
Just about every calendar year, we have the honor of celebrating Austin’s dynamic culinary scene at our annual CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

During the spring, we have released you to our proficient group of 2022 nominees, who were being selected by market industry experts and past winners, and who symbolize the greatest of the city’s cafe and bar choices correct now. Soon after weeks of anticipation (and a heated Greatest New Cafe event), it truly is time to unveil this year’s winners.

On April 28, we collected with nominees, business professionals, and the Austin community for the 2022 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards at Good Current market. Guests savored specialty bites from participating nominees, sipped an array of scrumptious beverages, and then tuned in for the coveted awards ceremony wherever Alamo Drafthouse legend Tim League revealed this year’s winners.

Be a part of us in raising a toast to the 2022 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards winners. Satisfy them beneath.
Cafe of the 12 months: Cuantos Tacos

There are couple of matters Austinites cherish more than a easy, delicious taco — and this eye-catching yellow meals truck parked on the east aspect is definitely providing the goods. With a mouthwatering menu of Mexico Metropolis-fashion street tacos, Cuantos Tacos does not keep again when it will come to exacting seasoning, meaty elements, and typical Mexican flavors. Well-known favorites like barbacoa, brisket, and carnitas tacos are need to-haves, but several a area taco connoisseur has identified on their own seduced by Cuantos Tacos’ possibly unfamiliar however tantalizing tacos featuring delicacies like pork stomach (buche), Mexican chorizo (longaniza), and beef cheek (cachete), and rightfully so. Just about every dish on this smaller but pleasant menu is value devouring.
Chef of the Yr: Edgar Rico, Nixta Taqueria

If there’s been 1 chef’s name on Austinites’ lips for the past pair a long time, it’s unquestionably Edgar Rico. With the opening of his necessary east side taqueria, Nixta, in 2019, the Culinary Institute of America-qualified chef launched this taco-obsessed town to the historical corn-tortilla-earning method of nixtamalization (which has considering the fact that turn out to be all the rage at quite a few a Funds Metropolis taco residence) and designed an instant splash in a town that was by now residence to dozens of taquerias. He suggests Nixta is the end result of what foods usually means to him: “imaginative creations that are steeped in approach, record, custom, and finesse.” Those people finessed creations have not gone unnoticed by Austin taco lovers or extolled culinary institutions, together with the James Beard Basis, which a short while ago named Rico a James Beard Award finalist in the Rising Chef classification.
Bar of the Calendar year: Tiki Tatsu-Ya

If the island life is your jam and you embrace the life’s-a-beach mentality, there’s no will need to swim against the tide, as Austin is residence to what we’ll deem the most effective tiki bar this side of Polynesia. But what else would you hope from the progressive culinary pros guiding the universally cherished Tatsu-Ya cafe team? Delight in some rum-forward concoctions, or dive appropriate on in to the kitschy tiki cocktails, like the Slurping Bastard — served in a superb chalice that bears a hanging resemblance to any Ramen Tatsu-Ya client in mid ramen slurp — or the Stranded on Saturn gin cocktail, the Cobra Kai, or the banana-ahead Forbidden Grog. Or make the whole table pleased with a Banzai Boat of shooters.
Increasing Star Chef of the Yr: Amanda Turner, Olamaie

If you have dined out in this town in the earlier decade or so, you have very likely had the pleasure of devouring any amount of chef Amanda Turner’s exquisite dishes. A maestro of a range of cuisines, from Italian, modern-day American, and even Japanese (she interned at places to eat in Japan for various months), Turner slash her tooth at celebrated Austin establishments like Juniper, Odd Duck, Uchi and Uchiko, and Jester King. But it is her situation as chef de delicacies at lauded eatery Olamaie that has catapulted her into a new culinary realm. She was even lately named a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Rising Chef category for her do the job at Olamaie. With the restaurant’s seasonal menu of gorgeously introduced New American fare, Turner is in her culinary aspect — and will no doubt continue to accumulate extra accolades — and Austin diners get to enjoy the delectable benefits.
Pastry Chef of the 12 months: Susana Querejazu, Lutie’s

A person of Eater’s previous Youthful Guns, Susana Querejazu has undoubtedly shot ahead among the ranks of pastry chefs in Austin. The executive pastry chef at the Commodore Perry Estate and its garden cafe, Lutie’s, has contributed to some of the city’s most influential places to eat: Enoteca Vespaio and Vespaio Ristorante, Uchi and Uchiko, Odd Duck and Barley Swine. Querejazu left Austin in 2017 on a temporary hiatus with her husband, govt chef Bradley Nicholson, to branch out creatively in the kitchen. As Nicholson improved work opportunities, so too did the multitalented Querejazu, who labored as an assistant sommelier and pastry sous chef (such as some time at Michelin-starred restaurant Saison in San Francisco). No issue in which she is, Querejazu is an authority on the best lamination of croissants, and she loves making use of that know-how to fantastic triggers by arranging charity bake sales.
Bartender of the Yr: Cory Starr, Tiki Tatsu-Ya

When Tiki Tatsu-Ya arrived in Austin previous October, this topic park of a bar established its individual area of interest. Our Bar of the Calendar year winner in its first yr, it never ever misses an option to dazzle in the campiest way probable. Beverage manager Cory Starr dove straight into that extra with 200 bottles of rum, claimed the Austin Chronicle. Tackling possibly the most widely acknowledged (and hefty handed) style in mixology, Starr’s solid feeling of tiki whimsy is well balanced by impeccable recipe-making competencies honed around 5 decades in Hualalai.
Most effective New Cafe: Wax Myrtle’s

Wax Myrtle’s, the new indoor-outside cafe and bar at Austin’s Thompson Resort home, presents every thing a summer season pool lounger calls for: protected cabanas, an outsized hearth, monthly programming, a menu of modern day American delicacies, and a good deal of curated cocktails. The Wax Myrtle’s menu incorporates fantastic pool treats (we’re looking at you, charred octopus skewer), as nicely as heartier fare like burgers, pork chops, and beef ribs. And with an considerable menu of cocktails, beer, and wine, Wax Myrtle’s supplies almost everything you need to though absent an afternoon by the pool.
Community Restaurant of the Yr: Much better 50 percent Coffee & Cocktails

Parked squarely amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Austin, this West Fifth Avenue incredibly hot spot could have easily pale into its noisy surroundings and come to be just another flash in the pan. Luckily, for neighborhood locals who respect each a energetic early morning meal and a lip-smacking evening burger with a facet of pastrami-loaded queso and a handful of stiff cocktails, this all-day cafe is below to keep. This community joint not long ago updated its menu, rolling out tempting new dishes like crispy pork stomach with refried black-eyed peas, and shrimp and crab-finger orzotto, a have to-have risotto-style plate. Of training course, we won’t fault you if you decide for the classic jalapeño-honey-butter-drenched hen biscuit.
Wine Application of the Year: Birdie’s

This new East Austin cafe and all-natural wine bar has had locals buzzing due to the fact it opened in the summertime of 2021, many thanks in part to its outstanding wine listing, which features a blend of classics and new producers with an emphasis on “mindful farming and minimum intervention in the cellar.” Designed to evolve with chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel’s European-motivated food menu, the wine record operates the gamut from glowing wines and Champagnes to an array of whites, oranges, rosés, and tons of luscious reds. This household-operate neighborhood location also serves up an abundance of off-checklist wine gems showcasing challenging-to-come across bottles, so be guaranteed to have interaction the enlightened personnel about the lots of offered alternatives.
Brewery of the Calendar year: In the meantime Brewing Co.

This local community-oriented South Austin brewery and taproom debuted in the Capital Town in late 2020, and even with obtaining its roots in the Portland beer realm, Meanwhile has entrenched itself in the Austin scene, turning out to be a go-to place for locals trying to find a entire world-course beer to swig between a sweeping outside house that consists of a phase and gatherings venue, a soccer subject, and lots of shady spots to kick back with a number of pals and a pint. Without a doubt, the Meanwhile taproom functions a collection of 20 rotating beers, wines, and reduced-proof cocktails, so there is constantly the prospect to examine out a new preferred. Meanwhile’s coffee and bites from a number of onsite food items vans insert to the attract. Reasonable warning: It is extraordinarily quick to though absent an afternoon below, so terminate your evening strategies and remain awhile.
Finest Vegan Cafe: Counter Tradition

One particular of Austin’s most talked-about vegan dining establishments earned its track record above additional than a ten years in organization, commencing as a meals truck and settling in its legendary retro turquoise haven curated by proprietor and DJ Sue Purr. Counter Culture uses produce from local farmers and inspires heaps of grateful raving about vegetarians’ and vegans’ spot in barbecue, thanks to their jackfruit choices. The cashew cheesecakes also attract in equally practiced vegans and omnivores looking at reducing back. There’s a extensive drink list of smoothies, juices, beers, and wines, building Counter Culture a good position to devote an total afternoon.

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Chantal Rice and Brianna Caleri contributed to this story.