Monthly Archives: September 2009

(Community Matters) Jill McRae and I have been the dearest of friends since 1985. I remember when she took over the Austin Children’s Cancer Center, I was totally enthralled and followed her around for months – heck still am and still do.

Her sons, Mark & Eran Gronquist, are like nephews and her husband, State District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky, is also one of my best friends.

I doubt that there’s anyone in Austin who’s done as much for early childhood development as Jill – she’s taught it at ACC, founded the city’s commission on that issue, has raised tens of millions of dollars for the cause, and has incubated, managed, grown & merged several organizations. Last week was her birthday; last night, a few of us celebrated with dinner at Justine’s, dessert at our place.

Stephen Yelenosky & Jill McRae

Justine’s

I introduced Justine’s earlier today. Lots of buzz from the hipster community. It’s a new French bistro on E. 5th St, just east of Springdale. I read the Yelp reviews which are generally very good with the odd mention of too much salt and inconsistent, not always attentive service.

It’s very good – I recommend it. The ambiance alone is worth experiencing – deep east Austin (feels like early Deep Ellum), fancy smancy cocktails, good menu, good food and once night set in, an outdoor ambiance not unlike Spider House plus boules (French bocce ball, ie, using the smaller metallic balls).

Margo Weisz & Gregory Brooks

Margo organized the outing/celebration. by the way, she raves about the new Buenos Aires Cafe on E. 6th St. We’ve eaten at the one on S 1st but not 6th St, which is basically across the street from the East Austin Showroom and just around the corner from my EF office. Margo & Gregory just off feeding and entertaining (last night) 40 of Gregory’s UT engineering/architecture students.

Ingrid Johannsen between me & Steven

ha, UT law professor Mitch Berman snubbed us, instead attending some little league football game @ Memorial Stadium. We won nonetheless, joined by his better half, lawyer/artist Ingrid Johannsen. Right to call Ingrid a textile artist? She makes beautiful things from beautiful fabrics – sewing, knitting and otherwise creating. I regret I didn’t get a picture of the dolls Ingrid gave Jill last night. They are amazing & I’m betting will be quite a sensation if she markets them. Ingrid also edits a law journal and is raising their three, young kids.

We arrived early b/c of hearing the wait really builds. Dark when we left, and I noticed the great boules lawn with teams in play.

The food @ Justine’s – I thought it was good to very good. Starters: escargot (good), white asparagus with a sabayon sauce, a sweet, usually dessert sauce (very good), snapper with buerre blanc sauce & haricots verts (the snapper was cooked perfectly, the buerre blanc was good, the haricots verts exceptional). Others really liked their grilled pork chop with thyme reduction and the grilled scallops (the latter looked exceptional). The duck was too salty. The frites very good and too salty. The cocktails – super. Simple, unpretentious and modestly priced wine list, though we chose a Barbera off the specials.

back to the house for dessert, where Steven joined us (he’d worked late with students so I insisted he stay behind for a bit of quiet time & the gym. The guy works way too hard and has been a total social trooper with me the last two weeks.)

Happy Birthday, Jill

(Community Matters) hmm, 33 weeks until Paris with Jill, Stephen & Steven. Can I proficiently learn to speak & understand French by then?

(Community Matters) grrrr, still no newspapers

(Community Matters) Quick jaunt over to Melanie & Ben Barnes’ for the Speaker Pelosi reception. She’s every bit as dynamic and even more outgoing than I thought.

Couldn’t stay for the entire fundraiser since I had to finish up tonight’s dessert before an early dinner. Impressive crowd; I’m betting very successful fundraiser for DCCC. Many thanks to the Barnes’, Wyeth Wiedeman and our other hosts.

There were protesters. I support folks’ right to disagree and protest, though I don’t think their signs calling for the Speaker’s abortion nor her arrest for war crimes are especially helpful to their cause. And, as the highest ranking ever female national leader, I think she deserves even more respect. She’s certainly supported by the district that elects her and millions of other Americans.

(Community Matters) After dinner at Justine’s we’ll be back over for profiteroles and champage. I think the former is Jill McRae’s (birthday girl) favorite dessert, the latter mine.

hmm, dripping with warm walnut chocolate ganash

(Community Matters) Our friend, professor, author & UT Michener-alum Carrie Fountain is reading from her new book of poetry, Burn Lake, on Thur, Sept 24, at 7:30 pm in the Maloney Room in the Main Building at St. Edward’s University.

Carrie recently won the National Poetry Award for this compilation, being released by Penguin in early 2010.

(Community Matters) hmm, I’m wishing I had woken up on the coast, in Port Aransas, to the sunrise and was now at Bundy’s drinking coffee, eating a homemade cinnamon roll.

(Community Matters)

I woke up hungry so am already planning what to order tonight as we celebrate Jill McRae’s birthday (1 week ago) at Justine’s.

hmm, Escargots a la Bourguignonne, Soupe de Ardennes, Fillet de Poisson, Asperges Blanches with Sabayon Sauce and definitely the Tarte dEva. hey – I’m not being pretentious, their menu is in French. Wonder if we can bring in wine for an uncorking fee. ooops, just noticed on yelp, they have a full bar and I don’t think the bill passed this session which would allow patrons bringing wine in if there’s a full bar license, rats.

(Community Matters) This new East Austin restaurant, East Austin Showroom is beyond fabulous and is already a hipster favorite. Hearing about it for weeks (just opened last month), at 1100 E Sixth St. it’s literally around the corner from my East 7th St Thinkwell office.


I’m not sure why this thought occurred to Steven, but I concur, felt like we’d joined the cool young crowd in Marfa on an especially good weekend. Our waitress, Lindsey couldn’t have been more welcoming or patient in giving us the total run down and walking us through not only the food menu but also the cocktail menu – helped that she’s a foodie.

I should have known something was up when the amuse bouche arrived – I though, what a treat but how can they afford this.

I didn’t realize the chef had spotted us, nor that it was our friend Sonya Cote who’s cooked at the house several times. What an unexpected treat – especially the delicacies including beef carpaccio, feta with a basil pesto, chevre with a pear compote, fried duck liver on marinated cucumber and mozzarella & fresh tomato. Not to mention my starter cocktail – a pisco fuego.

Chef Sonya Cote (right)

Sonya formerly cooked for Spirited Foods and Dai Due. I remember her telling me there was a restaurant in the works. Together with Mickey & Mindy Spencer (twin sister & owners), they scrapped the walls, repaired the site and opened just a month ago. Mickey is an artist/welder and repaired/created a lot of what’s in the beautiful building restoration.

Dessert was a peach tarte with basil ice cream. Of course, normally served together but ST was skipping dairy. the peach tarte – out of site. I don’t think the crust was especially nutritious, way too good & perfect to not have lots and lots and lots of butter.

What an unexpected treat on Friday date night. We can’t wait to return. And, tonight we’ll be trying another East Austin newbie also generating lots of buzz

(Community Matters)

La Shana Tova

(Community Matters) Kip Keller forwarded this link to a Think Progress story from an insurance company insider about their long planned campaign to kill reform while charming the public and pretending to be for reform.

It’s really a duplicitous PR campaign. They will talk about, in broad terms, how supportive they are of health care reform, but they will be working behind the scenes to kill very, very crucial parts of reform legislation like the public option.

What kills me is how effectively the insurance companies are convincing families to work against their own self interest. The rest of us are doing something wrong if the same people who cancel policies on families of sick children and mothers with breast cancer and who routinely deny coverage for drugs and procedures already on approved formularies can convince these folks to protect the existing system and we’re not able to explain the value of reform.

(Community Matters) If you haven’t become a founding member of the Texas Tribune, may I suggest you do? 🙂

A wee bit late; nevertheless, Steven and I joined the Texas Tribune staff & spouses for dinner at Julie & John Thornton’s. This new venture, a collaboration between the Thorntons and the Evan Smiths, really does have the opportunity to change the world, at least the state we live in. During the summer, I helped out by organizing administrative matters. What a terrific chance to get to know and support such an outstanding initiative.

What is the Texas Tribune?

A non-profit, nonpartisan public media organization. The mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern, and we’ll do this in two principal ways.

First, through the original journalism that we’ll report, write, compile, record, shoot, etc., and post online at our destination site, texastribune.org, and in the pages and on the sites of our distribution partners. (Ubiquity is a goal; we want to put robust public interest journalism in the hands of and before the eyes of as many Texans as possible.)

Second, through on-the-record, open-to-the-public events: conversation series featuring elected officials and other newsmakers, conferences on major topics of interest to every Texan, an annual ideas festival, and the like. The point here is that the in-person experience is itself a distribution platform, and once the event is over, the audio and video of what took place becomes content of its own, likewise available on our site and other sites.