Join us on August 16th to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of Jacoby's Restaurant & Mercantile from 5:00 - 9:00pm!
$5 Burgers & Fries | $5 West Texas Shandys | $5 Melvin Mules | Complimentary Strawberry Cupcakes!
By Megan Giller | September 15, 2014
Jacoby’s Restaurant and Mercantile
Fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits, and more Southern classics move into the 21st century
with the help of Austin’s innovative chefs.
Original:Salisbury steak, in the form of minced meat formed into a “steak” with gravy Remix: A thick-cut steak from Jacoby’s ranch, stuffed with cheese and jalapeños and topped with
veal gravy and sided with buttermilk mashed potatoes.
http://www.zagat.com/b/austin/8-southern-dishes-get-modern-updates
Jacoby’s Austin, the family-owned restaurant and mercantile, makes its debut in the budding East Cesar Chavez neighborhood on Wednesday August 20th. Jacoby’s Austin serves ranch style cuisine with a southern and rustic influence. The restaurant features a full service bar and dining room, cocktail porch and a backyard-style patio deck with sweeping views of the Colorado River. Adjacent to the restaurant is a mercantile, which features artisan jams, jellies, meats, farm eggs, fresh flowers and home goods. Jacoby’s Austin is the newest addition to the Jacoby family company, originally from Melvin, TX.
Adam Jacoby grew up in the small town of Melvin, TX and realized his dream to expand his family’s café to Austin when came to Austin to attend The University of Texas. Jacoby helped to open several local Austin restaurants, but went back to Melvin to revamp the family café. Upon his return to Austin, he made East Austin his home and found the old Kanetzky electrical warehouse to be the perfect spot for his new venture. “We searched and searched for the perfect place for Jacoby’s,” says Adam Jacoby. “My dad was driving up here every other week from Melvin and each place we looked at he said just did not feel like Jacoby’s. When we walked out back at this spot on East Cesar Chavez, we both knew this was the place. It felt like home.” His partner, Kris Swift, designed the space to reflect the Austin neighborhood and paid homage to Jacoby’s hometown roots by incorporating bricks, reclaimed wood and even an historic, 1940’s sign from the small Texas town.
Executive Chef Phillip Anderson and Jacoby met through mutual college friends over two years ago. Jacoby quickly found Chef Anderson’s southern focused culinary skills to be the perfect fit for Jacoby’s. Anderson spent several weeks learning about the original menu at Jacoby’s Café in Melvin, TX, as well as learning about the family’s feed store and beef program. The Austin menu showcases Melvin favorites such as the onion rings and chicken fried steak, however Anderson updated the menu to adapt to the Austin palate. “We really wanted to stay true to Jacoby’s original concept with the menu, but we wanted it to be Austin at the same time,” says Anderson. “We kept the dishes that made sense and incorporated lots of fresh vegetables and seasonal fare to compliment the beef.” New items will include a Wild Boar Terrine as part of a housemade charcuterie plate, Smoked Gouda Pimento Cheese Sandwiches and a Roasted Beet Salad. The menu prominently features Jacoby’s beef from the Jacoby family ranch. Jacoby’s Austin will be the only place in Austin to feature the family’s beef which is humanely raised on the family farm.
The cocktail menu features playful twists on classics like the Secret Beach, a take on a Tom Collins with local fruit and cucumber, named as a tribute to one of the Colorado River’s secret treasures that Jacoby’s overlooks. A local beer menu and plenty of wines are also available. There is walk-up seating at the bar and a full food menu. The backyard patio will also have full service cocktails and food.
A sneak peek at Jacoby's Restaurant & Mercantile: Opening later this summer on the east side
Melissa Gaskill | 07.07.14
The new Jacoby’s Restaurant & Mercantile in East Austin lies beneath a roof of weathered, corrugated tin. A fence of gnarled, rough cedar posts flanks its entrance. Barn wood in an artistic, puzzle-like pattern covers the ceiling of the main dining room, where one wall is lined with pale red bricks.
All of these materials were salvaged from a family ranch and its environs in the small town of Melvin, Texas. The ranch belongs to Jason and Kelli Jacoby who, in addition to raising cattle and sheep and selling animal feed, have run the bustling Jacoby’s Café since 1981.
The underlying idea for the new location was to meld together Melvin and Austin, the rustic and the urban, and to create the same kind of community gathering place as the original.
The family has been planning a second restaurant for a long time. “We saved barn wood for years in Melvin,” says Adam Jacoby, the oldest of Jason and Kelli’s four sons. “We’re using wood from at least three Jacoby barns and another old barn in the area.” The bricks on the wall came from an old bank and mercantile on the main square in Melvin, and an old neon sign from that same building forms the base of a new neon “Jacoby’s” sign gracing the front of the Austin restaurant.
The Jacobys settled on Austin for a location when Adam attended The University of Texas. After graduating, he worked several restaurant openings in Austin to learn the ins and outs of that process. In 2012, he met Kris Swift, an interior designer with a passion for food, and they began designing the place together.
“We wanted the character of the property to, in some way, reflect Melvin,” says Adam. “We must have looked at 25 to 30 properties. My dad would drive all the way here, we’d go look at a place and he’d say, ‘No, it doesn’t’ feel like Jacoby’s.’ I’ll admit it got a little frustrating.”
Then they walked into 3235 E. Cesar Chavez. The main building had a small apartment upstairs and offices downstairs, with a large storage building behind it. It had been an electrical supply business run by a family for multiple generations, similar to the Jacoby family ranch and feed business.
Working with salvaged materials can be difficult and time consuming, but Adam notes that using these pieces of history provide a certain sense of satisfaction. It’s as if the people of Melvin are part of something bigger, he says. It is also, Swift adds, a thrill to repurpose something in a respectful and unique way.
In addition to reflecting the original café’s history, the design of the new restaurant blends in elements of Austin. In front of the bar, hexagonal floor tiles undulate like flowing water, homage to the Colorado River running behind the restaurant. Outdoor sections take advantage of the river frontage. A chicken coop is a nod to the popularity of backyard chickens in the city.
A chevron pattern on one wall of the café in Melvin repeats on the Austin location’s wooden outdoor deck, and reclaimed railroad ties from Melvin (one of the family businesses there is a rail center) edge a shady granite patio. Large rocks and cattle pen wire fencing, both brought from Melvin, separate an adjacent grassy picnic area. The two places blend on the Austin menu as well, with some items directly from the Melvin menu, others that reflect a new twist on old favorites, and new dishes particular to the Austin location. All the beef served is Jacoby beef — and this is the only place in Austin you can get it. There will also be Jacoby lamb in season, and wild boar as available.
“It’s not like picking up Jacoby’s in Melvin and moving it here,” Swift stresses. “It’s more like taking a seed from Melvin and planting it here to grow in a way that reflects this place.”
Jacoby’s Restaurant is a true labor of love for the entire family, and that, they all believe, will be reflected in the final product when it opens later this summer.
