The best Biscuit in Austin has been located.
At Fixe, they bake the biscuits fresh when you order them, and you can tell. Tall, golden, light all the way through — they reminded me of the Loveless Cafe biscuits, only lighter and fluffier, with a beautiful crisp bottom holding the whole thing up. The butter comes whipped with mesquite-smoked Maldon salt, and there is apple butter and Texas honey on the side. Split one open while it is still warm and the butter and honey just melt down into the layers.
These are without a doubt the best biscuits we've had in the state so far. We have had some really good ones here in Austin.
The tea service is a treat. My first visit it was the Apple Crumble, from Texas Coffee Traders here in Austin — the good stuff, only available by the pound if you want to purchase directly so I was excited to try it without the full commitment. The presentation is special...order it iced and it comes to the table with the brewer perched on the carafe and gets poured over ice right in front of you. The way tea is meant to be enjoyed in the south…in generous measure. Apple kept finding its way into that whole meal: apple butter with the biscuits, apple in the tea.
The chicken biscuit, two ways. Mine came with kale and apple slaw. The Chief's came with a little side car of hot sauce — meant for him. The chicken was crispy and wider than the biscuit, the way it should be, and the biscuit underneath it holds up its end. The biscuit sandwiches here are really good, full stop.
Around the edges of the table: duck fat potatoes done right, crispy bacon, boudin gravy. The kind of southern spread where everything on it earned its place.
There is something about watching a kitchen work while your tea is being poured tableside that makes a Sunday morning feel handled.
I can already tell that this is going to be my go to restaurant for brunch in Austin. I'm already recommending it to others I encounter.
Return to Fixe: Meat Icing
A week later, we were tossing around ideas for brunch and Fixe came up again. No need to twist this girls arm...even a personal training session, disguised as a brunch invitation, didn't discourage me.
I’m sure you knew biscuits would be on this girls table. If I didn’t want it, I wouldn’t have dressed this way. Baked fresh and landing with their customary accoutrements — Texas honey, apple butter, and whipped butter with smoked salt. As I was enjoying that warm biscuit, it made me wonder if they do a seasonal offering with holiday flavors?
We order a side of gravy with them, because biscuits and gravy belong together. That combo is the only thing missing; a biscuits-and-gravy plate or a chicken-on-a-biscuit sandwich with gravy to dip in would truly make it feel like a southern house. Not afraid of a little construction, we build it ourselves at the table and it works out beautifully. No complaints here! That boudin gravy has the perfect seasoning! A really good country gravy at a restaurant is not that easy to find, it's how I rank them in my head.
The chicken fried steak is built on a ribeye, which is how I love a chicken fried steak — it reminds me of a Tyler Florence recipe I have followed for years. The crust is really good, properly crisp, and the pepper cream gravy over the top is seasoned well like the boudin gravy we order for the biscuits. Somewhere mid-sentence about chicken fried steak, my brain reached for a word, missed, and landed on a better one — and now the gravy has a title it can never give back..
Meat icing.
The words tumbled out without me realizing it, which caused both of us to laugh and realize that it was a perfect description because it was an adornment on this beautiful cutlet. Gravy finally gets the pastry-case respect it always deserved.
The Chief had the pulled pork sandwich with their pepper fries. The smoke on the pork is real, with some nice barky bites — and the sauce was unique, slightly tangy almost like a vinegary Carolina style sauce. The fries that accompanied it were the way I like them...super crispy. I generally don’t love fries that accompany dishes because it's tends to feel like an afterthought, especially if they are floppy. Not here. I would order these again and again.
The tea this time was White Lightning — a white tea with orange out front with warming spices, poured tableside from the carafe. Fixe's menu keeps its coffee and tea with Texas Coffee Traders, and being a huge fans of them personally and visiting their outpost, I concur.
And the space itself deserves its roses, beautifully appointed like grand old house in the south. On our first visit, we sat in the middle of the restaurant and I hadn’t registered it as a garden house. This time looking inside made the gazebo structure stand out. By the bar, he big blue floral wallpaper, the light fixtures and plate wall, deeply southern; every grandmother’s hutch promoted to architecture. Even the gazebo's lattice work, a refined screen where one would find chicken wire in an exterior setting. Southern charm, done with a steady hand. Everything down to the selection of the chairs, leather highbacks with nailhead trim, Louis XVI medallion-back chairs. Exquisite.
Look for Fixe’s unofficial ambassador, gathering what endures.
Last but not least: the cinnamon roll. If cinnamon rolls are your love language, Fixe speaks fluent cinnamon roll. Crisp where you never knew you needed it to be but soft and pillowy too and the perfect amount of cinnamon to warm the palate. Think biscuits meets cinnamon rolls...Fixe nailed this one. It will take a lot to tempt me away from this dessert selection. The biscuits and cinnamon rolls bookending the experience alone are worth the trip.
Everything we've had so far has been nothing short of delicious and earns them a regular rotation in our weekly brunch routine.
Highly recommend as a stop on your Austin food tour for an unforgettable experience. Reservations recommended.
