Chef Amanda Turner’s meat-and-three offerings will include main dishes like fried chicken.
Keith Kreeger/PROVIDED BY KEITH KREEGER
After spending most of her 18-year career working in fine dining, chef Amanda Turner is preparing to bring her take on comfort food to a wider audience, grounded in a location with deep East Austin roots.
The former chef de cuisine at the recently closed Michelin-starred Olamaie will open meat-and-three concept Chow Chow later this fall. The restaurant will exist as a long-term residency in the historic building occupied for almost 30 years by beloved Austin chef Hoover Alexander.
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The counter-service restaurant, which Turner will own and operate with partner and chef Jonathan Sánchez, will serve plates centered around an individual protein, accompanied by three sides. Proteins will include fried chicken, blackened catfish and hambāgu, a Japanese take on meatloaf that nods to Turner’s time at Uchiko and demonstrates the chef’s plans to pull comfort from various traditions.
“I just feel like this is a great opportunity to just kind of do whatever. I think that when you’re cooking, the peg doesn’t have to go exactly into one place,” Turner said of drawing on a variety of influences from Asian to Caribbean.
Affordable food anyone can enjoy
Chefs Amanda Turner (left) and Jonathan Sánchez will open Chow Chow, a comfort food restaurant with a host of influences, in the old Hoover’s Cooking space this fall.
Keith Kreeger/PROVIDED BY KEITH KREEGER
The mains will be ringed with family recipes like braised cabbage, a dish taught to the chef by her paternal grandmother, and her maternal grandmother’s play on cornbread that includes boiled eggs, along with okra and stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes and more.
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Turner plans to charge $18 for the meat-and-three meals and will also offer a daily $10 plated special, such as the opening special of red beans and rice with smoked turkey wings.
“Just being able to serve more people and be part of the community is really important to me. One of the things that happens when you are a fine dining chef is the higher you climb, the less people can enjoy your food,” Turner told the American-Statesman. “It feels really nice to know that we’re trying to make food at a price point that hopefully anyone can enjoy, and really just anchor ourselves in the community. We live on the East Side. It’s incredibly important to me to be in a building that’s been a Black-owned business for almost 30 years. So, those things really align with my ethos.”
Sánchez, who worked as sous chef at Olamaie, will oversee the pastry menu, which will include coconut rolls and brown butter cornbread, and dessert offerings of Mississippi Mud Pie with a Mexican chocolate twist and the chef’s flan de queso, a Caribbean-style cream-cheese dessert, somewhere between flan and crustless cheesecake.
Humble ingredients elevated to do more
Flan de queso from chef Jonathan Sánchez of Chow Chow.
Keith Kreeger/PROVIDED BY KEITH KREEGER
The restaurant’s name is taken from the sweet and savory pickle condiment that is a staple in Southern kitchens.
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“It’s one of the great condiments of the Southern food canon, and it kind of is representative of everything that we’re trying to do: humble ingredients elevated to something a little bit more, but available to everyone,” Turner said.
Arlington native Turner, whose career includes stints as a chef at Uchiko and Juniper, had been kicking around the meat-and-three concept for a couple of years when timing conspired to fling open this new chapter.
Suerte and Este owner Sam Hellman-Mass, who purchased the former Hoover’s property earlier this year, reached out to Turner, with whom he previously worked at Odd Duck, to inquire whether she might be interested in temporarily moving into the space with her own concept. Four days later, Turner learned that Michael Fojtaek would be closing Olamaie. Hellman-Mass plans to eventually build a taqueria on the lot’s eastern end and will renovate the mid-century building that is home to Chow Chow.
“I think it’s important that we continue to carry on the legacy of what Hoover built in this space. We kind of feel that we are ambassadors to show people what has been done there. The two of us together are not Hoover, but we really have a vision, and we are excited to be in a neighborhood that is historically Black and Brown,” Turner said.
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Alexander, whose Hoover’s merchandise will remain available for purchase at the front entrance throughout the residency, says he’s looking forward to seeing what the next generation has in store.
“After nearly three decades, it means a lot to see this space continue to be a place where people can gather around good food,” Alexander said. “Amanda is a talented chef with a real connection to Austin, and I’m excited to see her bring her vision to this space and create the next chapter here.”
Chow Chow is slated to open later this fall.
