by Food+City | Feb 9, 2012 | Food Tracks Blog, Stories
If you think that bacon belongs with breakfast then you’d find Austin’s new source for ice cream a nightmare. Anthony Sobotik and his partner Chad Palmatier, owners of LICK, scoop Breakfast Bacon, any time of day, especially not at breakfast. An artisan of the artistic kind, Anthony dreams of new flavors, creating not only bacon flavored ice cream, but other equally inspired combinations, such as Thyme and Honey, Cilantro and Lime, and Caramelized Carrots and Tarragon. Flavors like these are made from the dreams of Anthony who has spent nights and days experimenting with his unusual combination of flavors, milk and cream.
From a family that include parents and grandparents making sausage, raising bees for honey, baking bread, Anthony was surrounded by food and cooking from an early age. By the time he was eight years old, he was in the family kitchen frying up a batch of pancakes and baking biscuits. The first book he ever purchased was a cookbook at an estate sale.
Picky about ingredients, he uses milk produced by small, Texan dairies, the kind that are rapidly disappearing. Anthony and Chad use milk from the few remaining small dairy farms in Texas, drawing upon fresh raw milk, locally pasteurized and regularly delivered to Lick for the next batch of ice cream. The Jersey cows at Texas Daily Harvest produce milk that Anthony combines with ingredients used to infuse his latest recipe with a balance of cream and milk. Chad, trained as an interior designer, and Anthony, a long-time baker, draw on their skills in a rare combination of artistry and taste. The flavors are not Austin-weird, but subtle, surprising, creating a flavor resonance between ingredients such as chocolate, cayenne, and chipotle.
But the pure pleasure of producing these rare, provocative flavors is not in itself enough for these two. The enjoyment of sharing their ice cream with families, the odd skeptic, and other visitors to their shop is part of their business. Using ice cream cones that they make in their shop, they scoop out their ice cream to their fans who are finding them through Facebook and word of mouth. Soon they will deliver their novel scoops to Austin’s farmers markets and a few local grocery stores. For now, they have their hands full of 16 flavors developed from seasonal fruits, vegetables, and other locally produced ingredients. Even the marshmallows used in their Ranch Road flavor are made in Austin.
Meanwhile, Anthony is experimenting with a dark chocolate, olive oil, sea salt flavor, which is refusing to yield just the right taste and texture. Back in his kitchen behind the ice cream counter, he is infusing, stirring, cooling, and applying his artistry, which will some day produce the new chocolate concoction. What will he dream up next?
Robyn Metcalfe, Winter 2012 Austin Food Warrior
by Food+City | Feb 9, 2012 | Food Tracks Blog, Stories
Melissa Brinckmann runs her small pastry business, Cake and Spoon, behind an unmarked door on the outskirts of Austin. But her fragrant, handmade pies are remarkable in every sense. Upon entering her kitchen, your senses take in the smell of buttery pastry dough, subtle spices from savory quiches, and sugary halos atop her ginger scones. For the past two-and-a-half years, Melissa has made her mark not only in the local farmers markets but also with her followers, including one shy customer who depends upon two of her blackberry almond shortbread bars every week.
Cake and Spoon Bakery delivers hand-sized cakes, quiches, scones, and other sweet and savory pastries. Born and raised on a ranch in Texas, Melissa has never been far from the country. Her parents worked a ranch in near Bellville, Texas and her childhood memories include meat from the neighboring ranchers, milk from the local cows, fruit from her family orchard. As a child, she baked in her parents’ kitchen to please herself, especially with her own peanut butter cookies. She has lived local all her life.
Her pastries reflect her local grounding. Local honey, eggs, vegetables, and pork fill her quiches, brimming with her enthusiasm for quality products at a reasonable price. Because of her philosophy and the Texas drought, some of her creations combine cheeses and other ingredients produced elsewhere in order to provide her customers with reasonably priced food, a suiting compromise for a cook who loves her customers.
From a family of four girls, Melissa spent her years before founding Cake and Spoon learning how to bake as a professional. About twenty years ago, she left the oil and gas business to begin a long and varied education in the pastry world. She worked in small and large restaurants, catering businesses, and kitchen management before teaming up with another baker who introduced her to the small tarts and quiches that now make their mark in Austin. The baker, Tracy Carlos of Sticky Toffee Pudding Company (also in Austin), turned over her spot in Austin’s downtown farmers market, enabling Melissa to grow her own presence in the market. With her business she built on her partnership with Stacy to develop her own style and flavors.
The fillings in her quiches reflect her roots and imagination: Fresh bacon with vintage white cheddar and spinach with fresh sheep’s feta and ricotta (which she makes in her kitchen). Her sweet tarts envelop their fillings with flaky, hand-wrought crust: Chocolate hazelnut, Texas pecan, and frangipan with seasonal fruit are some of her signature desserts. Flapjacks, double ginger scones, lemon and lavender shortbread, all using available local ingredients appear at the three farmers’ markets that she attends.
Her kitchen is small and so is her staff. She and one other baker, Jasmine, turn out hundreds of small confections for her customers, some of whom have come to rely on her simple and fresh pastries. “My style is rough, simple, and fresh,” she explains. And her instincts are good. Seems that her style fits the tastes of Austinians who appreciate her answer to overworked and complicated food. Melissa has earned her following and wants to keep things uncomplicated and small, just like her quiches and tarts.
Robyn Metcalfe, Winter 2012, Austin Food Warrior