Ready your remotes, my friends. Tonight is the premiere of the final season of Anthony Bourdain’s hit series “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel. The first episode of the season features none other than Austin, which Bourdain stopped by during the SXSW music festival in March. As I mentioned before, Bourdain is leaving the Travel Channel for CNN once the final season of “No Reservations” wraps up.

No official word on all the restaurants and food trailers that are featured in tonight’s Austin episode, but one person we know for sure made it into the lineup is Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine.

Bryce Gilmore

“It’s great to be a part of the final season of No Reservations,” Gilmore told TEXAS MONTHLY. “We had a great time a few years ago filming for Odd Duck and again a few months ago for Barley Swine. This time around we sat in one of my favorite bars, drank beers, and shot the shit about the Austin food scene. I can think of worse things to do.”

You can catch all the Austin excitement tonight at 8 p.m. CT on the Travel Channel.

Tagged: Anthony Bourdain, austin, Barley Swine, Bryce Gilmore, Layne Lynch, no reservations, Odd Duck Farm to Trailer, Travel Channel

When he isn’t busy picking a nasty feud with any number of Food Network chefs, Anthony Bourdain is devouring his way around the world on his culinary travel show ”No Reservations.” For years, viewers have switched between salivating in envy and cringing in disgust as the blunt, ballsy chef sampled wildly exotic foods from around the world, including an unwashed warthog rectum in Namibia and fermented shark in Iceland. 

Come September, Bourdain will kick off his ninth and final season season of “No Reservations” before he makes his way over to CNN. The season premiere starts out in Austin, Texas – which the Travel Channel unsurprisingly deems a “hipster hotspot.” (In all fairness, the network filmed the episode during SXSW, which attracted thousands of vintage-clad music lovers.) No word on which Austin hotspots made their way into the premiere episode, but you catch the episode on Sept. 3 on the Travel Channel at 9/8c.

Tagged: Anthony Bourdain, austin, CNN, Layne Lynch, no reservations, Travel Channel

Enjoying his fifteen minutes (hours, days, whatever) of fame, self-declared “BBQ Snob” Daniel Vaughn is in Austin today hanging out with the big dog, Anthony Bourdain, of the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations.”  They’re  seen here at Franklin Barbecue, along with Vaughn’s photographer Nicholas McWhirter, Vaughn’s book agent David Hale Smith, The Tony, and Daniel. (For the record, Vaughn is Texas Monthly’s barbecue partner, which means he writes on the barbecue page of our web site  and will be working with us on our next top-fifty barbecue joints story in 2013—although at the rate he’s going, we will be basking in his glory.) Bourdain’s imprint Ecco Publishing has optioned Vaughn’s book-in-progress, to be entitled Prophets of Smoked Meat. Vaughn has already declared his love for Franklin Barbecue in his  Full Custom Gospel BBQ  blog (and who hasn’t fallen in love with Franklin’s  celestial brisket?—Aaron Franklin was the newcomer of the year at the second annual Texas Monthly BBQ Festival in 2011 and Bon Appétit named it the best barbecue in the country or maybe it was the galaxy or the universe, I can’t really remember). What did Bourdain think: “Un-f*cking-believable,” quoth he, during his SXSW panel on interactive media this afternoon, right after eating at Franklin. Apparently they’re also going to Austin’s  JMueller BBQ at some point, although the timing of that little excursion is probably a more tightly guarded secret than the arrival of Barack Obama to visit troops on the other side of the world. (Photo lifted from Vaughn’s Twitter feed; thanks to Side Dish blog for photo  IDs.)

Tagged: Anthony Bourdain, Daniel Vaughn, Ecco Publishing, no reservations, Prophets of Smoked Meat

I first saw Japanese takoyaki - a delectably ambrosial octopus dumpling that has graced the shops and street corners of Japan for centuries – on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Immediately I hopped to my computer and conducted a frantic search for takoyaki restaurants in Texas. There had to be some Japanese transplant living the American Dream somewhere in Texas peddling authentic foods of the homeland to American foodies. There just had to be.

Needless to say, I got nothing, not even a nibble. I should’ve known better. The extent of authentic Japanese cookery here is as far-reaching as a Philadelphia roll at happy hour on a store-bought tatami downtown.

Then one fateful afternoon, a friend called me up and suggested we visit a new food truck: Love Balls. Putting other possible connotations aside, this truck really holds true to the name. “We make balls, and we put love into them,” says owner Gabe Rothschild, 27.

They certainly do, with all entrees made right to order. The process is a meticulous and slow one, but it’s worth the approximate 10-20 minute wait. Each order of takoyaki comes with eight chewy chunks of octopus encased in a searing-hot ball of dough, seasoned to savory perfection and topped with a helpful heap of special Japanese mayo, powdered seaweed and bonito flakes.

“We were eating at a lot of food trailers and something was missing: Japanese street food,” says Rothschild. “And we thought takoyaki was accessible, quirky and fit into the Austin food scene. Nobody was doing it town; nobody was even doing it in Texas. And we figured a lot of people would be interested, curious about it. And it was a form we could play with.” (more…)

Tagged: Anthony Bourdain, austin, Gabe Sao Rothschild, Love Balls Bus, no reservations, Takoyaki, Trailer Thursday

Ahem. I just HAPPENED to be lurking at Perla’s Seafood and Oyster Bar when Tony Bourdain (yes, that Tony Bourdain, of “No Reservations,” on the Travel Channel, sitting on the right) was having a late lunch with co-chefs Larry McGuire (middle) and Tommy Moorman Jr (left). What did they eat? Raw oysters, grilled octopus, grilled triggerfish, pan roasted Gulf tile fish, and the whole grilled red snapper. Oh, and grits. Don’t forget the grits with lobster stock, green onions, and cheddar, soo delish. Watch for Perla’s to be mentioned on an upcoming “No Reservations,” along with a few of Austin’s food trailers. No dates have been announced yet. When my friend Paula Biehler, co-owner of Crave Communications (Perla’s PR agency) asked Tony where he’d heard about Perla’s, it turned out it was from his bud, food writer John Mariani, who was here last year. Takes a New Yorker to tell another New Yorker about a place in Texas. Of course. (This is the same post, with a better picture, in case you’re wondering.)

Tagged: john mariani, no reservations, perla's, tony bourdain