East Austin Restaurant Suerte Named Among Nation's Best

EAST AUSTIN, TX — Suerte is the Spanish word for luck. Yet it wasn't luck that earned new Mexican food hot spot Suerte among the nation's best new restaurants but unique menu offerings that have created quite the buzz about town, as Eater reviewers determined.

It's a rarefied list of only 18 restaurants selected among eateries that opened between May 2017 and 2018 representing the best in the nation, according to Eater. Located at 1800 E. 6th St. in East Austin, Suerte fuses authentic Mexican flavors with Texas notes. Consider its appetizers, dubbed "snackcidents" on the menu: Chips con (with) lentils & yogurt; sweet corn esquitescon con fontina; chips, salsa y caldera cheddar; pork cheek molotes.

See what we mean about that authentic Mexican-Texas blending? Specialties include Chicken Roulade; Carne Asada; Fish a la Devil; and Goat Shoulder Barbacoa. The latter is suffused with a mint epazote rub, charred tomato salsa, queso fresco, herb salad and comes with avocado and tortillas.

Two other Texas eateries made the list: Theodore Rex in Houston, a locally sourced bistro and Carnitas Lonja in San Antonio, a taco stand offering an array of Mexican street foods.

The Eater reviewer waxed nearly poetic in describing the culinary tactics of Suerte, palpably describing the staff keeping the embers of tradition alive with their culinary offerings. It all starts with the masa — the iconic corn meal with a history dating thousands of years in Mexican civilization.

"Masa — made from corn purchased from local farmers who grow heirloom strains, and then ground and nixtamalized onsite — is the mortar on which Suerte is built," Eater wrote. "Executive chef Fermín Nuñez and owner Sam Hellman-Mass obsess over the ways they can shape it and express texture with it, and the gradations of flavor it can add to dishes in various forms."

Once part of Mexico itself — the erstwhile mother land's undying influence seen in the architecture, street names, music and melodious Spanish lilt of many of its residents — Texas flavors weren't left out in the reviewer's reckoning.

"If the Texas sun had a fragrance, it would smell like the small, speckled tortillas that cradle confit brisket tacos with 'black magic oil' (made from sesame and smoked morita chiles) and come alongside grilled fish with bacon salsa or a whopping goat shoulder cooked barbacoa-style. Nuñez alchemizes the dough into half a dozen other magnetic variations, including tlacoyos (plush dough pockets) filled with pork-belly carnitas, and incredibly thin blue-corn tostadas to add crunch to gorgeous red prawn aguachile. Savor this next-level Mexican-Texan cooking with a subtler sipping mezcal; try one in the pechuga family."

Is your mouth watering yet?

Suerte is open Sunday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. The restaurant can be reached at 512-953-0092 or at hola@suerteatx.com.

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