From the Way Back Machine: Happy New Year 1983

Should we tell you who this Omelettry West cook was? Since he may have gone on to a career in law or medicine, I think not. Suffice it to say that this cook volunteered to wear the diaper to celebrate the New Year for the wacky calendar that was being invented for 1983.

The calendar was rich with jokes. There were dozens of special commemorative days like the (hypothetical) day that they paved Town Lake, the day that they air conditioned the entire downtown of Austin, and - yes - Doris Day.

Here is a link to our previous blog post about the Omelettry West calendar project.

We send you our joyful wishes for a Happy New Year 2009. Thanks for being part of our community.

We are not Martha: Gingerbread Pancakes

Many people ask us for the Magnolia Cafe's recipe for Gingerbread Pancakes. We have a scaled-down version of the recipe that was once tested by Dweezil Zappa and Lisa Loeb on the Food Network. Two young women from Boston recently decided to mix up a batch for dinner, and here's the link to their story featuring Magnolia's original recipe. They've done a great job adding their own detailed photos and instructions:
We are not Martha: Gingerbread Pancakes

To Two 20-Something Bostonians: Cooking at home can be dangerous. You've acted bravely. Thanks for blogging about our delicious food, and we hope that you'll come dine with us whenever you can get to Austin.

Magnolia Cafe to be featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

The Food Network features Guy Fieri as host for their Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We are pleased to announce that the Magnolia Cafe South has been filmed and featured for an upcoming edition.

Chef celebrity Guy Fieri was in our kitchen. He made gingerbread pancakes, blackened shrimp and more with our chef.

Then Guy Fieri was in our dining room. He schmoozed the employees and patrons. He was larger than life. It was a blast.

Now you can watch us on TV!

Central Standard Times:
Monday, Nov 24 @ 9 pm
Tuesday, Nov 25 @ 12 midnight
Sunday Dec 7 @ 2 pm

In Austin, this is Time Warner cable channel 32.

It's that time again: The Kid's Art Show October 2008.

We hope you see your favorite pictures here. Thanks to all of the kids who made contributions!

Twitter, and the recent celebrity sightings at the Magnolia Cafe

Recent days have blessed the Magnolia Cafe with visits from a few celebrities: Kate Walsh, Ellen Page, Bill Murray. Although we respect their privacy and hang back from autographs, the internal silent scream of fan-dom strikes. This is the result of very early training: Elvis, the Beatles. Even if they were just on TV - we screamed.

While some of us, paralyzed with adoration, simply grip our fork and spoon tighter, others send a Tweet to friends and the world wide web. If you don't already know this web-based celebrity, let us introduce Twitter. www.Twitter.com is micro-blogging. It's a wonderful way for people to have conversations - with quick little sentences exchanged and parried - on the web.

So we invite you: When you see a celebrity at the Magnolia, just send a Tweet on Twitter with the words "magnolia cafe" in them. We'll be pulling our Twitter news into the sidebar of this blog to share with the world. It really is better than screaming.

>>> 11/1/08 NOTE: we've revised our process for getting our customers' news onto our blog. You tag on Twitter with "magnolia cafe" or review us on Yelp. We get to read your responses and then we will post the best ones on our site. (Otherwise erroneous data can get out there.) Customer feedback is always appreciated. AND - If you see a celebrity - please let us know. We'll try to get your news up as quickly as possible daily.

It was a pleasure to hear from this customer...

This is just a quick blog post to say thanks to 'Born Again Bird Watcher' for so eloquently describing his pleasure at discovering the Magnolia Cafe.

He writes:

One of the down-sides of travelling as much as I do is the inability to always eat in a way that is at the same time both healthful and emotionally satisfying. Most all cities and towns across America have at least one restaurant that can provide these twin requisites, (read the full post)

Thanks John! Please come back and say 'hi' when you travel through Austin again.

Veg Out! Austin - Ben's Top 5 Plates of Nachos

I suggest that Austin vegetarians bookmark this neat web site:
"Veg Out! Austin... where herbivores eat out in Central Texas"

Besides mentioning Magnolia Mud, a recent article by Ben recommends 5 tops picks for vegetarian nachos. You can read all about his top 5 list here.

Just briefly, here are the recommended choices, in no particular order:

Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz, Nacho Libre with grilled tofu

Freebird's World Burrito, Nachos with black beans and queso

Magnolia Cafe, Super Nachos

ZuZu's, Black Bean Nachos

Chuy's, Special Nachos

Good to know!