's. I've been to all those. I've been to Salt Lake many times. These are all those places that you hear about, and I love them all. But I was in the city of Austin, and I got to go to two particular places. They're very different. One you can imagine is Franklin Barbecue.
37:15I was going to say, I've never been to Texas, but I could guess that one still. Aaron Franklin, just an absolute gem of a human being, one of our authors. We've had him on the show and hope he comes back. But I got to go there like right before Labor Day, the week before Labor Day. And I talked to Aaron. I waited seven minutes, eight minutes in line. That's crazy to me. I feel like their lines are so famous. I would say the hot tip is, literal hot tip is to go down there in late August right before, right when school starts where it's like no tourists. But I really enjoyed my meal there. I think, you know, Brisket Rules Supreme at Franklin Barbecue.
37:51And really, it's just a special place. I don't really want to kill a bunch of time talking about how great Franklin is, but I do want to kill a bunch of time talking about how great Distant Relative is. Well, great name. Never heard of it. Great name. It's a food truck, actually. And what they're doing is dry rub pork spare ribs. And that's what we had out in this food truck. And it was at like a brewery, kind of like outside of town a little bit. I'm not I forget the name of the brewery, but Distant Relatives is legit. But the best thing I had at Distant Relatives was not the barbecue. It was this incredible watermelon salad with a mousse of mango, a mango mousse on top of it.
38:29Wow. Okay. So it's a sweet watermelon salad. Does it have a savory component too? I don't, you know, black pepper was definitely in there, but it wasn't, it was still with this mousse. It was like this like fluffy, it was like fluff more than mousse. So I think mousse is maybe under something. It's like a fluff. But like pairing this like really great like in-season watermelons with this mousse, this fluff of mango tartness. When you pair that with like a smoked rib, fuck, really good. That's so cool. I'm like so jealous. I want to eat out of everything. It all sounds great, but mango mousse I'm very intrigued by.
39:03Yeah. I mean, you know, food trucks are a big part of Austin. I went to Quantos Tacos, which is a food truck that's well regarded. And I had a lingua taco on flour naturally. That was just incredible. and I really think that's part of the culture there. I know Eastside Kings used to be this amazing group of restaurants that were at like the Grackle. I went and stopped by the Grackle, which is a great downtown bar that is like a whiskey bar. But there's always food trucks posted up at bars in Austin. But when it's like 100, it's tough to do the outdoor dining. But still, they make it worthwhile.
39:43They put like a lot of like fans around and stuff like that. Yeah, I feel like you just have to kind of lean into the experience that it's going to be hot, but you still want to eat some meat. Yeah, definitely. Back to my notes. Honestly, there was two restaurants that I would put in the more like chef-y, buzzy restaurant round. Both have been well regarded by both Bon Appetit and Food & Wine. We're recording this the day before Food & Wine's Best New Chefs issue comes out, but one of the restaurants talked about Birdie. birdies will be recognized as the restaurant of the year which hot tip hot tip it's it's going down tonight but you know what let's start there birdies have you heard you have you entered the birdies world on social do you know about this place no i feel like i'm missing out what's the deal you are missing out i know they're cool um so tracy malik ezekiel and her husband arjav Ezekiel run birdies and I'm going to have Tracy on the show um her interview may run before this conversation I'm not sure when we're going to run it you know scheduling I mean she's in town to win an award and I'm like I don't know if she's going to show up because listen if you win an award they might just like shut the day off and just stop you know but let me tell you about birdies because this is a cool restaurant they're doing fine dining at the counter Counter service fine dining.
41:11Those are two things that are diametrically opposed to each other. Yeah. So essentially you wait at this restaurant outdoors, usually in line. If there's a line or if there's no line, you just show up. You order at the counter, and you're given a seat. But the service and the quality of the cooking is something that – it points to both Tracy and Arjav's background, which is Gramercy Tavern where they met. Whoa. I love a – are they a couple? Yeah, yeah, they're a married couple. Yeah, I love a couple that meets, like, in a restaurant together and then, like, open something on their own. When you say it's, like, fine dining, is it tasting menu?
41:48Is it a la carte? What's the experience like? So you're ordering at the counter. You're ordering all these dishes. So it is a la carte. Oh, cool. Yeah, but you're – let's back up. If you're waiting in line, you can get wine service. You can get cocktails while you're waiting in line. There's a bunch of rails out there. Like, we were there, again, like, in this kind of debtor period of Austin, so we got right in. But honestly, like you could see that there's probably weights, but they make it very enjoyable. You know, it's like lots of like blonde woods inside and an open kitchen and feels extremely, you know, chefy, cool interior.
42:21And they have a whole backyard open space with like a tented space that's beautiful. But the cooking is really impeccable. And I think Tracy is a real talent in our country. And then Arjav is the wine director and offering value wines from around the world. So you can order your bottle of wine either at the counter or have a server drop you a list and talk you through some of the selections. But it's a refreshing way to think about counter QSR, like quick service, but like making it like a lot better. So I was struck by it. Yeah, I like the sound of that. I think that fine dining is a harder sell these days, especially for like younger people that want to go out to eat and something that feels like the food is really thoughtful, but that the experience is a little bit less fussy.
43:10Seems like a nice way to go about it. Absolutely agree. Good call, Liza. I think that you pointed out a good point. It's like you want to sit down and maybe order three dishes and especially for budgets, too. It kind of like fits your budget. You can really see what you're spending right away. You know, you pay ahead of time. So there's like it's kind of just like you're done with paying. And it's like psychologically it's positioned really in a cool way and modern. But we've got to talk about food. I feel like I've like not mentioned anything I ate. So let's get into that. As I mentioned, Tracy comes from Gramercy Tavern and really, you know, it's an eclectic like New American style.
43:42A lot of Italy and the Mediterranean is represented on the menu. I have to say the real highlight is okra. the way they did okra she charred and roasted these okra pods and tossed it with like a niçoise style Dijon shallot dressing and you know okra is cool and there's many ways to do it you can shave it you can definitely like roast it but when you I like the astringency of tossing it with this like Dijon shallot and with the charred you know the burned element you know that umami from the char so good. Really cool it kind of reminds me of the way you could treat asparagus which I think is kind of similarly vegetal and like a little bitter in the way that okra can be.
44:21Absolutely. I think of asparagus, maybe even like long beans, green beans in the same way. I'm getting some of that, like if it's a wok hay version, like in the wok. But another highlight I'd say is when you house cure olives and you have this like olive bowl that has been intentionally cured by the chef, isn't just something from the jarred. I just like there was like a lot of citrus notes in it. And it felt like, I mean, Tracy was telling me about the olive choice and there's like a real pure like curatorial angle there with the olive choice. A little nerdy right now. I'm going to olives into this episode, but I think it's worth mentioning that cured olives can be very, very special.
45:01Are you talking about green olives or black olives? Great question. Green. Pit in. Definitely pit in. Definitely like not like salty in an annoying way, but like really like flavorful. last thing to talk about at birdies and moving on to the next restaurant they do this thing where they put a warm cookie on a plate and serve that as a pastry course and it was a walnut chocolate chip that's so cute it's cute and it was it was great and gooey cookie or yeah yeah i mean yeah only option only option it's warm it's like made to like i mean i don't know if it's like baked to order but it's definitely like you know made to be gooey and warm and you know what charge nine bucks for it Fuck yeah.
45:42Good job, guys. You can charge$9, something like that,$8 for a cookie on a plate. Cannot say enough good things about Birdie's, and I'll definitely, Tracy may be on this episode before, and you would have heard all about her, or you will listen to her in a future episode. Tempting. What's the other restaurant? Okay. So the last Austin restaurant I want to talk about is Kanje. Heard about this place? I think I have heard about it through Jesse Sparks, who is at Eater Inn in Texas. Yeah, he's in Houston. And I actually didn't go. I wasn't able to catch up with Jesse. He was out of town. So we missed each other.
46:20Kanji is all about Tavol Bristol Joseph, who is the owner. He's a clean pastry chef. In his own right, he worked at the River Cafe in New York. He grew up in Brooklyn. he was raised in Guyana and he has a point of view for cooking the diaspora of the Caribbean in a way that I've never experienced in my life I feel I always want to taste the flavors of the Caribbean in a way that's exciting on the palate but also I'm a little surprised and it you know isn't the obvious choices especially when it's in the fine dining and he nailed at every level it was incredible What were the standout dishes? I'm so curious.
47:04Yeah, it's really one of these places that I hope to go back and I think it was really a fan favorite. Well, I think, you know, back to watermelon, he did a pineapple, watermelon and passion fruit, like a salad of those three elements. And it seems simple, but the way he married those three, it's a tough marriage, those three, I feel. Tropical fruits and watermelon, not easy to pair, but really liked the way that started our thinking. Really delicious. Cool. He did a pepper pot with wild boar and used casarip, which is a cassava molasses, in the reduction. And this brings me to think about the way Tavol cooks with the saucery, the saucing of these dishes.
47:50It's amazing. It's just so flavorful and really refined. It was just startling how beautiful these courses were. I love this restaurant so much. Wow. I'm really feeling like I need to go to Texas right away. Well, I think so. I mean, it's definitely a place that I can't recommend high enough. And I think a couple more dishes from this meal. We had jerk chicken, of course. We had oxtail beef patties, oxtail beef patties. And, you know, those are the jerk chicken, oxtail beef patties, you know, classic, you know, Jamaican dishes. and hot, both of them, and just delicious, you know, reinventions in a way of these two classic dishes.
48:32But we ended with his pastry, which I think is something that Food & Wine recognized and many have, and really he went back to the Casarip, the cassava molasses, and he did a really up-plated ice cream dessert with passion fruit, puffed rice, and pepitas. So very salty, very crunchy, lots of texture. reminded me of brooks headley pastry back at um del posto days really felt like that it was like using american like constructs like ice cream and crunch but making it really cool and unique were the pepita puffed rice was that like a combined granola e topping or were they separate combined cool like together forever those two i like a dish that just goes into alliteration in that way that's like the three p's for dessert absolutely um and like lastly we went to lido a rooftop bar at the loren hotel and really i felt like um it reminded me of how austin has grown so much since i've been going there since my crew days in the 90s but also um various trips for work and i felt staying in austin has never been better i think there's like really unique hotels boutique hotels up on congress there's hotels there's hotels on the river now um and i I love this city so much.
49:49I think we often, as writers and as New Yorkers, we get into this, like, it's for South by and that's it, or Austin City Limits in the fall. But it's really worth a visit. Worth a visit. And it sounds like maybe when it's hot out and no one else is around is the way to do it. That's the hot tip. I would go off season and get yourself a car, maybe head out to the hill country. But, yeah, I loved Austin. It was a great trip. Thanks for telling me about your trip. It sounds great. It was great, Liza. Thanks for asking those great questions.
50:18This is Taste is hosted by Eliza Abarbanel and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is produced by Shalia Harris and Pat Stango and edited by Clayton Gumbert. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on all cool things that are happening.
From the publisher
Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel is the chef and co-owner of Birdie’s, an Austin, Texas, restaurant that is innovative and exciting, and by far one of our favorite meals of the year. On this episode, we speak with Tracy about her journey from cooking at Lula Cafe in Chicago to working the line at some of New York’s most acclaimed places—Del Posto, Blue Hill, and Gramercy Tavern—and how she met her partner in life and business, Arjav. We talk about what excites her about restaurants and dig into some of Birdie’s most popular dishes.
Also, stick around for Matt’s thoughts on a recent trip to Austin, Texas—featuring some of the restaurants and trucks that got him most excited, including Joe’s Bakery & Coffee Shop, Distant Relatives, Franklin Barbecue, Cuantos Tacos, Birdie’s, Canje, and Nido.
The TASTE Texas Tour was supported by our friends at Travel Texas. Stay tuned for dispatches from Houston and San Antonio.
MORE FROM TRACY MALECHEK-EZEKIEL:
Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year: Birdie's [Food & Wine]
Food & Wine names East Austin spot Restaurant of the Year [Austin American-Statesman]
Inside Birdie’s Journey [Tribeza]
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