A NEW LEGACY

San Antonio chef revives Italian deli as quick-serve food truck

Fratello's lives on as a new food truck.

Fratello's/Instagram

From Tracy Chapman’s guest gig at this year’s Grammys to the continued Lohanaissance, 2024 has been chockablock with welcome comebacks. Now, San Antonio can log its own addition to that list. Beloved Italian eatery Fratello’s is once again serving in Alamo City.

Though the original brick-and-mortar is long gone, much of the menu lives on through a new food truck, Fratello’s To-Go. After the original owners retired in January, former head chef Filiberto Torres bought the business, securing rights to the former’s branding, recipes, and original sign. It's now located at at the Broadway News food truck park at 2200 Broadway.

The new operation quietly opened on September 7 on the flagship spot where Carnitas Don Raúl formerly parked. The move was announced via a newly created Facebook page.

“Hello, Fratello friends! We are back in business! We have a new food truck location,” a business rep wrote. “We would love to bring all our fellow Fratello friends back! Can’t wait to see you here!”

Although the new spot's to-go menu isn’t quite as comprehensive as the former’s, it features most deli heavy hitters. The menu board that once hung over the counter at Fratello’s is now affixed to the food truck, advertising a selection of hot and cold panini and a quartet of pizzas.

The pasta and salad selections have been slimmed down to daily offerings, but Torres keeps tradition intact by making all the bread in-house. The offerings are priced a few bucks less than the original restaurant, keeping with the new counter-service focus.

Currently, Fratello’s To-Go strictly caters to lunch crowds from 10 am to 2 pm. Although the trailer doesn’t have dedicated seating, communal picnic tables are available on-site.

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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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