What you need to know about: Eden East
Two of my favorite food trends in recent years would have to be the farm-to-table movement and the diversity of the cuisine and locations of the numerous food trailers around town. Well, Eden East at Springdale Farm superbly blends the best of these two to create an outdoor dining experience surrounded by the bounty and beauty of each dish’s ingredients.
Only serving dinner on the weekends, dinners at Eden East must be reserved and purchased in advance. The dishes vary from week to week yet the price for the dinner remains fixed at a reasonable rate for its value, $70 per person. And that is just for the dinner. As the focus is on the food, Springdale Farms doesn’t have a liquor license making BYOB not only affordable, but necessary. Unsure of the right paring, East End Wines, a smart wine shop in the neighborhood, has the updated menu and is more than happy to set you up with the perfect pairing.
Our group arrived early to dinner and enjoyed the stroll around the farm’s grounds while sipping on a complimentary cocktail from the Deep Eddy-sponsored cocktail Airstream trailer. The surrounding fields and pens were filled with vegetables, herbs, fragrant flowers and an abundance of chickens. This free time allowed for great opportunities to mix and mingle with the other diners, a few of whom later became our tablemates at the family-style picnic tables for communal dining under centuries-old oak trees.
Another distinguishing factor at Eden East is their deeply engaged and passionate staff. They were equally knowledgeable on the standards of service and addressing some of the specific food allergies in our party as they were on the sources and background on each and every ingredient on our plates.
As the tables filled up, we broke into our carefully curated BYOB drink list that ranged from St. Germain inspired starting cocktails, drifted through saisons, touched on some wine and culminated in a fantastic dessert wine. The menu presented that night was equally eclectic and adventurous with heirloom tomatoes and cantaloupe salad, butternut squash and peanut butter soup, fried oysters, a massive bone in pork chop, and the perfect finale of white peach cheesecake coupled with a doodle and snap.
Most of the diners were locals, but we were fortunate to be seated next to a mother and her two daughters who drove in from Dallas for a girls’ weekend. As cities can get downright competitive with their food scenes, I found it refreshing to hear these ladies gush about how much they loved the experience and wished Dallas had something remotely close to Eden East. Score one for Austin foodies!
Eden East
755 Springdale Rd, Austin, TX 78702
(512) 428-6500
