Business Profile
You won’t find any gushers, stampedes, hoe-downs, campfires or dramatic romances at Austin’s, but you will find excellent Texas barbecue and homestyle Texas meals: and that means beef.
When the Mountain View Tony Roma’s barbecue restaurant closed its doors and went on to that smokehouse in the sky, it left a void for a barbecue taste. Richard Clark was looking for an affordable buy for several years. He bought Austin’s and this turned into a turnkey operation for him.
Clark is familiar with the vagaries of restaurants and food since he owns two catering houses on the Peninsula, Catering by Dana in Redwood City and The Absolute Barbecue Co. in Mountain View and now in Redwood City.
Clark’s restaurant experience began with the now extinct Bourbon Street Restaurant in Mountain View’s Old Mill, and association with his brother, Bob Clark, at the Los Altos Bar and Grill.
If the expansive 163 seat Austin’s restaurant is rooted in image and fantasy of it’s previous tenant, the cooking at Austin’s reflects a native Texan’s take on barbecue beef.
After graduating from New York’s Culinary Institute of America, Steve Mesa, Austin’s chef, worked with several French restaurants in the South Bay, but his passion is barbecue.
“I drove across the U.S. checking out barbecue and the slow smoked style of cooking techniques,” Mesa said. “I went to Austin, Texas in February and did a lot of research and found out there is only one subject to incite more passion than politics and that is the best way to barbecue and prepare of a good sauce.”
Austin’s cuisine is the conscientious tour de barbecue. Being in Silicon Valley, it’s not unusual for people traveling here on business to stop at Austin’s and comment that it tastes just like barbecue at home.
The number one item ordered at Austin’s is not barbecue, but the center cut Angus ribeye steak with lemon parsley butter for $14.95.
Next on a customer’s taste for beef are the items from the smokehouse.
Orders of baby back ribs in 3/4 or full slabs, and a 1/2 slab of St. Louis cut pork spareribs come out of the kitchen by the minute. Beef backed ribs, half chickens and smoked spicy links keep Austin’s customers returning.
Mesa calls his smoker “a serious beast,” because in this area, barbecue is sold without the benefit of slow cooking in a closed smokehouse fueled with oak and other aromatic woods.
For the most part, items baked in standard ovens and basted with a barbecue sauce are not true barbecue.
