A
CULINARY COUPLE WITH STARS IN THEIR EYES
Nonprofits fuel the heart of Texas
The Food Issue
Food is almost always fun to write about, especially in Austin, where Chef Phillip Frankland Lee, who’s on the cover with his wife and collaborator Chef Margarita Kallas-Lee says, “I’ve never had a bad meal.”
This month we did a deep dive with the Lees’ going all the way back to middle school (where the pair first met!) to today, owning more than two dozen restaurants and in the midst of creating their greatest act yet – on four acres of Texas Hill Country. I hope you read this story through and it inspires you as much as they inspired me. Elsewhere I catch up with two more exceptional Austin chefs, talking foraging with Foreign & Domestic chef and co-owner Sarah Heard and learning more about popular vegan chef Leslie Durso, who recently relocated to Austin.
And don’t miss my monthly favorites Food Edition with some things I’m loving and a few I’m looking forward to. Finally, as I write this Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just got engaged and it’s monopolizing the news cycle. So, as we celebrate love, a moment for the Hunter Bell outfit I got at Estilo Boutique that I’m wearing in the Editor’s Letter – the same outfit Taylor wore on a recent date with Travis that’s been running everywhere. Cheers to Taylor for good taste, and kicking off football season with a win.
Here’s to savoring the season, celebrating community, and always leaving room for dessert. I’ll be indulging in lots of sweets October 7 at The Kindness Campaign’s inaugural Kindness Cookie Competition! Learn more and get tickets at https://www.tkckindness.org/ Cheers,
JENNIFER BIRN, EDITOR @AUSTINLIFESTYLEMAGAZINE
October 2025
PUBLISHER
Joe Kerby | joe.kerby@citylifestyle.com
CO-PUBLISHER
Montannah Kerby | montannah.kerby@citylifestyle.com
EDITOR
Jennifer Birn | jennifer.birn@citylifestyle.com
COPY EDITOR
Dominique Bejarano
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
AnaBelle Elliot
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Jasmin Porter
Corporate Team
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
COO Matthew Perry
CRO Jamie Pentz
VP OF OPERATIONS Janeane Thompson
VP OF SALES Andrew Leaders
AD DESIGNER Evan Deuvall
LAYOUT DESIGNER Emily Lisenbee
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Megan Cagle
Modern Lux Lasik in Austin
Under the guidance of our Medical Director, Dr. Ryan Brewer, a board-certified LASIK surgeon who completed his ophthalmology residency at one of the nation’s top programs, and Dr. Tim Soeken, a fellowship-trained ophthalmologist with both military and academic distinction, we deliver exceptional clinical care and surgical precision. Our bladeless LASIK technology allows more patients to safely qualify for the procedure than ever before.
Imagine your life, in focus.
inside the issue
Chefs
ARTICLE BY ANABELLE ELLIOT
Local Bands Playing Austin City Limits
The Point
The Point, a 3-member band from Austin, creates their unique sound by rhythmically swirling together a variety of genres across cultures and times. The trio’s deluxe album titled “Maldito Animal” will be out Sept. 26.
Photo by Elena Reynolds
Farmer’s Wife
With their recent EP “Faint Illusions,” Farmer’s Wife douses listeners with a fully-transportive experience at both live shows and in their recordings. Blending psych, grunge, rock and shoegaze into a foreboding celebration, this five-member Austin band is a favorite.
Photo by Kylie Bly
Geto Gala
Deezie Brown and Jake Lloyd became friends in 2010 and in 2024 released “Major League,” their first full-length album together. Their music is a “celebration of Black excellence conveyed through the modern nostalgic Texas and Southern sounds they were inspired by,” per their Spotify artist page.
Photo by DSII
Next of Kin
Next of Kin formed spontaneously after originally collaborating on just one song. Known for tugging on the strings of even the most stoic listener, the band that’s been called a “rising cult country trio” incorporates three-part harmonies and a dose of twang into their sound.
Photo
by
Marshall Tidrick
S. L. Houser is arguably as “Austin” as it gets, a storyteller interwoven into the musical projects of many local artists. The multi-instrumental singer/ songwriter/composer/producer/music educator wears many hats and has been playing in Austin for over a decade.
Photo by Ben Blanchard
S. L. Houser
5 AUSTIN-BASED BANDS TO SHOW SOME LOVE THIS ACL
MADE FROM SCRATCH
Chefs Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee’s intertwining and intriguing personal & professional journey
ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BIRN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASMIN PORTER AND SARAH BLOCK
On a December night in 2020, as Austin adjusted to life in a pandemic winter, ten diners enjoyed a multi-course meal in a pop-up serving sushi out of a borrowed space. Word had already started to spread, they were sold out for three weeks, but no one could have predicted what happened next. At
12:30 a.m., one of the ten diners, Joe Rogan, who himself had newly relocated to Austin, snapped a photo of Chef Phillip Frankland Lee in front of the restaurant’s sign and posted it to his millions of followers with a caption saying, ‘Best sushi I’ve ever had in my life.’
“Within four minutes we were sold out. By morning, there was something like 25,000 on the waitlist,” Phillip tells Austin Lifestyle, adding, “Margarita likes to remind me that we are overnight successes - at year eleven.”
That moment put the couple on a path that would lead them to relocate to Austin, but their story began long before—in middle school!
THEIR LOVE STORY
Phillip was in eighth grade and Margarita was in sixth when their paths first crossed. “We were in the same friend group,”
Phillip recalls. “I was in a band and her and her friends would come watch the bands play, including mine.” They weren’t especially close then, just kids who happened to orbit the same circle.
Life took them in different directions. Margarita became a model, spending time in Italy, Germany, Latvia and Ukraine before settling in New York for a while. Phillip went straight into restaurants, rising
the ranks from a dishwasher at 18. By his early twenties, he was sous chef at Stefan Richter’s The Farm in Los Angeles, logging a hundred-hour workweeks for $27,000 a year. “It would be illegal now, but then that’s what you were supposed to do,” he says without animosity or regret, adding, “I would have done it for free.”
Back in New York, Margarita was thinking about her future after modeling and said she really wanted to get into the restaurant industry. She’d grown up surrounded by nature—raised on a farm in Latvia— and felt a pull toward food and hospitality. It was the early days of Facebook and she posted a casual update that she was considering going to culinary school. Phillip saw the post and messaged her. “I told her not to go to school,” he says. A short backand-forth led to more conversation, and then Phillip says, “We randomly ran into each other at a pool party in the Valley at 2am”
Phillip says that about a week later, he invited Margarita to come by The Farm, the restaurant where he was working around the clock. “I told her to show up at midnight, after I closed and sent everyone home. And I told her to bring a friend.”
For days, he secretly prepped a tasting menu. That night, he set a table by the open kitchen, opened a bottle of wine, and cooked one course at a time, delivering a dish, sitting for a glass of wine, and going back to the kitchen to fire the next course. Their next date would be to play pool and Phillip says, “We moved in together two or three days later.”
That was 17 years ago.
COLLABORATING IN THE KITCHEN
When asked if he taught Margarita to cook, Phillip is quick to answer, “Not at all whatsoever. She is a natural. You know how some people can just paint, or just play piano? She can just make desserts and bake. I had to have it beaten into me by angry chefs for a decade. She just walks the earth and crushes it.”
That dynamic—his relentless drive, her intuitive artistry and their mutual admiration became the foundation of their collaboration. Shortly after they were engaged, Phillip landed his first executive chef job at D’Cache in Toluca Lake. The restaurant didn’t have a pastry chef, so he was tasked with writing a dessert menu – Margarita had some critical feedback. “I told her that if she could do better, she should. She could, so she did.” Phillip then went to D’Cache’s owner and said they had to hire Margarita as a pastry chef and was told it was part of his job to do the desserts. “I said I needed her, and he said he wasn’t paying her, so I just split my salary with her,” Phillip shares. “We were living together at the time, anyway. So, the two of us split a $32,000 a year salary and we revamped a restaurant that had been there for 30-40 years.” Together, they garnered ‘Best New Restaurant’ and other accolades usually reserved for new restaurants.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
They also impressed a guest who asked them to consult on his Hollywood coffee shop. “We went and checked it out and it just had a little chef’s counter because he only did breakfast and closed at 2pm,” Phillip says. “He asked what we’d charge to hire us and I said, ‘Nothing.’ I told him we’d work for him for free until 2pm each day, but at 5pm, we’d open our own fine dining restaurant here, rent-free. That’s where Scratch Bar started, early spring 2013,” a reservation-only tasting menu where they made everything right in front of you – from the butter to the charcuterie.
Phillip admits it was high concept for their first restaurant, but says, “I’d spent my career chasing Michelin stars,” with Margarita adding, “I knew that’s the only way I wanted to cook.”
The restaurant quickly drew attention, earning “Best New Restaurant” in under six weeks. But, the attention backfired with the landlord, who said he wanted them to scale back to two nights a week and focus more on his breakfast crowd. Phillip, admittedly young and headstrong, refused. “The conversation ended with me telling him we were out,” he says. They were already sold out for the coming weeks, so rather than cancel, they improvised.
At the time, the couple lived in a one-bedroom apartment just off Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. With nowhere else to go, they gutted their living room, Margarita’s dad built an improvised chef’s counter and they reopened Scratch Bar in their own home. One of their cooks donned a valet jacket and guests were ushered into a tiny space that could seat 30, including a balcony
that doubled as an outdoor dining room. And for a few weeks, their apartment transformed into one of the city’s most buzzedabout restaurants. Until, in another twist of fate, a guest who owned a shuttered restaurant space that shared a parking lot with Matsuhisa on ‘Restaurant Row” made them an offer to open in his space as 50-50 partners.
The next year they’d all also open The Gadarene Swine, a 15-course vegetable tasting menu. But behind the scenes, the business partner who brought them into the La Cienega space left Phillip personally liable for debts and disappeared. So, they closed Scratch Bar on La Cienga and reopened near their home in Encino, taking over a restaurant next door and turning that into a cocktail lounge called Woodley Proper. “And there was a shoe store that was never open, so we took that over and turned it into Franklin’s Crab and Company and behind that, the first Sushi Bar,” Phillip says. *They changed the name of all of the Sushi Bars to Sushi by Scratch after they sold Sushi Bar ATX, including the three they had in LA before the pandemic.
A PANDEMIC PIVOT
By 2020, Phillip and Margarita were running multiple restaurants in Los Angeles and their Sushi Bar in Montecito had earned a coveted Michelin star. But when the pandemic hit, California’s
“What really struck us, was how Austin showed up for us. We were at our lowest point, about to lose everything, and suddenly this community embraced us.”
shutdowns loomed for months at a time and Phillip says, “There were enough people on our team who needed jobs, that we said we’ll find another state that will let us work.” They’d done a pop-up in Austin previously during SXSW and said they loved the city’s energy and people, and because the restaurants were permitted to operate, they chose to temporarily relocate here. They shared the news in a newsletter they’d been sending out to primarily LA residents since 2013. “We said we were trying to stay afloat during the closures so were going to Austin and asked if people had any friends there to please tell them to check us out,” Phillip shares. And that’s how Joe Rogan’s wife’s best friend got the email and told her they had to go check out “the best sushi” while the pop-up was in Austin. “I didn’t even know he had a podcast,”
Phillip admits. “I just thought he was the guy from Fear Factor.”
After the meal, after Rogan suggested Phillip and Margarita move to Austin, and Phillip said it was impossible because they still had five restaurants in California they planned to reopen, he gave them a proposition, saying that if they stayed at least one more month, he’d personally guarantee every seat was sold out. And the rest is history. They woke up to a waitlist of over 25,000 people. “We’d had celebrities post about us before, but nothing like this,” Phillip says. “What really struck us, though, was how Austin showed up for us. We were at our lowest point, about to lose everything, and suddenly this community embraced us.” So, the couple decided to stay until everyone on the waitlist had a chance to dine. “We kept saying one more
“Sushi by Scratch will continue to expand. Our goal with that concept is to one day become the most one-starred concept.”
month, one more month,” Phillip says. “Before we knew it, we’d been here for over a year.”
BUILDING ROOTS IN AUSTIN
By February 2021, they sold the Austin pop-up location to a private equity firm. That deal allowed them to buy out partners in their California ventures, gaining full ownership of their restaurants for the first time. It also freed them to think bigger in Austin.
Within a year, they launched Sushi by Scratch in Cedar Creek and Pasta Bar downtown. Margarita worked on the line at Pasta Bar until just two weeks before giving birth to their daughter in April 2022.
Austin quickly became not just a base for their restaurants but their home. “We love the food scene here,” Phillip says. “I argue often that it might be the best in the country. In New York or LA, you’ll have meals that make you want to call a friend overseas
and say, ‘Fly here for this dinner.’ But you’ll also find the opposite. Here, the consistency is remarkable. I don’t think we’ve ever ha d a bad meal in Austin.”
STARRY FUTURE
Phillip and Margarita now have more than two dozen restaurants across the country that they own 100 percent, as well as three NADC (Not a Damn Chance) burgers with close friend Neen Williams, one of them in Jelly Roll’s Nashville bar! Looking ahead, Phillip says, “Sushi by Scratch will continue to expand. Our goal with that concept is to one day become the most one-starred concept.” He explains, “We grew up with chain restaurants, and chain restaurants had a terrible rap because they were terrible. But I’ve never thought there was anything wrong with having more than one of something in other cities. CONTINUED >
“Margarita likes to remind me that we are overnight successes - at year eleven.”
-Phillip, on waking up to a waitlist 25,000 strong after a social media post from Joe Rogan
So we’ve technically become a chain, but we’ve become a chain of one Michelin-starred restaurants. The goal for that is to hold that title.”
And now they’re in the throes of planning their most ambitious culinary project yet, in Dripping Springs, just a few minutes from their home. “We’re working on our final act,” Phillip says, with a sparkle of excitement in his eyes. “It’s really our pièce de résistance.”
Phillip and Margarita purchased almost four acres in Dripping Springs that includes a Pioneer Airlock cabin that’s 150 years old. They’re renovating it and adding multiple one-bedroom cottages on-site guests won’t only eat there, they can sleep there.
Guests will dine on a multi-course menu built primarily from what is raised, grown or hunted on the property. An acre-and-a-half garden will supply vegetables, while cows fed on a proprietary blend will provide milk for butter. Twice a year, those same cows will be used for meat on the menu. Honey will replace sugar in Margarita’s desserts and the olive oil will come from a collaboration with nearby Texas Hill Country Olive Co. “This will be our attempt at three Michelin Stars and top ten in The World’s 50 Best,” Phillip says.
It’s a natural segue for a couple rooted in nature. “Margarita grew up on a farm in the middle of the forest and I grew up visiting my grandparents farm. So, farming for us is in our blood,” Phillip says, “My dad still wears cowboy boots and a cowboy hat in the house in LA. He’s a cowboy from Council Bluffs, Iowa. My grandfather made cowboy boots. He had his own cowboy boots shop in Tucson, AZ, so I was born in LA, but my heritage isn’t.” And now their daughter will grow up up on the property and they say, “and when people come to dine, it will feel like they’re visiting our home.”
And, if Phillip didn’t have enough on his plate, earlier this year he launched the NADC Podcast, which he shares
grew out of a desire to improve his conversational skills. “I felt inadequate around friends who were great talkers,” he says. “Then I realized, of course they’re good—they do it for hours every day. I thought maybe I could get better if I practiced too. They’d be as good at cooking as I am if they cooked for 10 hours every day for ten years. So Neen and I came up with this idea, which is not about food, but called NADC Podcast. It’s an opportunity to raise awareness of the brand, but it’s supposed to be inspiring. I like the idea of inspiring people, and not through my stories, but through the guests on the podcast.”
They’re nothing if not inspiring…And passionate, talented and innovative and we can’t wait to see the fruits (and meat and vegetables) of their labor at their Hill Country dream currently being built into reality.
QUICK FIRE
Favorite sushi restaurant (that they don’t own) Sushi Yume in Round Rock
Go-to Austin restaurants Sammie’s, Jeffrey’s, J Carver’s and Canje
Favorite things to cook? Margarita: Bread Phillip: Pizzas
If you could have one superpower
Margarita: Extend the time of the day
Phillip: Manipulating time, slowing down time Dream podcast guests? Phillip: I’d love to have Rogan on, but I’m just too shy to ask. I have a list. Leonardo DiCaprio would be a great person to interview about all the grittiness of growing up having to deal with that fame while continuing to create.
History-making fact: This year, Phillip and his brother Lennon Silvers Lee became the first brothers in American history to each hold their own Michelin stars. There have been brothers who worked together in a restaurant who got stars, but not who have each owned their own restaurants, and each got their stars separately.
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ON FORAGING WITH FOREIGN & DOMESTIC’S SARAH HEARD
The chef and owner picks much of what’s served at her restaurant herself
ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BIRN
Foreign & Domestic celebrated its 15th anniversary this year. Chefs Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley have owned it for the better part of a decade. Throughout, it’s been known for sourcing fresh ingredients locally whenever possible and switching up their menu regularly to fit what’s in season.
Sarah’s also a committed forager. She forages near her home in Lockhart and heads to the Pacific Northwest/Canada each year where she brings back over 100lbs of foraged mushrooms – and then does a tasting menu with the mushrooms brought back. It’s a long way from starting her hospitality career as a hostess at Red Lobster at 16, but making food from the source isn’t new to her. “I have raised goats for milk production since I was six. I’ve always had a lot of animals, namely chickens, and a large garden,” she tells Austin Lifestyle, adding, “I feel at peace with some untamed land and animals around me.”
In Texas, Sarah says some of what she forages for includes wild stinging nettles, agarita, dandelion, wood sorrel, chickweed, mustang grapes & grape leaves, figs & fig leaves, loquats, lavender, Egyptian walking onions juniper berries, walnuts when she’s lucky and pecans - when the squirrels don’t get to them first, and dewberries. During a visit to Foreign & Domestic earlier this year we had the most delicious Dewberry Tartine. Sarah says, “Dewberries look like blackberries, but are more floral and acidic. To me, they smell like the lobby of a Cracker Barrel, dried flowers, candle wax, & baking spices.”
While she doesn’t discourage people from foraging on their own, she does warn, “Foraging can be very dangerous,” adding, “It’s important to know your surroundings and be very aware.”
She says she usually wears heavy jeans and proper boots and that long sleeves are a great idea even when it’s hot out because you may encounter things like poison ivy, which she says are a dewberries best friend, spiders, scorpions, sinkholes, wildlife, deer hunters and animal dens covered by grass. She also says there are rules & protocols to follow such as: public land is fair game with some exceptions, never cross a fence line, respect the land and leave no trace of your presence. Also leave some for the wildlife / plant reproduction. She shares that while she makes a point to always be friendly and respectful, “In mushroom foraging, things are very secretive and a little cutthroat
at times. If you come across another mushroom hunter, it’s not likely that they will share any information with you, they may not even acknowledge you.”
If you prefer to have a farm-to-table meal foraged for you, just make a reservation at Foreign & Domestic. This fall you can find a Green Tomato Pie on the menu. Sarah shares the recipe and the why behind Green Tomato Pie on the next page.
For more information, visit fndaustin.com and follow on Instagram at @fndaustin. Foreign & Domestic is located at 306 E 53rd St. Austin, TX 78751
GREEN
PIE TOMATO
Foreign & Domestic’s unique dessert is back for its annual appearance
Foreign & Domestic co-owner and Chef Sarah Heard says, “The story is that farmers would have to pick all of their tomatoes, ripe or not, right before the first frost. They would end up with a ton of green tomatoes and had to figure out what to do with them. This recipe is one that I modified from my apple pie recipe. It looks and eats like apple pie with a little extra tartness.”
INGREDIENTS
Filling:
• 1500g green tomatos, quartered and sliced thin
• 150g all-purpose flour
• 8g cinnamon
• 4g nutmeg
• 15g sea salt
• 300g brown sugar
• 150g sugar
• 2 TBS molasses
• 2 TBS lemon juice
• 1/4 butter, soft
Pie dough
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 cup butter, cubed
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tbs sugar
• ¾ cup buttermilk (cold)
MAKE THE PIE SHELL:
• Cut butter into the dry ingredients
• Pinch in buttermilk until dough is shaggy
• Roll, form, chill
• Egg wash with whole egg
• Mix all dry ingredients for the filling together and toss with sliced green tomatoes and soft butter.
• Fill the pie shell with green tomato filling and top with a lattice crust.
• Egg wash the whole pie crust and bake at 325 for an hour or until the filling temperature reaches 200 degrees.
• Cool the pie completely before slicing.
*We like to serve this with a scoop of Bay leaf ice cream, but vanilla is also great.
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ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BIRN
Catching up with Chef Leslie Durso, who cooks up vegan dishes - that taste good
Very Good
Vegan
Leslie’s been cooking her whole life. “I grew up in a family where cooking was at the center of everything. Every evening, there was a homemade dinner on the table. Cooking alongside my mom, grandmothers, and even great grandmother, I learned that food wasn’t just about feeding people, you could feel their love!” she says. But, when she stopped eating meat at the age of seven, she admits, “It definitely was not a very popular decision in my family, but I was a pretty determined kid,” adding, “Over time, as I learned more about
health, the environment and the way food impacts our lives, I gradually took the steps to be completely vegan. For me, it’s always been about following my curiosity and making choices that feel both good for my body and kind to the world.”
Her journey as a professional chef began in 2011 when a food blog she wrote started gaining traction. In 2017, she joined the Four Seasons Resort, Punta Mita, as their dedicated vegan chef, which she says felt like a turning point in her career. But, fun fact, before becoming a chef, she was working in television as Leslie the Lab Girl alongside Bill Nye the Science Guy! “That time in education inspired me to shift my focus from science to health and food so I could combine my love of discovery with the joy of nourishing people,” she shares.
Today, in addition to being the vegan chef at the Four Seasons Resort, Punta Mita, as well as global events for the Four Seasons brand, she hosts retreats around the world, which she says, “I love because they bring people together through food, wellness, and travel,” she’s working on her next cookbook project, and keeping herself busy in her new home base, Austin.
Leslie says she was drawn to Austin because “Austin’s food scene is creative, bold, and always evolving, a little like me, so it makes the perfect place to introduce my style of cooking. I also love the lifestyle here. There is a unique balance of city energy and laid-back connection to nature that really resonates with me.”
She’s already leaving her mark, teaming up with renowned restaurateur Chef Richard Sandoval on a bold new plant-based menu at Taco Pegaso, located inside Fareground downtown. The collaboration celebrates the flavors of plant-based Mexican cuisine, with dishes designed to satisfy both dedicated vegans and veg-curious. A sample of the menu,inspired by street food staples, includes a Plant-Based Crunch Wrap made with Abbot’s Chorizo, Grilled Corn Ribs, Avocado Baja Tacos, Portobello Quesadillas, and Wild Mushroom Empanadas.
Leslie shares a lot of recipes on her website, LeslieDurso. com, and says, “Some of the most popular recipes include my hearty vegan bowls and creative twists on classic comfort food -much like what I serve at Taco Pegaso,” adding that the best way to access her recipes is through her monthly
Substack newsletter where she shares recipes, as well as updates, insights, and tips for easy plant-based living. “I love giving people recipes that feel nourishing and satisfying without feeling complicated,” she says.
As she settles into her new home, she says, “What I love most about Austin is the way the city embraces creativity, wellness, and community. It’s such an inspiring place…Whether I’m exploring the peach farms in Fredericksburg, running along Lady Bird Lake, or testing new recipes in the kitchen, Austin constantly fuels my creativity. I’m excited to keep sharing my plant-based food in an approachable and fun way and hopefully inspire others to see it not as a limitation, but as a celebration!”
Group Therapy
BY LAURA MORSMAN
Few things are better for one’s mental health than sharing good food with great friends and toasting milestones with craft cocktails (or mocktails) with supportive companions. Hence, we think Group Therapy, the restaurant in Hotel ZaZa, is aptly named. Throw in an inviting atmosphere full of photo-friendly moments like a library-inspired space and pool windows looking out to a pool area with rooftop city views and it’s a perfect place for a gathering and therapeutic evening indeed. The contemporary American restaurant recently underwent a menu refresh, but the lamb lollipops are a popular holdover, as well as the Watermelon Ranch Water.
Follow @HotelZaZaAustin on Instagram for the latest events at Group Therapy, such as tarot card readings on October 31.
Dining at Hotel ZaZa
PHOTOGRAPHY
Experience Camps in Texas 2026
The camp to support and bring joy to grieving children arrives at the right time
Experience Camps, founded in 2009, is a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. Their one-week, overnight grief support summer camps, year-round programs and online resources reframe the experience of grief and empower kids with coping skills to move forward with their lives after loss. Lauren Zima has been on a mission to bring Experience Camps to Texas for years. Her work and fundraising efforts, from events to her wedding registry when she married Chris Harrison two years ago, has helped to make that mission successful. Experience Camps Texas is confirmed to be coming to Camp Champions in Marble Falls beginning summer 2026. Lauren and Chris are returning to Ranch Austin, where they got married, to co-host a gala, which will be co-chaired by Stephanie Coultress O’Neill and Todd O’Neill, to further support Experience Camps on October 23. “We want this night to be unforgettable, because Experience Camps is an organization that changes lives forever,” Lauren shared, adding, “The gala will be on par with the powerful work that ExCamps does for kids. We’ll hear from some of the children, have amazing local Texas food and drinks, and we have an awesome band. I want to dance the night away and raise a ton of money for this cause. Experience Camps’ philosophy is that the
ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BIRN
grief experience is the human experience: it contains both laughter and tears, and the gala will do that too.” Tickets, tables and sponsorship for the gala are available here https://e.givesmart.com /events/Jrn/ Future campers and volunteers can apply for the Texas programs starting in November on Experience Camps’ website. “Most of the volunteers in our programs have also lost someone, so when kids are at Experience Camps, they feel at ease in their grief,” Lauren says. “At camp, they’re surrounded by other kids and adults who ‘get it,’ understand their pain, and they can relate, build bonds, and have fun again.”
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FAVORITE THINGS 5
1. BREAD (AND CEVICHE BAR): PULLMAN MARKET AT THE PEARL
I love these loaves. Owned by Austin’s Emmer & Rye Hospitality, the bread at this San Antonio culinary playground is baked fresh daily using local and heritage grains and includes varieties like Forbidden Rice, Onion Caraway, Honeyed Oak and Hopi Blue…While you’re there, don’t miss the Ceviche Bar where they recently added Seremoni Grade fish to the mix, which is caught using a low-stress method and humanely harvested. It makes a difference - it’s delicious.
2. NEW RESTAURANT: SITI
BY JENNIFER BIRN
The Frances Modern Inn is now home to Siti, the honorable Malaysian word for “lady,” a nod to owner Chef Laila Bazahm’s childhood in the kitchen, spending her days cooking with her mother, grandmother, sister, and eight aunts. Bazahm’s second Austin restaurant (her first is Spanish restaurant El Raval!) is Southeast Asian cuisine honoring the food of her Filipino heritage and her time working and living in Singapore. It features dishes the chef grew up eating, but couldn’t find locally in Austin. https://www.sitiatx.com/
3. GROCERY STORE FIND: MIMI CHENG’S DUMPLINGS
The New York City favorite is now available in Austin! Taiwanese dumpling shop Mimi Cheng’s has had a cult following at its East Village restaurant for the better part of a decade. Due to popular demand, they’ve packaged their delectable dumplings and three varieties are now available in the freezer section of Whole Foods nationwide - Chicken Parm, Heritage Pork and Chicken, Bok Choy and Zucchini. https://mimichengs.com/
4. LOOK FORWARD TO: KOPPA KOPPA
An intimate dining experience created in collaboration with designer Kelly Wearstler and twin chefs Haru and Gohei Kishi that opens at the Austin Proper Hotel this fall. There will be 25 seats, including a 15-seat chef’s counter for an 11-course tasting experience (including eight savory and three dessert courses) that blend the refined discipline of Japanese kappo cuisine with the expressive artistry of French technique.
PRIVATE CHEF: LEAVE IT TO KIEVIT
Leave It to Kievit, helmed by Chef Danny Kievit, mixes culinary talent, bold creativity and warm hospitality to create a winning recipe for one-of-a-kind private chef experiences. Whether a hosted happy hour with a 10-foot charcuterie board or an elegant multi-course meal, he creates meaningful experiences in intimate settings designed to delight and impress. Find him at https://www.leaveittokievit.com/
Photo: Robert J. Lerma
photo: Mackenzie Smith
