A new leaf

Healthy eatery from lauded San Antonio chef springs up in King William

Since opening her signature catering company in 2011, chef Tim “The Girl” McDiarmid has been on a roll. Now she is building on the success of that operation and grab-and-go cafe The Good Kind with two new projects in the King William Historic District.

According to a release, the first phase is taking over the operations and booking at event space Ivy Hall. Located in a converted warehouse space at 1127 S. Saint Mary’s St., the compound offers three distinct areas that can be combined for larger events or rented separately.

Guests are first greeted at The Patio, an intimate space surrounded by bamboo and draped with twinkle lights that acts as a reception area to The Gardens. That lush outdoor area is the showpiece of the operation with beautiful landscaping and a funky shipping container building that can be used as a VIP lounge or as a bar.

The indoor area is a versatile space featuring that includes restrooms and staging areas as well as a versatile space for dinners, meetings, or film screenings. The whitewashed brick walls, neutral flooring, and unobtrusive modern fixtures easily lend themselves to a variety of decorating schemes.

Although the Ivy Hall spaces are available for immediate bookings, San Antonians will have to wait a little longer to see the next phase — a new location of The Good Kind. The new outpost will take over the restaurant space, once a Sun-Glo service station.

The menu will be similar to the first outpost in the Pearl’s Bottling Department food hall. Expect cold-pressed juices, smoothies, panini, and bowls like the perpetual favorite mac 'n' cheese made with brown rice noodles, parmesan, and aged white cheddar. The larger space will also allow McDiarmid to also offer a few new dishes and expand the drink program to include beer, wine, and a few curated cocktails.

Barring any construction delays, the second location of The Good Kind will open early in 2019.

The new location of The Good Kind will serve the original's healthy comfort food.

The Good Kind/Facebook

The new location of The Good Kind will serve the original's healthy comfort food.

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NYT loves AUS

Pastry chef from San Antonio makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery by San Antonio native Mariela Camacho, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; Camacho, who is now based in Ausitn, won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Although Camacho was born in San Antonio and started her baking career there, she also spent a significant time in Seattle, Washington, where Comadre started as a pop-up. According to Austin Monthly, she then moved back to San Antonio, and then to Austin. But no matter where she is, the Mexican cooking traditions of her ancestors take precedent.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

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