The Room
Comedor sits inside a converted 1915 warehouse on the western edge of downtown — a high-ceilinged, tile-floored, brass-and-bronze dining room designed by the McKinney York architecture studio with the explicit goal of being the most architecturally ambitious Mexican dining room ever built in Texas. The hanging arched-tile ceiling above the central dining room is the photograph; the open kitchen behind the chef's-counter wall is the heart of the operation.
Phillip Speer — pastry chef of the Uchi group through its formative decade, and a James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef nominee five times — runs the kitchen. Co-founder Gabe Erales handled the savoury programme through the opening years. The result is the closest thing Austin has to a Pujol or a Quintonil — Mexican fine dining at full architectural and kitchen scale, with a tasting menu that justifies the booking and a bar programme that justifies the second visit.
The Food
House masa underwrites everything. Tlayudas with chorizo and quesillo, blue-corn quesadillas with squash blossom, octopus al pastor — the small-plate opening of any Comedor meal runs through the masa programme before the kitchen moves on. The mid-course is wood-fire — A5 wagyu sliced thin onto a tortilla with avocado leaf, a snapper a la talla, a pork-shoulder cochinita pibil — and the dessert programme is Speer's flagship. A burnt-honey flan, a tres-leches reimagined with a mezcal float, a chocolate dish with chile-pepper ash that has been on the menu since opening.
The mezcal and tequila programme is one of the deepest in Texas, with bottlings the bar manager has personally sourced from the Oaxacan and Jaliscan producers. Cocktail menu runs from a serious mezcal old-fashioned through a hibiscus margarita. Wine list is short, weighted toward Spanish and Mexican producers, with an honest by-the-glass programme.
Best Occasion Fit
Close a Deal: Comedor is the most architecturally ambitious downtown deal-dinner address. The arched-tile ceiling reads as serious without becoming a stage, the booth tables along the eastern wall are the right register for a confidential conversation, and the kitchen will run the six-course tasting for a table of two to four with a single wine pairing on twenty-four hours' notice. The dinner closes the deal.
Impress Clients: International visitors to Austin almost universally know Mexican food only at the casual end. Comedor is the dining room that translates the genre into fine dining in their language. The masa programme reads as the introduction, the wood-fire main reads as the conversation, and the dessert programme reads as the signature. The visitor leaves with a different idea of what Mexican cooking can be.
Birthday: Birthdays in the central dining room beneath the arched-tile ceiling are theatrical without being a performance. The kitchen handles the candle, the dessert and the small acknowledgement at the table without ceremony. The room photographs better than almost any other in Austin.