Attention East Coasters (Houston, Austin, Round Rock: organic, living in, restaurant)

[TX-Griff]

Personally, I'd kill for a white clam pizza, a New Haven specialty. Well, mebbe not kill... but I'd certainly maim for one.

And I'd loooooooove to have a really local --Katz isn't "local" to me-- NY deli... chopped chicken liver w/ crumbled hard boiled egg & thin slivers of onion... yummmmmmmy.

TX Griff

[TX-Griff]

As for bagels, Einstein Bros. Bagels is probably the closest I've found to East Coast bagels. Yes, it's a chain, but it's got a great selection and chive cream cheese.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a place with both SALT bagels and CHIVE cream cheese.

TX Griff

[southwest1230]

Attention all entrepreneurs....there is money to be made in these hills by catering to
newbies tastes....personally, Chicahhgo(how they pronounce it there)food would go
over good in Texas and Austin, as everything there is super-sized, fried and/or greasy.
And yes, I expect to get my arteries roto-rooted like all former chi-towners eventually.
Hey, it keeps the hospitals in business, and increases the GNP, so i'm just doing my
part for america.





http://www.bobbygs.com/images/Chicago-dog-new.jpg (broken link)

As you can see from these lovely chicaaaggo food pics, we need these artery clogging
bundles of joy in every storefront in Austin....now!

[jwb123]

Chicago isn't east coast.

TX-Griff, I agree Einsteins is pretty good. They are also known as Noah's Bagels on the West coast. They are also sold at Costco here. They used to be authentic east coast bagels, even made in a kosher kitchen - but while the ingredients are still kosher, the kitchen isn't.

I thought Manny Hatten's was pretty good (for all types of NY Deli food) - I don't know about "authentic" but still pretty good. Great black and white cookies!!!

[twange]

Originally Posted by TX-Griff

Personally, I'd kill for a white clam pizza, a New Haven specialty. Well, mebbe not kill... but I'd certainly maim for one.

TX Griff

Homeslice has a white clam pizza. Not sure if it's any good. The pies I've had there so far have been good. They seem to try very hard to make authentic East coast pizza.

[southwest1230]

Chicago isn't east coast, agreed, but it shares that old world comfort food ethos that
is east coast old world european. We don't lean quite as heavily towards jewish deli
items, but more so than even some cities on the eastern seaboard, especially the mid-atlantic ones. Also, Chicago would be the one city out of area that could reasonably be considered in the same vein as east coast per food and persona.
My actual thought here is that I find very few east coast folks here in Austin, so maybe that answers the actual question as to why there aren't more east coast style eateries. You can get real technical on this point and split the east coast into the sectors that people actually identify with, as there are so many people and styles that its a challenge to lump it all into east coast. Being out there more than a few times, I know that New England would consider itself quite distinct from the mid-atlantic, florida is a separate world, and NYC the most separate world of all. New England is more crabcakes and chowdaaaah, Philly would closely approximate Chicago in its cheesesteak comfort foods, NYC is big on Pizza like Chicago, but thin crest predominates, the mid-atlantic skews southern with hush puppies and such, and, again, Florida is a gumbo of folks from all over that bring their own thing to the mix, and skews hispanic like texas
in its dishes, as well as the obvious seafood stuff. It seems to me like you folks are pinning for NYC deli stuff, just one flavor of a huge palate of food in a heavily populated and greatly diverse sector of our country, culinary wise.
I'm also glad to see some east coasters on here, as I don't recall seeing any out-of-state plates from the east coast anywhere. Usually its nothing but California, west coast, south, and midwest. I'm glad to see Austin is finally on the radar
of the east coasters, if thats the case......

[Torontonian]

My grocery list of what I'm missing - german rye bread (haven't found it here yet in spite of significant number of people with german roots), hungarian salami (somewhat like hard salami but not exactly the same), veal bologna, kosher sour pickles (without vinegar), french traffles, pure ceilon loose tea (hate tea in the bags)

[southwest1230]

I just realized something! Austin is becoming a cosmopolitan city before our eyes!
It wasn't long ago here you could find literally nothing but BBQ and tex-mex. I can see
that not long from now Austin food will change, morphing into a hodgepodge of where
the out-of-staters are coming from, which is actually how the east coast regional
dishes came about in the first place. Nothing but people migrating enmasse and mixing
all their influences into something that becomes a sum greater than the parts.
You can trust me that BBQ and Tex-Mex will still be a strong part of the equation, regardless of how food changes out here the next 10 years or so. Interesting to think of how it will play out, isn't it?

[twange]

Originally Posted by southwest1230

Chicago isn't east coast, agreed, but it shares that old world comfort food ethos that
is east coast old world european. We don't lean quite as heavily towards jewish deli
items, but more so than even some cities on the eastern seaboard, especially the mid-atlantic ones. Also, Chicago would be the one city out of area that could reasonably be considered in the same vein as east coast per food and persona.
My actual thought here is that I find very few east coast folks here in Austin, so maybe that answers the actual question as to why there aren't more east coast style eateries. You can get real technical on this point and split the east coast into the sectors that people actually identify with, as there are so many people and styles that its a challenge to lump it all into east coast. Being out there more than a few times, I know that New England would consider itself quite distinct from the mid-atlantic, florida is a separate world, and NYC the most separate world of all. New England is more crabcakes and chowdaaaah, Philly would closely approximate Chicago in its cheesesteak comfort foods, NYC is big on Pizza like Chicago, but thin crest predominates, the mid-atlantic skews southern with hush puppies and such, and, again, Florida is a gumbo of folks from all over that bring their own thing to the mix, and skews hispanic like texas
in its dishes, as well as the obvious seafood stuff. It seems to me like you folks are pinning for NYC deli stuff, just one flavor of a huge palate of food in a heavily populated and greatly diverse sector of our country, culinary wise.
I'm also glad to see some east coasters on here, as I don't recall seeing any out-of-state plates from the east coast anywhere. Usually its nothing but California, west coast, south, and midwest. I'm glad to see Austin is finally on the radar
of the east coasters, if thats the case......

The Great Lakes areas are similar as well but are more influenced by Eastern European foods: Hungarian, Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Polish etc...still has a strong Jewish and Italian but not as much as NYC.

[pastrygirl]

Man, do I miss NY pizza. Yeah, I've tried Homeslice, they do try here in Austin, but of course it ain't the same! I eat pizza everyday when I'm back visiting. I also miss getting Dunkin Donuts french vanilla coffee every morning!