Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Fabi + Rosi

Tucked away on a side street of Lake Austin Boulevard, in a quaint bungalow lies Fabi + Rosi, serving traditional European foods with a more modern flair, brought to you by a German chef. They will celebrate their third anniversary in May, and I don't know what has taken me so long to get there! I had a really lovely happy hour/dinner experience with some food blogger friends last week, and now I can't wait to go back again!

Thursday happy hour, bottles of bubbly are half price; I think their wine list is quite decently priced to begin with, but it was a no-brainer in picking a libation to go with our collection of appetizers.

Beginning with the Metzger Platte, chicken liver pate, wagyu beef tartare, and smoked duck breast with grainy mustard and cornichon. The pate was sitting on a mound of little wine jelly gems, which cut the fattiness nicely. I didn't get a whole lot of impact from the beef tartare, but the duck breast had a nice mild smokiness. Oh, and the aioli with the bread? Pure heaven.
The P.E.I. mussels were delicious, largely because the broth was so incredibly flavored with pinot grigio and garlic. (As opposed to the bowl of mussels I recently had at a popular seafood restaurant on SoCo....)
The escargot were ok, probably the least exciting thing that I had, and they weren't bad at all, just not as buttery and garlicky as I had hoped for. Maybe all the garlic went to the mussels and aioli!
The cheese board was a pretty simple, straightforward presentation, with a brie, a blue (valdeon), a semi-firm with a mild truffle infusion (sottocenere), and a sheep's milk (manchego). This board was a good example of selecting cheeses of different textures and types of milk.
For main course, I had the Loncito's Lamb Ragout. Cheese ravioli with the lamb, which had been simmered in a light tomato sauce. The pasta for the ravioli were a little dense, but the flavorful local lamb was outstanding. I've bought Loncito's at the farmer's markets before, and it never disappoints.
Three of the five diners at our table had the spatzle and schnitzel, because it is THAT good. Sorry that you don't really see the incredibly light spatzle in the picture, but trust me, it was delicious. And I can totally see ordering that in the future.
Our fifth diner had the Ich Liebe Tiere, or mushroom strudel, which really had a great meatiness to it. The cauliflower puree was so smooth, you really would think it was potato unless you knew better.
We split two desserts: crack pie with hooch cream and chevre cheese cake with gingersnap crust and candied lemon peel. The crack pie is like a cross between buttermilk or chess pie and a blondie; sweet and tasty, though a bit heavy. The goat cheese concoction, was really lovely, especially the lemon peel, which weren't bitter at all.

I think restaurants in old houses have such a charm to them, and Fabi + Rosi is no exception. There's also some tables out front, which, if the weather were warmer, would be a great spot for a cocktail. Our service was outstanding, and all the dishes were timed well. They are also committed to serving locally raised, sustainable, and organic-when-possible items. They have a garden for some of the greens, as well as chickens for their eggs; they also compost and recycle as much as possible.

And the name Fabi + Rosi? Chef Wolfgang Murber's nephew and niece back in Germany, Fabio and Rosalie. How lucky they are to have such a fine establishment named for them!