A wildly popular pop-up restaurant from Round Top is opening a new temporary restaurant in Austin this summer. Y Comida is expanding with the aptly named Y Comida at Ellis at downtown food hall Fareground at 111 Congress Avenue starting Friday, August 23.

Under Y Comida owner and chef Nick Middleton, the self-serve roadside restaurant will serve South Texas fare with a New American approach based on his culinary upbringing. The team will use the “South Texas flavors and delicacies that I’ve eaten as a half-Mexican, half-Cajun, and full-on Texas border dweller,” Middleton tells Eater. He grew up in Port Isabel, Texas.

Y Comida’s Ellis menu includes quail tamarind lollipops, rib eye steaks with mesquite smoked butter, redfish with Texas sweet corn beurre blanc, sumac-dusted blue crab claws, brisket confit tacos with avocado and salsa macha, and mezcal affogatos with canela ice cream, coffee and spices.

The Fareground/Ellis staff will continue to oversee the drinks menu, which will be expanded to include more agave spirits that complement Y Comida’s food, such as mezcals, sotols, raicillas and tequilas; and more Central Texas wines and new cocktails will be added. The latter include the La Playa Blanca, a frozen tequila drink with coconut and lime orgeat; the Pasado de Moda, with mezcal, piloncillo and mole bitters; and the watermelon-infused Sandia Tajin.

roadway

Before Y Comida, Middleton had started his culinary journey selling gumbo – made from a family recipe – and hosted crawfish dinners in his East Austin garage under the name Le Bouchon in 2016. Then he had pop-ups in New Orleans and Austin in 2017 and 2018, primarily as Grita Tacos. And then, back in Austin, he also worked on the opening team of Asian smokehouse restaurant Loro in 2018. He also developed ice cream flavors for the Austin location of Zeds in June 2021

In 2019, Middleton founded Y Comida, a massive restaurant that opens every two years in Round Top to coincide with the big antiques fair. There, he and his team prepare multi-course tasting menus at the Bader Ranch in March and October.

“Ellis seems like the perfect place to implement our mantra and use this small space to make interesting food that’s accessible to everyone in the heart of downtown,” says Middleton. He had met with an Ellis shareholder during a pop-up event and they hit it off.

roadway

The rest of the team at Y Comida at Ellis includes sous chef Barto McCarty, who has been with the company for five years, Sakif Khan, currently behind Bangladeshi food pop-up Good Jinn and former head chef of Peached Tortilla, and Derek Dunn, formerly of Uchiko and Olamaie.

Y Comida’s pop-ups in Round Rock will continue into the fall. This Ellis location is seasonal — it’s set to end on New Year’s Eve on Tuesday, December 31. Middleton’s idea is that they’ll find another location in Austin, whether it’s somewhere new or in Ellis. The press release states that “there’s a possibility of becoming a longer-term partner.”

Y Comida at Ellis’ hours of operation are Wednesday through Saturday from 3:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The bar is open Tuesday through Thursday from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and Sunday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Overall, Fareground and Ellis are owned by Cousins ​​Properties and a hospitality partnership with Colorado-based group Richard Sandoval Hospitality. Since the food hall opened in 2018 (under a different culinary operating company), there have been many restaurant changes over the years.